That's right people. Wednesday the 22nd (Or Thursday the 23rd in the UK) sees the release of Captain Britain & MI13 #15. The finale of the Vampire State arc, and the final issue of the series. Sob. :(
But I don't want to get bogged down in bemoaning Marvel for cancelling it, or finding reasons as to why. The bottom line is that we've had 15 issues, and 1 Annual, of a consistently good British based superhero title. And it was everything we could have asked for. Cleverly written, well characterised, brilliantly drawn, humour where it should be, and dark when it needed to be. What more could you want?
Well, fans of this Blog and of Marvel UK in general affix your eyes on that cover. Memorise it, and hunt it down this week. Because you will find some pleasing cameos in this final issue, which you simply will not want to miss. Get down to your local comics purveyor. ASAP. ;D
It's been a blast. And once more I'd like to take the chance to thank Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk and Nick Lowe for giving us this title - one which will be remembered very fondly by this Blog, and Marvel UK fans in general, for a good many years to come.
Added in with Cornell's Wisdom series we'll have 4 trade volumes of the way British Marvel stories should be told. So next time somebody tells you that all British Marvel stories are corny, and terribly stereotyped, you can tell them 'Not always. Read these...'.
Spread the word folks. There remains quite a dedicated fan base for this book, and I'm sure those fans won't just disappear. Who knows we may yet see this book again some day.
I liked it, but even I'm not surprised it didn't last. I loved the WISDOM mini. They killed the best character from that series within the first few issues, and even I found Cornell's vision of how to do a "British" superteam parochial and backward-looking as all get out. After the death of John The Skrull, for Cornell, British = English, and a decidedly pre-The Beatles version of England at that. Pimms, Cricket, stiff upper lip, blitz spirit and all that. What the hell does that have to do with the UK most of us are living in now? To a reader in Glasgow, Cardiff or Belfast? Then bearing that in mind, how many units do you then think it could ever shift in the solipsistic U.S. of A.?
ReplyDeleteCornell is great at so much: plot, character, mood, so he'll get on well at Marvel. But this seems like a litany of missed opportunities to me. Give the reins of Captain Britain to a writer who knows the complexities of the British identity, and a desire to explore that, like Pete Milligan, with his working class London Irish background, or the Glaswegian Mark Millar. Or Garth Ennis, a man who was born at the literal bleeding edge of the British identity crisis. Now that'd be funny.
I'm not sure that I can entirely agree with that, Mark.
ReplyDeleteI think that a big part of the problem remains that there really aren't that many Non-English British Marvel superheroes. Characters in general, yes. But not super-powered characters.
We got Scotsman Alistaire Stuart on the team, but actual Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish superheroes? There aren't many.
Wolfsbane (Rhane Sinclair) is Scottish, but she was already claimed by the X-Books. As was Pixie, the Welsh member of Kyle and Yost's New X-Men.
Yes, there have been many variations of alternate Captain Britains from other worlds (Caledonia, Captain Cymru and others) but Chris Claremont pretty much killed them all before the series began. All that exists of the once infinite Captain Britain Corps now is a handful of Captains led by Saturnyne and Albion. But even had not perished, they're not a recognisable cast.
More diversity in the cast was something which Paul Cornell certainly seemed to be considering through responses to reader questions on his own Blog. It would be interesting to see who might have joined the team, and what other parts of the UK would have been visited, given time.
Sadly, it was not to be.
Maybe another time. At least we got out of London, this time.
I just loved the cameos. Dark Angel (back from space!) and Death's Head (just back!). Lovely. i'll miss the title as it was jolly fun, and sometimes, thats all you need.
ReplyDelete