Appearing in "While London Gapes in Horror!"[]
Featured characters:
Supporting characters:
Villains:
Other characters:
- Herbie, Dai Thomas' nephew
Locations:
- Superhero museum
- Trafalgar Square
- Lady Gila's residence
Items:
- Mint-condition copy of the first Spider-Man comic
- Wax figure of Spider-Man
Vehicles:
- Police car
- Atomic-engined rocket car (can turn into a mini-jet)
Synopsis for "While London Gapes in Horror!"[]
Slaymaster steals "the world's only mint-condition copy of the first Spider-Man comic" from the museum's safe. Captain Britain throws a wax figure of Spider-Man at him, which Slaymaster destroys with an explosive bullet. A piece of wax shrapnel knocks Captain Britain unconscious. Slaymaster takes young Herbie, Dai Thomas' nephew, and flies away. Dai Thomas turns up just as Captain Britain is coming round. He wants to arrest Captain Britain for killing Mr Waxman. Captain Britain flies to Nelson's column, where Slaymaster has placed Herbie. He rescues Herbie, but Slaymaster escapes. When Dai Thomas criticises his actions, Captain Britain calls him "taffy." This is at best discourteous, and at worst racist. On the other hand, Captain Britain has had a very long day and Dai Thomas keeps trying to arrest him for the flimsiest of reasons because, well, that's what Dai Thomas does. Both characters are victims of their writer.
Captain Britain found a tiny golden griffin that Slaymaster dropped on Nelson's column, and thinks that it is a clue to Slaymaster's next target. He chases a "laser image" of Slaymaster (projected by the real Slaymaster as a decoy or something) through the sky. Then he sees a statue of a griffin next to a fountain. He lands there and guards surround him, saying that he wants to steal Lady Gila's golden griffin. Lady Gila watches from her balcony: "Good! My guards can turn him over to the police! ...Now I must get my beauty sleep!" Women get naff-all to do in this stretch of Captain Britain stories, and when they appear they're vain autocrats, useless peril-monkeys, or both.
Slaymaster attacks Lady Gila with a giant mutant gila monster, which to be fair is extremely cool. Lucky for him she wasn't called Baroness Hare or Dame Partridge. Captain Britain tries to rescue her, but Slaymaster renders him unconscious with his "gas gun" and flies away with the golden griffin, leaving Captain Britain to the gila monster's mercy...
Notes[]
Published by Marvel UK in October 1977.
Trivia[]
In one panel Captain Britain calls Dai Thomas' nephew Freddie.
Recommended reading[]
The next comic in this series.
Links and references[]
See also: Captain Britain trade paperback.