British Update: Festival of Britain: The Captain’s Return in Hulk Weekly (1979)
*Marvel UK: The Hulk Weekly launched by Marvel UK in 1979 – the height of the Hulk TV show’s popularity in Britain – was a refreshing change from their all-reprint fare. Although there were some twice-told tales in its pages, it was at first mostly new tales of old favourites, produced by stars in the making: Hulk by Dave Gibbons, Black Knight by Steve Parkhouse & John Stokes, Nick Fury by Steve Moore & Steve Dillon and immortal vigilante Night Raven by Steve Parkhouse & David Lloyd, who made his debut in the premier issue. “All very nice, but what’s that got to do with Captain Britain?” we hear you ask. Well, most of the new material fell by the wayside early on, but the Black Knight strip continued (with a brief hiatus from #31-40) to the very final issue, and introduced a wandering mysterious figure who eventually turned out to be – you guessed it – Captain Britain, who was to co-star for much of the strip’s remaining run. One of the Captain’s least-remembered gigs, but noteworthy work from an under-rated creative team. We have a complete run of Hulk Weekly new in, all 63 issues, mostly mid-grade ‘readers’, but a chance to pick up a lot of material that has never been reprinted anywhere else.