DC fans: I totally have to give you this one.
Somewhere, I had seen Marvel's Captain Britain Corps referred to as the analog of DC's Green Lantern Corps. Indeed, perhaps even more so: the GL's were each assigned to a sector of space, 3600 strong in the original series, Earth being Sector 2814. While there have been several human Lanterns, the rest are all aliens: from red skinned humanoids to abstract entities to the beloved and unsociable planet, Mogo. Of course, the GLC also included C'hp, a funny-animal style chipmunk; Driq, a corpse kept alive by his ring; and G'nort. G'nort needs no introduction.
But the Captain Britain Corps were from across the Multiverse: a Captain from the England of every reality, whether it's Britain, the United Kingdom, occupied by Nazi Germany, or inhabited by ducks. Wait, what? Gah, and I thought the Hippie Captain and Mobster Captain and Earth Mother Captain...oh, screw this. Alan Moore may have created the CBC, but as a concept it's sinking fast.
From Fantastic Four, volume 3, number 8: written by Chris Claremont, art by Salvador Larroca. I don't know who to blame the duck on: did Larroca just throw it in, ala Jack Kirby and the Silver Surfer? Or did Claremont insist on Captain Britain Duck? "No, not like Howard the Duck! Like a duck, duck! It'll be great!" Claremont has an unfortunate tendency to what he probably considers "whimsical," but in reality is more like that guy at the renaissance fair, that's way too into his character and so far into your personal space that you want to get medieval on his ass...
Ahem. Long story short: advantage: Green Lantern Corps.
Please, the advantage is ALWAYS to the Green Lantern Corps! They have a PLANET that is a GL! And a mathematical equation! Pretty hard to top. And cute buns.
ReplyDeleteWhatever. Ducks fukn RULE!
ReplyDeleteI suspect the duck was probably a reference to a scene from the Claremont/Davis EXCALIBUR run, during the "Cross-Time Caper". There was a scene during their reality hopping where Captain Britain was turned into a duck.
ReplyDeleteIt was just a quick little vignette within the overall story of the issue, so Claremont never gave us any context for why or how Captain Britain was a duck. But I suspect that was the reason for a CB duck here.