Earlier today, Paul Cornell posted on his blog that issue #15 of Captain Britain and the MI:13 would be the last issue. The news then made it to Twitter, then to Facebook, and the sound of thousands of comic fans screaming was heard across the Internet.
As I posted to Twitter, this is a damn shame. Captain Britain and the MI:13 had emerged from the hype and insanity of Secret Invasion and was easily one of the best books published by Marvel in the past 2 years. Unfortunately, despite lots of critical acclaim and practically everyone I spoke to enjoying it, sales never really followed. Issue #11 sold just over 17 thousand copies.
There have been rumors of this book’s demise for months, with a false alarm last winter, so I can’t say I’m surprised by this news. But I’m bummed nonetheless. I could probably sit here and write a treatise on why it didn’t sell and everything that’s wrong with this industry, but I’m not going to do that.
Instead, I’d like to on behalf of iFanboy thank Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk and everyone else associated with Captain Britain and the MI:13 for producing 15 issues of a damn fine comic book. We’re said to see it go, but we’ll be here and ready to read your next projects. Thanks for the good run.
For everyone else who hasn’t tried Captain Britain and the MI:13, go read the trade and see what you missed out on.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
DAMMIT! I literally JUST got into the groove with this series!!!
I like this book . . .
How many copies must a comic sell to stay going? Or are there too many factors to have a definite answer?
I’ll assume I’m going to lose Jonah Hex around issue 50 . . .
Booster Gold around issue 30 . . .
damn damn damn. well it was a good run, a great run even. For me this is up their with the greatest team books i’ve ever read
Like you said, I can’t say I’m surprised but I’m definitely disappointed. Captain Britain was easily one of the best books Marvel put out over the last year. This also makes me wonder how long the Iron Fist book will last as its only selling about 4k more issues. Maybe they just needed a Wolverine guest spot every couple of issues.
Sad to hear about this. Hopefully, Marvel will put out a really, really great HC collection that will collect the whole series. Hopefully, Cornell will land a new writing gig because he’s a hell of a writer.
I’m so bummed. This has been one of my favorite titles from the beginning 🙁
I feel guilty now. I was reading this series early on (and enjoying it), but switched to trades because I was spending too much money, and I just had to read all the Final Crisis BS instead.
Lesson learned.
I don’t understand. Why does critical acclaim not equal copies sold. I don’t understand that at all. This book is GREAT and I’m really gonna miss it. EPIC FAIL for cancelling it MARVEL. 🙁
Wow! I just got into this and it was amazing. I guess sometimes some comics can actually be ‘too good’ to reach a mass audience. Quality and critical success just can’t reaches readers while endless crossovers and big events can. Oh well.
I want a Blade series or even a mini from Cornell. He is the only person to actually write Blade well in the comics since the character reamerged after the first movie came out.
This blows. I have loved this book since the beginning. I wish more people would have picked it up and supported it.
The one comfort is that it seems Paul Cornell is going to be able to tell the story that he wanted to tell and to end the book in a proper fashion.
Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT! I just started reading the series regularly after checking out the first arc and have been loving the hell out of it. Another great book falls by the wayside. I mean honestly, of all the X-books, it had to be this one!
I blame the slow start of the vampire story arc. I’m just very sad now where will i go to get my Brit fix?
NOOOOOO! DAMN YOU MARVEL! DAMN YOU TO HELL!
Easily the worst comic news I’ve heard all year. CRAP!!!! I jumped on at #10 and it’s consistently been one of the best books in my stack week to week.
Aaaarrrgh. This title has been one of my favorite books since its beginning.
Well, let me wish Paul, Leonard, Nick Lowe and all the book’s creators both thanks and congratulations for sixteen brilliant issues (including the annual). Kirk has been an underrated artist for far too long, and I hope he gets a nice long stretch on a big title soon. And CB and MI-13 has guaranteed that I’ll seek out any comics with Cornell’s name attached. I mean, my God, he made me like Blade!
damn!!!!
Oh no! Can’t believe this is coming to an end! Blade was becoming cooler and had lot more depth than just a vampire killing machine. Hopefully we’ll see Blade in another title!
