Spitfire #1

Hmm. I miss Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI13 title as much as the next nerd, so grabbed this follow-up starring Spitfire. The problem is that it deals with vampires, and I have to admit I'm getting tired of them. There are just too many vampire stories out there. The most interesting aspects of this one-shot are the elements that deal with how Spitfire and the lead villain view the rest of the world. It is extremely important to both of them that people see them as superior and classy. The death scene towards the close of the book was tremendous, Spitfire puts a stop to the villain's rant by warning her that she's about to look common. That's a great idea.

I don't like Blade being ok with all these "good" vampires. My Blade sticks every bloodsucker he sees, well, except for his teammates like Spitfire or Hannibal King. In this issue, he goes to a vampire bar and is downright pleasant. What happened to "You ain't nothin to me but another. Dead. Vampire." I know Cornell's Blade is more well adjusted than Wesley Snipes, but still!

Taken as a whole, this was a decent issue, but I loved all the interplay on the MI13 team, so no Black Knight, Captain Britain, or Meggan lowers my interest just a tad. I do hope we see the team again somewhere soon.

Elena Casagrande's pencils are fine. She gets the story across, although sometimes the characters' faces are a tad odd looking. I'd be curious to see her work with someone inking and tightening up her pencils.

Fair

Captain Britain & MI13 #15

Wow. What a bummer. Not that this issue was bad, but that this is the last time we'll get to ride along with Paul Cornell's unpredictable and smart super-hero comic.

So it turns out that Pete Wisdom had a plan that was actually a step ahead of the brilliant strategist Dracula. I won't ruin it, but once again, just like with the Plotka elements a few months ago, this fits in perfectly with what we saw in the last few issues and gives our protagonists a clean win through good, solid preparation. In a play on the old "who would win in a fight?" game, maybe Wisdom could give Batman a run for his money if he knew the fight was coming? It certainly seems so here.

Captain Britain and Meggan/Gloriana get a wonderful reunion that strengthen's both characters, restores status quo, and put a smile on my face. I was really excited to see old Marvel UK character's showing up to take on the vamps. In addition to the SAS, we got Dark Angel, Digitek, and Death's Head, yes! Man, I used to LOVE Death's Head! My only complaint in the issue was how quickly Black Knight got taken out by Dracula, when Excalibur (a less-experienced sword-fighter) then took Drac out so quickly. As a Black Knight fan, I'll pretend that the story had to be compressed to wrap up in one issue, but maybe BK would have done a bit better with more pages. Cornell closes the series brilliantly with a "you have been watching" and a little goodbye scene for the core cast. Fantastic stuff. I will now be watching for whatever Cornell does next.

Leonard Kirk delivers another solid issue, with the normal standouts; Black Knight's armor, the exploding vampires, and his scene-setting for both the surprise appearances and finale were great. This was a fantastic series. I actually pity all the folks who never got to see it.

Excellent

Captain Britain & MI 13 #14

Nicely done, Paul Cornell. Last issue we saw the entire team destroyed by Dracula's vampire hordes, and to make matters worse, the team was betrayed by Spitfire. When last issue ended, Dracula had taken over England and only Blade and Captain Britain were still alive. It seemed awfully brutal, but I figured the series was ending and the two biggest names had survived, so there was a small chance this could be how the series would play out.

It turns out Cornell had a clever out all along. By utilizing a previous villain from the series, he had established powers and motivation that totally work within the story. I loved the reveal sequence where we find out how prepared Pete Wisdom was to take on the vampire boss. Bringing in an awesome, obscure character like Killpower from Marvel UK was a delight too, since I used to read his comic back in high school. Factor in the great developments with Spitfire and Captain Fate, along with Faiza's Dad, and this was a rollicking good comic that straddled the line between rising action and climax, and handled both perfectly. I expected the return of another great Brit before the series ended, and I'm happy to see that happening too. I'm really going to miss this comic. Cornell's protagonists are smart and capable and handle super-villain conflict in the most logical way I think I've ever seen in a comic. Just fantastic.

