The Heroic Age Magazine #1 cover presents an interesting line up.  Some are obvious.  We’ve got Black Widow (currently appearing all over the Marvel Universe for several months – she must have gotten Wolverine’s agent – and will no doubt enjoy a big push come the release of Iron Man 2), Spider-Man, Thor and of course, Tony in his new Iron Man armour.

But most interesting in the lineup (and seen in the Avengers posters the other week) is Captain America, who appears to still be Bucky.  With Steve’s return and headlining Seige it seemed obvious that this was Steve back as Cap, with Bucky hopefully finding a new costumed identity of some description.   Instead its looking like Bucky will be staying on for a bit (hopefully not as a misdirect, only to get killed in issue 1 spurring Steve donning the costume again).

I for one am very happy if Bucky is staying on as Cap for a while longer.  He’s been generally well accepted in the role, helped enormously by the strength of Ed Brubaker’s writing in first re-establishing his character and making him interesting, and then slowly bringing him into the role, showing his own unease at taking on Steve’s legacy.  When Cap Reborn was announced, I felt that there was still life yet in Bucky as Captain America, so this is a welcome move.   I wonder if it means that there’s other plans in place for Steve.  I imagine, for example, that they’ll be needing someone to helm the HAMMER replacement once Norman’s booted out.

However, even more excitingly for me, as an Iron Man fan, is the solicitation for Rescue.  A new series starring Pepper Potts, back in her armour once again.  Pepper’s storyline has been incredibly strong under Matt Fraction’s writing during World’s Most Wanted and Stark Dissassembled, and you really felt for her when it was revealled that Tony’s revival would not only rip away her repulsor generator, but also involved ripping apart her Rescue armour.   Seeing Pepper enjoy the chance to finally be a superhero herself, after supporting Tony for so long was a great side-plot by Fraction so, much like Bucky as Cap, I’m really happy to see Marvel giving Rescue some more room to be explored.   Who’d have thought I’d be excited at the thought of a Pepper Potts series?

Finally, in amongst the various Deadpool solicitations (I love the character, but I know I’m not alone in fearing Marvel are pushing this one too far), I notice he’s got a team-up with Captain Britain.  I’m not sure if Captain Britain’s appeared since the Paul Cornell series was axed, but it’ll be interesting to see if any of MI-13 turn up or are referenced.  I hope so, as I’d hate to see Marvel throw away that team.

This latest part of Vampire State finds things going from bad to worse. The spell that protected Britain from the vampires has been shattered, leaving Dracula’s forces free to invade. Jac is succumbing to Dracula’s influence, and a magic barrier has been placed around Britain, sealing it off from international assistance (not that anyone was bothering anyway – although we do get a nice scene of Wisdom complaining about being compared to the Green Goblin).

From here, things just get worse, Cap realises that he can exit the barrier, but not get back through it once he’s on the other side, and they receive a call from Jac, which they immediately recognise as a trap.

Its nice to see our heroes being wise to what’s going on.   Blade’s experience against Vampires is very much at the fore-front as he straight away realises that Jac’s been turned.  Blade’s also resolute regarding what needs to be done, as he promised Jac to kill her in a previous issue if she did turn.

Sadly, despite being prepared for the trap, we again see Dracula’s strategic might.  He’s been planning this meticulously, and despite the defenses Wisdom as put in place, by this point the sheer numbers of Dracula’s forces are staggering.

And then Paul Cornell goes for broke.   Realising she needs to act, and still feeling powerless to save her family, Faiza rushes into battle against Jac.  She manages to take down a few of the vampires, but Jac herself is too fast and powerful and rips Faiza’s throat out.   I must admit, this really shocked me.  Paul Cornell had hinted that there were going to be some deaths, but with Faiza being a new character Cornell himself had created, and was building up with her desire to be a hero, and her relationship with the Black Knight, I’d figured she was pretty safe.

This one move pretty much takes the team apart.  Black Knight loses it, and just as Wisdom orders Cap to get them out of there, they get hit by a blast from Dracula’s forces.  The team is scattered with only Captain Britain and Blade presumed alive.   However Cap was thrown outside the barrier by the explosion and is now unable to return to Britain.

The end result?  Dracula wins, with the final, shocking page featuring Dracula standing in the Commons, surrounded by the bodies of Parliament.   As a Brit, this scene just really hammered home the scale of Dracula’s victory.