Paul Cornell has been a great writer for this book and look forward to seeing the next thing he works on.
horrible news. this is a great book, probably the best team book in hte market irght now. now, we’re stuck with 3 mediocre-at-best avengers book… none of em are cancelled.
Paul Cornell: i’ll be there for your next project, man!
Red f***in’ Hulk, sellin’ like hotcakes! Can’t keep ’em in the store!
*falls to his knees, looks up at the camera, shouts dramatically* NOOO!!!
A damn shame. This corner of the MU feels like home to me and Paul Cornell’s guardianship of it has been the most fun since Alan Moore’s run on the character.
UGH! I don’t have a large number of books i like, so to have this one go and Wolvie turning in to Dark Wolverine I losing 2 books…this sucks, this it a fun book to read.
What a world we live in– everybody lappin’ up copies of Loeb’s Hulk, Ultimates, and Ultimatum– and nobody buying this book. One of the best superhero comics on the stands for its entire run.
How about we move Mr. Bendis off New Avengers, let him play with "Dark Avengers," and put Mr. Cornell on NA?
RIP Captain Britain. I’ll miss you, but I’ll definitely be finishing out the run.
This stinks. I just got into the series a few months ago. It was a damn intriguing, high-quality book. I don’t think it should be praised to high-heaven as the best team book ever, but I think the worst aspect of this is that we’ll never know how great a series this could have been, all told, if it got up to issue 40 or 50. All told, the series is going to feel like it ended way too soon. I have a feeling, though, that like Peter David’s first run on X-Factor (like 18 or 19 issues, right?), CB&MI13’s eventual acclaim is going to belie the limited amount of issues actually produced. And I’m fine with that. It’s pretty obvious why it didn’t sell, though. Nothing about this book really fits in with what’s popular in comics today, and the industry just isn’t big enough anymore to support books that don’t jive with what’s hip at the time. It almost makes me with that they make the series part of a crossover with New Avengers or something for an issue or two, just to get a sales rise. We decry how Marvel forces good, relatively self-contained series to take part in crossovers with other, more popular titles, but if that’s what it takes to keep the series going for longer…I wouldn’t complain. I know they tried to make the first few issues of this be part of Secret Invasion, but maybe they should have tried harder, maybe including in CB a major development or two that readers of the main mini would care about reading. Or maybe they could have made Captain Britiain a part of the main mini. Anyway, this stinks. By the way, do you realize how hard back issues are to find of this series???
Looks like I’ll be picking up the trade at my LCS this week so I can have the whole picture as I read the last few issues.
I loved the hell out of this book. As you say, at least it turned us on to the awesomeness of Cornell and Kirk so we can follow them into their future projects.
And we’ve still a few issues to look forward to!
This is just depressing. I want to be angry, but I guess it’s just business. So sad.
Hey, if you like wacky team fun brought to you by crazy Englishmen, come over to the cosmic side of Marvel and hang out with the Guardians of the Galaxy. You’ve got an open slot on your pull list; fill it up with the adventures of Rocket Raccoon, Groot, et al. You won’t be disappointed.
This does suck, though. I’ve considered reading it, but my list is too big as it is. Maybe if there’s a groundswell of people buying trades it might make Marvel consider bringing the title back. It’s worked in other media before.
I really liked this book. This is just another bit of evidence that proves that the universe, does in fact, hate me. I understand the economics, but it’s still very sad.
Big shame, that could mean other fun titles could go by the wayside as well. I mean I thought this sold really well; but only 17,000? Ouch.
I guess this means Paul Cornell isnt a big enough name like he should be yet.
dammit! this is terrible news.
I read 2 issues of Wisdom, didn’t like it, figured this was the same.
@TNC-That’s not what it means at all.
@KickAss-This book was a different beast from Wisdom and, IMO, more enjoyable.
One of the best runs i have read in a long time, Ill be sad to see it go but also look forward to what what Cornell and Kirk have in store for us in the future. I have always been a Captain Britain fan since the original Excalibur and slugged through new excalibur b/c of him, i hope that Paul will be able to use him in another project one day. Cheers.
@drake: Well mostly everyone in the community always states ‘Paul Cornell is the next big thing’. I mean this site more then anyone else has advertised his books. But obviously the community doesnt feel the same way since this got cancelled b/c of low sales.