Leonard Kirk gets some assistance from other pencillers, but it doesn't weaken the book at all. The art gang does a wonderful job maintaining a consistent look to make this a thrilling comic.

Excellent

Captain Britain & MI 13 #13

This comic is too good for us. As the Vampire Nation story continues, we have more fantastic development of Dracula as a tactical genius that makes him a fascinating adversary. I'm bummed but excited to see Spitfire finally turning and going up against her old teammates. How in the world Paul Cornell will have the team survive this is beyond me. We see Spitfire slash Faiza's throat, and I've got to say, Spitfire really doesn't seem like she's faking it. The status report obituaries for the rest of the team was a nice touch too, with the vampires even admitting that the Black Knight may return "as heroes often do". The set-up with Blade as the last surviving MI 13 operative is a great one, since he's the greatest threat to the vampire way of life. We may have the whole team survive, but with B and C-listers like this, they may just be dead too...

One of my favorite bits of Cornell's writing is the casual bits between the story high-spots. Blackjack Tarr's plan to change panicked civilians into stake-wielding mobs is genius. Osborn recognizing Wisdom as a "player" was great, and I can almost believe that Osborn would help if he could. Having Pym's real Avengers attempt to come to the rescue rang true too, proving them international heroes even if they can't do anything about this problem. Judging from next issue's cover, I'm hoping for some more obscure British heroes to get involved (like Motormouth, Killpower, Micro Max, and of course Union Jack). I'm going to miss Cornell's organized and careful approach to storytelling.

Leonard Kirk's pencils are great. The vampire scout attack on the team was spooky, but Spitfire's vampire-look was really terrifying. The quick drop of Faiza followed by Black Knight's freak out was well-choreographed too, I knew what was going to happen before it did, but as the moments hit, they were still upsetting.

Excellent

Captain Britain & MI 13 Cancelled

This is a real bummer. Series writer Paul Cornell confirms over on his blog that the awesome series will be ending. This was a fantastic series that I will miss greatly. I picked it up in floppy rather than trade hoping against hope that the series would make it. Alas, it's dead meat.

I've read on some other blogs that Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Secret Six are at similar sales levels, so I'm probably about to lose a slew of my favorite titles. Ugh.

Captain Britain # MI 13 #11

Damn, I love this comic. I'm behind reading it since it just arrived in my comic box, but I have to make sure to recommend it. The action picks up right after the last issue, with the various members of the team surviving their attacks in different ways. I really enjoyed how calm Black Knight was as he psyched up Faiza (now "Excalibur") to save them both. Her powers are still a tad ill-defined, but I'm ok with just leaving it as "super-healing." The main plot was good in this one, as Pete Wisdom starts to assemble his squad and the vampires take their places and declare war, but what makes this comic great is the little details. Black Knight asking if Faiza wants silence before they hit. The casual way Wisdom dresses down the other MI-agencies. The use of a spell to burn off being drunk, and the awful hangover it leaves behind. All great ideas and neat bits adding up to one of the best comics Marvel publishes. I will say that I'm still not cottoning up to Captain Britain the way I probably should be. He's being outshone by everyone else on the team. Blade in particular might make a better main protagonist for awhile.

Leonard Kirk's work is fantastic here. His vampires look like weird flaming monsters, and his take on Black Knight's armor is great. I like Excalibur's costume design too, putting two "knights" on the team. Mike Collins does the last few pages, and his work is decent, but doesn't hold up all that great next to Kirk's great looking pages.

