Captain Britain and MI:13 #5 - "Hell Comes to Birmingham, Prologue"
(Writer: Paul Cornell, Penciler: Pat
Oliffe, Inker: Paul Neary, Colorist: Brian
Reber and Raul Trevino)
(jump to last issue of Runaways)
Now that the Skrulls are handled, MI13 prepares for its new mission statement, protecting Britain from the supernatural horrors unleashed to help win the skrull war.
This is a little more what I'd been hoping for from the series. The book started with huge action, as part of the Secret Invasion crossover. Here we have a much quieter issue that both sets up what the normal mission statement of the book is, introduces or helps to flesh out the cast, and introduces a new plot. It's almost like a first issue all over again, and although it lacks the kind of wow moments that occured in earlier issues, on the whole the narrative is much stronger, and there's still a good sense of humor. I'm really liking one of the new characters Cornell has created, and look forward to seeing where they go.
I'm going to make this my Pick of the Week. Worth looking into even if you skipped the first four issues.
Review: 3.25 stars
The X-Men track down the source of the Hellfire Cult and beat some
heads, while Pixie deals with the aftermath of her attack.
With this issue the series continues the sort of wild mix of good
and questionable. With one exception (which I'll get to below),
most of the X-Men are portrayed fairly well, with nice character
moments that bring a smile to my face. And yet, the whole concept
itself still feels off. The X-Men seem to be above the law, which
is nothing new, but now it seems to be with the law's consent.
The police gladly let them go in to bust the Hellfire Cult, instead
of doing it themselves, or calling in the lawful superheroes of
the Initiative. Dazzler blithely suggests that Pixie unleash her
hallucinogens during a concert. I'm all for San Francisco
welcoming mutants, but it seems that the writers don't want to
play within the rules established in the universe. Or were the
X-Men granted legal superheroing rights without any oversight
recently and I just didn't notice? It's possible, the Marvel
Universe doesn't seem to even try to be consistent anymore.
As to the character I mentioned earlier, that is Pixie.
Considering she was one of the draws that made me decide to pick
up the title again, it's really disappointing to realize that
Pixie is nothing like the character portrayed in New X-Men.
Since reading, I can't really think of a single moment where I
thought "ah, that's Pixie" as opposed to some generic teenager
with her look and powers. As such, the affection I had for the
character is waning, as is one of the reasons I'm reading the
book.
I'm willing to stick with it for a while longer, but I don't know
how much longer. They'd better start showing me something good
soon.
Review: 3 stars
Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, there's just one book, that's Runaways (vol 3) #2.
See you next time...
Peter Dimitriadis
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Jump to last review (NYX: No Way Home #2 (of 6), Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #3 (of 3))
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Uncanny X-Men #502 - "SFX3: Beginning to See The Light" (Writers:
Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker, Penciler: Greg
Land, Inker: Jay Leisten, Colorist: Justin
Ponsor)
(jump to last issue of Runaways)
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