EDIT: I ment to say the critics of the community feels he is the next big thing.
I’m really down about this news, Cap/MI13 is far and away my favourite Marvel comic in years. Is there no way we can get a Spider-Girl-style reprieve?
how can this book get canceled but we’re getting another Chris Claremont X-Men book when the man clearly hasnt has the spark for something like ten of fifteen years? complete bullshit. i hate when books with soo much promise like this (andWidcats Version 3.0) get their legs cut out from under them but books that are retreads full of tacky and weak gimmicky ideas (im looking at you Amazing Spider-Man) get free reign?
granted, a bunch of British super heroes arent the devil worshipping dip shits that Peter Parker has become, but anyone who has wasted their money on something like that instead of picking this up need to pull their heads out of their collective asses.
maybe if there is enough fan outcry we’ll see a series of minis or something. this is just soo disheartening when the book was stepping up
This is like Firefly all over again…
@Brian: Except that Captain Britian lasted 4 months longer then Firefly.
Let’s not forget the consumer wants extreme X-Men books and Jeph Loeb’s Hulk. Those are the type of comics people want to buy. Not high brow action titles on the lines of Indiana Jones or Buck Rogers.
Seriously if the Spider-Girl fans can write enough letters to keep that book afloat for all those years we can surely do something. Recommend the trades to as many people as possible, mention them on all your other message boards, write a few emails to Joe Quesada telling him you’d love to see Cornell do a mini or two with these characters. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for iFanbase!
Damn, I am quickly running out of titles from Marvel in the old pull list.
Who needs Captain Britian!? Seriously guys. Marvel is giving us a billion Dark Reign mini’s to keep us over. So it’s good that Marvel cancelled a fast paced, action comic about a bunch of British people. I mean that could’ve been another tie-in or even mini for Marvel to do. So obviously there had to have been a chopping block. [Heavy sarcasm]
I wonder if this isn’t an argument for more OGN’s. If this book had been written, drawn and released as one story, over time there would have been enough demand for a sequel. Or not. I’m going to miss this book a lot.
What stage of grieving is denial? This just can’t be happening.
chiming in–lame move, marvel.
I blame myself. I enjoyed the book a great deal, and wanted to continue reading it monthly, but it got cut after the first arc due to my budget constraints . I intended to buy the trades when they came out and I will buy them. It is/was smart, actiony, and fun and the art is/was fantastic. So, it’s partly my fault. I will definitely buy their next project, whatever it is.
If they had just called it "Avengers:MI-13" it would have sold double every month easily. I mean it’s a team book in the Marvel U with little to no mutants on it, aren’t those the only qualifications to put "Avengers" in the name?
I would say throw an X in there but even that couldn’t save New or Young X-men (the latter deserved to die though)
@Parker: If onyl Paul Cornell changed his name to Brian Michael Bendis 🙂
I’m sure the numbers back this, but from where I sit I can’t see it. I started reading it after Secret Invasion. Most comic readers I know read it. I’ve gotten at least one friend to start picking it up every month since I started. With all the short-run limited series Marvel is putting out in droves every week, I just can’t believe that sales on this book were so very bad that they couldn’t keep it up (at the very least online-only. I’d surely rather pay to read this than those boring movie tie-ins they posted last year).
I’ve really, really, really been enjoying it. Looking forward to it. Waiting impatiently every month. It’s one of the few I’ve kept up with despite imminent unemployment.
In this hard economy I have been forced to trade wait for many series and when one as awesome as this gets cancelled I feel responisble. Man this sucks
Nooooooooooo. I just barely caught up. Anger. Outrage. Balls.
Shit, that sucks. I hope they collect the final story-arc in trade. With that and Jason Aaron’s run on Ghost Rider coming to an end, I’m losing a lot of cool smaller Marvel books. Oh well, there’s always Nova.
dam. I was picking it up in trade, and i loved the first one.
Like Ron I’d be lying if I said I were surprised, but I’m very certainly disappointed. After Civil War Marvel’s Universe was all about a team for ever state, international teams in Europe, Britain, Canada and Japan.
