^[2]MI-13, sometimes writtenMI13, is a fictionalBritishintelligence agency which first appeared in the BBC Radio’s “Dick Barton:Special Agent”.

In more recent times, though, it has appeared inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. MI-13 is depicted as operating out of Portwell House inWhitehall. It was introduced inExcalibur #101,^[3] byWarren Ellis under the call sign "The Department" for ten years untilNew Excalibur #1 explicitly mentioned the term "MI13"; although invariably referred to as such, the agency's official name is the Extraordinary Intelligence Service (EIS).^[4]

The department is closely associated with Marvel charactersAlistaire Stuart andPete Wisdom, and, after being named MI-13, it would subsequently appear inWisdom, and most recently, the ongoingCaptain Britain and MI13; both written byPaul Cornell.

It was originally overseen by Sir Mortimer Grimsdale, theJoint Intelligence Committee Chair in the Marvel Universe. After he was revealed to have been replaced by aSkrull, MI-13 became far more autonomous; he was replaced as JIC Chair byLance Hunter.^[5] Other intelligence chiefs shown as SirClive RestonKBE, Director ofMI6; and Annabel Warner, newly appointed Director ofMI5.

MI-13 is the latest in a long line of fictional British intelligence agencies dealing with "weird happenings" within theUnited Kingdom. It followed the likes ofSpecial Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies (S.T.R.I.K.E.),Resource Control Executive (R.C.X.),Department of Unknown and Covert Knowledge (D.U.C.K.), and theWeird Happenings Organisation (W.H.O.). It evolved from the remnants of W.H.O.^[6] whenAlistaire Stuart was asked by the government inExcalibur #101 (September 1996) to take the old W.H.O.,Black Air (a corrupt department that had usurped W.H.O.'s and others' mandate), and all other related paranormal organisations and rationalise them into a single department.

This department was next seen inX-Force #115 (June 2001) with Stuart standing alongsidePete Wisdom. However, it went unnamed until 2006 when Wisdom revealed himself to be an agent of MI-13 inNew Excalibur #1 (January 2006). In theNew Excalibur series, M-13 funded the reforming of Excalibur superhero team.

Later that year, MI-13 were later explored in Paul Cornell'sMarvel MAXlimited seriesWisdom in which the department became involved in a military operation againstOtherworld before signing a peace treaty, which includes a mutual defense pact, and facing an invasion ofother dimensional Martians. The series also highlighted the clashes MI-13 have with other intelligence agencies, includingMI6 who wish to have jurisdiction over "weird happenings" and believe all the specialist groups like MI-13 are doomed to fail. MI6 had convinced Stuart leave MI-13 to work for them as scientific adviser, leaving Pete Wisdom as the only senior officer reporting directly to the Chair of theJoint Intelligence Committee.

Most recently in the first story arc of Paul Cornell'sCaptain Britain and MI13 (July 2008) series, Britain is attacked by a Skrull armada and a wave of empowered Super Skrulls during theSecret Invasioncrossover event. The JIC Chair,Sir Mortimer Grimsdale, is revealed to be a Skrull, leaving Wisdom in command of MI-13, with the Prime Minister stating the all British superheroes are now members of the agency "like it or not". While other superheroes face the Skrull onslaught on London,Spitfire andCaptain Britain are dispatched, along withJohn the Skrull (a turncoat loyal to MI-13) and Wisdom, to link up with the forces of Avalon and protect Earth's magic from Skrull attack. In order for the mission to succeed, Pete Wisdom had to release the dark magic and demons imprisoned in Avalon; while this led to the dark forces, headed bySatannish, creating an anti-Skrull barrier around the United Kingdom, it also meant demonic forces would now be trying to conquer the nation. John does not survive the mission.^[7]

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^[8] (a frequent problem with the AmericanSuperhero Registration Act).

WhenDracula moved to conquer the United Kingdom, he opened with a pre-emptive strike on MI:13's superhero team.^[9] 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.^[10] Unknown to Dracula, Pete Wisdom had deliberately led Dracula tofake remains and MI-13 then used the captive demonDr. 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 theSpecial Air Service, and comprehensively destroyed Dracula's assets, his army, and the count himself.^[11]

Members of MI-13 later attend an official reception in America presided over bySteve Rogers, given in their honor for being the first country in the world to get rid of the Skrulls.^[12]

MI-13 would move its offices tothe Shard.^[13]

WhenMys-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.^[13] 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.^[14] 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.^[15]

All superheroes native to the British Isles are considered part of MI-13, meaning they can be called by the government^[16] 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 theMarvel UK scene without it being a big deal."^[17]

Heroes such asThe Black Knight,^[18]Captain Britain,^[19]Union Jack andSpitfire^[20] have been shown/stated to work on behalf of MI-13. When the superhero team(New) Excalibur was revived, it was also funded by MI-13.^[21] its members included Captain Britain and MI-13 spy and field team leader^[22]Pete Wisdom along withJuggernaut,Sage,Dazzler andNocturne.

Vampire hunterBlade joined MI-13 inCaptain Britain and MI13 #5,^[23] whileFaiza Hussain, a new character first introduced in that series, joined after the Secret Invasion tie-in issues.^[24]Motormouth andKillpower were shown to be reservist of MI-13 inCaptain Britain and MI13 #11, and later so wereDark Angel,Digitek,Death's Head II, andTangerine in #15.

Other shown members with official positions within the agency have included:

In theAge of Ultron storyline, MI-13 members Black Knight, Excalibur, and new members Computer Graham and Magic Boots Mel assistCaptain Marvel and Captain Britain into fighting theUltron Sentinels that were invading London. During the battle, Computer Graham and Magic Boots Mel were killed in the fight against the Ultron Sentinels.^[40]

[1]

• MI-13 at the Marvel Database Project

• 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

• Characters created by Chris Claremont
• Characters created by Warren Ellis
• Fictional intelligence agencies
• Fictional paranormal investigation agencies
• Marvel Comics organizations

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