It looks like Marvel’s current cost-cutting is also going to extend to the cut-off point of books themselves: Bleeding Cool is reporting that Iron Man 2.0 is canceled with #12, and a commenter in the subsequent thread reports that Paul Jenkins’ eight-issue All-Winners Squad miniseries has been canceled with the current fifth issue, and I understand that Alpha Flight is also to end with #8.
Looking at the Diamond Chart for September, it’s worth pointing out that Iron Man 2.0 may not have been the lowest-selling ongoing Marvel title, but it was the lowest-selling ongoing Marvel title that hadn’t already been canceled – Herc charted lower (#140, to Iron Man 2.0‘s #132), suggesting that 15,000 copies would appear to be the cut-off point for ongoing MU series moving forward.
The rumored cancellation of All-Winners Squad is more troubling. It was selling poorly (Charting at #211 in September, with an estimated 7,914 copies), but there were a number of Marvel titles selling even less – Ka-Zar being the only Marvel Universe title, but even outside of titles where the financial metrics are likely different (Both Halo: Fall of Reach and Anita Blake are licensed and likely to sell more digitally and outside the direct market when collected, while Casanova: Avaritia is an Icon title and subject to its own metrics, with writer Matt Fraction admitting in the most recent issue “I even still don’t get paid for Casanova“), the future for both Mystic and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man appears grim.
Meanwhile, Alpha Flight will be canceled with #8 after all, despite earlier sales being strong enough that the series was upgraded from an eight-issue mini to an ongoing just three months ago. Sales in the September chart for the series had it at around 23,242 orders in the US, ahead of books like Thunderbolts, Ghost Rider, Generation Hope, Black Panther and PunisherMax, but this cancellation is also believed to be sales-related.
October 21st, 2011 at 11:56 am
So they announce that Alpha Flight is going to be an ongoing only to cancel it at the same place they planned on ending it when it was a mini-series. What the hell Marvel!?
October 21st, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Maybe is they put a little more effort into promoting something not called Avengers, X-Men, or anything written by the 5 writers who decide the course of the company more people would know about these quality books.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Considering Mystic only has one issue left, I don’t think its future has changed at all.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:31 pm
dammit.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:31 pm
It’s too bad they’ve cancelled Alpha Flight AGAIN! I think when it was announced as a mini-series buyers made up their minds then if they wanted to read a short tale of the team but when it became an ongoing I bet sales would’ve picked up.
I’m guessing Marvel is thinking that Generation Hope can/will increase with all the recent X-Men Regenesis changes going on (but for my money that book is VERY limited in terms of an ongoing concept and Hope just isn’t interesting enough) With a new Ghost Rider film coming out it makes sense to keep that going but Thunderbolts is a question mark. The book can be shaken up and reinvented if this concept isn’t working but I’m curious to see what Marvel does with it.
Times like this I’m GLAD Marvel hasn’t tried to relaunch New Warriors!
October 21st, 2011 at 12:33 pm
I finaly get an Alpha Flight title that I enjoy since the Original series , Sure it was a mini but I was enjoying it. Then then upgrade it to a regular ongoing… Then BAM! Cancelled. So 15,000 is looking like the cut off point; but they cancel a title that had sales of 23,242 in the US… About a Canadian Superhero team. In the past Marvel would of kept this title going with numbers like this because it worked on diversifying their line. Something DC never did. But why Diversify a line when you can have nothing but multiple, multiple Avengers, Spider-Man and X-Books. Especially as you have Spider-Man with his multiple books, FF, and both Avengers books, wolverine in the X-Books his own titles, and both Avengers teams.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:34 pm
There’s no way AF wasn’t going to continue bleeding readers. Makes sense to announce it demise now so people can get ready.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:37 pm
I musta missed something cause I thought All-Winners was always intended as a limited series.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:45 pm
@Tom H: You’re right. All-Winners Squad was supposed to be an 8 issue mini-series. I wonder if Paul Jenkins knew cancellation was coming and had time to wrap the story up or will the readers be left hanging.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:46 pm
more issues should cancelled or promoted that are not of the main characters
October 21st, 2011 at 12:47 pm
All Winners is getting cancelled mid-mini. At issue 5 of 8.