So what next?  Well, the big question will be how Cap manages to get around Dracula’s force field.  Maybe with Dracula’s forces in Britain, it’d be worth a quick trip to the moon and a scout around?  We know that Blade escaped, but I’m not sure I can see him operating as part of an organised resistance.  I can see the rest of the survivors managing to put together a resistance, with the aim to get back in touch with Cap.  They’ll need to try and sway Jac back to their side as well, but with her having killed Faiza and under Dracula’s influence, exactly how and if its possible remains to be seen.

There’s a good speech from Pete where he tells Faiza to get back in the game, and gives her a new codename: Excalibur.   They’ve realised that Dracula sent two attack squads against Faiza, versus the one sent against everyone else.  So he’s clearly concerned about Excalibur.  The scenes actually play well off of a comment tweeted by Captain Britain a while back, where he noted that Faiza had yet to experience any of the loss the rest of the team has had as heroes.

The great thing here is the way Paul Cornell is playing up Dracula’s military strategy.  I love the idea that he’s been playing a long game, and is trying to seed dissent by not attacking Blade.  There’s the hint that Dracula was behind the fake ebony blade as well, which I imagine will become a plot point in future issues.  Spitfire has also found herself targetted as her son turns up and attempts to bring her back into the vampire fold.  She of course refuses, but Dracula obviously has the power to exert his will onto other vampires, and so it really looks like Spitfire’s going to find herself unwillingly used against her own teammates.

Great issue.   I’m loving Dracula as a mastermind villain so far and the team’s coming together well now.  I especially like the Black Knight and Faiza scenes.  They work really well off of each other.

Its a good week for people picking up Secret Invasion. Admittedly there was about 8 million tie-ins this week, but I avoided most of them (Captain Britain being a must-buy). However, after the last 3 issues picking up increasing complaints about padding, issue 5 pulled out all the stops.

The green-haired woman who’s the Director of SWORD (apparently) manages to free Reed Richards in a great scene. From there everything starts to change, as Reed manages to build a Skrull revealing ray and promptly zaps everyone in the Savage Land, revealing everyone from the ship was a Skrull (including Mockingbird – needless to say, Clint doesn’t take it well). This could also mean that the popular “Luke Cage is a Skrull” rumour has just been debunked.

There’s a real feeling in this issue that the turning point’s just been reached. Infact, if I was going to have only one complaint about the book, its that after being the cliffhanger of last month’s issue, neither Captain America or Thor actually turn up, which kind’ve reinforces the idea that issues 2-4 could’ve really been told in 2 issues rather than 3.

Bendis does a much better job of balancing the feel that this is a big war than in previous issues. We get snippets of the Young Avengers at Nick Fury’s hideout, Captain Marvel at Thunderbolt mountain is finally addressed, and there’s a cracking resolution to Maria Hill’s predicament (if Marvel are smart, they’ll release those T-shirts). Secret Invasion has finally found its footing again, and this was a cracking read.

Meanwhile, on our side of the pond, things are going even better for the Brits. With Captain Britain restored to life by Merlin, he wastes no time in taking the fight to the magical Super Skrull. Meanwhile the rest of MI13 have been captured, and it sadly doesn’t end well for John the Skrull, who eventually antogonises the Skrulls so much that he’s killed (sorry to see him go. I was loving his character).

Paul Cornell does a great job in wrapping up this arc here. With Brian fighting the Super Skrull, Wisdom’s releasing of the evil magic has an unexpected payoff. With all the complaints regarding the padding in Secret Invasion, its refreshing to see a writer tell a big storyarc in only 4 issues.

By the end of the issue, the scene is firmly set for the rest of the series, as the team comes together with a new purpose. And the bit with Excalibur at the end was yet another unexpected twist from Cornell.

With so many of the big name comics being US-focused, this book has done a great job of not just being set in Britain with British characters, but of having a great British feel to it. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Paul Cornell does in the next arc.

I must admit, despite a strong start, I feel the main series is really starting to struggle.   For the last 3 issues, its really felt like precious little has happened to move the story forward.  This is underlined by last month’s cliffhanger, as Fury and his Secret Commandos entered the fray.

And this month they did pretty much nothing.   We got yet more pages of Skrull fighting, but in terms of moving the plot forward, there was precious little.   In fact this month’s cliffhanger strikes me as the same as last month’s where we’re supposed to think “Oh!  <x> has turned up.  Not its on!”.   (Substitute Nick Fury with Thor as appropriate).

