No image better depicted my reaction to the news that Captain Britain and MI13 was cancelled than the one above. Marvel and Paul Cornell made it official earlier today with the lack of the book's inclusion in the August solicits and through Cornell's blog. This is truly a sad day for me and only stirs up memories of the last round of great comic cullings and creative shake-ups from Marvel and DC, which is still fresh in my mind.If sales numbers are to be the determining factor, I assume Secret Six, Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy (all at about ~24k units; CB&MI13 was at ~18-20k) are next on the chopping block from the Big Two.
My only suggestion is to go buy the first two trades for Captain Britain and MI13 before they're out of print. Maybe if sales are high enough on the backend, Marvel might take another look at a second series for the book. If lieu of that, let's have a moment of silence for another great book to take the cancellation bullet in the prime of its life.
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20 comments:
Damn...I wasn't even reading it and I'm sorry to hear that.
Why do people tend to buy whatever crap Marvel puts out with "Avengers" or "X-Men" on the title and let good books like this and Nextwave get cancelled? Reading comics can be frustrating sometimes...
well...... fuck.
dang it, i was doing the trades on this and loving it so far.
Sad, sad news indeed.
Damn. I'm going to miss this gang of characters, especially Black Knight.
I really hope you are wrong about those other 3 books. If they get axed, my sublist will be hurting big-time.
Well, this sucks. Hopefully Cornell gets another series to write, like Young Avengers.
Also, can we start using this image every time there's bad news announced on the comic book world?
@flipthepage - So elegantly put, ahaha. Was basically my first reaction followed by the long ass NOOOOOOO and raging out.
@Timbotron - I hope so, too, but they, combined with Immortal Iron Fist (which is actually a few thousand sales lower than the others), are the next lowest selling books based on sales numbers. There's also extra printings and trade sales to consider, but each of the three I listed are also propped up by some event tie-ins currently (battle for cowl and War of Kings), so those numbers may boost be boosted, too, and drop off after the events.
@Matt - It is quite fitting for almost any negative news and I've been waiting to use it for a while.
Well that sucks. This was a really great comic. Why oh why can't the masses have better taste? Then maybe we'd see Hulk getting the axe and Jeph Loeb being blacklisted instead.
As I said on the Robot 6 post about this, this is an exceptionally bad move on Marvel's part. I haven't been this disappointed or frustrated regarding comic books since Adam Beechan launched his character assassination of Cassandra Cain, or when Marvel gave New X-Men the can. At the very least, Cornell will be wrapping this series up strongly and has been given time to tie everything together, but it's galling all the same, especially since Loeb's Hulk, Wolverine: Origins and other such idiotic titles are consistantly allowed to continue despite the fact that the stories are poor. Oh, well. Captain Britain and MI:13 was only 15 issues, but they were the best damn 15 issues I've ever read (or close to). Hopefully, Cornell gets a new monthly soon.
For once I actually feel like I'm part of the problem when a book gets cancelled.
I never did pick up Captain Britain, but with all of the hubbub about it being cancelled, I'm feeling like I should have.
I imagine all of the fans of the book are going through exactly what I went through when Blue Beetle was cancelled or when DC took Checkmate away from Rucka and Trautmann (they should have just cancelled it then).
The Phoenix King - The thing is though, CB&MI:13 fell below Marvel's sales limit for cancellation, which Hulk and Wolverine: Origins have not, despite being such poor stories. Its never been about anything other than sales.
Its just the way things works sadly, even outside of comics.
Yeah...like we need another X or Avengers book??? This sucks...sorry I can't be more eloquent than that but Cornell's a great writer and I would have loved to see him have a 2-3 year run on the title (25-30 issues at least) 16-18 + an annual just doesn't cut it....
Now I really worried for my fringe books like Secret Six, Nova, G of the G, Booster Gold and Hercules...
Amazingly this comes on a week where I dropped both titans books, T-Bolts and have the Mighty Avengers / Dark Avengers on life support.
Sorry for rambling...and thanks for reading Guys!
if they cancel nova!! no f'n way. arg, i shoulda been buying captain brit & mi13. i was really gonna buy the trade soon.
Secret Six? I just hope that sales are the exception for that book. I don't think I've ever seen a negative review of that book, let alone anything less than a B. Consistently strong feedback should hold some weight that book.
Am I the only guy here not reading the Cosmic books?
Oh, DAMN. A friend was just telling me how awesome Capt. Britain was and how I needed to be reading it. If Secret Six gets the ax ... wow. I will not be a happy woman.
nooooooooooo....this was one of the best marvel series......:S:S
watthe hell are they thinkin..
It's worth pointing out that all the other low-selling books you listed have mostly leveled out, while Captain Britain had continued plummeting down the charts.
Iron Fist dropped from 22,326 to 22,309 from March to April, Nova from 26,413 to 26,240, and Guardians of the Galaxy went from 27,415 to 26,764 in the month prior to the War of Kings tie-in. Secret Six went from 24,365 to 24,338.
Now, are they topping the charts? No. But they're selling very steadily, and above the 20,000 line where books are typically at risk for cancellation, even if only just. Captain Britain had been shedding thousands of copies from issue to issue, very early into its run.
I also don't feel as though Nova or GoG's sales are being buoyed by War of Kings. Sure they each moved an extra thousand issues or so, but both books appear to have a solid readership in the mid-20,000s. Looking at the sales charts, a lot of books that would have previously moved several thousand extra copies by virtue of tie-ins appear to have experienced little to no benefit. Agents of Atlas debuted with a modest 35k, and Savage She-Hulk around 24k, both with Dark Reign tie-ins and a good deal of hype. I imagine retailers are getting a little more savvy in these tough economic times.
Hope everyone doesn't hate me for this, but it needed sharing:
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2009/05/26/honesty-in-comic-book-covers-6/
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