How many curses do you WANT?
No, 8 reviews haven't suddenly vanished, I simply haven't reviewed Captain Britain and MI:13 #2-9. They're good, go read them. That's the review of them. I'm doing #10 because the Vampire State storyline had always struck me as a really good idea for an epic storyline and it begins here. Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk are still the creative team. Yeah, believe it or not, some creative teams last longer than 3 issues. In fact, other than the addition of Blade and the death of John Lennon, there's not much I need to fill you in on if you've not read MI:13 but read my reviews.
The Vampire State storyline is a pretty simple idea: Dracula (yes, Count Dracula the hallmark vampire) leads an army of vampires to take control of England. I'm sure you could yell "well, why does that sound any better than Secret Invasion or Siege", but the difference is Dracula is an interesting and legitimate threat who doesn't need setting up as such with plot powers or backstory and he isn't overused to the point where he is defeated every other week by the Young New X-Avenging Defenders. But, with Dracula, you also bring across a whole bunch of interesting lore which is quite commonplace and doesn't need expositing much. A hero fighting Dracula is nothing like a hero fighting an alien because Dracula practically comes from a world more alien to superheroes than a Skrull. While of course Marvel's super-heroes and horror titles have crossed paths plenty of times before, this story in itself feels like it has the makings of a great epic story, albeit pushed aside to a book that was unfortunately cancelled after it's completion. All the better for it since the story focuses on the MI:13 heroes rather than Iron Man with anti-vampire armor (built from pieces of the cross and fires holy water no doubt) and Wolverine as Lord of the Vampires again. Instead we have Black Knight, Blade, Captain Britain, Excalibur, Pete Wisdom and Spitfire.
All that said, this is a set-up issue (yes, again). Cornell has had a tendency to start his story arcs with an issue that is entirely set-up. As I said in my review for Captain Britain #1, it's all well-written and engaging set-up but there's no disguising it for what it is. Basically laying stuff out for how things will go and in this book's case, it does feel a lot like some of the scenes in these set-up issues are scenes that are more like the stuff that would be told "off-panel" in a lot of other books. I mean, it's great seeing characterisation and actually having these moments, it's not a criticism at all, but it Cornell seems to have a system where he has these set-up/interlude issues where he gets all his major character work and plot down. Again, not a criticism. At least someone is actually doing character work and plot.
Speaking of the plot, here's what we have; we begin with Dracula meeting with Doctor Doom on the Moon (I'm at a loss, why are Dracula and the vampires living on the moon exactly?). Dracula and Doom exchange some of that classic villain-on-villain patter which can go from mutual respect to bitter antagonism in the space of a few words. Cornell actually sets up a whole idea of Doom vs. Dracula which, unfortunately, doesn't get played out in the story (I don't think so). I think it's an example of why this story has so much potential. Cornell can't deny the scope of this sort of thing, hence why Doom appears here and in a few issues the Avengers attempt to intervene (they don't get very far in doing so because this is an MI:13 story). This story really could and should've followed through with these elements but at the same time I really don't want it to. It works perfectly showing the scope by incorporating these things but leaving it to Captain Britain and co. to lead the charge. I prefer a story focusing on Black Knight or Spitfire rather than having Doom be a main part of it or the Avengers (Hank Pym's Avengers by the way) showing up and saving the day. I really am quite schizophrenic about the story. On one hand I think it needs to be bigger and epic and on the other hand I'm really thankful it's not.
The issue is a good start-up for Vampire State and gives us a good view of where all the character's are now with regards to the story and Dracula is a good choice to cast as a "super-villain". There's not a lot of action here, as I said, it is a set-up and exposition issue, but Cornell writes well. This isn't like the sort of nonsense Bendis had for Secret Invasion where he had people sit down and explain all the "brilliant" plot-lines, this is set-up that's written well enough that you don't realize until the issue is over that the issue was mostly set-up.