Two years later? Well, other than Black Panther all the international teams aren’t being published any more, andwe’ve gone back to an almost (Almost because of the X-Men in San Francisco) New York centric Marve. Almost every Marvel Universe title gets axed now, and with the emphasis on Events you have to wonder how long it will be before the only time you see somebody who isn’t an Avenger or X-Man is in those events – with a whole generation of new readers asking "Who the hell are those guys – I’ve never even seen them before!"
Captain Britain is a consistent high quality book. It’s taken a long time for that word to spread due to delayed trade collections (To keep them in line with Secret Invasion) and almost zerio (Bar one issue) in-house publicity.
Yes, last montyh it sold 17,000 before UK and workldwide sales were added. The previous month, after sustained online campaigns it sold over 20,000. I run an online Marvel Uk fan site. Last monthg, at its lowest sales performance, I received six emails from regular readers telling me they couldn’t get hold of a copy. Why? Their LCS sold out early. Because when they placed their orders three months earlier half the internet had decided (Incorrectly) that the book had been cancelled, and so ordered less. I can’t but help thinking that was the larger reason it hit 17,000.
This book has been great, and I wish Paul, Leonard and Nick all the best with future projects.
But to Marvel I can’t help thinking that this was a huge mistake. Now that this title has finally built up a solid fan base why not find ways of trying to bring in more readers to build on that. Because if you carry on like this you’re not going to have many titles left to tie into come the next big brnd event.
This book was great. It will be huge loss both to fans and to the Marvel Universe as a whole.
Everyone should change their icons to a character from the book for a month
Nice Pete Wisdom there, nroa. With the eyepatch, better known as ‘his mutant power of looking sexier’.
I’m surprised, I mean that’s what I’ve been trying to get across. Everyone, including myself, has stated this is one of the best books by Marvel and suddenly it gets cancelled. So it only gets pulled by 17,000 people. I can think of 10 comics off the top of my head that gets even lower sales and still is going strong.
Fuck Marvel
This totally sucks. CB&MI13 is my favorite book. The issue that came out last week was easily the best marvel issue i’ve read in a long time. I guess the only things I can hope for are that we get a nice hardcover with extras and that Paul Cornell gets another chance on a different book. FUCK!!
Sad, but completely expected, unfortunately. I picked up the first few issues as well, and like some I see posting here I also decided to just read it in trades. Oh well.
Wow… there’s a whole lotta story to be wrapped up in only two issues. Are that goint to actually wrap it up or just leave us hanging, waiting for an issue #16 that will never come?
YEah, 15? That’s a weird place to end. I was hoping for at least a 24-issue run on this. C’mon Marvel! Are you trying to rile us up?
@nroa – it’s amazing. The same method the general public uses to pressure authorities to bring back a kidnapped soldier home is used to make a comics company continue a canceled series. 🙂
@TNC – in which company? Maybe they have less employees to pay.
This is just sad. A great title culled before its time. Maybe let’s move some of the "Noir" money here and send this series off proper.
@nroa I’m down, now i gotta find a good one
This is a huge loss. Sadness…
this sucks total ass. i loved this series so much. so funny and witty. and i loved Captain Britain so much…its a shame to see it go
It was a great series when it started, but I dropped it when Blade came on. I hate BLADE! Sorry Marvel loses one of their actually decent series though.
It wasn’t only the best book Marvel’s putting out and my favourite in an age (maybe ever), it also swelled my British heart.
=( sadness
… and with one or two more people posting, we’ll have the entire readership of this great book posting on this thread.
I tried it and never liked it. What Marvel really needs is another Wolverine book.
AARGH!! That sucks. I was really glad that Marvel seemed to be sticking with this. Guess I was wrong.
Hey I go vote on the poll I added to my blog:
Which series would you have canceled instead of Cap & MI13?
http://www.handpickedcomics.blogspot.com
GRRRR!!! SHAUN ANGRY! SHAUN SMASH! Seriousily this blows. Marvel has enough room for crap like Loeb’s Hulk, 2 ONGOING Deadpool series (and I like the character so don’t get me wrong), and fracking Marvel DIVAS but not Mi:13? I’m calling bullshit.
