I Try Captain Britain and MI: 13
- Posted by Johanna on November 25, 2008 at 9:56 pm
- Category: Superhero Reviews
Based on a reader recommendation, I tried Captain Britain and MI: 13. Even though it was a Secret Invasion tie-in, and I didn’t care at all.
It’s written by Paul Cornell, and I think his work is ambitious for the usual serial genre comic. I was lost a little bit … but I blamed that on the crossover stuff. My favorite part was the interaction of Faiza Hussain, Muslim doctor, and the Black Knight, who “stays flippant” so his sword won’t make him turn evil. (?)
Oh, and I liked the Skrull who looks like John Lennon, although it seems like a joke that got extended beyond what it could support. I hadn’t realized that Leonard Kirk was drawing it — his clean style makes him a long-time favorite of mine.
Anyway, in issue #1, there’s lots of big plot talking, and then Faiza gets zapped into skeleton. My interest immediately dropped to zero. She was the only hook into the story I had. I started having flashbacks to the comic that brought KC and I together, the Legionnaires Annual where they zapped Phase.
I put the comic down. I had a stack of #1-6, so just to give it one more chance, I opened #6. Oddly, Faiza was still being mentioned in the Story So Far section. That’s unusual, so I flipped through some pages, and hey! Faiza was back. I told KC about this, to which he responded, “Don’t you know by now that when someone dies in comics they always come back?” Well, yeah, but I didn’t have any incentive to keep looking into future issues once I thought the character I liked was gone. It was only because we already had them and I gave it one more chance that I’m bothering to go back and read the other issues.
By the way, the Secret Invasion banner on #1-4 is a disincentive. I’m going to muddle through anyway, but I shouldn’t have to work so hard to try a comic.
November 25, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Maybe I’ve been reading comics waaaay too long (Yes. Yes, I have), but as soon as I saw Faiza get zapped into a skeleton by a Skrull-ray, my IMMEDIATE thought was; “Oh. So she’ll “come back to life” and become super-powered now, huh? Oh. OK.”
I never thought for an instant that they’d kill her off (especially given the fact that she’s a Muslim woman. I don’t think Marvel wants THAT kind of press).
Anyway, Keep Reading!
It’s a GREAT book!
~P~
November 26, 2008 at 2:01 am
I would perhaps reading the Wisdom trade, which is the lead in to the series, before reading the rest of the series, unless of course, diving in cold was part of the plan.
November 26, 2008 at 6:57 am
P, yeah, my husband was surprised that I didn’t immediately go there, expecting a return. But if I did that, then I would be denying the writer’s desire for me to feel something for the character.
In short, always resurrecting characters is a superhero cliche, and I’m usually disappointed when it happens.
OSM, no, it wasn’t necessary a plan, but these issues were what I had to hand.
November 26, 2008 at 1:16 pm
You know, I must be a jaded fan, because when she got zapped, I never gave it two thoughts. But I also knew that Cornell had done a lot of pre-debut interviews touting the character and it would have been quite the swerve to kill her off.
As for John the Skrull, that’s a different story, but I don’t want to ruin the remaining issues for you.
November 26, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Faiza’s still my favourite character.
Mind you, this dance between Spitfire and Blade could end up being fun, too…
November 27, 2008 at 8:34 am
I didn’t find the Secret Invasion stuff confusing at all – it’s a bunch of alien Fascists invading Britain, it’s a stock thing. The only bit I found confusing was the bit with The Guy Speaking In Wisdom’s Head in #3 (it ties into the last Excalibur story), as Cornell briefly mentions what happened and then hurriedly moves on to do what he wants.
The main confusion comes from his writing style for comics, which moves _very fast_ while throwing stuff out at you breakneck and expects you to be smart enough to keep up. Which of course is better than moving slowly and unambitiously, I guess.
November 27, 2008 at 9:09 am
He moves as quickly in his comics writing as in his TV work, doesn’t he?
November 27, 2008 at 11:28 am
OSM, I didn’t see any pre-publicity for this series, but then, I no longer go to those kinds of sites for the most part.
The reason I wanted to talk about it was that it was unusual for me to approach a series as such a new reader. Usually I have heard something about a book ahead of time, and it was refreshing to approach it so freely. Although I think that the publishers have forgotten about that style, these days.
November 29, 2008 at 12:37 pm
[...] kept going after my first try, and I liked it. The challenges are classic — for example, Captain Britain is seduced with [...]