Broken Frontier

Paul Cornell is probably best known for the phenomenal amount of Doctor Who fiction he’s written over the years (in novels, comics and more recently on TV; he was the writer who introduced us to Rose Tyler’s father in the 2005 series, and more recently adapted his own novel, Human Nature, into a highly regarded two-part TV story). He has also written for TV dramas as diverse as Primeval and Coronation Street. He wrote the internet animation The Scream of the Shalka for the BBC, which led to Richard E Grant briefly being the ‘official’ Ninth Doctor Who, and created adventuring space archaeologist Professor Bernice Summerfield for Virgin Books – a character who has spun off into audio plays released on CD. He is, in short, a man to watch, whatever the medium – and now, this very much in demand writer has returned to comics, to take on surely the ultimate challenge of his varied career – the icon that is…Captain Britain? With Captain Britain and MI:13 debuting next week Broken Frontier asks why now for the good Captain's return…

BROKEN FRONTIER: I guess the obvious question to ask first is what is the book all about? It ties into Secret Invasion, at least at first, but is this going to be a spy book, a straightforward super-hero title, or something more along the lines of your Wisdom series, which was pretty hard to categorize?

PAUL CORNELL: It’s super-heroes vs. the occult, the alien, the extreme, in an intelligence context. Basically, if a vampire bursts out of a coffin in Staffordshire, he’s going to have Spitfire in front of him as quickly as the local police can get word through to MI:13. If an alien spaceship crashes in Kent, Captain Britain’s going to be there with backup, information and the whole mechanism of Government at his disposal. And it’s done between friends, that beloved thing of the official super-team as a gang of mates. Because Pete couldn’t keep them working for him if they didn’t want to, and he knows that. But they’re also going to be on the front foot (to use a cricket analogy), bursting in on, say, the Hellfire Club, just as they think they’ve got their hands on something juicy in the occult department. Think Mission Impossible vs. monsters, but with superpowers.

BF: Captain Britain is the title character, but from what I’ve read he isn’t really the star of the show, with names like Wisdom and the Black Knight involved. Why is this Captain Britain and not Excalibur? How much of this is Brian Braddock’s book, as opposed to a team book?

PC: It’s Brian’s book, because he’s the touchstone and the focus of all British super-heroics, like Captain America was in the States. By the end of issue three, you’ll see why it’s his book

BF: We know that several British super-heroes are due to show up in the first arc, but are there any others you really want to use further down the line? Union Jack, maybe, or the survivors of the late, lamented Marvel UK line from the ‘90s? And how connected is it to the rest of the Marvel Universe? Excalibur always kept its distance, a little.

PC: We’re not keeping our distance at all. We’re going to be showing up on the Marvel Universe’s doorstep at 4 AM and ringing the doorbell. Stuff that happens in this book will happen elsewhere. This isn’t ‘that British book’; we also plan on taking these heroes abroad. But equally, what that means is that we’ll check in on the British Marvel Universe as well, and we’ll definitely see the two streams as part of one thing. And yes, lots of check ins, mentions and sightings of other British heroes. It’d be weird, for instance, this being a British espionage book, if Joe (Joe Chapman, Union Jack) didn’t show up, so he just will.

BF: I gather you have at least one totally new character. What can you tell us about her? And will the cast of the Wisdom series be featured, too? I know John the Skrull is involved, but what about the others?

PC: Tink’s involved early on. Captain Midlands will return. Our new character is Faiza Hussain, who will find herself a codename when she decides on one. She’s a young doctor, with sudden new superpowers, and she can talk the hind legs off a donkey (that’s not her power, no). She’s our point of view character, our entry point, our Kitty Pryde. I’d actually love to see those two meet, they’d get on great.

BF: Why Captain Britain-is he a particular favourite? In fact, given that you’re now so heavily identified with Doctor Who, one of the biggest media sensations in recent years, what prompted you to return to comics at all? Is this a project you’ve wanted to write for awhile?

PC: I’ve always read comics, always wanted to write comics. Doctor Who gave me the chance to do that (And I wrote a lot of Who comics back in the day). I’ve been a Marvel reader since I was six. I taught myself to read on Stan Lee comics, and I maintain that he’s one of the great children’s storytellers, undervalued for even how good his work was. ‘Nuff said.

BF: To return to Secret Invasion, was this book always intended to spin out of that series, or was it something you were asked to work in later? Has having the first story arc be part of a crossover been limiting at all, or do you think it will help the book find an audience?

PC: It came up as part of the sorting out the book process, I love how it gives us an audience, I love the fact that it means we hit the ground running in the middle of this enormous passionate British war movie.

BF: Do you have anything else coming up that we should know about, or are Captain Britain and your TV work keeping you busy enough at the moment?

PC: I’m just starting a new novel, and we’re getting some publisher interest on that, and I’ve got some cool British TV work coming up I can’t talk about yet. And the more comics the better, frankly. Until I have to go nocturnal and work until I drop, babbling about the Ebony Blade.

BF: Any characters you’d really like to write in the future? I seem to recall reading you were a Defenders fan which I guess means you gravitate to the less well-known characters, but could you see yourself taking on one of the big guns at some point?

PC: I love the Defenders with all my heart. That title grieves me: The *Last* Defenders? Oh come on, couldn’t you be a bit more vague with that? ‘The Defenders Who Are Going Away For a Long Time to a Nice Farm in the Countryside’. Which is actually what they would do. No, I love those small characters. Take a small character and make them huge, that’s my motto. But I’m kind of getting into Tony Stark, like everyone else is, with the movie coming up, but I think I may have been beaten to the wire by, well, everyone, with that one. I’d love to write The Avengers, but I think that’s taken for the duration, too.

BF: Leonard Kirk did a great job on Agents of Atlas. How well do you think he’s captured the feel you wanted to bring to Captain Britain and MI:13?

PC: Oh this stuff he’s doing is so cool! He can do the emotional expressions and the passion, but he can also do these vast battle scenes! I can chuck him anything, and he can draw it.

BF: Lastly, what do you see as the major selling point of Captain Britain and MI:13 – why should we buy the first issue, and where do you intend going with the book?

PC: It’s in your face super-heroics, with hopefully a lot of passion and character and intelligence, but basically just bringing hero back, just trying to make you cry with the sheer heroics of it. Or cheer, if you want to be manly about it. Or womanly. I’m trying not to censor myself in terms of being all restrained and cynical and aloof and just writing to my emotions, writing big adventure comics you can cheer for. That’s what I’m after.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #1 goes on sale May 14th from Marvel Comics priced $2.99