This issue literally is the epilogue to the first arc and it gives us a quick cursory glance at all the major characters. Captain Britain has stopped wearing a mask and the levels of his powers are determined to be based on his emotional state (think Hulk without the big green/red monster) and he is the face of Britain now. Pete Wisdom is suffering in silence for the loss of his teammate and friend John and he is trying to step back up to the plate to lead the team. Spitfire is roaming around GB with Union Jack discussing the future with him and why she's going to stay with MI-13 and Jack mentions how he's happy for her but won't be joining up as well (dammit). I love Union Jack, so any mention or showing for Jack makes me happy.

Something ominous is looming as witnessed in the Spitfire scenes (as well as the mention of Captain Midlands and his grainy, sandy video that cuts near the middle). Something big is coming. And that leads to the arrival of the new member of the team, Blade, the vampire hunter.

On the other side of the fight is Faiza and Black Knight. He asks her to be his apprentice/squire and she accepts. He fumbles over his words while meeting her parents Dr. and Dr. Hussain. It's funny. It's charming. And it makes you immediately ingratiate yourself to Dane. It's easy to see why Faiza likes him. Plus, her showing Excalibur to her father almost makes him tear up as she mentions that she is now the heart of Britain, and he allows her to leave.

This might not be the book for everybody, but it should be. There's intrigue, romance, action, drama, suspense, espionage, vampires, sci-fi, superheroes, British accents, and governmental procedure (to name a few). But it literally touches on almost all of the big genres in history and makes a point to keep the book rolling forward and moving ahead. When Blade shows up and mentions that he is British and everyone constantly mentions how they forget he is, it's funny. When he comments that the weather is screwing up the circuits in his robot hand, it's continuity (from his short-lived but kick-ass series from a few years back, he lost his hand).

That's why I like Cornell. The small stuff. The nice, neat little plot and continuity touches get me as a fan. I've been reading for comics getting close to 20 years now, and I have a lot of potentially worthless comic knowledge stored in my head, so when someone else makes a comment or a critique or follows up on a plot point that I know from the past, it makes me happy.

And that last page is priceless. Yes, we see it coming, but for 3 dollars, I can't wait to see what happens next or how things can go from there. I really can't. And just for a brief mention, but Oliffe does an admirable job with the pencils on this book. He's been known to me as the guy who did Spider-Girl comics for a long time, and his art is always welcome. It's not flashy, it's not star-making, but it's these workhorse artists that do it for me. The guys that can hit a deadline and bat clean-up to help someone else out, those are the guys and girls in comics that make me happy. So his art is very much appreciated here and I for one would like to see more of it.

Pick this up. Give it a chance. You won't regret it.