DAI THOMAS

BIOGRAPHY

Dai Thomas is a Welsh police officer and Chief Inspector for the Scotland Yard. Dai was once happily married to a woman named Valerie, with whom he had a daughter, Ruthie. His world was turned upside down on the day Val was accidentally killed in New York, an innocent bystander in a battle between Thor and the Hulk. [Captain Britain (1st series) #27, Captain Britain (2nd series) #1]

Now an embittered man, Dai began harboring a grudge for all superheroes, deeming them responsible for his wife’s death. His aversion to them earned him the nickname ‘Hero Hater’ from his colleagues. [Daredevils #4, Knights of Pendragon (1st series) #5] His well-publicized campaign against superpowered beings also earned him the ridicule of the press. [Captain Britain (2nd series) #14]

In the following years, the various cases he took in his Scotland Yard capacity often brought him in contact with superheroes, and he would seize the opportunity to openly display his resentment. One of his earlier known altercations was with the vigilante Blade. Fed up with him, Dai once confronted him in his office and called him out. In response, Blade punched him in the stomach. [Marvel Preview #3]

Dai became particularly obsessed with one of the resident superheroes of the United Kingdom, Captain Britain. He began a cat-and-mouse game with him, bent on detaining and, perhaps equally importantly, unmasking him. Even though Dai was an eyewitness on the day Captain Britain singlehandedly prevented a bank robbery, he made no secret of his distrust of him and interrogated him in his office for hours. [Captain Britain (1st series) #3] On another occasion, Dai showed up after a fight between Captain Britain and the villain Hurricane and verbally attacked Cap for trying to turn London into ‘New York’ with his superheroic antics. [Captain Britain (1st series) #5]

Unable to rest till he got Captain Britain behind bars by any means necessary, Dai was close to fulfilling his dream on several occasions but invariably failed. He was twice forced to relinquish Captain Britain, first to Captain America, who acted under S.H.I.E.L.D. orders, and later into the hands of the S.T.R.I.K.E. secret service. One of his most mortifying experiences was when Captain Britain gave him the slip by driving away in Dai’s own police car. Dai even tried to convince the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, whose life Captain Britain had recently saved, that Cap was a public menace, but his arguments fell on deaf ears. [Captain Britain (1st series) #15-16, 23-24, 27, 30-33, 35]

When Captain Britain later attacked Queen Elizabeth at a Silver Jubilee ceremony while under the hypnotic control of Manipulator, Dai finally felt vindicated. Satisfied that his instinct for Captain Britain was finally proven true for all the world to see, he took him under custody and couldn’t wait to unmask him and parade his face to the public. Once again, though, Brian escaped him. [Captain Britain (1st series) #38-39] He and Brian soon had to make an uneasy alliance when they worked together to take out Manipulator and his assistant, Highway, who were holding the Queen under their thrall. After Captain Britain rescued Dai from the villains’ clutches, the Chief Inspector felt bound by honor to aid him. The crisis passed, Dai made it clear that their onetime collaboration didn’t mean they were friends and he only assisted him in order to serve his Queen and his country. [Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #231-232] The two men later reunited when Captain Britain, much to Dai’s annoyance, came to the rescue of Dai and his men, who were fighting a werewolf. [Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #237]

When Dai’s little nephew, Herbie, was taken hostage by the hitman Slaymaster, Captain Britain came to the boy’s rescue. In the aftermath of the fight, instead of feeling indebted to him, Dai complained that Captain Britain and his opponent had damaged Nelson’s Column, an important monument in central London, during their fight. [Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #243-246] Later, Dai almost got mixed up in another fight between Captain Britain and Slaymaster but Brian, already facing too much trouble as it was, asked his sister, Psylocke, to distract the Chief Inspector. [Daredevils #4]

Having finally worked out that Captain Britain and Brian Braddock were the same person, Dai took it upon himself to expose him to his superiors. He presented them with all the facts pointing to Brian Braddock being Captain Britain and asked permission to investigate further. Dai’s superiors didn’t take him seriously though and only promised to forward his report to Resources Control Executive (RCX), a new agency replacing the defunct S.T.R.I.K.E. Dai was then paid a visit by two RCX agents, who basically told him to stay out of Captain Britain’s way and even threatened him when he tried to defy their orders. Once again, Dai was finding his authority undermined by other organizations. [Might World of Marvel (2nd series) #16, Captain Britain (2nd series) #1-2, 5]

