Cheerio, Captain Britain!

Second Printing of Issue 3's cover

If you’ve been keeping up with the comic forums on FR in any degree, then you know I have a bright love for the book known as, Captain Britain and the MI13 (CB&MI13). Unfortunately, the series’ writer has confirmed that the book has been canceled via his blog. I find that to be very unfortunate, but I am pleased that Cornell was allowed to convey the story he wanted to tell. His run on the book is some of the best treatment Capt. Brit and several of his cast mates have gotten in years, and it’s depressing that Marvel would allow such a book to slip from their grasps while keeping something like Wolverine: Origins on the shelves.  The series had several things going for it and was launched off a very subpar crossover involving the skrulls. I can honestly say that the skrulls never felt like a threat in ANY main book or even most of the tie-ins, but in CB&MI13, they felt like a legitimate powerhouse that actually had some form of rational and a plan they set into action. The only other book that relayed this feeling to me is Jason Aaron’s Black Panther tie-in.

While the book had superb writing, good art, and high praise from its fans and critics, it seems the moolah just wasn’t in the bank. Although that’s a great motivator for keeping a comic around, I find it very odd that Marvel itself didn’t promote the series nearly as much as they should have. Its fans promoted the book more often than not, and that seems to be a common factor in titles not headed by a major A-list star. I don’t like the reasoning behind not promoting lesser known or lower graded comic book characters, but I can certainly understand the thought process behind it. One would just assume that a company should at least attempt to garner new fans for a series instead of constantly endorsing books that don’t really need it or propping up the next big summer event. “Major” crossovers just so happen to appear a surprisingly large number of times a year. Go figure, right?

Well, I’m not going to dwell on it, but I will say that this was an awesome series and I’m glad Paul Cornell was assigned to the book for fifteen issues and an annual. It may not have been a long run, but it was one of my top comics every month it came out. No issue ever left me feeling disappointed even if I didn’t like everything that happened within an arc. The current arc alone I would consider a must read, especially if you want to see how a real invasion should play out. If you haven’t been checking out this book, I really urge you to give it a try and to allow your eyes to be glued to the pages. I mean, it only shows you the potential several underused characters such as Blade, Spitfire, Dane Whitman, and Capt himself are able to reach when used correctly in entertaining stories. So engaging that it makes one want to mod again. Just imagine…a Captain Britain mod! Hey, one can dream, no?