Captain Britain and the MI-13 is the only Marvel title that I look forward to each month. This sucks. I tend to follow writers and Marvel has some greats now with Hickman, Remender, Fraction, Aaron but odds are I will never read their Marvel titles. It’s just more of the same characters with better writers. (I realize that is not a great argument logically it is merely a personal oberservation.) CB MI-13 was something different, it had a wow factor, a wtf factor. Marvel and DC are doing a great job of pushing folks to the indies to look for new great stories, artists and writers. Keep it up guys.
(That being said, I am very happy for these writers working for Marvel now and making a buck. Comic creators work damn hard. Better for fans when they don’t have a day job getting in the way of creating.)
More proof that people want to buy stories about characters they already know. It’s too bad, because this book was awesome. (my PoTW last week)
I’ll take some of the blame for this. This book didn’t grab me, so I didn’t stick around after Secret Invasion. Also, I have an irrational dislike for Pete Wisdom.
But hey, I’m still bitter about The Order getting cancelled, so at least I can relate to y’all’s pain.
No effing way. This is easily one of my favorite books.
Is it too late for a letter writing campaign? I mean it seemed to work for Manhunter like 3 times right? Who (other than Quesada) would be the most influential person we could send them to?
Or would it be better to do a "Jericho" type of thing where they sent nuts? Maybe we could send a bunch of fake vampire teeth?
They should have called it "Excalibur Avengers". It would have sold at least 3 times more.
@Parker – take out from your storage unit the shittiest Marvel comics you have and send it to Marvel HQ. If enough people do it it’ll be good for a laugh. Idea somewhat stolen from a q!paw episode. Also it’s never too late to write emails. It might not stop the ax but allow for minies from time to time or the characters used elsewhere. The worst thing that could happen will happen regardless so why not at least try?
That really sucks. Consistently one of my favourite books coming out every month. I’m definitely going to miss this one. I don’t know if another book will be able to fill the hole in my pull list the lack of this book will make.
Was just planning on picking up the trades and jumping on in issues, that sucks. Guess i will pick up the trades anyhow or grab a hardcover of it down the road
I’ll miss you, British super people.
BUMMER!!!!!!!!!
CB&MI13 was easily one of Marvels best books!
Come on! How many times was Spider-Girl saved from cancelation? And that was a pile of crap!
Everyone, stop moaning and lets work out a way to save the bloody thing!
i’m in the minority–not a fan–gave it two tries and didn’t grab me. love Cap and Black Knight, the rest could care less about. art wasn’t that great either ,but sad to see it go for all of you that enjoyed it.
Well that sucks. I fell in love with the new character Faiza immediately and re-fell in love with everyone else as well, even Wisdom, who’s a son of bitch. Paul Cornell seems to have a good handle on team books. I wouldn’t mind seeing him replace Carey on X-men. Oh well, good luck!
You go to funerals and say, "Personally, I thought your dad was an a-hole. Ugly, too. Sorry you’re sad, though," don’t you?
@SamMorgan- pick something indicative of the book and send tons of it to the Marvel offices. "Jericho" fans did this with potatoes and it won the show a second season (got cancelled halfway through, though). Or start a Facebook group; that seems to be popular with the kids these days.
I think you’d find it hard to make a case to corporate, though. This book isn’t connected much to anything else going on in the Marvel U: it isn’t an Avengers or X-Book, doesn’t feature Spider-Man or Hulk, and isn’t taking place in the cosmic theater (though after War of Kings I hope there isn’t a culling of the herd in this corner, either- a lot of the hallmarks of those books are hallmarks of CB). A Doom appearance does not a Dark Reign tie-in make, either. With Spider-Girl, there at least was the connection to the original character. Many thought at the time, too, that Marvel was using the cancellation announcements to test the waters and see how much a reaction they’d get from fans. Maybe that’s true now.
Awesome. Now, if only D&A would leave Nova and Guardians, I wouldn’t feel the desire to buy any Marvel books.
My budget likes this terrible, terrible decision.
Had to add another post, just in case this could ever be considered a kind of petition to resurrect the book. It was a comic that had me excited month in month out. There are plenty of titles I read where my interest might wane for a month or so when something else had me more jazzed, but this wasn’t the case with MI13, it’s been pure gold every time. I little comicky part of me has died inside today…may vampire missiles rain on whoever made this decision….
It is quite a shame. I really did like this book. If it had been selling only a few thousand copies I can understand the move on a purely capitalistic sense. I can only hope that they finish out the arc in time and that the characters can get utilized in some other stories.
