Posted in: Avengers, Comics, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man | Tagged: 1775, American Revolution, jms

Bruce Banner Asks So What If Britain Had Won The American Revolution?

Bruce Banner asks would it have mattered if Britain had won the American Revolution? And Rich Johnston gets a history lesson...

Joe Michael Straczynski has recently relocated from the USA to the UK. But as a parting gift, he has left Marvel Comics with a new comic book series, 1776 with Ron Lim and Sean Damien Hill, in which major Marvel Comics figures go back in time to stop history from being changed by nefarious forces. Namely, Arthurian sorcereress Morgan Le Fey.

And I have to wonder oif JMS has discovered, in his international relocation, that just as the US is obsessed with the details of its two hundred and fifty year history, the details of the revolution drilled by rote into US schoolchildren, that the UK doesn't really know any of it at all. It was just another country leaving the British Empire. Otherwise known as "Tuesday". We are more likley to know the details of India's secession than the US. Most of what we know about it now comes from watching Hamilton on Disney+. So I confess, I have no idea who John Burgoyne is, I thought he was a playwright. To Wikipedia!

"General John Burgoyne (24 February 1722 – 4 August 1792) was a British Army officer, playwright and politician who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, most notably during the Spanish invasion of Portugal in 1762."

Oh, so he was a playwright. But more it seems.

"Burgoyne is best known for his role in the American Revolutionary War. He designed an invasion scheme and was appointed to command a force moving south from Canada to split away New England and end the rebellion. Burgoyne advanced from Canada but his slow movement allowed the Americans to concentrate their forces. Instead of coming to his aid according to the overall plan, the British Army in New York City moved south to capture Philadelphia. Burgoyne fought two small battles near Saratoga but was surrounded by American forces and, with no relief in sight, surrendered his entire army of 6,200 men on 17 October 1777. His surrender, according to the historian Edmund Morgan, "was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory". France had been supplying the North American colonists since the spring of 1776. Burgoyne and his officers returned to England; the enlisted men became prisoners of war. He came under sharp criticism when he returned to London."

So clearly, it seems that Morgan Le Fey intends things to go a different way. And the Marvel superheroes must stop her.

Or… must they?

Don't you love tech bros like Bruce Banner playing devil's advocate? And Spider-Man himself has had plenty of experience with playing such a thing. Lost him his marriage…

Of course, that all depends on what Morgan Le Fey plans to do with the situation. And how she plans to make the big change…

Divide and conquer. I mean, it is the British way after all. Sir Humphrey Appleby had a couple of good takes on that...

Spoilers, John Burgoyne, spoilers! And it looks like the battle of Saratoga, lost by Burgoyne, may be about to go the other way…

That's unless Captain America can do something about it! And Bruce Banner and Peter Parker don't devil's advocate it all away… maybe John Burgoyne should have just stuck to plays. The events of this comic may certainly lead to his play, The Camp about an impending invasion of the British Isles, having to be rewritten too. 1776 #1 by J. Michael Straczynski, Ron Lim, Sean Damien Hill is published by Marvel Comics today.

1776 #1 (of 5) by J. Michael Straczynski, Ron Lim, Sean Damien Hill
REVOLUTIONARY WARRIORS, ASSEMBLE! Calamity strikes when a mysterious force dares to tamper with the sacred threads of history. CAPTAIN AMERICA and his formidable squad of Marvel heroes leap into action! Their mission? To safeguard the founding of the United States of America! The fate of the nation hangs in the balance at the dawn of the Revolution, as these valiant heroes must navigate the treacherous waters of the past to ensure a future that remains untarnished.

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