Captain Britain and MI-13

[yenaled]

Meh it's aged. Loved it when I was a kid though.

 

[squeekness]

Was I the only one who thought the annual was boring? I don't know Meggan all that well, so it was kinda meh for me.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't know Meggan well either, but I was glad to learn about her. It was a pretty good story too. I liked the annual overall.

 

[The Englishman]

I don't know Meggan well either, but I was glad to learn about her. It was a pretty good story too. I liked the annual overall.

Have not got it yet, what happens in it??

 

[chamber-music]

Have not got it yet, what happens in it??

Meggan showed up except shes now made of cheese

 

[squeekness]

They show her in Hell with a bunch of demons, and it has flashbacks of her meeting Brian and being in Exclibur (I assume). I know nothing of her so it all did a fly by on me. I guess the gist of it was "this is what Meggan was doing while she was in limbo and away from Brain" kind of thing. It takes place before the vampire arc.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It's a major personality shift for Meggan as well. Kind of the point of the story.

 

[Manic]

Yeah, the story kinda made a point of saying that Meggan has a more solidified self image, and she's not going to allow her powers to be affected by the thoughts of those around her. And for those of you who don't know, Meggan is an empathic morpher-- she has the power to shape-shift, but it usually depends on what other people think of her. Her parents hid her away as a kid, so the neighbors started rumors that she might be some kind of monster. Those rumors actually changed her appearance until she finally did look like a monster. Captain Britain took her in despite her appearance, and when he started to fall for her, he imagined her as a beautiful woman. For a while, it was implied that Meggan was only pretty because Cap imagined her that way. Now she's her own woman, and the form she has is her true form. She won't let other judge her and change her appearance.

That's the jist of the Annual, really.


On another note, has anyone else noticed the strange similarities between Meggan and Pixie? They're both British mutants who resemble fairies of some sort, and Pixie's real name is Megan. Someone could make a decent story out of that. A promiscuous fairy who did the nasty with their mothers, perhaps?

 

[squeekness]

I wish that could have been better explained in the Annual. Now her changing form makes a little more sense.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I know next to nothing about Meggan and I thought it was explained just fine. She just goes along with whatever everyone around her says at the beginning, and then she remembers how she did that in life as well until Brian finally challenged her to be more independent and think for herself, and then one of the rulers of Hell tries to trick her, which pisses her off and finally motivates her to be her own woman rather than bending to the whims of others. She builds up an 'army' that spreads peace throughout various sections of Hell and finally decides to return to her life via the portal Doom provides.

 

[Manic]

Assuming that's the real Doom, of course.

 

[Dread]

I thought the annual was actually quite enjoyable, and issue #14 shows how much it mattered. Many annuals are just filler material but the ramifications for it start immediately in the next regular issue, showing it really was meant to be read between issues #13 and #14. That isn't always the case for annuals or "specials". This is the way to do it. I was never an expert on Meggan but I thought the annual summed her up well enough from what I knew from Handbook Bio's and trading cards.

Repost of my review of the latest issue, with spoilers:

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13 #14: A dead book walking; July's issue fifteen calls it a series for Cornell & Kirk's U.K. hero opus. It wasn't the first time the British superhero team book had been relaunched in the last five years, but it has been the best (and the only one without Chris Claremont). At the very least, it is going out with a bang, pitting the team against their greatest threat ever, Dracula.

Spoiler

As some predicted, last issue's seeming on panel deaths were all a bit of a ruse; apparently much as Pete Wisdom was willing to unleash a horde of demons (including Lilith, who is now working with Dracula) to defeat the Skrulls at the start of the series, he is willing to offer Plokta freedom in exchange for entrapping Dracula in one of his "dream rooms". After two days, Dracula catches on and frees himself, but by now MI-13 has gained additional time to engage their counter-attack. Even the immortal vampire lord himself is dismayed and disoriented from the trick. In addition to that, Spitfire has been there as a deep mole, faking being controlled enough to fool Dracula, although to the point where she had to kill an innocent person, a fact she regrets. Slightly less effective is a cameo by Killpower, of the 90's MARVEL U.K. series MOTORMOUTH. He's also seemingly turned into a vampire by Dracula, but as he was created with a mixture of magic and science by Mys-Tech I believe, he also is immune to total enslavement. I barely even knew who Killpower was, and he just seemed a bit superficial.