I’ll be very intrested to see what this month’s sales turn out like, considering that many people couldnt get hold of a copy last month.
Fuck.
God damnit.
Fuck.
….just…fuck.
Well said Ron.
I’d like to extend my thanks to Paul Cornell for writing an outstanding comic. Probably the most consistent book i’ve read since Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men.
This fucking sucks.
BC1 is right. I’m going to start mailing British people to Marvel’s offices.
Now where’s that ether?
i’ve read a few issues. it’s no great loss. sorry, people
Reading this book was a singular pleasure. I’m very upset to see it go.
@edward – If you’re going to be antogonistic and patronizing, I’m going to delete your comments. If you didn’t like the book fine, but it’s entirely pointless to tell all these people that they’re wrong about liking something.
This offered new shades of the Marvel U and introduced me to Paul Cornell. Very grateful for that.
Paul Cornell has maybe the best attitude I’ve encountered in comics. He’s genuinely thrilled to be here. On top of that, the dude has incredible skills. They may not be appreciated now, but they will be. Unless you’re a Doctor Who guy, and then they already are.
I always loved the talksplode you guys did with him a while back. It was just so awesome that he was honestly excited that you guys chose MI:13 as the POTW, as well as just being in the comics industry. That man loves being in comics and it flat out shows, more so than other creators at least.
I can’t wait to see what other ongoing books he has in the works
….and suddenly my interest in Marvel’s monthly slate had dwindled drastically. Without this book each month i’m maybe now down to about two marvel books? I’m sure there’s a title i’m forgetting, but thats how it feels right now.
gutted abut this but it hasnt been as good since the secret invasion arc. i still would have bought it as it has huge potential, loads more story and great characters. shamez
Was taking about this in my LCS today and, fascinating fact here, until they upped their orders on Captain America and Green Lantern for the big storylines coming this summer, Captain Britain was actually outselling those other titles for them!!! While this is kind of a bittersweet fact, at the same time I am somehow prouder of my little comic reading corner of England…sniff!
I would think that Cap Britain would sell a lot better, just in general, in the UK than in the US.
I’m not here to judge Sonia, but didnt she say something to the effect in a podcast that the ‘British’ in Cap. Brit felt force? I cant remember and either me or someone else would need to find the podcast….or hear from her directly….but maybe it didnt sell well in the UK at all cause anything British about the book felt forced.
Then again Cornell is British. So I dont see where the forcing of culture is coming from.
Actually scratch that, found the episode that I was talking about. It was episode #151 (Echo #6 was the pick) and Sonia hated it for two reason. One it was a throwback to old Avenger books, and it felt too close to home in terms of the diaologue.
So maybe it didnt sell well cause a lot of people felt like that overseas. Too campy and felt too force to be a ‘British’ superhero team. But then again I’m just throwing a theory out…..Also didnt want to make Sonia like a test subject here, sorry ^^;
Completely hypothetical but would people still buy this if Marvel bumped up the price to $3.99? The extra dollar could make up for some of the loss in sales.
@Cadgers I would
I Literally JUST caught up to this. I got into this series like 4 weeks ago, and I loved every issue.
I’m like a Serenity Cast member. I’m a Good guy, but I ruin Series’.
Just to refer to an earlier post, I don’t have the figures for how well Cap Brit sold in the UK in general, but if it did in fact undersell similar, US based titles (as I believe it probably did) I don’t believe it would have anything to do with any overt, forced Britishness. To my mind it was no more overtly British than Capt America is overtly American. You could tell that it was written by a British writer, but that was a good thing. I think, from experience, that UK readers who like superhero books just tend to really like exactly the same titles, for the most part, as readers in the US i.e. Spiderman, Green Lantern, Batman, etc. Captain Britain is always going to seem a little quirky, unusual and "niche".
They’re dropping like flies. Nickelodeon Magazine is dead. Never heard about it before or read an issue (now I want to) but that’s an age group lost…
I would also like to point out that Mad Magazine’s not doing too great right now either. It got bumped back to being a quarterly magazine and not monthly. That’s sad, as that thing was a big part of my youth and helped me generate a love for satire.
Let’s hope it can make a comeback.