After 40 Years, Legendary Comics Writer Grant Morrison Releases Unpublished Marvel Story

Summary In a recent newsletter post, prolific comic book writer Grant Morrison shared an early text-based story produced for Marvel UK over forty years ago, allowing readers to read it for the first time ever.

In the story, Morrison pokes fun at superhero tropes and iconic Marvel characters using a silly alternate version of the hero Captain Britain; known as "Captain Anglia," the story's central character was the product of an idea Morrison pitched to Marvel UK that didn't gain much traction.

The story is a great insight into the early career of Morrison, a groundbreaking comic book writer, showcasing that their talent and ambitious creative style were evident from the start.

Grant Morrison released a previously unpublished short story written for Marvel Comics decades ago – a short, humorous Captain Britain vignette that builds off Alan Moore's iconic run with the character in the 1980s. The story offers a look at the writer's early career, showcasing that their talent and creativity have been there from the very beginning.

Posted on their newsletter Xanaduum, Morrison's story features an alternate version of the nationalistic character Captain Britain, called Captain Anglia. As the author explained, Angelia was just one of many alternatives to "Captain Britain" that they pitched to Marvel.

Morrison noted that while most of these ideas never made it past the conceptual stage, one of them – Captain Granbretan – did manage to make it to the page. The Captain Angelina story shared by the author is the only other one they wrote, which readers can now enjoy after forty years of waiting.

This Unpublished Captain Britain Story Features All It Writer’s Trademarks

Grant Morrison's Wit & Ambition On Display

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With alternate versions of Marvel characters gathering together for a party held by Captain Anglia and his sister Bet, Morrison has ample room to poke fun at the tropes of superhero comics.

In their Xanaduum post, Morrison explained how the story came to be:

A favourite of mine when I was getting back into comics in the early ‘80s was the Captain Britain strip, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Alan Davis for Marvel UK’s The Daredevils comic and later the Captain Britain title...Eager to generate work for myself at the time, I suggested the idea of text stories based around the alternate universe Captain Britain characters.

While the idea was greenlit by Marvel UK, Morrison only produced two of the vignettes, with only one appearing in publication. Now, Morrison has shared the previously unpublished second story, entitled “CAPTAIN ANGLIA in Bri and Bet’s Big Garden Party” for the first time in over four decades. Though it is a very short humor piece, it still contains many ideas that are pure Grant Morrison. As an insight into their early career in comics, it represents an undeniably fascinating piece of primitive work.

Morrison introduced the story this way:

Inspired yet again by Monty Python’s ever-giving ‘Bicyclerepairman’ sketch, it depicts a world where Captain Anglia and his sister Bet are England’s Royal Family, as well as being superheroes in a world where everyone is a superhero.

The concept of “CAPTAIN ANGLIA in Bri and Bet’s Big Garden Party” – an alternate universe where everyone has superpowers – leads to some amusing places, as the population of heroes try to stave off boredom by getting into meaningless fights with each other, or determine a mission that can act as a giant crossover story for that particular year. With alternate versions of Marvel characters gathering together for a party held by Captain Anglia and his sister Bet, Morrison has ample room to poke fun at the tropes of superhero comics.

According to Morrison, one of his variants did make it into the pages of Captain Britain #13. As the creator explained, "Captain Granbretan (named for Michael Moorcock’s Hawkmoon books) was set in a world where the French had defeated the English at Waterloo" and appeared in "a story about a predatory super-costume that gives its wearer powers but devours them in the process."

Grant Morrison's "Captain Anglia" Grew Out Of Alan Moore's Work

Underrated Marvel UK Gems

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Morrison has a lot of fun with this alternate universe in a very brief span of words. While it may be short, it is still exhilerating to see Grant Morrison’s unpublished early Marvel Comics story finally see the light of day.

It is particularly interesting to read the story in the context of what was going in the industry at the time. Alan Moore had already begun deconstructing superheroes with early works like Marvelman (later known as Miracleman), and the writer did this for Marvel UK with his Captain Britain stories. Morrison recalls their fondness for Moore’s run in Xanaduum, describing several of their favorite characters from this run, and overall emphasizing the influence of the earlier creator, who now has a particularly adversarial relationship with comics – one that Morrison has, at times, pushed back on.

Alan Moore himself never wrote for Marvel Comics proper, instead only contributing to the publisher’s UK division in the early 1980’s. Moore’s Captain Britain run introduced several concepts that would carry on in Marvel for the next several decades. Chief among these is the “Captain Britain Corps,” a multiversal gathering of different versions of the Captain.

Morrison’s unpublished story uses their alternate versions of familiar Captain Britain characters to great humorous effect, lightly poking fun at Marvel’s most famous characters. Whether it’s Tanarus the Thunder God failing to stop the English rain, the constantly inebriated Metalman , or Lady Vanish staying invisible to avoid her husband Mr. Amazing, Morrison has a lot of fun with this alternate universe in a very brief span of words. While it may be short, it is still exhilarating to see Grant Morrison’s unpublished early Marvel Comics story finally see the light of day.

Source: Xanaduum