Following on from yesterday's announcement...

Following on from Yesterday's announcement of the new ongoing series Captain Britain and MI:13, writer Paul Cornell and editor Nick Lowe have done an interview with Comic Book Resources about the new series, and what might be in store.

It's hard to be sure exactly who the cast will be (The cover shows a number of characters from John (Lennon) the Skrull to the Black Knight) but both Union Jack and Spitfire are name-checked in that article - and both Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom are very much there.

As to why the name change from Excalibur? Well, Nick Lowe says:

“I loved working with Paul on ‘Wisdom’ and wanted to expose more readers to
his writing. So we'd talked about doing a new ‘Excalibur’ series (and it was
announced, in fact) but for various reasons (one being the fact that two
‘Excalibur’ series have been launched since I've been here) we wanted to go in a
different direction. So, here we are!”

So, Captain Britain and MI:13 it is. Those who read Cornell's Wisdom series will already have encountered MI:13 before. For the uninitiated they're the British Government's department responsible for taking care of the weird, the supernatural, the paranormal, and the superhuman. And with a Skrull invasion of Earth on the horizon this new ongoing series will be kicking off in the middle of it. Hell, we're told that even British PM Gordon Brown will be demanding the heroes are called together for this one. It has the promise of scale behind it - not just a book of old unused X-Men, as the complaint against New Excalibur often was.

It appears that this new team will be tied to the British government, in a way that Claremont's New Excalibur danced with, but never truly committed to. But Cornell also makes clear that just because that tie is there it doesn't mean that they won't still BE superheroes as well:

“They won't be seeking publicity, but you can't stop [Captain Britain] from
running into a burning building, and nor would Pete want to. They'll be going up
against a particular brand of bad guys, the genre being espionage vs.--something
else. I think we'd all be bored if they took on terrorists.


“Yes, we'll be talking morally grey areas and character conflict, But this
isn't ‘Checkmate’ (much as I love it). This is an out and out Marvel super team
book, with a twist. And one thing I should really emphasize--we're bringing hero
back. That was Nick's phrase, and I've taken it to heart. If this lot,
particularly Captain Britain, haven't made you punch the air and cheer or weep
man tears like I do in every Spider-Man movie (you know, when that passer by
yells 'go Spidey go!' or when the crowd put his mask back on?) then I've failed
to accomplish what I'm after. They're heroes. They will be heroic.”

I don't know about you, but this sounds to me to be a lot like the successor to Excalibur we should have had two years ago. And with a promise from the writer to be trawling a lot of past continuity for characters the outlook is very positive indeed.

For the full interview, and I really suggest that you give it a full look over, go to http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=13031

All next week Paul Cornell will be discussing a team member a day over there, so we should know the full roster very soon.