Crowning Moment of Awesome: Invading Fairyland

[angelophile]

My contribution for Crowning Moment of Awesome Week comes from Wisdom #1, by Paul Cornell and Trevor Hairsine.

In which MI:13, including Pete Wisdom, John of the Beatles Skrull Invasion, Captain Midlands, Maureen Raven and Oberon's daughter Tinkabelinos Hardleg, adhere to the Michael Bay definition of awesome and invade Albion with helicopter gunships and rail guns.

Comments

[darkblade]

This section seemed a tad excessive when I first read it (still does a bit) but this was an amazing little mini. Just don't read it too close to Captain Britain and MI-13 the ruthlessness of the MAX versions of the characters will be a bit jarring.

[angelophile]

I don't know. Wisdom is definitely darker, but tonally the difference doesn't seem so jarring to me. There's plenty of death and destruction and tragedy for the main characters in Captain Britain and MI:13 too, even though there's some light as well. It was definitely a bit of whiplash between this and Wisdom's appearances in New Excalibur, which was out at the same time, though.

[wizardru]

Really? Because the MI-13 I remember reading had Captain Midlands sell out his friends for a fantasy paradise and then later given the option to commit suicide, which he takes. It has John the Skrull getting gunned down while a prisoner and Faiza's father turned into a vampire.

I really don't see MI-13 as being that much different in tone or execution...just with less swearing, really.

[silverzeo]

Hmmm... I don't know, this borderlines WAY to close to Marville

[espanolbot]

Wisdom is way, WAY better than Marvel. This was just starting up the series at big event before it coasts with more down to Earth stories as it goes along.

And interestingly this is actually in canon with current Marvel continuity, what with this series directly leading into Mi13 and all. :)

[auggie18]

...why? This isn't really a parody or all that topical.

[leoboiko]

VERY not sympathizing with the violent government thugs here. Like, at all.

[espanolbot]

To be fair this is a response to Avalon's citizens killing multiple people in the real world and abducting an MP's baby. As they say in the story that due to being violently attacked by a foreign power they are considering it to be an Act of War, and this is their response.

Oberon later says that they were intending the kidnapped kid to be an ambassador between the two worlds, but since leaving a kid to be raised by a race that casually murder folk for their own amusement is seen to be out of the question, other peace strategies are chosen.

[angelophile]

It probably helps to have context. The issue opens with a description of a fae attack on a young woman, stating the attack lasted five hours after which she died from loss of blood, along with various other fatal attacks on innocents across the UK. With that background, the assault on Albion doesn't look entirely unjustified.

[leoboiko]

I read this story, a long time ago. Back then I still didn’t empathize with the thugs (John not included in the category, naturally). Even if an act of war is a necessity, it’s still a tragedy. There’s no need to be gleeful about it. Fairies in actual folklore are dangerous, unpredictable kidnappers and muderers, yes. I can buy the premise. But do we know whether these particular fairies being mowed down by Ms. Snarky Bad Girl there were at all involved? Or are they the equivalent of fairy civilians? Even if they’re guilty to the point of deserving death—do we need to commit large-scale murder with a smile in the face, spouting one-liners? It doesn’t look like they tried talking first; it feels more like bloody revenge than military strategy.

Kid Loki recently had to attack the British fairylands, and he was a lot more conscious of the gravity of the thing. This made him more human and approachable; one couldn’t help liking him, the same way I can’t help detesting Wisdom, Midlands, 90s!Tinkerbell. And Loki’s like 13.

[mrstatham]

Ugh. Really not liking the Bryan Hitch Impersonation Squad artwork, here.

[filthysize]

I loved this mini. It's violent and cheeky at the same time, with a total bastard at the heart of it. Wisdom's racist monologue against the Welsh being the highlight.

The only problem is that since each issue was more or less standalone, I was hoping it was an ongoing.

[blackruzsa]

Um wow.
Fun. Violent, but admittedly, fun.

[sir_mikael]

Is it weird that the part I like the most about this is the little fairy going "Why are you speaking spanish?!" I think it's the exclamation point that gets me.

[halloweenjack]

Honestly, this reads like either Cornell proving how hard he can get his Warren Ellis on, or a parody of same, or both.