Alpha Flight had seemed to have stabilized, so I doubt it would have bled readers anymore than most of the books at that level do.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:50 pm
I am enjoying All-Winners Squad. I certainly hope this gets wrapped up. I think publishing something as a mini-series should carry a commitment to finish the damn thing.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:51 pm
They should have canceled the bad Generation Hope and Black Panther book. Black Panther is so out of place in DD issue number and NY. Hope sucks and rips off akira. Alpha Flight getting canceled sucks and I hope they resolve the problem with members being controlled or evil or whatever they are.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:56 pm
From now on ALL Alpha Flight’s should be 4 issue miniseries from that start. Why pretend?
October 21st, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Alpha Flight cancelled? Once again Marvel lifts the middle finger to it’s fans.
And Mike is right, if the book doesn’t have Avengers/Spider-Man/X-Men in the title Marvel don’t seem to bother.
It’s the 90′s, just before the bankruptcy, all over again.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I really hope that All-Winners Squad at least gets finished in graphic novel/trade format, as that would be terrible not to have the story completed. Can’t say I am too surprised about the other series though. War Machine and Alpha Flight series have a way of dying, sadly.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:34 pm
As much as dc cancellations drive me batty at least the let a title go to five thousand before giving up on it.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:36 pm
As much as dc cancellations drive me batty at least they let a title go to five thousand copies before giving up on it.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:40 pm
How exactly did Marvel give the middle finger to fans, Hannibal?
The fans WEREN’T BUYING IT. They had a strong outing and brought the team back from the dead, giving them a one shot in the Chaos War event and then debuted the series amidst the publicity of Fear Itself with FOUR tie-in issues and a good creative team.
Marvel is NOT a charity. You know why the books you mentioned are around? People are BUYING THEM.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:46 pm
They are in trouble.
Emphasizing continuinity to a point where every book (almost) feels like an Avengers spin off and pricing the books at 3.99 is hurting the company badly. Didio cited that one of reasons for the DC relaunch was that they didn’t want to end up someday having a situation where they were charging 9.99 a book to a pool of ten thousand readers. That’s the path the Marvel is clearly on.
But the rot probably lies not in the creative direction or the talented editorial staff, but probably the Perlmutter, as detailed in the bleedingcool.com article on what is likely really happening there.
Hopefully, things will get better.
October 21st, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Alpha Flight isn’t canceled, they’re just relaunching it as Avengers Canada.
October 21st, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Let’s face it, All Winners should have been called Captain America: Band Of Heroes from the get go. zI hope it gets collected.
October 21st, 2011 at 2:14 pm
All Winners canceled. Okay seriously I’m one if those 7000 + people reading it. Is it going to be wrapped up or is ti doomed to follow The Twelve’s fate?
October 21st, 2011 at 2:52 pm
If the market is this upside down that the big2 can’t even finish a mini or keep an ongoing in the public eye for a year, then the whole market must be shafted.
More writing on an increasingly filled wall.
October 21st, 2011 at 3:00 pm
If they’ve really canceled All-Winners Squad in mid-series, I will be seriously annoyed. It’s one thing to kill an ongoing, it’s freaking irksome to kill a series that already had a set stopping point. If you promise me a story with a beginning, middle, and end, please have the decency to follow through to the end. Grrrrrrr.
October 21st, 2011 at 3:14 pm
They’re all good titles, better than titles starring big names. Why won’t readers give a chance to other characters?
And it’s true, All-Winners would have done better had it been called Captain America: Band of Heroes. Maybe a 64-page special? And if renaming Alpha Flight Avengers Canada could help it, why not? For instance Alpha Strike could be renamed Avengers Canada by th ecorrupt govt with Alpha Flight remaining the rebels.
BTW Black Panther is a great title, building on the Roy Thomas work that made him popular in the first place.
October 21st, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Or they could rename Alpha Flight to “Avengers Canada” and rename Alpha Strike to “Avengers Canada Dark.” They could also do a Beta/Gamma Flight-type series with the junior heroes and call it “Avengers Academy Canada.”
October 21st, 2011 at 4:22 pm
I’ve been buying comic book for 30 plus years (pretty much a Marvel exclusive reader) and have seen interesting cancellations and extensions (Power Pack got extended and I’m glad it did!).
