Captain Britain And The Mighty Defenders #2 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE MIGHTY DEFENDERS No. 2, October 2015

Doubtless disappointingly for Al Ewing, this concluding issue of “Captain Britain And The Mighty Defenders” is arguably a far cry from the “really fun, warm, beautiful book that hopefully Avengers’ fans - - as well as fans of everyone else involved - - will love.” In fact it is hard to see even the most dedicated of the British writer’s supporters taking much positivity from a nauseating narrative that twists former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill into a mismatched gestalt of Thor, the Punisher and Mega-City One’s Chief Judge, and re-imagines “War Machine” as a giant tank which both looks and sounds remarkably similar to the “2000 A.D.” A.B.C. Robot Mek-Quak; “Yeah! ‘Cuz I’ll squoosh ya! An’ I will, too! Look at all my guns!”

Certainly it comes as no surprise that the twenty-page “Secret Wars" periodical sold a deflating seven thousand less copies than its predecessor when first published. Although quite how it still managed to outsell the likes of “Omega Men” (“DC Comics”) and “Fade Out” (“Image Comics”) by shifting 20,453 issues during August 2015 doubtless has more to do with Alan Davis' excellent artwork than its calamitous storyline.

Admittedly the "second ‘Mighty’ Marvel series from Ewing” does "spotlight" the 'popular' wielder of the sword Excalibur, Faiza Hussain; a version of Merlyn’s champion who was introduced by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk in “Captain Britain And MI:13”, and eventually donned the hero’s mantle during the "Pax Britannia" novelist's tenure on “Avengers Assemble”. But even the book's titular character isn’t actually given that many opportunities with which to demonstrate her extraordinary “control over living organisms” with and is instead limited to inexplicably reconfiguring Boss Dan [Luke] Cage’s “sentient torture chair” and an astonishingly short single-panel showdown with the “Baron and Thor of Mondo City”, Big Boss Hill.

What “…And Mine Is A Faith In My Fellow Man” does offer however is plenty of opportunity for Davis to demonstrate just why the English artist has remained a mainstay of American comic books since he was first hired by “DC Comics” to pencil their “Batman And The Outsiders” title in 1985. For whilst the Goodreads Choice Award-nominee’s source material is atrocious, and his design of Mondo City’s law enforcers questionably unoriginal, the illustrator’s rendering of the Defenders action-packed escape from Yinsen’s temporary detention zone is both splendidly detailed and dynamically drawn.

Writer: Al Ewing, Penciler: Alan Moore, and Inker: Mark Farmer

Captain Britain And The Mighty Defenders #1 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE MIGHTY DEFENDERS No. 1, September 2015

Based upon the premise that “years ago” it was actually Doctor Ho Yinsen who donned Iron Man’s first suit of armour rather than the playboy industrialist Tony Stark, this theatrically titled “Secret Wars” tie-in comic unconvincingly bands together some of the lesser known heroes of the “Marvel Universe” into “a very small [super] team” and then, simply upon the whim of the “omnipotent ruler of Battleworld”, forcibly pits them against the formidable military power of their principality’s neighbour, “the fascist futuropolis of Mondo City”. Somewhat perturbingly however, any of this book’s 27,618 readers in July 2015 who thought so ludicrously contrived a narrative couldn’t become any more bizarre were in for a serious shock when towards the comic’s end Al Ewing introduces the blatant Judge Dredd and Cassandra Anderson wannabes Boss [Luke] Cage and Boss [Emma] Frost; “Wake up, Creep. We’ve got you down for resisting arrest, illegal border crossing, and extremist ideology.”

In fact the “shop thy neighbour” lawmen are so similar in look and dialogue to John Wagner’s “2000 A.D.” co-creation that any potential buyer simply flicking through the back pages of this publication must doubtless have quickly double-checked the cover to make sure they hadn’t inadvertently picked up an issue about the Mega-City One street judge. Certainly it is clear, what with their over-sized shoulder-pads, bullet-shaped helmets and reference to perps, just why “Marvel Worldwide” Editor Tom Brevoort chose a British comics writer with a proven track record of writing "Future Shocks" to pen so blatantly unoriginal a script.

Admittedly this cheesy concoction does still somehow manage to provide some modicum of entertainment, especially when it quite cleverly connects to former major story-arcs such as the Spider-Verse by having Hobie Brown replace his world’s dead spider-man as Spider Hero, or a dying Brian Braddock handing the mantle of Captain Britain over to Doctor Faiza Hussain during the Age of Ultron. But sadly Ewing’s reimagining of She-Hulk as “the Thor for this domain”, a green giantess who walks around with the decidedly tiny “Gavel of Thor” strapped to her hip, is infinitely less successful an idea... 

Fortunately all of this magazine’s disconcerting nonsense is wonderfully illustrated by “Excalibur” artist Alan Davis. Indeed for many, “Theirs Is A Land With A Wall Around It…” may well be worth the price simply for its dramatically dynamic cover depicting the “London-based Muslim medical doctor” stoically leading the Defenders against an unknown foe. Whilst for others the Englishman’s pacey panelling provides Mondo City’s invasion of Yinsen’s barony, and otherwise dialogue-heavy storyline, with some much needed spectacle and tension.

The variant cover art of "CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE MIGHTY DEFENDERS" No. 1 by Frazer Irving