At the snap of a code-word from Captain Britain, the attack on Dracula's flying pirate ship begins. While Brian is unable to beat Lilith, Black Knight manages to quickly beat Captain Fate in a duel of the cursed swords, a duel I was eager to see and satisfied with. Spitfire rips up Dracula a bit, but Dr. Hussein (Faiza's dad) ends up getting separated from Killpower, and they are unable to save him as planned. He, too, is a vampire. Irritated and convinced that this is Britain's last gasp, Dracula prepares an immediate assault when suddenly, Dr. Doom delivers his trump card; Meggan.

I liked the bit how Dracula was hardly thrilled with Doom's "gift" of a "hostage", knowing full well that Doom only acts to shore up his own interests, and any gift from him "is a sword without a hilt". Yeah, this isn't the slobbering sod being smacked around by Marquis of Death or Manicure of Leather or whatever his name is in FF. It is clear that the annual was perfectly positioned between issues #13 and #14, as an "extra" issue of the series. Having been an empathic metamorph, her time in hell has made her assured of who she is. Is she capable of beating Dracula now? Or is she there to give Brian the extra motive he needs to tear Dracula apart? His powers are based on will, after all.

Kirk and Syaf share art chores, and they have two inkers, which at least hints at some rush to meet deadline. At any rate, the art is as consistant as it usually has been for the series. The tease at the end of issue #13 works well and should work better in a collective read through. It is ironic that issue #15 is apparently titled, "Hope and Glory", since this book really has none. At the very least, 16 issues of material is more than some canceled titles that I always mention. AGENTS OF ATLAS doesn't even have 16 issues worth of stories yet. That said, this has been a smart and clever team book that worked well with it's alternate setting, and it is a shame it didn't catch on. At least it seems set to end on a bang.

Shame to be losing the book but at least they're going down fighting. Dracula has been a great foil and even Dr. Doom is treated as he should be by Cornell.

The trade of the Plokta arc is on sale, about a nickel more expensive than back issues would have been (albeit in a more compact, ad-free form).

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Hmm. Since it seems unlikely that Cornell will have the time to do anything with the Ebony Blade in the one issue he's got left, I wonder what his plans were...

 

[Manic]

Is Dane still wielding both blades?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

He still has both, as far as I know, but he's only wielding one of them. Probably the real one, but it hasn't explicitly stated that.

 

[Dread]

I figure Dane is using the Ebony Blade but keeping the "cursed but fake" blade so that no one else can get cursed by it, since he can handle both best.

 

[yenaled]

It sucks so much that this is getting canned, so much potential.

 

[DarKush]

I loved issue #13, but I thought #14 was too much of a reset. It was a big letdown.

 

[Specter313]

Jonah Weiland: As we close out our first week of CUP O’ JOE questions, let's get to a subject that’s very dear to a lot of fans: the cancelation of Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk’s "Captain Britain and MI13”. How do you account for this development, where its sales were going down over time despite the huge amount of buzz generated by this title?

Joe Quesada: I love "Captain Britain." I really do love it. Unfortunately, there weren't enough people buying the book to keep us printing it. But this has always been the case. The lower circulating books, once they get close to that point of cancellation, the outcry from fans makes you feel like the book is doing "X-Men" numbers.
"Captain Britain & MI13" concludes in July's #15

With "Captain Britain," now that it's gone, people want to write in. They want to save it. I appreciate that. Look, "Spider-Girl" had a tremendous life because of fan writing campaigns. Every once in a while, we tried to cancel it, and fans would rally around the book and try to up sales and it worked for some time. All I can say to these fans is, "More than writing in and more than posting that we suck because we're canceling 'Captain Britain,' get more people to buy the book." Comics are a democracy. We don't have it out for "Captain Britain." We love the book. We love the creative team on it. Buy two or three copies for your friends. Get people buying and reading "Captain Britain." If we see the numbers go up, we'll do another series. We'll come back. Right now, it's fiscally not possible.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21638

 

[Specter313]

​

 

[Dread]

Yeah, I head the CUP O' SPIN (or CUP O' JOE) at CBR that mentioned that, and it is the truth. I mean Marvel launched it with an event tie-in (and it debuted around 45k or so) and did support it with house ads, fans just failed to buy it.

Preview pages look interesting. The finale looks fast paced.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Pff. Dracula's a better swordsman than Dane? PFF!

 

[Dread]

Dracula's probably had more experience. He's a gazillion years old. Besides,

Spoiler

Dane did just own Capt. Fate quickly in issue #14, so Faiza has to be given some reason to step up.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I'm kidding. Dane's a very everyman hero. No need for him to be the best at everything (although I'd just like to remind everyone that he is the default swordsman template that the Taskmaster uses ).

 

[Dread]

Him and Swordsman.