Volume 59: Captain Britain and MI13: Vampire State

Captain Britain and MI13: Vampire State

Author: Paul Cornell  |  Illustrator: Leonard Kirk

"Is that where she is now? With someone? Being a different person for them?"

I'd like to say that Vampire State is a great book, because I enjoy championing the underdog, which Captain Britain probably qualifies as in comparison to the majority of the other heroes featured in TUGNC Collection, but the confusing prologue is followed up by more of the same head-scratching and by the end I was sick of wondering who the hell anyone was and why they were there.

I attempted to factor in that perhaps I was simply lacking essential knowledge from previous Captain Britain and MI13 issues. But while that's no doubt true to an extent, I don't believe it's solely to blame, because the people I did recognise (from being a Marvel UK reader back in the day) were thrown into the narrative with no proper explanation and in some cases without even a legitimate reason why they'd be there in the first place. It was a mess in more ways than one. Characters randomly appear and disappear once their usefulness is used up (or is wasted), and then some other mad shit happens, before the finale magically pulls new levels of bullshit out of nothing but air. Why? What? Did no one question it at the production stage?

The 'story' has actual Dracula. The legendary vampire desires a nation of his own, so he builds a castle on the moon (because hah, fuck you, logic) from which to organise his forces. In response, Captain Britain, MI13, and a number of other mostly UK-specific heroes attempt to stop the ancient, bitey villain from executing his evil plan.

The most interesting thing about the book is that the Captain's powers are based on his confidence level, so self-doubt is potentially both emotionally and physically destructive to him. It's an idea that could've been put to many poignant uses, in isolation or sequentially, but it never is - or rather, never any worthy of the idea itself.

I felt some relief when I actually recognised things, such as the House of Lords, of all places (or was it the Commons?), but now I can't remember why it was featured. A brain-fart, perhaps, but just as likely a coping mechanism: my brain expunging the mess.

The book collects together Captain Britain and MI13 #10-15; and Annual #1.

Verdict:

Volume 54: Captain America: The Chosen

Captain America: The Chosen

Author: David Morrell |  Illustrator: Mitch Breitweiser

"I'm no hero. All I want is to get out of here. To go home. To hold my family. To sleep without nightmares."

We're told in the introduction to The Chosen that David Morrell, the author of the work, is the same David Morrell that wrote First Blood (1972), which most of us will probably know better as the first Rambo film starring Sly Stallone. I mention that because First Blood was Morrell's début novel, and The Chosen is his début comic book. If you do the maths, there's 35 years between the two, and it's clear while reading the Captain America story that it sprung from the mind of someone who had little experience with the comic medium.

Please don't take that as a purely negative comment, having a comic that doesn't read like a comic is a refreshing change from the norm. The novelist's mindset that Morrell had meant he was more used to building characters from the ground up, whereas with Capt. he had to work within an existing, established framework. Perhaps that's why he chose to focus on what Steve Rogers in costume represents; i.e. the hero as inspirational, totemic symbol for the common man.

The man in question is a US soldier stationed in Afghanistan, a Corporal by the name of James Newman. Morell gets deep inside Newman's head, exploring his emotional state and the affect conflict has on him. I got the feeling that the author was more comfortable with the blank slate soldier than he was the super-soldier.

Besides the 'USA = Freedom' stuff that many new writers of Capt. America default to, the human parts of the story are well-told. But there's a bizarre element upon which everything else is built that I was less involved with. It wouldn't be out of place in an X-Men story, but in Steve's own world it was all a bit too left field to be believable.

As such, while I enjoyed the book, especially that it wasn't all set in boring New York, a part of it was also off-putting to me. But the partial ambivalence made me curious about how Morell might structure something with characters that are 100% of his own making, something that's completely non-superhero. Maybe someday I'll take the plunge into one of his novels.

The book collects together Captain America: The Chosen #1-6.

Verdict:

Volume 50: Civil War

Civil War

Author: Mark Millar  |  Illustrator: Steve McNiven

"What are they trying to do? Turn us into civil servants?"

When a small team of rookie 'heroes' publicly screw up in a very major way, on camera, no less, the people they're supposed to be protecting start to feel nervous, and a large percentage of public opinion regarding all costumed heroes begins to shift.

The argument that police officers undergo years of training and psychological testing before they're allowed to hit the streets, whereas all a superhero has to do to qualify as a defender of public interests is to put on tights and they're good to go, understandably begins to upset a lot of people.

In some ways a mandatory registration of heroes makes a kind of sense, making them accountable for their actions may make them more sympathetic champions, but any kind of mass unmasking will thrust the families of each person into the limelight, making innocents a prime target for evildoers. Hard choices have to be made. Is the comfort of many worth the danger it poses to a select few?

The events in Civil War are some of the most logical reasons Marvel has ever had for a large number of costumed heroes being gathered together in the same place at the same time. And as with any such gathering, there'll be a difference of opinion about the underlying cause. The proposed reforms split the costumed community down the middle. On one side are people who want to go on the government payroll, who want the security and respect that legitimacy brings. On the other are people who value their personal life and feel that it's a grave error to mix their two states of being. They believe that their autonomy and freedom of choice is under threat.

It inevitably ends up in a giant punch-up, but heroes do actually die this time, and Millar manages to at least make the clash serve a dual purpose, one that leads to a devastating result for the community at large and worse for one individual in particular (Volume 51).

I was on board will it all until a single event made it feel forced. The event in question is something that I believe simply wouldn't happen. Maybe the person at the centre of it got swept up in the moment, but considering their painful past it's unlikely such a decision would be made without due consideration. Shortly thereafter people began switching sides and it started feeling silly.

The book collects together Civil War #1–7.

