Posts Tagged ‘ Captain Britain ’

Justin Van Genderen, the artist behind the excellent Metropolis and Gotham prints (amongst others) a few months ago has come up with another one which is of particular appeal to me for obvious reasons…

This awesome print is available here.

Because I’m a tad lazy, I’m extending the Captain Britain Giveaway deadline through Sunday, and changing how you can get in the draw a bit.

To enter, either:
1) DM me on Twitter saying ‘Captain Britain giveaway!’

OR

2) Email me at rich@comicbycomic.com with ‘Captain Britain‘ in the title.

Up for grabs; three trade paperbacks containing Captain Britain’s earliest appearances – although I can only ship to the US or Canada.

You may have noticed that the content on the blog has been a little bit light recently. Not to worry – I’m just chronically busy at work at the moment.

I’m also reassessing the comics I pick up (yet again) due to the impending arrival of the offspring in a couple of months. It’s not like I’m dropping Spider-Man or anything, but lets just say that some of the lower-level books are on the chopping block even though I do like them.

I also finished the first draft of my first full length screenplay over the weekend, and printing that 109 page baby out yesterday made me grin like a schoolgirl. Lots of re-editing to do on this one, but for the next month or two it’s going away while I start work on another – and I’m pretty damn pleased with the idea for this one. SyFy movie of the week, here we come…

Anyway, the point is – not much of a post today. Sure, I may Tumblr something later on, or Posterous something but that’s probably about it.

Remember though, send me a direct message through Twitter with the name of Captain Britain’s first love interest by end of Friday to get in a draw for the three Captain Britain trades reprinting his early UK appearances! (If you’re not following me, I’ll follow back soon as I can to get your DM!)

Captain Britain Vol 1 – Reprinting strips from Captain Britain Weekly #1-23

Captain Britain Vol 2 – Reprinting strips from Captain Britain Weekly #24-39, Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #231-238

Captain Britain Vol 3 – Reprinting strips from Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #239-247, Marvel Team-Up #65-66, Hulk Weekly #1, 3-30

There’s a fourth volume on the way, and about halfway through that the Captain Britain Omnibus kicks in – but the rest of these stories, including the classic Black Knight/Captain Britain Arthurian England saga will likely never be printed in the USA.

Better late than never – and still ahead of this week’s releases, which is good.

Action Comics Annual #12 – A steaming pile of crap. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve read a worse comic in a long time. Where to begin? Perhaps the grating, omniscient third party narration? Perhaps the fact that their origins are contrived? Perhaps the fact that we may know their history but we don’t really know them? If you haven’t bought it, don’t.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 - The store I went to didn’t have it. I choose to take this as a sign that it is not destined to be a monthly pull of mine. Alternatively, I may pick it up this week.

Outsiders #19 – Not bad, not good, just forgettable. The good news is that it has Vandal Savage (who’s always fun, in spite of Morrison’s makeover) and it also has Ra’s Al Ghul. IN A BEAR HEAD-HAT.

Power Girl #2 – Aaand I’m out. Well, that was quick. I’ve been looking forward to this comic since it was announced over a year ago, but I’m done. Two issues in and I get half an issue dedicated to the origin of a villain I don’t care about? Not only that, but the book suffers from serious verbal diarrhea. It’s the opposite of decompressed storytelling – which is fine until you realise that you don’t really care about the story anyway.

Supergirl #42 – Solid issue, with Lois reliably under control mourning her sister’s (apparent) death. It’s funny, but for all the fuss about Supergirl being back on track (and it is), I kind of view this book as the home of the Superman supporting cast right now – Lois, Sam Lane, Lana, Cat Grant; they’re all here. And the book’s the better for it. Oh, and Jamal Igle’s art on here is fantastic. He and Sibal are really working well together.

All-New Savage She-Hulk #3 – A great fun little mini. I find myself liking this more and more, and having the original She-Hulk punch out the Sentry is icing on the cake. Although…who wants more tiny little Normans running around? Sure, Harry’s okay, but the two-whose-name-shall-not-be-spoken weren’t enough? Although…would a Norman/Lyra mix still have his brillo pad hair?

