Captain Britain and MI-13

[The BatDude]

Pretty awesome, indeed.
Captain Britain deserves the award

 

[CaptainCanada]

Series should never have been canceled.

Bad sales are bad sales.

 

[Manic]

We can't even blame Marvel for the cancellation. They promoted the hell out of this series when it was running. Quesada praised it in interviews, it got promo ads in other comics, reviews all over the internet were positive as hell.

But nobody was buying it. I blame the general comic-reading populous.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The unwashed masses fail again.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

We can't even blame Marvel for the cancellation. They promoted the hell out of this series when it was running. Quesada praised it in interviews, it got promo ads in other comics, reviews all over the internet were positive as hell.

But nobody was buying it. I blame the general comic-reading populous.

I still maintain that it was because it had Britain in the title.

Also, books about magic and all that sorta stuff don't sell that well anyway.

 

[Manic]

I'd propose a culling, but unfortunately people with poor taste are the industry's lifeblood.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Interview with Paul Cornell about the Spitfire one-shot

 

[Dread]

Joining MI-13 was probably the best thing to happen for Blade. It gave him an established cast of non-expendable characters to interact with and gave him moments to drop his stereotype at times and act like a normal person (something not even the movies really offered much of).

I'll naturally be getting this.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Cornell sort of dodged the question about the upcoming Victor Gischler-helmed vampire extravaganza, which makes me wonder if this'll be connected to it at all. Blade's supposed to show up in the X-Men/vampire crossovers that are going to follow Gischler's Death of Dracula. I hope they don't do away with all of the great stuff Cornell has built onto the character.

 

[Dread]

Why does Dracula have to die again? Didn't Faiza literally stake him with Excalibur itself? I'd have thought it would at least kept Dracula down for a while. Or is it a case of "anything that happens in a low selling, canceled series is for naught and ignored?" Because that would suck. And it is why the whole "every book counts to buy them all, we're all cohesive" thing is an absolute lie.

It would be a shame if all the good Cornell's done to Blade was ignored, but, it isn't like solidly written character traits are ignored by other writers when they go to other books, right?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Brevoort and Gischler apparently want to reorganize vampire society within the Marvel universe. And by "reorganize" I mean give it any sort of order whatsoever for the first time. Killing Dracula allows the freedom necessary to splinter groups off and change things around as they try to fill the power vacuum, I guess.

What bugs me is that Dracula looks about a hundred years older in Death of Dracula than he did in "Vampire State." Maybe that's what getting stabbed by Excalibur did. Weakened him to the point that his youthful vigor went away.

 

[Dread]

But...Dracula tried doing that in "Vampire State". He literally assembled vampires from (presumably) across Europe, Asia, and other areas to take over Britain to be their new nation. It's doing the same story, only with the X-Men, and both drawing it out and telling it more poorly. And the sad thing? It'll garner more attention.

 

[Alastor]

Its the same feeling I have when movies like "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" are #1 at the box office. What. is. wrong. with. people?

 

[Specter313]

But...Dracula tried doing that in "Vampire State". He literally assembled vampires from (presumably) across Europe, Asia, and other areas to take over Britain to be their new nation. It's doing the same story, only with the X-Men, and both drawing it out and telling it more poorly. And the sad thing? It'll garner more attention.

Well, maybe if they had given MI:13 at least some kind of loose ties to X-Men it might have been given some more attention by readers. Like maybe saying it spun out of Claremont's last run on Excalibur. And it's not like they hadn't done something like this with one of Cornell's things before. I remember seeing a little blurb in an article, I think on CBR, that said that when they released his Wisdom mini in trade, it was listed as X-Men: Wisdom: "title", or something like that.

 

[Dread]

One could argue that MI-13 did have some "loose ties" with the X-Men:

- It was often solicited with the X-Books for most of it's run.
- Pete Wisdom was once a member of X-Force and dated Kitty Pryde (Plokta even tried to bait him with memories of her), and is a mutant.
- Captain Britain, naturally, is the brother of Psylocke and served in Excalibur alongside Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and Rachael Summers for many years. Heck, one should have expected to see him and Meggan appear at some of their funerals.
- Dracula, naturally, once fought the X-Men (and, like all Claremont villains, wanted Storm as his queen).

But, yeah, these were often just there for those who knew them. A shame it wasn't enough. It actually had a decent debut in the midst of SECRET INVASION, but fell off.

 

[NDX]

Anyone have an idea how these one-shots will be collected? Interested in the Spitfire and Namora issues, but don't really want to get the single issues. All but given up completely getting those. Trades are much easier to manage.

 

[Dread]

I don't know. Usually Marvel will not collect a trade unless it is at least 3 issues long. It is possible they could create an Omnibus hardcover of the Cornall MI-13 stuff that includes those two one shots, as well as the brief strips from AGE OF HEROES (the first issue had a 2 page MI-13 tale).

 

[NDX]

There have been a good amount of these single issues focusing on the women of Marvel, maybe they'll get the trade treatment.

Or we'll be lucky and it will be added on the backside of the Gorilla-Man trade for Namora.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

But...Dracula tried doing that in "Vampire State". He literally assembled vampires from (presumably) across Europe, Asia, and other areas to take over Britain to be their new nation. It's doing the same story, only with the X-Men, and both drawing it out and telling it more poorly. And the sad thing? It'll garner more attention.

Dracula united a bunch of vampires, but there was no focus given to said vampires. They were just grunts. This big thing Gischler's doing is supposedly going to explore the different tribes of vampires and actually establish a societal structure for them. From what I understand, Dracula is killed by one of his sons who wants to claim dominion over all vampires and another son rises up to oppose him. Vampires were just the backdrop for "Vampire State," as awesome as that arc was. This thing looks to be focusing much more on the vampires themselves.

 

[Dread]

There have been a good amount of these single issues focusing on the women of Marvel, maybe they'll get the trade treatment.

Or we'll be lucky and it will be added on the backside of the Gorilla-Man trade for Namora.

Maybe.

Dracula united a bunch of vampires, but there was no focus given to said vampires. They were just grunts. This big thing Gischler's doing is supposedly going to explore the different tribes of vampires and actually establish a societal structure for them. From what I understand, Dracula is killed by one of his sons who wants to claim dominion over all vampires and another son rises up to oppose him. Vampires were just the backdrop for "Vampire State," as awesome as that arc was. This thing looks to be focusing much more on the vampires themselves.

But...wouldn't it have made more sense to springboard that story off of Vampire State? Dracula was already dead. His son now arises to unite the vampires. There, I did it better and acknowledged the MI-13 story within 2 seconds, for free. What does it say for editorial, then?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, we don't know whether it'll reference the MI-13 story. Like I said before, maybe getting stabbed by Excalibur weakened Drac to the point that he can't keep up his youthful appearance anymore, and that's why he looks so much older in Death of Dracula than he did in "Vampire State." I mean, as powerful as Excalibur is, it's not made of wood; magic weaknesses can be obnoxiously specific.

 

[Dread]

I know.

Plus, to be fair, Dracula has reformed even after more definite stakings, wood and all. He's probably reformed himself more often than Varnae, the first vampire in Marvel.

 

[NightBeetle]

Spitfire #1 Preview

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Ah, Blade with a personality. I sure have missed you since MI-13.

 

[Dread]

And you'll never see it again, since Cornell's signed a DC exclusive, and Blade'll be teaming with the X-Men soon. So, in a way, SPITFIRE is really the last gasp of that MI-13 era, at least after those two pages in AGE OF HEROES #1. I'll appreciate it.