So I’ve been really enjoying Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk’s new series Captain Britain and MI-13. I’m unreasonably fond of Captain Britain as a character, mainly because the idea of a British superhero seemed so utterly mind blowing back when I was a wee nipper. Superheroes belonged in America, which occupied the same fantastic geography as Narnia and Never-Never Land at that age. (It helped of course that no matter how convoluted and ill-considered the character’s origins were originally, the Captain Britain I was most familiar with was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Alan Davis, in a series that holds up remarkably well even today. Moore and Davis make everything better).
So it’s good to see him headlining his own title again, and to see it written by someone who clearly has both an affection for the character and good ideas about what to do with him*. I’m not quite so into the idea that Captain Britain should “represent like Steve Rogers did” - I always thought Britons would have at best a much more ambivalent and questioning attitude towards someone claiming to be their national icon, and Brian Braddock was intelligent enough to realise that - but the tension between the ideal and the reality of modern Britain formed at least a part of Cornell’s recent Wisdom series, and I expect it won’t go unacknowledged in at least some form here. I read Cornell’s science fiction novel British Summertime not so long ago, which features an idealised parallel universe British society which is essentially a post-war, austerity-era Britain extended into the future, embodied by a Dan Dare-esque spaceship pilot with a brave heart and a square chin. It occurs to me that this wouldn’t be a bad take on the Brian Braddock Captain Britain too. One of the complaints about Braddock has always been that he’s a bit of a posho - he does after all, live in a manor house, and is hardly a British everyman. However I think it’s important to note the Braddocks are not landed aristocracy - the father arrived here in the 1950s from an alternate reality for God’s sake (see what I mean about convoluted origins), and made his money developing weapons technology for the British Government. He’s (extra-dimensional origins aside) the classic British boffin - solidly middle class made good during the twilight years of empire. Brian himself is a scientist rather than a soldier as well, and whilst he’s been shown to be a little old-fashioned at times, he’s certainly no establishment man, nor knee-jerk reactionary. It’s easy to see him as someone steeped in the more admirable traditions of 20th Century Britishness, nostalgic less for the days of a mostly pink atlas than for the post-war consensus and the culture of experts (although I am hoping for a bit of good old-fashioned class conflict with the solidly proletariat Union Jack, who is slated to turn up soonishly).
Captain Britain and MI-13 has also launched off the back of the big Marvel crossover event of the Summer, Secret Invasion, in which the shape-shifting alien race the Skrulls attempt to take over the Earth and enslave the populace - the hook being they’ve been infiltrating and replacing the planet’s key superheroes for years, throwing several major storylines over this period into a whole new light. As well as being generally a lot better than the rather underwhelming main title, it’s also perfectly clear that Cornell has the best Super Skrulls (for the uninitiated, the original Super Skrull was capable of reproducing the powers of each member of the Fantastic Four, as opposed to just being able mimic their physical appearance). In the main Secret Invasion title Brian Michael Bendis has introduced X-men Super Skrulls and Avengers Super Skrulls, but Cornell has taken things to the next level, inducing a kind of geek Nirvana by introducing a Legion of Monsters Super Skrull, a Super Skrull which emulates the powers of all the different versions of Deathlok, and in the final pages of #2 a magic based Super Skrull that incorporates bits of Dr Strange, Son of Satan, Zom and stuff so obscure even I don’t recognise it.
So yes, this series certainly gets the majorarcana.org seal of approval. There’s a nice introduction to the series’ cast of characters over at the Marvel UK obsessive It Came From Darkmoor (the mystery character joining in #5 has been confirmed as Blade, BTW).
* Of course, all this may be moot as - SPOILERS - Braddock is blown to bits at the end of #1. I’m assuming he’ll be back somehow (there’s a clue in the comic’s title), although there’s also the possibility he’ll be replaced - something I wouldn’t be so keen on given the lack of eligible candidates thus far introduced. We shall see.