Amazing Spider-Man Family #7 – A Roger Stern-penned Spidey tale is always a must, even if it is about Aunt May and Uncle Ben first getting together – but on the eve of May’s wedding, its a nice little retrospective. Throw in Spider-Girl (still entertaining) and Fred Hembeck’s l’il Peter Parker meeting the Brothers Voodoo, and you’ve got a nice little book.

Cable #15 – The whole Messiah War thing has basically become one big fight scene. Enjoyable fluff, but no depth to it.

Captain Britain And MI 13 #14 – I mentioned how much I liked this last week – but allow me to add this:
Heh.

Dark Reign Fantastic Four #4 – The more I read this book, the more concerned I am with Hickman taking the reigns of the regular title. Reed is back in ‘fix everything’ mode (which is the title of Hickman’s first arc), Ben, Sue and Johnny are supporting characters, and Franklin and Valeria are funny but kind of brattish – and they really shouldn’t be one of the main focuses of the book in my opinion. On the plus side, Norman Osborn is reliably crazy and the end of the issue promises a great smack-down which will, no doubt, not be delivered.

Invincible Iron Man #14 – Apparently I missed last issue which is why , but I’m all caught up now. Fraction handles this book much better than he does Uncanny X-Men. Focused, smart and funny, he’s on fire here, and Sal Larocca’s work is gorgeous. I’m a bit confused about Crimson Dynamo as I thought Dmitri was out of the suit, but that’s not enough to put me off.

Mighty Avengers #26 – Better than last issue, which isn’t saying much. I’m still not entirely on board but I want to see how this plays out. Honestly, though, the book needs a better art team than this.

Punisher #6 – Didn’t pick it up. So its been moved to the trade list!

War Of Kings Ascension #3 – This issue turned the spotlight on Chris Powell as opposed to Darkhawk and was the better for it. The art’s a lot less confusing without the two Darkhawks running around, and I feel like I’m getting to know the protagonist. And the book has finally dovetailed with War of Kings.

X-Men Legacy #225 – A decent enough wrap up to Xavier’s arc, but after a year and a half of him as the central star, I still don’t really care about him. So I suspect that the book’s failed, really, in spite of solid writing on Carey’s behalf. Nice art though.

I’ve criticized Captain Britain and MI:13 a little recently for not being all it could be (even though it’s still good).

So I just wanted to say that this week’s issue totally redeemed it in my eyes and I’m more annoyed than ever that next issue is it’s last.

For one thing, it’s virtually the only place in the MU where Doom is being portrayed as, well, Doom, as opposed to some incompetent whipping boy (yes, FF, I’m looking at you).

It also had some nice Captain Britain moments which, alas, I can’t find online just yet. So in lieu of that, a moment from an earlier issue…

I’ll miss this book.

Paul Cornell has confirmed that Captain Britain and MI:13 has been canceled and will end with #15 (or perhaps the annual comes after).

While I think the current Vampire State storyline has been a slight misfire, I’ve really enjoyed this book and I was hoping for a longer run.

A few months ago there was a kerfuffle as Jim McCann inadvertently announced the book was finished before the new arc started and back then I thought the back-pedaling sounded like the book would be finished after the annual.

Now if I was a suspicious guy, I’d say that Nick Lowe’s comment refers to the already-announced upcoming arc and a greenlighted annual, and is designed not to scare people into jumping ship early, and that McCann’s comment was made thinking that the cancellation news had leaked already.
…
Jim McCann’s tweeted that there was some confusion and referenced this Newsarama article which…well, really just sounds like it’s referring to the Doom/Dracula arc and not necessarily beyond. Still doesn’t sound entirely clear to me, to be honest.

And so it is. Sometimes it sucks being right.

It was a cold February evening on the CBR boards when a user called Jim @ Marvel – a user name used by Marvel’s Jim McCann – popped into a discussion about the low-selling but much-loved Captain Britain and MI:13 and dropped this perhaps unintended bombshell (emphasis mine):

It seemed like McCann had just announced that the book was canceled – just days after the upcoming Dracula/Doom arc was teased and the same day that the book’s writer Paul Cornell announced the sell out of the UK trade of the first four issues.

