Marvel Comics Cancels Alpha Flight and Iron Man 2.0

Issue 12 will be the last of Iron Man 2.0

As we approach the end of 2011, it’s also the end of the road for two Marvel titles; Alpha Flight and Iron Man 2.0.  Alpha Flight will come to an end in January, with issue 8 being the last of that title.  Iron Man 2.0 won’t even make it into 2012, with issue 12 being the finale for that title.  With these cancellations, fans must be wondering; Will Alpha Flight and War Machine ever be able to successfully support an ongoing book?  While both seem to be popular with fans, that popularity simply doesn’t translate into sales.  And now, as a result, Marvel is going to be down two titles.

News of Alpha Flight getting canceled was probably the most disappointing.  Written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente and drawn by Dale Eaglesham, Alpha Flight seemed to be a runaway success right out of the gates.  The debut issue sold almost 50,000 copies and Marvel Comics quickly made the decision to upgrade the book from an 8 issue limited series to a monthly ongoing book.  However, it now seems that decision may have been a bit premature.  After the first issue, sales quickly began to spiral downward.  The second issue sold just over half of what the first issue managed and the drop off didn’t stop there.  The title now struggles to sell 20,000 books a month and, as a result, Marvel has made the decision to reverse the call to make Alpha Flight an ongoing series and will instead, as originally planned, end the book after issue 8.

Here’s how Greg Pak broke the news to fans on Twitter…

As for Iron Man 2.0, written by Nick Spencer with art by Ariel Olivetti, I’m not sure anyone was surprised to see this book get cancelled.  That has nothing to do with the creative team behind this book, which is extremely talented, but everything to do with War Machine just never being able to get out of the shadow cast by Tony Stark and the real Iron Man.  As a purchaser of comic books myself, I can say that I never picked up a single issue of this book.  It looked cool and all, but weekly budgets being what they are, I could just never find room to add Iron Man 2.0 to my buy pile.  And, apparently, most other comic fans found themselves in a similar situation, with both Iron Man 2.0 and Alpha Flight.