Dai was ultimately blacklisted by his superiors for his abrasive behavior and was removed from London, being ‘promoted’ to a newly formed investigation unit based in Glasgow. Frustrated by his treatment in the hands of RCX and faced with a series of inexplicable, brutal murders in Glasgow, Dai made a leap of faith and decided to go directly to Captain Britain, being in desperate need of his services. Swallowing his pride with a bit of liquid courage, he visited Brian in his lighthouse manor and revealed that he was aware of his secret identity. Despite his lack of esteem for the man, Brian agreed to help him. Later, in Glasgow, while waiting for their enemy to strike, the two men had a heart-to-heart over their differences, drinking beer and bonding over their shared dislike of RCX.

After Captain Britain solved the Glasgow murders and rescued Dai from death in the hands of the entity known as Silver Death, the policeman finally had a change of heart. He apologized to Brian for misjudging him and asked him if he could call him again in the future should new trouble arise. Dai’s awkward yet heartfelt speech was the beginning of a lasting friendship between the two former rivals. [Captain Britain (2nd series) #14]

Later, Dai indeed turned for help to Captain Britain and his newly formed team of superheroes, Excalibur, for a hostage crisis in London, even though he was skeptical of the inclusion of two teenagers, Shadowcat and Rachel Summers, on the team. However, he quickly came to trust Excalibur after they proved themselves worthy against the Warwolves and Arcade, delivering them in the hands of Scotland Yard. [Excalibur (1st series) #1-2, 5]

Dai was soon contacted by the Weird Happenings Organisation (W.H.O.) to investigate a case of alternate reality counterparts of Excalibur hailing from a world in which the Third Reich had emerged victorious. Dai found himself out of depth with this extradimensional business and was genuinely relieved when Captain Britain showed up. However, his friend turned out to be Hauptmann Englande, the Nazi alternate counterpart of Captain Britain, who attacked Dai and would have probably killed him were it not for Shadowcat. [Excalibur (1st series) #9-10]

Shortly afterwards, Dai enlisted the services of Excalibur’s resident telepath, Phoenix, hoping to discover the whereabouts of an abducted girl, Amy. Their collaboration wasn’t easy. Unlike Brian, who had grown to respect the man, Rachel regarded him as an ‘archaic, reactionary pig.’ When Dai pressured her to pick out the suspect’s mind and called her out for what he perceived as her ‘flirting’ with one of his men, Rachel went berserk and almost lashed out at him. The pair eventually discovered Amy’s location. Dressed in full military uniform and armed to the teeth, Dai accompanied Rachel there, insisting that he could protect himself and didn’t need the rest of Excalibur to back him up. The duo confronted the malevolent entity known as D’Spayre. Despite Dai and Rachel continuously insulting each other, with Dai in particular making fun of Rachel’s young age and her rather extravagant dress style, they held each other’s back, although Dai’s bullets could do little against D’Spayre. While Rachel was busy fighting the demon, Dai retrieved Amy from the bottom of a well, where he almost drowned. Rachel finally came to realize that, deep down, the Chief Inspector was a big softy. [Excalibur (1st series) #35]

Indeed, by this point, Dai had started to genuinely care for Excalibur, even betraying his concern for the team’s pet dragon, Lockheed, when the latter underwent an operation. Shortly afterwards, Dai was embroiled in a confrontation between the X-Men and the Warwolves, the latter disguised into X-Men. He was able to see through the ruse and didn’t hesitate to shoot the fake Colossus. [Excalibur (1st series) #40-41]

Finally growing tired after thirty-odd years in the force, Dai decided to return to his cottage in Gower, South Wales, reminiscing about the past. Even his daughter, the now adult Ruth, had become estranged from him and hardly ever called him. Dai’s sabbatical was interrupted when he was paid a visit by Captain Britain. This time, it was Cap who needed Dai’s services rather than the other way around. The United Kingdom was plagued by a series of inexplicable deaths and the W.H.O. wanted Dai to investigate. However, Dai seemed to be having troubles of his own, as he started having recurrent, vivid dreams and visions in which he saw himself as the Arthurian mythical figure of Sir Gawain. Dai dismissed this as his mind playing tricks on him. At that time, he was rereading the Medieval romance about Gawain and the Green Knight, a story he was familiar with as he used to read to it to his daughter when she was little. [Knights of Pendragon (1st series) #1]