Excellent

Captain Britain & MI 13#10

Captain Britain keeps on trucking along, moving into the potentially-awesome Dracula story. Paul Cornell plays up a racist angle to Dracula that I don't think I've seen before, making him have a strong dislike of Muslims. In fact, Dracula attempts to sell his alliance to Dr. Doom as one that would help keep Muslims away from Doom's borders. Doom is having none of that, it seems, although he does eventually go along with the alliance. It seems Dracula wants Doom to keep the Illuminaughty away from Great Britain so that it can become a new homeland for vampires. Pretty cool idea, I'd say, and it is off to a good start. We see Wisdom and Cap out for a night on the town with some backpacking tourists (aren't they a tad young for those two guys?), although their night comes to a rough end. Blade gets some great characterization as we see him integrating into Spitfire's world. Spitfire is the life of the party, a fun gal that it seems everyone wants to be around, and it takes a bit for Blade to finally mellow out and join in, and he's glad he does. The old-fashioned approach Blade exhibits is fun too, especially since it should be coming from Spitfire. Black Knight finally heads down to Wakanda to get his ebony blade back, and the best part about this sequence is that Dane is back in his full costume. I wish they'd use this instead of the leather jacket. That Pascal Ferry-designed suit is still sweet. I also like that Faiza and Dane may be hooking up since that guy can't be on a team without causing romantic problems. All the character-arcs come to a simlar end though, since Dracula wants MI 13 out of the way.

Leonard Kirk's pencils are great. This is a solid book and one of my favorites every month.

Good

Captain Britain & MI13 #9

Paul Cornell finally wraps up the Hell Comes to Birminham story this issue, and it comes to a good close, even if the story did go on too long. I'm loving the addition of Blade to the team, he really makes sense and adds a good tough guy dynamic to the team. I do worry that Black Knight rarely has anything to say this issue, but I did enjoy the developments with his sword. That imposter ebony blade is an evil, controlling thing, and it successfully takes over Pete Wisdom for a moment when it gets the chance. I think the design of the blade even changed, and judging from the cliff-hanger ending, Dracula is involved. Neat!

I liked the face off with Plotka destroying Blade's weaponry, that is always a nice bit when the villain admits that the heroes did have one way to hurt him, but it was just destroyed. The Allistair Stuart varying look problem, which I believe was an accident in the Pete Wisdom mini, is actually used as a primary story bit here. Cornell handles the whole wrap up well, with Captain Midlands' story being a really sad one. Wisdom is actually harder on the Captain than most readers, I'd bet.

Leonard Kirk's pages look fantastic, but I'm worried at the amount of fill-in material here. I think most of the solo Captain Britian pages are done by someone else. I really want this book to remail in Kirk's style, so I hope he is still on after the next few issues.

Good

Captain Britain & MI13 #7

I love this comic. I love how writer Paul Cornell is able to make it feel more "British" than Excalibur ever did. Captain Midlands does a lot of that himself, but the now-likeable Pete Wisdom is great too. Brit characters Blade and Spitfire get to spar some more, with Blade finally respecting "Lady J." I do hope her skeleton hand goes back to normal though, that is one weird deformity. Black Knight is getting some good development too. This issue features him fighting off the rage-inducing effects of the ebony blade, only to have Wisdom yell out at the end "That's not the ebony blade!" So Cornell is going to finally resolve the confusion with Black Panther carrying around the blade too, it seems. I'm thinking Black Knight's "rages" are going to be his own doing, not influened by the blade. That could be a neat development for one of my all-time faves to have to deal with, and it seems he will have Faiza around to help him deal with it. Their relationship is a fascinating one too, a knight who fought in the Crusades possibly getting in a relationship with a Muslim hero. Neat stuff. I wasn't as engrossed in the Cap Britain part of the plot as he imagines a life reunited with Meggan. I always wanted to like Cap more than I did, and I think his 80s era suit is his best, I'm not liking his modern look as much. Captain Britain may headline the book, but I think the title is carried on the rest of the cast. "Yer can't stop Captain Midlands!"

Leonard Kirk returns to pencil this issue, and it's nice to have him back. He's got the characters all down, and his Meggan looks fantastic. I don't care for Black Knight's bulbous helmet or jeans, but maybe he'll get back in his armor at some point. Blade looks great, this could finally be the time the great character from the movies gets similar treatment in the comics.

Good