Captain Britain And MI:13 #3 – Review

By Paul Cornell (Writer), Leonard Kirk (Penciller), and Jesse Delperdano & Scott Hanna (Inkers)

I had high hopes for this series based on the first issue. I liked the premise (Skrulls invade Britain because that’s where the highest concentration of magic is on Earth), and I liked the characters. Unfortunately, in the issues since, the characters haven’t evolved, only fought. But the plot remains compelling enough for me to continue picking up the book.

Last issue we discovered that MI:13 agent Peter Wisdom was actually Peter Pan (The copyright expired last year. Sorry, Great Ormond Street Hospital, no more royalty checks for you…), and we were introduced to the “new” Tinkerbell, who is 50% Goth, 50% Society for Creative Anachronism, and 100% icky. We also met the new super-magic Skrull, an amalgamation of Dr. Strange, Dormammu, Surtur, Zom, Kulan Gath, Urthona, and—for some damn reason—Mysterio (Check out the ornament on his left wrist).

In this issue, the voices Peter’s been hearing turn out to be from Merlin, whom he frees from some alternate universe, along with Umar and a bunch of other nasties I don’t recognize. Merlin, of course, will be the key to turning the whole thing around. Oh, and the Skrulls are marching on Parliament. That’s about all that happens this issue. Nothing more about why Spitfire is now a vampire, nothing new about that Arab woman who can take people apart… and the Black Knight and the John Lennon Skrull are still doing the same things they were doing two months ago.

It’s almost enough to make me give up the book. Except for the last panel and that bit of classic British understatement: “We just don’t like to make a fuss.”

Heh. (Grade: B-)

– Andrew C. Murphy