Jim @ Marvel came back later in the thread to say some more:

Yes, you love it. *I* love the book. Nick Lowe, the editor loves the book. Everyone involved loves the book. But if enough people are not buying it, and something is losing money, we can’t keep publishing it. This is not a new business model for *any* industry and not just for this title. MANY books were canceled (“too soon” in many fans minds) because despite how great they were, the sales for some reason weren’t there. (I still miss DP7 and Psi-Force…maybe I need therapy for those…LOL)
…
Guys, I am very sorry that the book is ending. But we’ll be making a Paul Cornell announcement soon. (Paul, who happens to like me & I love him) Hopefully more people will pick up his new project. And you never know- this may not be the end of this team some time in the future. *I* would love to see it come back too! I’m going to miss the hell out of this book.

Today, however, the book’s editor Nick Lowe had this to say on Twitter:

To readers of Captain Britain, it is NOT canceled! We have a new kick-A arc with Dracula and Dr. Doom, an annual and such scary plans!

This point was reinforced by Agent_M (editor Ryan Penegos), who re-tweeted the comment.

But…if that was a fake Jim McCann on the CBR boards, what would he have to gain by posting that (and sounding pretty knowledgable about it to boot), and if it was the real Jim McCann, exactly why did he announce something like that via a forum?

Now if I was a suspicious guy, I’d say that Nick Lowe’s comment refers to the already-announced upcoming arc and a greenlighted annual, and is designed not to scare people into jumping ship early, and that McCann’s comment was made thinking that the cancellation news had leaked already.

In any case, I suspect that Rich Johnston will have something to say about this on Monday…

EDIT: Jim McCann’s tweeted that there was some confusion and referenced this Newsarama article which…well, really just sounds like it’s referring to the Doom/Dracula arc and not necessarily beyond. Still doesn’t sound entirely clear to me, to be honest.

Dear Marvel,

I see that you will be celebrating 70 years of Marvel in 2009, complete with variant covers and little ’70 Years’ corner boxes.

Maybe I’m not quite as good at maths as I thought I was because when I started picking up US Marvel comics in 1986, I was fairly certain that all the corner boxes then trumpeted that that was Marvel’s 25th Anniversary.

In fact, I’m relatively sure that all your November 1986 issues carried special anniversary covers too. Of those books, only eleven are still around in some form or other (I’m counting X-Factor and New Mutants to be generous), but only three are still on the same numbering run – and of those, only Uncanny X-Men has been numbered straight through.

Sadly, Ewoks, Care Bears and Heathcliff are no longer published by you, and you’ve lost both the Transformers and GI Joe licenses since then.

But I digress.

The point I would like to make is that if you’ve got a big year planned, maybe I can give you some pointers on ways to make it a good year…

1) No deals with the Devil (or demons, imps, devil substitutes or hedge fund managers). It may actually result in a substantial uptick in quality of the title, but it’s not worth the year of pissing and moaning from people who somehow believe that this will cause mythical young readers to fall into satanism (or become accountants).

2) Stop with the status quo-shaking crossovers. Look, if you change the status quo every twelve to eighteen months or so, the new status quo doesn’t have time to become status quo, okay? I understand that BOLD NEW DIRECTIONS! result in temporary sales boosts, but eventually you’re going to lose readers because of them. I know you’ve got War of Kings and probably some mutant-superhuman war thing lined up, but try to keep line-wide ramifications to a minimum, eh?

3) If you must have a status quo-shaking crossover, try to limit the number of new titles that spring out of it. For every Avengers: The Initiative that actually succeeds, you get a The Order which will fail and a New Warriors that will flounder, or an Omega Flight which will just plain tank. Just concentrate on putting out fewer new books and making sure that they’re good ones. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, which is awesome.

4) Stop launching new titles with old title names that bear little relation to those old titles unless you actually have a plan to tie it to the team’s legacy in some way. A good way of doing this is as Abnett and Lanning have done in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is awesome. A bad way is shoehorning Rage and Justice into the New Warriors book, which only reminds us how much better the original book was.

