Captain Britain And MI13: Vampire State
Captain Britain And MI13: Vampire State – Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk, Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona (Marvel / Panini Graphic Novel)
I remember interviewing Paul Cornell and him telling me that that ‘Vampire State’ would be the third and final (for the time being at least) arc for Captain Britain and MI13, and because if this, I kind of put off reading it for a while. Why? Well, if I had to hazard a guess and try to climb inside my psyche (that which my wife refers to as ‘Crazy Town’) and find an answer, it would probably have something to do with being, uh, “reluctant” to accept the fact that the book had been cancelled, and if I didn’t read it, there were still at least five issues and one annual out there and as such Captain Britain hadn’t really been axed. It was all a lie and telling lies is naughty and we all know what happens to naughty people don’t we? They get to live in the spider-cupboard for the rest of the day…Anyway, that’s not the point, I put off reading it because I knew it was the last time I’d get to read Cornell writing the incredibly vivid MI13 ensemble, and see them brought to spectacular, breath taking life by Leonard Kirk. Okay, so I’m a big kid and I apparently have a few “issues”, but I’m also a Captain Britain mark, and whilst I could delay reading ‘Vampire State’, I couldn’t put it off forever. After all, I had to know how it all ended didn’t I? I had to know what happened. So, on a cold Saturday afternoon, I started reading ‘Vampire State’. I then read it again on a cold Saturday evening, a slightly warmer Sunday morning and a chilly Sunday night. ‘Vampire State’ is, for want of a better word, brilliant. Pitting Dracula and his Vampiric Nation without a Country against MI13 as the Lord Of The Vampires tries to take the Home Of Magic, Great Britain, by force. What follows is a drag-out, bare-knuckle magical war that quickly turns dirty, in which nothing is ever as it seems as, allies turn on allies, secrets within secrets are revealed and nothing will ever be the same in a world slowly being encircled by the Dark Reign’s ice cold, skeletal grip. I mean, I wish it could have lasted forever, but realistically I understand that all good things must come to an end, and wow, what an ending. This is the sublime art of comic writing at it’s finest, leading you down one path, only to turn on it’s heels and surprise you by running down another and provides a definitive sense of closure for all the characters (bringing Meggan back was a particularly nice touch), and if it really is the end, well, we couldn’t have asked for better. If you haven’t already, then you really need to make sure that you read Captain Britain and MI13. It may not have been one of Marvel’s high profile books, but it was one of their best, and like Iron Fist before it, I’m really, really going to miss it….Tim Mass Movement
