I am not a big fan (indeed, I positively loathe) most crossover tie-in issues. They tend to have their characters given centre stage fighting the civil war/Hulk/Skulls, regardless of how badly they fit into the overall picture…and most of them fit in very badly indeed. I don’t think I need to remind everyone of just how bad – and unnecessary – World War Hulk: X-Men actually was. Because of that, I kept my distance at first from Captain Britain and MI13.

Now, I had read some of the prior comics in that part of the Marvel Universe. Some of them, such as Pryde and Wisdom, or the Jasper’s Warp storyline, were extremely good. Other concepts were completely unnecessary, such as the many and manifold X-Men crossovers and the Captain Britain Corps, which I regarded as a steal from Green Lantern. (And a badly done one at that.) Don’t get me wrong; it was fun. It just didn’t hold my attention like The Establishment.

And then I realised that the writer for the new series was Paul Cornell. Cornell, for those of you who don’t know, is probably the best Doctor Who scriptwriter and novelist out there. He was responsible for the ground-breaking Human Nature novel, and its later adaptation into a two-part episode in season three, and was a safe pair of hands. I admit that I had made the mistake about believing that someone was a safe pair of hands before, but I decided to gamble and pick up Captain Britain and MI13, at least the first storyline…

And what a storyline it was. Secret Invasion, in my rather less than humble opinion, completely wasted all the build-up that had been seeded through the Marvel Universe. There is little sense of a real threat, little thought about the implications and nothing genuinely earthshaking. I could and did summarise the entire series in a pair of sentences. Captain Britain and MI13, on the other hand, presents the Skulls as a genuine threat, while at the same time introducing a whole series of new concepts to British Marvel. Old timers like Pete Wisdom and Captain Britain were teamed up with semi-newcomers like the Black Knight, Spitfire, Blade (who is British, despite the act) and real newcomers like Fazia Hussain, a Muslim doctor from Essex. Having beaten the Secret Invasion in style, the team raged on to fight a more focused threat, the wish-granting Lord of Hell Plokta.

And THAT leads neatly to the opening issue of Vampire State.

Cornell seems to have established a tradition, in two issues at least, of a downtime issue between major storylines. The previous issue focused mainly on Blade’s arrival in the UK (with vague and misleading statements about the Secret Invasion) and Fazia’s family, who are understandably a little weirded out about their daughter’s powers. Issue 10 is a little less focused, opening with a meeting on the moon between Doctor Doom (of DOOM) and Dracula. The last time I saw Dracula in a comic was Planetary #13, where he was frozen and killed by Elijah Snow, but I have to admit that it works here. The interplay between him and Doom is both comical and deadly serious. The story then shifts to Wakanda, where the Black Knight and Fazia are attempting to recover the Ebony Blade from the Black Panther. For reasons somehow connected with his own series, the Black Panther is nowhere in evidence during the issue.

(But as I don’t like the Black Panther, I much prefer Storm, so no losses there.)

Finally, the story looks in on Spitfire’s developing relationship with Blade – a ruder man than myself might point out that when they met he drove a spike through her chest – and Pete Wisdom and Brian. Pete is chatting up a girl with surprising success, while Brian is talking about his lost wife to another girl I don’t recognise. All of this comes to a sudden halt when Dracula’s offensive begins…

The storyline is more focused around character-building and relationships than action. The relationship between Fazia and the Black Knight continues to grow…and it is obvious that they’re falling for each other. It might not be as easy as it seems – after all, poor Dane literally has a heart of stone. It was nice to see Fazia’s obsession with superheroes reassert itself, even if she doesn’t have a chance to chat to Storm as much as she would prefer. The contrast between Spitfire and Blade’s growing relationship and Pete’s chat-up lines is vastly amusing; Blade somehow manages to make corny lines sound real and unforced, while Pete takes refuge in dumb lines and probably a great deal of alcohol.

Cornell also touches on the religious issue. Fazia’s religion (she’s a Muslim, wears a headscarf) hasn’t been touched upon much in the storyline, something that I for one find a bit refreshing. (Dust of Young X-Men could be a little irritating at times.) Dracula, however, has a long history with Islam – remember how Vlad the Impaler dealt with Muslims, the old Boyars and anyone else who he thought opposed him – and specifically targets Fazia’s family, just to make a point. Between the various cliffhangers in this issue, I’m wondering how the team is going to get out alive.

(On the other hand, John the Skull has already perished and Captain Midlands is under arrest, so there might be more deaths a-coming…)

The artwork is, on the whole, fairly good, covering a whole range of different environments, from the Moon to the interior of a British pub. The characters are still drawn very well and comprehensibly, although I would have liked to have seen more of Fazia’s new costume.

Overall, a superb issue.

Five out of Five