5) I get that #1′s sell, but if you want to relaunch a character who already has a book, just do it in that book. Otherwise the existing title suddenly becomes secondary and it’s blindingly obvious that it’s being phased out. It just pisses readers of that book off. And yes, I know that Invincible Iron Man is pretty good, that’s not the point. The point is that for the past six months, Director of SHIELD has been the red-headed step child.

6) Reinventing characters is great. I for one would love a new spin on, say, Nomad. Or Rocket Racer. But leave alone existing marquee characters unless they actually need a revamp. For example, if you have a character that has had more development in the past year than in the past ten years put together, don’t revert to the most annoying take on that character and introduce a big mean new-colored version of him who, although he may make a good visual, kind of stinks up the place. Am I being too vague, or would you like to look at the cover above?

7) Quit with the Zombie and Ape variants. I know I don’t have to buy them, and I don’t. But they annoy the crap out of me*. We get it! You’re marketing geniuses! You can change any cover into a variant by changing a little bit…it’s irritating in the extreme. Next things you’ll be sticking Skrull chins onto…oh.

There are some great underused characters out there who could do with a limited series or ongoing to spotlight them. The upcoming Cloak and Dagger is a good start, but how about the main MU Power Pack? Alpha Flight? Werewolf by Night? The Shroud? And, of course, Dazzler? I realize that you must get burned on these things but honestly, don’t they sound better to you than Hellcat or The Last Defenders?

9) Not just Wolverine needs inventory stories when he’s running late. Would it kill you to line up some Fantastic Four one-shots so that by the end of 2009, when we still haven’t finished Millar and Hitch’s run, we at least have a couple of issues starring the team out there? Yes, I’m being facetious and delays have lessened over the past couple of years, but I wouldn’t say no to the odd one-shot starring Marvel’s First Family.

10) You’ve got some great books out there at the moment. Captain America, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, Incredible Hercules, Captain Britain and MI:13 are all solid gold and I continue to hear very good things about Immortal Iron Fist. Don’t screw ‘em up, ‘kay?

A white-haired King Kong-ified Captain Britain carrying a Fay Wray’d Meggan up Big Ben?

Just plain awesome.

That is all.

…only anyone who actually spent a little time in Birmingham, England knows that it’s pretty much hell already.

Y’know I find myself liking Captain Britain and MI:13 more and more each issue, even if this time out was really one of those filler issues where not too much happened.

Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom marched around headquarters welcoming new member Blade (I’d forgotten he was a Brit, actually, but I guess if we’re willing claim Greg Rusedski…) and generally working on a lot of exposition.

Spitfire and still-kind-of-icky maybe-boyfriend, the awesome Union Jack, banter a bit to remind us that Union Jack’s having none of this MI:13 nonsense when he’s busy kicking ass for good old MI:5 and, oh yeah, that Spitfire seems to be a vampire now.

Black Knight got to meet Faiza’s parents which went nothing at all like Bend It Like Beckham and much exposition was said. Best bit: Black Knight’s flying horse is back! Valinor! Or is it Aragon? Something like that, anyway.

Also, nice touch with Faiza’a father not being impressed by Dane’s linguistic skills given that he learned them in the Crusades killing godless Muslim. Nice nod to continuity, Mr Cornell!

In fact, now that I think about it. it was nice to see that Faiza’s parents were portrayed so well. Their beliefs were present but not overblown, their reaction to and torturing of Dane was funny and well done, and overall they came across as people and not stereotypes. Good stuff.

And Dane Whitman is still one of my favorie under-appreciated characters in comics.

Then, finally, we have Blade saying hi to Spitfire…and you just know that’s going to go well.

Overall this is becoming an excellent series and well worth picking up and with an increasing number that I get that actually aren’t worth picking up, that makes a nice change of pace.

Oh, and Pat Oliffe can stay. That’s the first time I recall seeing British houses looking like British houses instead of American ones.

Happy 4th of July!