Together with reporter Kate McClellan, Dai began investigating a number of incidents at various locations, all of which pointed to the direction of the nefarious Omni Corporation. On one occasion in Florida, Dai was shot by men of the Omni Corporation and went into a trance. Suddenly, he began quoting excerpts from the Medieval tale and demonstrating extraordinary abilities. [Knights of Pendragon (1st series) #2-3]

Following the Florida incident, Dai seemed markedly changed. His visions of Sir Gawain intensified and he went AWOL. In Belize, he was attacked by men of the Omni Corporation. Channeling the spirit of Sir Gawain, he displayed remarkable fighting skills and managed to take them out on his own. Meanwhile, the W.H.O. decided to take him off the case, thinking him dangerous and delusional, and had Captain Britain track him down in South America. By now, Dai was fully possessed by the spirit of Sir Gawain and even recognized Captain Britain as the reincarnation of Sir Lancelot.

Brian tried to reason with him but ended up brutally fighting him and seemingly killing him, only to realize that Dai’s body was gone and replaced by the vigorous Sir Gawain. Both Dai and Brian belonged to a coterie of people who were vessels for the Knights of Pendragon, Arthurian figures assembled together to face the demonic forces of the Bane and their master, the Red Lord, the real threat behind the Omni. The two men met the fabled Green Knight at the mystical Green Chapel. As a sign of respect to the Green Knight, Gawain allowed the Knight to behead him. Dai and Captain Britain then found themselves returned to the real world, with Dai having no recollection of what transpired. [Knights of Pendragon (1st series) #4-6]

Dai then began investigating a series of murders in London, linked to a former hired gun of Omni, who was now possessed by the Bane. Dai was interrogating the suspect at the Scotland Yard headquarters, when a number of people under the thrall of the Bane broke into the building and beat Dai within an inch of his life. He was hospitalized and later paid a visit by Captain Britain, who wanted to apologize for almost killing him in South America. [Knights of Pendragon (1st series) #7, 9, 11-12] On returning back to active duty, Dai was pestered by a journalist who wished to know more about Dai’s recent trips around the world, all of which had been well-publicized, further adding to Dai’s notoriety. [Knights of Pendragon (1st series) #13] Despite his heroic achievements under Sir Gawain’s possession, Dai seemed comfortable returning to his old line of work. When the time came for the final battle against the Red Lord and his minions, he received his summoning as a Knight of Pendragon with trepidation. Still, Dai / Gawain joined the fight and the battle ended in victory. [Knights of Pendragon (1st series) #18]

With the Bane vanquished, Dai gave up his membership in the Knights to resume his duties as Chief Inspector. [Knights of Pendragon (2nd series) #5] He also continued working closely with Excalibur for various missions. The man who had once resented all superheroes went as far as to enlist the services of psychic Emelia Witherspoon. Dai soon had another unpleasant experience when he was among the guests in a reception at Braddock Manor, during which they were all temporarily deformed by Captain Britain’s insane, reality-warping brother, Jamie Braddock. [Excalibur (1st series) #44-45, 49-51, 54-56, 60]

Several years later, Dai and Kate, who had in the meantime become lovers but had broken up since, joined forces to investigate a fracking site of Omni Corporation, a front for the nefarious Mys-Tech. There, they were attacked by zombie versions of King Arthur and his Round Table, acting as thralls of the Bane. In response, Dai was possessed by Sir Gawain for the first time in years and fought valiantly. Within the next few hours, several British heroes, including the reformed Knights, joined forces to fend off an invasion of other-dimensional beings orchestrated by Mys-Tech. Back in his normal form, Dai was assaulted by the Psycho-Wraith Primes, with Captain Britain and other heroes coming to his rescue. Following a climactic battle in Soho, the villains were defeated, and the Knights of Pendragon returned to Otherworld. Dai opted to go back to his first love, the police force. [Revolutionary War event]