Before any of you ask me, let's get one thing clear.  Captain Britain & MI13 is not an X-book.  It's a Marvel Universe title.  And given the number of X-books these days, I'm happy to run with that.

But let's take a look at the first issue anyway.  After all, this book has its roots in last year's Wisdom miniseries, also by writer Paul Cornell, which cheerfully ignored Excalibur to have Wisdom running an oddball group of low-rent UK superheroes - an old man who defends the Midlands, a Skrull defector who pretends to be John Lennon, that sort of thing.

Although this new series is billed as primarily a Captain Britain title, with MI13 as co-stars, it's really a continuation of Wisdom.  I'm delighted about that; Wisdom was one of the most enjoyable and inventive X-books of last year, even if nobody bought it.  Which is presumably why Marvel have given it an ongoing series.  It wouldn't be the first time that a low-selling mini has been given another shot, on the strength of positive buzz.

In a fairly transparent attempt to boost sales, the first arc is a Secret Invasion tie-in.  For most books, this wouldn't be ideal.  Fortunately, the MI13 cast actually features a Skrull, so Cornell is able to make good use of the Invasion as a backdrop to set up his team.

This is very much a classic first issue.  It's all about introducing the characters and establishing who they are.  Cornell is clearly determined to reinvent some of them - he wants his Captain Britain to be a symbol of the country, and he wants his Black Knight to be a more flippant adventurer - but he also goes to the trouble of justifying those changes. 

The result is a comic that ought to work both as a straight team book and an exercise in oddball eccentricity.  Artist Leonard Kirk is well cast, as his style can accommodate both elements of the book.  But Cornell really is a find for Marvel.  Although he's been writing genre novels for ages now, his style is perfectly suited to the Marvel Universe - he keeps the tone light and doesn't seem to take things too seriously, but manages to hold on to some dramatic weight at the same time.

I'm very much looking forward to reading more of this series.

Rating: A

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