MI-13 (comics)
MI-13 | |
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Publication information | |
MI-13, sometimes written MI13 or MI: 13, is a fictional British intelligence agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. MI-13 is depicted as operating out of Portwell House in Whitehall. It was introduced in Excalibur #101,[2] by Warren Ellis under the call sign "The Department" for ten years until New Excalibur #1 explicitly mentioned the term "MI13"; although invariably referred to as such, the agency's official name is the Extraordinary Intelligence Service (EIS).[3]
The department is closely associated with Marvel characters Alistaire Stuart and Pete Wisdom, and, after being named MI-13, it would subsequently appear in Wisdom, and most recently, the ongoing Captain Britain and MI13; both written by Paul Cornell.
It was originally overseen by Sir Mortimer Grimsdale, the
Fictional team history
MI-13 is the latest in a long line of fictional British intelligence agencies dealing with "weird happenings" within the
This department was next seen in X-Force #115 (June 2001) with Stuart standing alongside Pete Wisdom. However, it went unnamed until 2006 when Wisdom revealed himself to be an agent of MI-13 in New Excalibur #1 (January 2006). In the New Excalibur series, M-13 funded the reforming of Excalibur superhero team.
Later that year, MI-13 were later explored in Paul Cornell's
Most recently in the first story arc of Paul Cornell's
MI-13 was restructured to support a semi-autonomous and public superhero team, headed by Captain Britain, while keeping the precise nature of the supernatural threat hidden from the public. The intention is to be both effective while ensuring the superheroes feel uncompromised
When Dracula moved to conquer the United Kingdom, he opened with a pre-emptive strike on MI:13's superhero team.[8] The agency swiftly regrouped along with MI5 and MI6, and began the elimination of all vampire agents within the British intelligence agencies. However they were (seemingly) unwittingly manipulated into leading Dracula to the location of Quincy Harker's remains, which were enchanted to ensure vampires needed to be invited (individually) into the country. Dracula was now able to lead his full army to the country and magically seal it off from the rest of the world.[9] Unknown to Dracula, Pete Wisdom had deliberately led Dracula to fake remains and MI-13 then used the captive demon Dr. Plokta to trap the vampire in his own victorious fantasies, both to gain intelligence on him and to ensure he couldn't send in advance troops and find out the protection spell was still active. With the help of this, direct strikes, and actions by undercover agents, MI-13 ensured that Dracula was unaware until his forces entered UK airspace and were mostly wiped out. They then invaded his fortress, backed up by their reserves and the Special Air Service, and comprehensively destroyed Dracula's assets, his army, and the count himself.[10]
Members of MI-13 later attend an official reception in America presided over by Steve Rogers, given in their honor for being the first country in the world to get rid of the Skrulls.[11]
MI-13 would move its offices to the Shard.[12]
When Mys-Tech tried to send Britain to Hell, MI-13 were left out of the loop and the British government had S.H.I.E.L.D. (who had greater resources) deal with the cleanup; years later, Pete Wisdom was furious to learn the incident had been completely covered up even from him and with the approval of Lance Hunter.[12] S.H.I.E.L.D. Europe's boss (at the time possessed Msy-Tech's Psycho-Wraith Prime) would remark that S.H.I.E.L.D. simply wanted to reverse-engineer the villain's technology and didn't care about the British heroes, "forcing MI-13" to deal with them instead.[13] Wisdom and MI-13 worked to hold off Prime's planned invasion from Hell, with Wisdom snarking "here come the Yanks, just in time to save us all" when S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived at the end of the battle.[14]
Members
All superheroes native to the British Isles are considered part of MI-13, meaning they can be called by the government[15] at any time. Paul Cornell said, "One of the great things about [Captain Britain and MI13] is that, because all British superheroes are de facto part of MI-13, we can visit disparate parts of the Marvel UK scene without it being a big deal."[16]
Heroes such as
.Vampire hunter
Other shown members with official positions within the agency have included:
Name | Position | Status | Additional notes |
---|---|---|---|
Black Knight (Dane Whitman)[24] | Field agent | Active | Returned to England wielding the Ebony Blade
|
Blade[25]
|
Field agent | Active | |
Rory Campbell | Mutant liaison and Management[26] |
Inactive | The first person Stuart recruited for the then-unnamed department, Campbell later defected when he took the role of Famine as part of Horsemen of Apocalypse. |
Captain Britain[27] | Field agent | Active | |
Captain Midlands (Sid Ridley)[28] | Field agent | Inactive | An elderly and right-wing Captain America analogue. Turned on the team and led them into a trap; later imprisoned.[29] |
Constance[30] | Agent | Unknown | |
Dark Angel | Reserve | Inactive (depowered) | |
Death's Head (Minion) | Reserve | Active | |
Digitek
|
Reserve | Active | Superhuman; spent time on an intelligence gathering mission in the US. |
Excalibur[6] | Field agent | Active | A young doctor, wielder of the legendary sword, Excalibur, and steward to the Black Knight. Progressed to knight status after slaying Dracula. |
Farisa[30] | Agent | Unknown | |
John the Skrull[28] | Field agent | Inactive (deceased) | A Skrull infiltrator in the form of John Lennon, who went native in the 1960s.[31] Killed during the Skrull invasion of Earth.[32] |
Killpower (Julius Mullarkey) |
Reserve | Inactive (deceased) | |
Gloriana[33] | Field agent | Active | |
Micromax (Scott Wright) |
Field agent | Active | Micromax is a mutant who has been sent to the O*N*E[34]
|
Rana Mousabi[35] | Special agent | Inactive (deceased) | Killed by warwolves who then wore her skin. |
Motormouth (Harley Davis) |
Reserve | Inactive (retired) | |
O[28] | quartermaster[5] and part-time occult physics researcher |
Active | The character's design and name are based on Charles Hawtrey's character in Carry On Spying,[5] while his position is an analog of James Bond's Q
|
Maureen Raven[28] | Field agent | Inactive (deceased) | Mother of Earth-691 that allowed them to form a portal to Earth-616; Wisdom was forced to kill her to terminate the link. She was a clairsentient who had the power to take control of people.
|
Spitfire[27]
|
Field agent | Active | |
Alistaire Stuart | (Former) Director[26]
Scientific Adviser |
Active | Left to work as Scientific Adviser for MI6 after being convinced MI-13 could not stand against an other dimensional Martian invasion. Has seemingly returned to 13 in a scientific role, with tension between him and Wisdom[7] Left dimensionally inflexible after an unspecified encounter with Morgan le Fey.
|
Tangerine
|
Reserve | Active | |
Tink[28] (Tinkabelinos Hardleg[36]) |
Field agent | Inactive | Otherworld fairy and daughter of Oberon |
Pete Wisdom | Director [21] | Active | Mutant, formerly the field team leader; agent of several of the previous agencies. |
Union Jack (Joseph Chapman)[37] | Field agent | Active | Joined team in X-Men Legacy 13. |
Unnamed teleporter[38] | Undercover Agent | Active |
Other versions
In the Age of Ultron storyline, MI-13 members Black Knight, Excalibur, and new members Computer Graham and Magic Boots Mel assist Captain Marvel and Captain Britain into fighting the Ultron Sentinels that were invading London. During the battle, Computer Graham and Magic Boots Mel were killed in the fight against the Ultron Sentinels.[39]
Collected editions
Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|
Captain Britain and MI:13 Vol. 1: Secret Invasion | Captain Britain and MI:13 #1-4 | February 2009 | 978-0785133995 |
Captain Britain and MI: 13 Vol. 2: Hell Comes To Birmingham | Captain Britain and MI:13 #5-9 | July 2009 | 0785133453 |
Captain Britain and MI: 13 Vol. 3: Vampire State | Captain Britain and MI:13 #10-15 and Annual #1 | October 2009 | 0785139524 |
Notes
- ^ Captain Britain and MI: 13 #12
- ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
- MI13."
- ^ Noted on Paul Cornell's Twitter, written as Captain Britain. "new JIC Chair, head of Brit intelligence, appointed: Lance Hunter. Good man. We go way back. We hear about new MI5 Director tomorrow." 12:52 AM Jan 10th from web
- ^ a b c Wisdom Issue One Commentary. by Paul Cornell. December 2006 Archived 2009-07-31 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Captain Britain and MI:13 #1-4
- ^ a b Captain Britain and MI:13 #5
- ^ Captain Britain and MI:13 #10
- ^ Captain Britain and MI-13 #11-12
- ^ Captain Britain and MI:13 #14-15
- ^ "Marvel News, Blog, Articles & Press Releases | Marvel".
- ^ a b Revolutionary War: Alpha by Andy Lanning, Alan Cowsill and Rich Elson (2014)
- ^ Revolutionary War: Warheads by Andy Lanning, Alan Cowsill and Gary Erskine (2014)
- ^ Revolutionary War: Omega by Andy Lanning, Alan Cowsill and Rich Elson (2014)
- Captain Britain and MI: 13, no. 1 (July 2008). Marvel Comics.
- ^ Defense of the Realms: Cornell on "Captain Britain and MI:13", Comic Book Resources, May 15, 2008
- ^ Super Spy Weekend: Black Knight, Comic Book Resources, March 10, 2008
- ^ Super Spy Weekend: Captain Britain, Comic Book Resources, March 7, 2008
- ^ Super Spy Weekend: Spitfire, Comic Book Resources, March 8, 2008
- ^ New Excalibur #6
- ^ a b Super Spy Weekend: Pete Wisdom, Comic Book Resources, March 9, 2008
- ^ MYCUP O’ JOE, WEEK 10: Quesada dishes on MARVELS 2, BLADE, and MARY JANE!, Marvel.com (originally a MySpace Blog) May 27, 2008
- ^ Super Spy Weekend: Faisa Hussain, Comic Book Resources, March 9, 2008
- ^ Captain Britain and MI13 #4
- ^ Captain Britain and MI13 #5
- ^ a b Excalibur #101
- ^ a b Captain Britain and MI13 #1
- ^ a b c d e Wisdom #1
- Captain Britain and MI: 13, no. 9 (January 2009). Marvel Comics.
- ^ a b Decimation: House of M - The Day After one-shot, published by Marvel Comics (2005), page 23; written by Chris Claremont, pencilled by Randy Green & Aaron Lopresti, inked by Rob Hunter, Norm Rapmund & Don Hillsman III.
- ^ Super Spy Weekend: John the Skrul, Comic Book Resources, March 8, 2008
- ^ Paul Cornell (w), Leonard Kirk (p), Jesse Delperdang (i). "The Guns Of Avalon" Captain Britain and MI: 13, no. 4 (October 2008). Marvel Comics.
- ^ "Captain Britain and MI13 #14
- ^ Anthony Flamini, Ronald Byrd (w). Civil War Battle Damage Report (March 2007). Marvel Comics.
- ^ New Excalibur #4
- Captain Britain and MI: 13, no. 2 (August 2008). Marvel Comics.
- ^ Captain Britain and MI13 #5
- ^ Secret Avengers, no. 17 (October 2011). Marvel Comics.
- ^ Avengers Assemble #15AU
References
- MI-13 (Marvel) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
External links
- MI-13 at the Marvel Database Project
Interviews
- Cornell & Lowe talk "Captain Britain and MI:13", Comic Book Resources, February 18, 2008
- The British Invasion: Paul Cornell on Captain Britain and MI: 13, Comics Bulletin, April 10, 2008