CANCELLED!

What do these three have in common? THEY'RE ALL CANCELED!

With the many recent press releases last week, no one would blame you for assuming that Marvel is cleaning house with a vast majority of their titles.  However, I don’t think anyone assumed that there would be SO MANY titles being canned. Daken: Dark Wolverine, X-23, Alpha Flight, Black Panther and of course Ghost Rider (which I’m going to take complete credit for) are all getting axe, along with a whole slew of other titles, some of which, like Victor Von Doom, weren’t even published before they got the axe.

While I commend Marvel for making these difficult decisions, I wonder what else goes into their thinking behind these cancellations. A book like Black Panther may not sell extremely well, but I’m sure there are fans of the character who loved that series. Same with Ghost Rider, a series I was picking up until recently, and was planning on starting up again as soon as Johnny Blaze was given the spirit of vengeance again (you all know it was going to happen, he has another movie coming out soon). 

Not even Wolverine with boobs could  escape cancellation

 

These cancellations are long past due for some titles, but some (Von Doom for example) were never even given a chance to sell before they were cancelled. It’s very disappointing, as I was really looking forward to Nick Spencer’s take on the man who would become Dr. Doom. Unfortunately it looks like I was the only one. It’s also disheartening to hear of some of these cancellations so soon after the announcement of yet another Avengers title, to be released in time for the movie this upcoming May. Look, I completely understand why there are so many Avengers titles financially (they make casssshhhhh), but is there really a need for THREE different series, especially when some characters (Spider-man and Wolverine) appear in two different teams? (Remember when Marvel started publishing SEVEN Deadpool books?)  I would much prefer Marvel publishing the regular Avengers and New Avengers together and charging me six bucks a month instead of filling up the shelves with more and more books featuring “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”.

The same can be said for other titles too. Of the 52 new DC books, we have five Batman titles, two Superman books, and four Green Lantern books. Sure, there are reasons for all of them, but seriously, how can one justify the existence of Batman: The Dark Knight or Green Lantern: New Guardians? If anything, it works against DC’s “new reader friendly” stance, as many first time customers will get confused when they see multiple Batman books staring them in the face. We comic fans may know the difference between Detective Comics and Batman, but the average guy coming in off the street  

                                     probably doesn’t. 

Cancellations are the norm for the comic book business. Some books that deserve cancellation get it, and sometimes the ones we want to stick around, don’t. But it’s kind of sad when a book is canned before it’s even given a shot at the comic store. Hopefully Marvel will try and make better decisions when it comes to what kind of books get the axe, and which ones will stick around.

 

 Roided up Ventriloquist, actual panel from Batman: The Dark Knight