So lately, the iFanboy community has been painting Captain Britain & the MI-13 to be this Jesus Christ-like martyr. When news of its cancellation broke, there has not only been an abundance of tears shed, but people are complaining like Marvel canceled the greatest book ever. Now I just got into this book and enjoyed it alot, but I don't get this crusader-like attitude people are taking when talking about this title. Did the same thing happen when The Order was canceled?

So this Annual takes place between the "Hell Comes to Birmingham" and "Vampire State" arcs, and contains two stories that focus on Captain Britain and his oddly powered wife, Meggan. The first story follows Meggan and her adventures in Hell, which takes place right after she caught a glimpse of her husband at the end of "Hell Comes to Birmingham". Now, one of the aspects of Paul Cornell's writing I've enjoyed thoughout this series is his reluctance to not dumb down or take too long explaining certain plot points. However, in Meggan's story, I feel that at least some explanation is needed. Meggan's current predicament is probably more confusing than Cable's backstory, and her powers are one of the more complicated amongst Marvel's merry mutants (I highly doubt anyone can describe it in a single sentance.). After reading this, I have no idea what Meggan is doing in Hell, and was left scratching my head about what exactly she could do. It seemed Cornell moved too fast with this story, and while it may have worked on his other arc, this story really suffers due to that fact.

Luckily, the second story fared a bit better. In this story, Cornell channels his inner-Claremont and writes a story where the team relaxes and plays baseball. Of course, the baseball game is replaced by a jolly-old cricket match, but at its core, it's the same type of story. Here, Captain Britain was reminising on his history with Meggan, and I felt like I connected better with her after this. The rest of the team were a delight to read, as always. I especially enjoyed Blade, as when all that cricket lingo was spoken, I was asking all of the same questions he was (me being a stupid American, and all.)

In Meggan's story, the art was handeled by Mike Collins. His art was was decent, it reminded me of Leonard Kirk's art on the series. On the cricket story, the art was handeled by former Runaways artist Adrian Alphona, and he gives the team a sort of manga/cheesecake look. This sort of happy and sweet looking art works well for this story, and really helps convey the gleeful atmosphere that's present.

So this annual was at least successful in telling a quiet story with all the team members interacting, which is a nice little extra since it's questionable if we'll be seeing all of this team together after the series ends. However, I feel that Meggan's story really drags the issue down. I don't feel this story did a good job helping us connect with her, and seeing as she'll be important to the current "Vampire State" story, I really wish that Cornell did a better job fleshing her out.