crookedtreehouse's review against another edition
3.0
I'm giving this three stars and a shrug. I just don't care about the Magic British corner of the Marvel Universe. All it takes is the word "Avalon", and I'm immediately imagining a more interesting comic that I'd rather be reading. Poorly constructed toaster manuals are more interesting to me than Captain Britain and Excalibur.
This book promotes Captain Britain with the same unrealistic nationalistic fervor that the worst Captain America writers (I'm looking at you early 2000s Mark Millar) attribute to that character. I realize that it appeals to mouth breathing barely literate bigots who don't like things like plots or nuance to get in the way of their unearned patriotism.
Hmmm, that was harsher than this book deserved. But there's a scene where a character who just died, like one or two issues previously, is reborn when a bunch of fucken flags furl together into the shape of his body. Patriotism is stupid. Why are people so proud of where they fell out of a vagina? Did they land on their heads?
Apart from that moment, this book was fine. I didn't care about any of the characters, but that's not Cornell's fault at all. I'm never going to care about Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, reluctant vampire, guy with a sword that isn't Excalibur so he isn't Captain Britain but kind of is, or whoever the other magic woman was. I did like the medic who got powers, and I enjoyed Skrull John Lennon.
The existence of Skrull John Lennon makes the whole "Only Good Skrull" from the Avengers Initiative Secret Invasion book kind of obsolete. Also, we know that Hulkling is mostly Skrull, and there's a Young Avengers Secret Invasion book on my list, so there's at least three Skrull heroes. There should probably be more.
If you like Excalibur and/or Captain Britain, you'll probably like this book. Cornell is a very good writer. i just hope you'll roll your eyes at the flag scene. It's really stupid. If you're not already a fan of the British sector of the Marvel Universe, I don't think this is the book that's going to win you over, so you can skip this one.
This book promotes Captain Britain with the same unrealistic nationalistic fervor that the worst Captain America writers (I'm looking at you early 2000s Mark Millar) attribute to that character. I realize that it appeals to mouth breathing barely literate bigots who don't like things like plots or nuance to get in the way of their unearned patriotism.
Hmmm, that was harsher than this book deserved. But there's a scene where a character who just died, like one or two issues previously, is reborn when a bunch of fucken flags furl together into the shape of his body. Patriotism is stupid. Why are people so proud of where they fell out of a vagina? Did they land on their heads?
Apart from that moment, this book was fine. I didn't care about any of the characters, but that's not Cornell's fault at all. I'm never going to care about Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, reluctant vampire, guy with a sword that isn't Excalibur so he isn't Captain Britain but kind of is, or whoever the other magic woman was. I did like the medic who got powers, and I enjoyed Skrull John Lennon.
The existence of Skrull John Lennon makes the whole "Only Good Skrull" from the Avengers Initiative Secret Invasion book kind of obsolete. Also, we know that Hulkling is mostly Skrull, and there's a Young Avengers Secret Invasion book on my list, so there's at least three Skrull heroes. There should probably be more.
If you like Excalibur and/or Captain Britain, you'll probably like this book. Cornell is a very good writer. i just hope you'll roll your eyes at the flag scene. It's really stupid. If you're not already a fan of the British sector of the Marvel Universe, I don't think this is the book that's going to win you over, so you can skip this one.
dkmode's review against another edition
3.0
Not amazing or anything, but much more enjoyable than expected, largely thanks to rookie of the year Faiza Hussain.
More...