Its a pity, as this is a strong event, but I feel that without my reading the tieins, I’d have probably lost all momentum on this story by now.   I’d be wondering who the heck these people Fury turned up with are, I’d be wondering what the heck happened to the Fantastic 4 (seriously, the disappearance of the Baxter Building is a huge event that’s being completely ignored by the main book).  As it stands, I’m wondering who this woman floating through space onto the Skrull ships is supposed to be.  I’m guessing a SHIELD agent, but am I supposed to have recognised her?

I’ve been enjoying this event up until now, and the tie-ins, and first issue show the potential of this event.  But the main book needs to start picking up the pace I feel.

On the flipside, this month also saw the release of Captain Britain and MI13 #3.  Probably the best Secret Invasion book going at the moment, and as a non-Marvel guy, once Secret Invasion is over this book will probably rank only along with Captain America as the two Marvel books I keep collecting.

Also unlike Secret Invasion, this book has a real feeling of movement in its plotline. Captain Britain’s return to life was brilliantly handled. A really epic, punch-the-air moment. Nice to see Merlin key to Brian’s return (again), and the use of the Fury fragment was a nice touch.

While I’m not really up on a lot of the mythology and characters that are in this title, its a great read, and to my mind is absolutely key at the moment to giving the Skrull invasion a more global feel than its getting in any of the main Secret Invasion books.

First up, and possibly the biggest release of the week for DC fans is the Final Crisis sketchbook.

As a tease of what’s upcoming I think it works well.  We get a look at the redesigns instore for some of the New Gods as well as a look at some of the new superhero teams Morrison has lined up.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of the New Gods, but I liked the look of these redesigns, and the concepts behind them (although I’m still unsure about the Darkseid having trouble moving thing).   We get a really interesting tease in terms of the “Multiverse Machine” (perhaps a sign that there’s a larger plan for the multiverse which will definitely see it sticking around?  I hope so), and a look at some of the new Japanese super teams (I love the Super Young Team a crazy Japanese version of the JLA).

Less successful for me, was Titans #2.   I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool Titans fan, although I enjoyed Geoff’s relaunch of the Teen Titans, and I like the characters well enough.   I thought I’d give this series a couple of issues, but to be honest, its not grabbing me.  Some of the characterisations felt a bit off to me, and I’m not big on the art.   The three crossovers going on that I’m picking up, I’m going to have to get brutal on titles that I don’t love, so I can’t see me picking up the next issue.

The first part of Batman RIP though, I enjoyed.  While it very much felt like a first part, with not a huge amount happening, and more introducing things, I’m definitely intrigued enough to be sticking with this crossover for now.  I have to say though, as someone who’s not been buying Morrison’s Batman, I loved the interaction between Bruce, Tim and Alfred.

From the non-DC side of things, I had Knights of the Old Republic #28.  Although not a series I talk about a lot on the blog, its one I’ve enjoyed immensely, possibly ranking alongside GL in terms of my pull list.

I have to say though, that the much-vaunted Vector crossover has done nothing for me.   I disliked the fact that most of the main cast were missing for the last 4 issues, and I found the art badly off-putting.   I can’t say I’ve been left with any real desire to pick up the rest of the crossover, and I’m really hoping that now its over, the series will get back to telling stories I more enjoy.    I will say though, that I did appreciate the writer trying to fit the crossover around his ongoing story of Zhane being on the run from the Jedi Masters.

From Marvel, I picked up Captain Britain #1.   Now being written by Paul Cornell (of Dr Who fame), and with “Secret Invasion” stamped on the top, I couldn’t resist.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was probably the surprise hit of the week for me, as something I ended up enjoying a lot more than I thought I would.  Its really grabbed me, and its really nice to be reading about a British hero, and set in Britain as well.   In that regard, I think Marvel have probably done a very wise thing in getting a British writer on board.   However, I’m going to stop saying “Britain” now, lest I end up sounding like an episode of League of Gentlemen.

I do love the setup though, with Captain Britain resolving to be more like a proper counterpart to Captain America, and the Skrull disguised as John Lennon who’s working with MI 13 (the agency Cap works for) to help find other Skrull infiltrators.  I’m definitely onboard for the next issue.