As many of you will be aware, yesterday in the USA and today in the UK Age of Heroes #1 came out, including a 2-page Captain Britain & Mi13 story by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk.
I have just finished reading said issue, and I can tell you that its advent will have a fair bit of impact on the cast of that book.
But here's the thing... I don't want to spoil it for those who will be picking it up this week.
So, if you've not read it yet, in short, go away! :D
Go away, buy a copy and read it. Then come back here when you have. I'm going to be posting up discussion on what happens in this issue in the comments field for this Blog Post. So if you come to the front page of the site, and you haven't read it, you won't be spoiled.
If you click on the individual post though you will be able to see the comments. You have been warned.
So, click on 'Comments' to come join the discussion when you're ready.
Enjoy.
Hello.
ReplyDeleteStill here?
Then you have heeded the warning and know the score.
Well... I know that IGN posted it as this being the death knell for Captain Britain & MI13, but I look at it a little differently.
As Wisdom pointed out "We can come to some sort of... time-share arrangement". And frankly if The X-Men, The Avengers and X-Force can come to an arrangement for Wolverine why can't MI13?
Whilst Pete Wisdom may be somewhat cynical Captain Britain becoming an Avenger is clearly popular with his team-mates and wife. But what might this mean for any chance of the title getting a revival?
Well, clearly some see this as a definite end for it. I however do not.
Captain Britain & Mi13 struggled to maintain the sales required for a Marvel ongoing comic. And that wasn't because it wasn't good enough. Hell, the Hugo Awards nomination should tell you that! But it wasn't publicised very well, it took for the book to virtually be cancelled before many knew it was even worth picking up, and others just weren't aware enough of either Captain Britain or the rest of the cast TO pick it up.
MI13 is not dead. It's sleeping. And Captain Britain being an Avenger is the perfect way to raise the profile of BOTH.
The only question remains - Which Avengers TEAM will it BE? THAT we do not know. :D
Please not Bendis. Please not Bendis. Please not Bendis.
ReplyDeleteI may be in a minority here,but I actually quite like Bendis. His Indy and earlier Marvel more, admittedly. But I did enjoy New Avengers. Even if it was more Heroes for Hire than it was traditional Avengers...
ReplyDeleteNot sure it would be the best fit, but I'd hardly say 'No' to Brian being placed on a Marvel flagship title.
I think it will be Secret Avengers.
ReplyDeleteI was not happy about the story being only 2 pages. The fact that the variant cover was all Captain Britain gives hope that he will start getting used more.
The part about Dane thinking about it was put in just to keep doors open but I don't think it will happen. I still can't understand why Marvel won't give MI13 at least a mini series. They won't give up on Atlas, however.
Ha ha. I don't want to get into an Agents of Atlas bitching, but I do hear you Govikes. Let's just see how it performs now it's been relaunched. Not as well as some might hope, I suspect...
ReplyDeleteI certainly think that an MI13 mini might not be out of the question next year, but having Brian on an A List team would certainly be a good way of raising MI13's profile.
A "From the pages of Avengers... Captain britain & MI13" logo on a cover might just make a difference.
Agreed Sword. CB in the Avengers in any capacity would help MI13.
ReplyDeleteYeah I was thinking the same re: raising CB's profile.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's Secret Avengers due to Brubaker penning it.
It's a shame it was a 2 pager BUT...
1. it was nice having a second CB story this month (the other being Deadpool Team-Up)
2. It was nice seeing Leonard Kirk inking his own pencils! Totally, totally different feel.
Yes. A very different feel with Kirk inking. Although I do feel that the colours could have been a little brighter. And I think I speak for everybody when I say that I would readily have had more than two pages, but it did do what was needed. I'm very glad that Paul Cornell got to give Cap a sendoff himself if he will now principally be an Avenger.
ReplyDeleteI have a theory as to where he might be going. And what the signs for it are. But I'll post those up as a seperate article closer to Wednesday. As these include hefty spoilers for another book this week...
Yeah i will admit that i was bummed out about it being 2 pages after paying $4! I didn't manage to get the CB variant either.
ReplyDeleteIs your theory about secret avengers? That's out this Wednesday right?
btw I've been reading the Moore / Davis Marvelman comics. Do you think they will try to tie him into continuity now that marvel has the rights?
i want this to be good news, but i just cant see anybody bothering to use CB in any of their Avengers titles. a 2 page story, written by a non Avengers writer makes me think this was a token gesture rather than a proper membership, with regular appearances, i really hope i'm wrong though.
ReplyDeletei wasnt that crazy about CB needing permission from Pete either...[end of negativity]
I'm calling it a good thing (provisionally). I think we've talked about boosting the chance of more MI13 by aligning them with a family of titles and it looks like it could be with the Avengers (which then gives them a different slant to Excalibur, which was a distant cousin of the X-Men family of titles). It'd be possible that a storyline comes to the UK, in which case it'd seem silly not to team them up with MI13, or if there is a big event for the Avengers family of titles it could be a MI13 mini-series would tie into this (as you are seeing with the Shadowland titles for the street level family of titles, which also brings in Thunderbolts through Luke Cage).
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting to see the Spitfire one-shot as it suggests they want to keep the characters in play - not quite on the level of the Agents of Atlas (which got Gorilla-Man, Marvel Boy and Namora spin-offs) but still...
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteBeen a bit busy enjoying the Summer Sun this weekend. And formulating theories too, naturally...
Krisb - Well, at present it's kind of two theories. Secret Avengers is one option. But not the only option. I was drafting a piece yesterday afternoon which I'll have up on the Blog by Tuesday. But given that it effects a couple of this week's titles I thought I'd give it until after the weekend, so as not to spoil so many people.
It'll all make sense.
I hope :)
Coolbeans74 - I understand the concern. Believe me, it's a concern I also share at the back of my mind.
True Paul Cornell is not an Avengers writer. But the way he phrased this in interviews a couple of months ago very much sounded like Cap would be appearing somewhere else, and he was just glad that he'd been given the chance to do a story leading him into that, personally.
I truly hope this is the case.
Emperor - Good parallel to draw with The Shadowland titles. I think that this may well prove to be the model Marvel will be adopting over the next couple of years, rather than starting up more ongoing books. So any ties to the Avengers brand would be a good thing, yes.
I hope that the Spitfire one-shot might lead to more, too. Yes, it's not quite the level of investment they threw at Agents of Atlas, but it's a start.
krisb, the Miracleman situation is apparently less clear than Marvel are making out. It seems that they have the rights to reprint the Mick Anglo Marvelman stuff, but they may not have control over the Moore/Gaiman work.
ReplyDeleteIf they do, I can see them folding Miracleman into the Marvel Universe; after all, they did the same with Rom, and even Godzilla. However, I hope they resist that urge, and let the series stand on its own.