I’m saddened by Alpha Flight getting cancelled. I just added it to my pull list with issue 3. I have really enjoyed reading the first few issues and I was looking forward to many more. At least I get the Defenders back in December. However, if any Marvel editors read this please “Save Alpha Flight”!
October 22nd, 2011 at 10:03 am
I am annoyed by any of these titles being cancelled, but it doesn’t surprise me. The one that REALLY gets my gioat though is ALL-WINNERS SQUAD: BAND OF HEROES
There are 7000+ people that are reading that mini And enjoying it) with more waiting for the trade. If Marvel cannot complete a commitment to the fans (they comitted to a mini-series, its not like anyone expected an on-going!) by producing just 8 issues then they should not be in business.
I understand low sales causing an on-going (or what was thought to be up-graded to an on-going) to be cancelled but to canceo a mini-series is both lazy and un-professional.
As noted, there are 7000+ fans who want to see the story completed asnd, for a mini-series the sales figures have not been bad!
October 23rd, 2011 at 4:06 am
Alpha Flight v4 was launched as a limited series of eight numbers in origin; what critical is the transformation from regular series to limited series/maxi series many titles launched in recent years (some of which quality). Why Marvel does not begin to exploit more fully the maxi series format, in order to achieve wide-ranging products ?
October 23rd, 2011 at 10:36 pm
I’m upset Alpha Flight’s been cancelled. They finally brought the original team back and so far I think it’s been a good read. Alpha Flight has always been more about the dysfunction of the the members than it has fighting off Doctor Doom or whatever invading super-baddie who shows up. In the original series, my favorite villains were Llan the Sorcerer and Dream Queen who basically screwed with the team through their dysfunctions.
As for the remarks about renaming it Avengers Canada, let’s face it, that was what the Omega Flight LS was. They had what? Two members who were from Canada? Sasquatch and Talisman. As I recall, Weapon Omega was actually from Alaska. Then you have USAgent and Arachne. Finishing out the team was Beta Ray Bill, but he never actually joined the team. He happen to be fighting back the Great Beasts (another favorite group of AF villains), and Omega Flight showed up to help.
October 24th, 2011 at 7:22 am
Come on, Marvel! I’ve been waiting for this title for twenty years! The eight-issue miniseries has been awesome so far, and that was great news to begin with. I was hoping that it would be extended to an ongoing, and had that carrot dangled for about a month, only to have it yanked away again. *sigh* Please reconsider — this series has excellent potential!
October 24th, 2011 at 9:35 am
I thought Alpha Flight was on the right track with the original team and an actual villain that was not inspired by mysticsm for a change. Completely irritates me that Marvel is cancelling a team and book with so much potential. Maybe…a relaunch that is not tied into the event of the day that is stands on its own?
October 24th, 2011 at 6:20 pm
What’s frustrating about Band of Heroes getting canceled is that they have to have at least two more issues’ worth of art in the can since they just canceled it. They’d at least have that much done in advance, and Carmine di Giandomenico is a pretty quick artist from what I know. :/ Frustrating, to say the least. I was really enjoying the book, and now we’ll never know what the mystery of Project Firefly was.
October 24th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
Fear not about Alpha Flight, X-pedophiles. We here at Marvel have more X-Men in 2012 than you can shake a stick. & its not even a movie year
October 25th, 2011 at 12:11 am
I am done buying new series in single issues. If the publisher won’t commit to finishing story arcs, then I won’t even try something new. Time to make the complete switch to trades, or maybe I won’t even do that.
October 27th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Although I think MARVEL should have made allowances for DC’s (promoted) relaunch flooding the market with lots of #1 issues, concluding ALPHA FLIGHT at its intended time isn’t as gut-wrenching as truncating an announced on-going into a mini-series. IMO
Dale, Greg, and Fred (and the rest of the creative team) are helping bring the ORIGINAL CHARACTERS to today’s readership.
Well done.
November 1st, 2011 at 6:56 am
No, Omega Flight the Second was Marvel’s attempt to figure out a Stephen Harper-style vision of what Canadian super-heroes should be.
As to this incarnation…I remain troubled – deeply – by the apparent treatment of Heather Hudson. She really was the heart of the original series, which did last a full decade.
Unless there’s a twist that doesn’t involve the “redemptive suicide by villain’s hand” trope at the end of this…
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