Appearing in "To Shrink in Fear!"[]
Featured characters:
Supporting characters:
- Julie Vane, a film starlet
- General Mayhew
- Bert Bullard, a trained athlete
- Artie Zampa, a London rackets boss
Villains:
Other characters:
- Fong, Doctor Claw's giant henchman
Location:
- Eden Island
Items:
- Shrink ray
Vehicles:
- Doctor Claw's 'jungle car'
Synopsis for "To Shrink in Fear!"[]
Doctor Claw takes Captain Britain and his four companions to his laboratory and uses his shrink ray on them, despite Julie Vane's pathetic cry of "P-please -- I've a film career to think of!" The five are menaced by Claw's pet cat. They escape down a rat hole, but its floor opens and tips them down a chute.
They land outside, in the jungle, and are attacked by ants. It isn't clear how five people who were just about holding their own against a cat are now under threat from a swarm of ants, unless Doctor Claw has mutated the ants to make them abnormally large (as he did with several animals in the previous episode).
Captain Britain places his companions safely in a tree and fights off the swarm. General Mayhew remarks that if more people in Britain were as brave as Captain Britain, "we'd still have the empire! Thin red line and all that!" Shame about all those cowardly British soldiers acquiescing to the demands of uppity ant-like natives who wanted their countries back, huh? General Mayhew is attacked by a mutant monkey. Captain Britain flies to the rescue, referring to the siege of Lucknow (see trivia below). Shame about all those deformed monkey-like natives attacking plucky British colonisers, huh?
Doctor Claw turns up in a three-wheeled 'jungle car'. The climax of the episode consists of Fong, his henchman, releasing a hunting hawk which swoops down and snatches Captain Britain in its "steely talons."
Notes[]
Published by Marvel UK in September 1977.
Trivia[]
Captain Britain tells General Mayhew that "reinforcements are coming right up! --Like you're hearing the pipes at Lucknow!" This is a reference to the relief of Lucknow (the capital city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh) in 1857, when British colonisers who had been besieged by rebellious Indians were rescued.
Recommended reading[]
The next comic in this series.
Links and references[]
See also: Captain Britain trade paperback.