Come one come all to this week’s discussion on cancelled series; or the flip side, series that should be canceled. I’ll be giving strictly opinion in this edition of Marvel Snapshot, but I’ll also be voicing the concerns of several of my fellow geeks as well. So let’s not waste another moment and dive in.
I personally am saddened by the cancellation of two series in particular; the first is Captain Britain & MI-13. In my opinion, this was a solid series from issue number one; it started off with a bang, being tied into Secret Invasion. I really liked the way Pete Wisdom led the team, and bringing Blade on board was also a great way to diversify and have some inner team strife with Spitfire. The book also marked the return of Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) himself in issue #3. The series also contained one of my favorite characters of all time, the Black Knight. Captain Britain and MI-13 ended with a great story line, with the team going up against one of my favorite bad guys: Dracula, Lord of the Undead.
Next on my list is Immortal Iron Fist. I have to admit I didn’t buy this series from the beginning, but I did start reading it in the Marvel Your Universe series and it was great. It showed some good past events that directly related to the present events in the book. The book starts off showing other Iron Fists from years past, but specifically stops at Orson Randall, the one from the early 1900s. By the end of the story line Orson dies, but not before he passes on his powers to Danny, who will need them because he is being taken away to another dimension to fight in the Tournament of Heavenly Cities.
I did read some of She-Hulk when it tied into Secret Invasion, but that was all the experience I had with that title. I wasn’t wowed by it, but definitely thought it had some potential , especially with the right enemies and some guest appearances. I did hear from some people who were loyal readers of that book, and they said it was a decent read from month to month.
Amazing Spider-Girl, New Exiles and Ultimate Spider-Man are three others that also got axed this year. I haven’t read those titles, but I know they have been missed in their absence. My whole point is that there are many titles that are still being churned out while these quality titles were shown the door. I know Marvel execs would say, “Well those titles were not selling enough copies,” or some crap like that, but some of the titles I’m going to talk about next aren’t exactly flying off newsstands either, or are just plain garbage.
Now here’s my “should get canceled” list. Starting off with one I just read, because it was just released: Moon Knight. Yes I know what you’re thinking, but this book in my opinion doesn’t deserve a chance past that first horrendous issue. I mean let’s be serious; a first issue is supposed to make a reader say “Wow,” and this one made me want to throw up. OK, so let me give you a list of titles I haven’t read but see and hear nothing but bad reviews about. Marvel Zombies is a series I have heard that in the beginning was good, but seems to have lost its way big time. Torch, X-Babies, Nomad, X-Men Forever, Skrull Kill Krew and Models Inc. round out the rest of my burn pile. I haven’t heard anything about SKK or Models Inc. that I can recall, but the others have garnered nothing but negative complaints from what I’ve read.
X-Men Forever is the biggest offender on that list of stinkers. I know people were already giving it the thumbs down when they heard the name Claremont was attached to it. I know that’s not really fair, but his more recent stuff is what everyone is going off of and it was very lack luster compared to his 80s stuff. If the management at Marvel is about what it should be, why are some of these projects still drudging along while these others are now defunct. It just doesn’t make sense to me, but then again I’m down here and they are all the way up there. Please lend me YOUR opinion below in the poll and in the comments section. I know who I’ll be voting for, but who will you vote for? Last week the overwhelming majority of you thought that Wolverine is way more overused than Deadpool. I’m not sure I agree with that right now, but I probably would have a year ago. Well, I’ll see you next week, and don’t forget to vote!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
I also miss Captain Britain and MI-13. I’m not sure why it got axed as the art and story were fantastic.
As for New Exiles; this series was garbage; more Chris Claremont drivel that is better used as fire starters. Jeff Parker’s Exiles, however, was great and shouldn’t have gotten cancelled after issue #6. I think that Claremont gave the Exiles a bad name, so when people heard the title was getting a reboot in April, the New Exiles run left a bad taste in their mouth so it was vetoed by many readers.
Ultimate Spider-Man was cancelled, sure, but it’s been rebooted in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man which is now on issue #3.
You didn’t like Moon Knight? Seriously? I disagree there.
Torch has ben pretty solid as well; bringing a Golden Age character back to the Modern Age. X-Babies was a fun book and reflected the original series nicely, so I disagree with your opinions on these two as well.
X-Men Forever is absolute garbage. Thank the Maker that this is NOT the direction X-Men went after issue #3…
In the poll, I voted X-Men Forever, but you should really give some of these titles a whirl before claiming they should get the axe!
@ andy, I can’t bring myself to buy anything Claremont with his rep the way it is lately but as far as Torch is concerned I don’t care for that character anyway.
I makes you wonder who gets to decide what gets cut.
Yeah, Ultimate Spidey got a reboot…along with the rest of the Ultimate Universe, I thought. I remember reading something about that mess…..
I LOVED She-Hulk when Dan Slott was writing it. There was this wonderful, campy sense of humor to the series, which made me pick it up. But then he left and Peter David took over. It wasn’t that David was a bad writer; in fact, I think it remained a well written book. But it lost the feel, the charm, the cheese of Slott’s run. Which was why I picked it up in the first place. It wasn’t the same book anymore, so I stopped reading after a few of David’s issues.
@Kristin- I only bought the SI She-Hulk but I thought they were decent. It seemed to be a book on the fringe that could turn around at any moment.