CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI13 10 PAGE 3 by Leonard Kirk & Jay Leisten

A very nice page from Captain Britain & the MI13 by the great Leonard Kirk and his usual inker, Mr Leisten.

I tremendously enjoyed that serie that came a bit out of nowhere and most likely under the radar of most (X-Men) fans. This is to me the best book ever written by Paul Cornell.

Here we have Dracula (a fav’ since his Tomb of days) and Dr Doom (the ultimate villain) discussing the possibility of a non-aggression pact and who would claim Britain.

The art is splashier here than the previous page thanks to the half horizontal splash of Dracula. But that’s not what got me to buy this page (on top of owning the previous one).

The meeting on the moon is a great touch. Having Drac’ covered in shadows works particularly well (he doesn’t like the sun much now, does he?). But the part that I absolutely LOVE is Dracula sweeping with his foot what is likely the first landing foot on the moon by mankind in ’69. This is found to be exceptional storytelling, full of symbolic charge. The leader of another hidden race, the vampire lord of the undead, not recognizing one of mankind’s biggest achievements AND sending a strong message to Dr Doom at the same time as he was contemplating the landing site on the previous page. I don’t know if this was called in the script itself (most likely) or if this is pure Kirk but it stayed with me long afterwards.

The half splash is the end of the (barely) passive aggressive talk between the two rulers as Dracula becomes openly threatening in strongly implying that Doom (mankind?) would never win an open war with the legions of the undead. Two gigantic egos clawing at each other and this is where one of them looses his patience.

I found the dialogues to be top notch and perfectly in character also giving the sense of broader geopolitics within the Marvel universe at the time (something that could also then be found in Black Panther).

If you haven’t read this serie, I would recommend the full run for a great match of writing and art that makes me think of that British invasion of writers during the late 80s.