"'Look down there! Isn't it 'orrible? Looks even worse from up 'ere. Sometimes I think this must be the worst world anywhere.'"
Earth-238 was superficially similar to Earth-616, the home of Captain Britain, but when the hero was sent there by Merlyn in 1981 he quickly discovered that it was fundamentally different. Britain was a fascist state ruled by Queen Margaret I, where the police had guns and the frightened population were kept in line by a gang of paramilitaries called the Status Crew. The ruling political party was the BNP. Worse still, the reins of power were covertly held by Mad Jim Jaspers, an insane politician who had the power to alter reality. He used his skill as a demagogue to convince the public that superheroes were a threat to law and order who had to be eliminated, and designed the machine/animal called the Fury to carry out this task. Within two years the Fury had killed all of Earth-238's superhumans apart from Jaspers himself (who had wisely built a 'don't kill Jaspers' law into its programming) and Captain UK, who used a teleport device to flee to Earth-616.
By the time Captain Britain and Jackdaw arrived on Earth-238, Jaspers was getting his kicks by robbing banks with his wacky sidekicks the Crazy Gang. Unbeknownst to the Captain, Merlyn had sent him there because Earth-238 was "the most retrograde of the linked Earthworlds" and the place where "the forces of Necromon have their tightest hold." The Captain was supposed to fix this mess with the help of Saturnyne, a native of Earth-9 who had been sent to Earth-238 by the Dimensional Development Court. She explained her task as follows: "This world is the most primitive of all the series of alternate Earths... Misery, greed, war, repression, misuse of power. You name it, it's got the set. Now the DDC's 50,000 year programme calls for the Earth series to enter a new era soon... an era of reason, peace and enlightenment. It must be achieved by the year 2000."
Saturnyne's explanation was illustrated with a rather utopian scene of two fresh-faced youngsters engaging in healthy exercise outside a 'community school' powered by green energy and surrounded by trees, while a third scattered grain to chickens. It was an idyllic vision of social and ecological harmony, but was destined never to become a reality. Saturnyne's attempts to spread the "life-enhancing fluid" that would give Earth-238 "the push" towards peace and enlightenment were thwarted when the Status Crew attacked her with the Fury. She and her Avant Guard (helpers whom she had dressed as bowler-hatted businessmen, presumably as protective camouflage on this ultra-conservative world) realised that they were outclassed and ran away. The Fury killed Jackdaw and Captain Britain. (The Captain was resurrected in Otherworld by Merlyn, prompting the Fury to enter the void between universes to seek its missing prey, but Jackdaw's luck had run out and he stayed dead.)
As Jaspers' reality-warping powers increased Earth-238 descended into a state of utter chaos, becoming a surreal, twisted nightmare that threatened to infect all the other worlds in the chain. To get rid of the "reality-cancer" the Dimensional Development Court, led by Lord Mandragon, decided to annihilate the entire universe containing Earth-238.
"A crystal key is turned. A chain reaction is commenced... ...and a stricken universe is placed forever beyond suffering."
Heroes of Earth-238[]
Note: Most were alternate versions of established characters from defunct IPC titles. Links lead to the original IPC characters they were based on.
- Captain UK
- Rick, Captain UK's husband
- Miracleman (deceased)
- The Iron Tallon (deceased)
- Colonel Tusker (deceased)
- The Arachnid (deceased)
- Gaath (deceased)
- Android Andy (deceased)
- Captain Roy Risk (deceased)
- Puppetman (deceased)
- Tom Rosetta (deceased)
Other residents of Earth-238[]
- Autumn (deceased)
- Algernon: the Rat Thing (deceased)
- Junkheap That Walks Like A Man (destroyed)
- Crazy Gang (presumably deceased, but duplicates of most of the members were later created by the Mad Jim Jaspers of Earth-616