Verdict:

Volume 44: Captain America: Winter Soldier

Captain America: Winter Soldier

Author: Ed Brubaker  |  Illustrator: Steve Epting

"...[H]e's a Cold War myth that's turnin' out to be true."

Winter Soldier is one of the more well-known Captain America story arcs, but the issues included in the book can only tell a part of the story. If you haven't read the build-up, then you'll just have to accept that prior to the events herein some shit went down that ended with a man named Aleksander Lukin, an ex-General of the KGB, coming into possession of a Cosmic Cube (one of the many, it seems like Marvel create a new one as and when they need it).

Some knowledge of Steve's one-time partner, Bucky Barnes, will also be helpful. Bucky was killed in action during WWII, and Steve never fully got over it. The youth was his partner but also someone he felt responsible for, so alongside the loss of a friend is a feeling of failure to himself, his confidant and his country. When it's suggested that the Winter Soldier might have a connection to the event that killed Bucky, Steve's emotions are put through a wringer.

The book bounces around in time, showing events from yesterday or yesteryear, etc, that when assembled like a four-dimensional jigsaw result in a series of cause and effect scenarios that weigh heavily on Steve's conscience. His feelings are a confused mix of hope, fear, denial and anguish - states of being that artist Steve Epting captures wonderfully in his framing, expressions and lighting. In fact, Brubaker's script allows many of the weighty moments to draw their power from being shown more than told; he must have known Epting was very much up to the task.

A personal favourite moment of mine is when Steve goes for a rooftop run. High above the city, distanced from the everyday bustle, he seeks to clear his head by going through the motions, leaping and rolling as only a superhero (or super-soldier) can do. He seems to be aware that his weakness is party to guilt and loss, to friendship lost, and perhaps even a little nostalgia for a time that only he remembers. He knows that running from the problem isn't going to make it go away, but the feeling of familiarity that accompanies such actions is a kind of comfort in itself.

To get back on track, despite the leaps of faith needed by the reader, the nonsense science (and the damn Cube), Winter Soldier is a human story, a turn of events that prove even heroes aren't so different from the rest of us after all.

The book collects together Captain America (Vol 5) #8-9 and #11-14.

Verdict:

Volume 27: Captain America: The New Deal

Captain America: The New Deal

Author: John Ney Rieber  |  Illustrator: John Cassaday

"Blood on your hands, they say. As though it stops there. At the wrist. Like a glove."

The New Deal was John Ney Rieber's first Captain America story and the one that launched yet another reboot of the series. It wasn't a good start. It's a heavily politicised post 9/11 story.

I live in the UK. We're not patriotic. It's a generalisation but largely true. We aren't taught allegiance in schools or weaned into it by fraternities and sororities and expected to declare undying loyalty, etc. Being an outsider means I don't know if the view I have of US culture is even remotely close to the real America; it's a view based on media offerings, and we all know their truth to bullshit ratio.

The book embodies what the media tells me, so I can't know how much of it mirrors real sentiment and how much is exaggerated. Irrespective, it's not a very good story. If you strip away the self-reaffirming monologue, the calls for unity and the blatant mollycoddling then there's almost nothing left.

Most of the text is short, broken clauses; the type best reserved for action scenes. When that kind of writing takes up the bulk of a text it disrupts the narrative flow and stops being fun to read.

There's an attempt to show the 'enemy' perspective, but it's uneven. Respect to Rieber for trying, but when Capt resorts to beating down his demonised opponent with words, claiming that at least America doesn't kill children, I was ready to fling the book out the window. I'd like to say it was a clever device to show him naïvely blinded by patriotism, but I really don't think it was. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

John Cassaday's art is fantastic. His depiction of the Captain sifting through rubble, gray dust filling the frame, with a pained sense of failure on his hero's shoulders is beautifully presented, and the action scenes are dynamic. It's a shame that such great work was accompanied by such a problematic text.

The book collects together Captain America Vol 4 #1-6.

Verdict:

Volume 03: Captain Britain: A Crooked World

Captain Britain: A Crooked World

Author: Alan Moore | Illustrator: Alan Davis

"I hit one of you and ten of you get nose-bleeds! What are you people?"

Author extraordinaire Alan Moore's only work for Marvel was for their Marvel UK imprint. For too short a time he took over author duties of the unimaginatively named Captain Britain.

The bearded-one plays it safe for the first few issues, but being Moore means he can't contain himself for long. Early in his run he chucked the manual out the window, rewrote the character's origin story in a convincing manner, making the manipulative Merlyn and his daughter Roma more instrumental in decision making, and turned the Captain into a fully fledged Moore-esque character. It turned out to be just what was needed to revive the series. At times it feels like an episode of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He even slips in a vision of a dystopian England, much like his V for Vendetta (1988).

It's very British. The Captain gets deeply frustrated when things don't turn out as expected, and characters display the quirks that define the quintessential Englishman. However, rather than reinforce stereotypes it succeeds in turning them into comical strengths. More than once I found myself in hysterics at the behavioural traits of the group.

The villains are equally ridiculous, with names to match: The Omniversal Majestrix Saturnyne; the Special Executive; the Avant Guard; and Jim Jaspers (with a name like that it sounds like he should be teaching high school Chemistry, not destroying entire worlds).

As the scripts got more insane so too did artist Alan Davis' panels grow more adventurous. Some of the expressions he uses are really fantastic. It's refreshing to see someone break from a regular routine and admirably rise to meet a challenge.

A Crooked World is noteworthy for also featuring the first appearance of the Captain's twin sister, Betsy Braddock, who works for S.T.R.I.K.E, the British version of S.H.I.E.L.D. You maybe know the purple-haired Betsy better as Psylocke of the X-Men.

The book collects together stories from Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #387-388, Daredevils #1-11,
and Mighty World of Marvel V2 #7-13.

Verdict: