Hearts Bled Crimson Credits: Ben Raab (writer), Salvador Larroca (penciler), Scott Koblish (inker), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (letters), Kevin Tinsley (colors)
Summary: Excalibur arrives in Hong Kong with Spiral to rescue Brian Braddock from the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn. Meggan sees a vision of Xiandu, a former associate of the Dragons, who offers her guidance. Inside their fortress, the Dragons use Sprial’s technology to draw magic from Brian and erase the barrier between the mystical and physical realms. Spiral distracts the Dragons as Meggan uses her elemental powers to draw energy away from the portal and into Brian. Brian unleashes the energy and discovers his superpowers are gone. The Dragons escape, swearing revenge.
Continuity Notes: Xiandu explains that he joined three fellow monks at the end of the Ming Dynasty in contacting the Crimson Dawn. His friends grew corrupted with their power and eventually killed him, becoming the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn.
Review: Wow, this was a long way to go just to write Captain Britain out of the book again. I do like the fact that Raab is expanding the Crimson Dawn into more than just a plot device, and he’s able to use Spiral’s constantly changing motivations and loyalties effectively, but I have no idea why Captain Britain is being tossed just a few issues after Warren Ellis revived the persona. The mechanics of how exactly he loses his powers at the end of the story are fairly nonsensical anyway. He’s overloaded with energy, grows large, there’s a flash of light, and he’s powerless at the end. It seems like the release of all of this mystic energy would’ve had some sort of consequence, rather than just conveniently taking away his powers. This isn’t a great conclusion to Raab’s first arc, but there have been moments I liked, so maybe things will pick up.
2 comments:
I agree -- I never understood why they kicked Cap to the curb right after he was brought back. I really get the impression that for whatever reason, no writers other than Claremont or Davis (and apparently Cornell, these days) liked Captain Britain much. Which is a shame, because he was always my favorite character in Excalibur.
Doesn't Brian stay on as a character throughout the rest of the run? But yeah, Matt seems to make a good point. Granted, you can add Warren Ellis to the pro-CB group...
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