Искривление Джасперов: История Капитана Британии

Comic book storyline

Jaspers' Warp, sometimes referred to as Crooked World, is a superhero comic book storyline from the British Captain Britain strip printed across several Marvel UK titles between 1981 and 1984. The story is noted as one of the few Marvel Comics works by acclaimed writer Alan Moore, and among the earliest works by artist Alan Davis. It has received consistent critical acclaim and been reprinted by Marvel on several occasions. The storyline is also credited with officially coining the designation "Earth 616" in reference to the events of the mainstream shared fictional Marvel Universe. While it was first used in print by Moore in the episode "Rough Justice" (in The Daredevils #7) it is generally agreed to have been devised by the strip's initial writer, Dave Thorpe.

Captain Britain had originally been created in 1976 for the British comics market but his original weekly title, created by Marvel's New York staff, was a failure. The character was resurrected by Dez Skinn in 1979 as a guest star in The Black Knight, a serial in Hulk Comic, with the story now created in house by Marvel UK, written by Steve Parkhouse with art from John Stokes and Paul Neary. While well received by readers, Hulk Weekly and other parts of Skinn's "Marvel Revolution" were not a sales success, and he left the company after only a year. Neary took over as Marvel UK editor in chief and strove to keep new Captain Britain material going. However, budgetary restrictions meant he was only able to afford novices. Editor Dave Thorpe was given the job of writer his first and, as it would turn out, last professional comics work. He and Neary devised a story span out of the Black Knight strip, featuring Captain Britain on an alternate world in order to allow Thorpe's ambitious plans without disrupting the main Marvel Universe. Neary also decided that the character's Star Sceptre needed to go, and instead the character's source of power was internalised in his revised suit, which was designed by Alan Davis. The latter had begun professional comics work only a short while before, and the work on Captain Britain would be his first regular, ongoing serial. However, the team only lasted nine months before a disagreement broke out when Thorpe planned to have the characters travel to Northern Ireland and resolve the Troubles. Davis felt this was crass, and after Thorpe made what he saw as a disingenuous modification to the story took the dispute to Neary. The editor sided with the artist and Thorpe left. As an interim measure a fill in story set before the events of the first chapter, written by Neary and Davis, would follow. Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly would refer to the storyline as a "classic". Comic Book Resources would later identify the impact it had on subsequent X Men comics. Despite his subsequent enmity towards Marvel Comics, Moore still thinks positively of the storyline, calling it "fun" and feeling it was overshadowed at the time by his work on Marvelman and V for Vendetta.

The conclusion of the story would be Moore's last work on both the character and for Marvel UK. Differing reasons have been given for his departure; in 2001, Moore himself recalled he was unhappy with the firing of Daredevils editor Bernie Jaye. Davis would take over as writer himself briefly before being joined by Jamie Delano on the series, which would continue in The Mighty World of Marvel before becoming the lead strip of a new monthly Captain Britain magazine in January 1985. Despite a fictional conceit where few were left with detailed memories of the events, subsequent storylines would follow up on several ideas developed for the "Jaspers' Warp" storyline. The storyline's return to Betsy Braddock, previously a minor supporting character in the original Captain Britain series, would continue to play a large part in subsequent stories, even briefly taking on the mantle of Captain Britain herself before going on to cross over with a major role in the best selling Uncanny X Men. Having made a brief introductory cameo in the "Jaspers' Warp" story, Meggan was given a large supporting role and would go on to be Captain Britain's partner for much of his subsequent fictional adventures. Both the Crazy Gang and Saturnyne would reappear both in Captain Britain's solo adventures and in Excalibur, which would also feature the Warpies a group of children mutated by the effects of Jasper's powers.

Thorpe devised the term "Earth 616" as a narrative device to differentiate between the two Earths featured in the storyline. He intended it as a reference to the number of the beast, and to refer to the hellish alternate dimension. and Tom Brevoort have since gone on the record to state they dislike the term.

Due to both the story's critical success and the growing reputation of its creators (Moore having swiftly found wider acclaim on DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Davis on Batman and the Outsiders), Marvel UK's parent company wanted to print the stories in Marvel Premiere. However, Marvel UK contracts and British copyright law required creators to sign off on any reprints of their work. Moore, whose earlier grievance had been compounded by this permission having been bypassed for some of his Doctor Who Weekly material and what he perceived as bullying tactics by Marvel in their legal action over Marvelman's name, refused much to Davis' chagrin. Moore would eventually consent to reprinting of the work some years after the event, in what he has referred to as a conciliatory gesture towards Davis. As a result, in 2002 Moore's part of the run only was collected in a trade paperback simply titled Captain Britain; however, the volume was missing promising indicia crediting Moore and Davis as creators for certain characters and as a result Moore reaffirmed his vow to never work for Marvel again. In 2010 the complete storyline was split across Panini Comics' collections of Captain Britain material.

Title ISBN Release date Issues Captain Britain January 2002X Men Archives featuring Captain Britain #2 7 Captain Britain Vol. 4 Siege of Camelot 16 April 2010Material from Hulk Comic #42 55 & #57 63 & X Men Archives featuring Captain Britain #1 6 Captain Britain Vol. 5 End Game 6 December 2010Material from X Men Archives featuring Captain Britain #1 6 & Captain Britain (1988 TPB)

Original Captain Britain creator Chris Claremont's read the storyline, and was impressed with the development of the characters and immediately planned a sequel to "Jasper's Warp" featuring Jaspers, the Fury and the rest of the Captain Britain cast that would be a major X Men plot arc. Betsy was featured in New Mutants Annual #2 in 1986, soon joining the X Men as Psylocke, while Jaspers made what was planned to be a teaser appearance in Uncanny X Men #200, with the plot line of Charles Xavier's exile to the Shi'ar Empire intended to serve as a catalyst. However, Claremont was then made aware of the dispute then in progress between Alan Moore and Marvel, and with the publisher wary of litigation the storyline was retooled. The Jaspers cameo during which the character had not demonstrated his powers was not followed up on, while the role intended for the Fury was instead filled by new character Nimrod. Some of the planned storylines would later be used for the X Men arcs "Mutant Massacre" and "Fall of the Mutants". Claremont's desire to work with the characters was fulfilled when he co created Excalibur with Davis in 1987. Instead in 2007 a sequel to the story was told in the X Men: Die by the Sword series, which brought the death of Roma and the end of the New Excalibur title.