Marvel Seemingly Cancels 6 Comic Book Series

The solicitations for Marvel Entertainment’s March comic books have been released online, and fans have noticed the disappearance of a number of series recently pushed as part of the publisher’s Marvel Legacy promotion.

Captain Marvel, Generation X, America, The Unbelievable Gwenpool, Luke Cage and Defenders are all absent from Marvel’s listings for March, with the writers of two of those titles confirming via Twitter that the series have been canceled by the publisher.

Sorry I couldn’t confirm earlier, but the news is out. There are only 2 issues left of the Unbelievable Gwenpool. #24 is a fun send off to our version of Batroc the Leaper, and then 25, Gwen comes to terms with her vanishing future page count. pic.twitter.com/jAViZJLQtC

— Christopher Hastings (@drhastings) December 19, 2017

Today I submitted the last script pages for Generation X. It’s been a wild & emotional ride guys. Thanks to @danielketchum, @darrenkshan , @chrisrobinson, @amilcarpinna, @therealsobreiro, @ClaytonCowles, @TerryDodsonArt, @martinmorazzo, @ajalburquerque, and @ekoda for everything!

— Christina Strain (@christinastrain) December 19, 2017

However, Margaret Stohl, the writer of the current Captain Marvel series, was more upbeat in her response to a fan wondering where that series was in the latest listings:

never fear there is cool news to come

— Margaret Stohl (@mstohl) December 19, 2017

Update: Stohl later took to Twitter again to say that Captain Marvel was definitely not canceled:

Concerned Citizens: nope #CaptainMarvel has NOT been canceled & we are hard at work on all things Carol Danvers even now! @MiniB622 @marvel pic.twitter.com/nP2YfTNlqB

— Margaret Stohl (@mstohl) December 19, 2017

The apparent cancellation of the series follows the recent news that the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series would end with its January issue, with the characters moving to the Infinity Countdown miniseries. (It should be noted that Captain Marvel is also appearing in that series, which might confirm the end of it at least temporarily; with a 2019 movie in the offing, it’s almost certain to return sooner rather than later.) Additionally, the series Secret Warriors and Jean Grey also end in January, the latter being replaced with February’s launch of new team book X-Men Red, with Inhumans series Royals ending this month, with a special one-off epilogue issue released in January.

All 10 titles were part of this fall’s Marvel Legacy promotion, which relaunched Marvel’s superhero line in an attempt to renew fan interest with new storylines harkening back to familiar concepts and storylines, with each series being axed less than six months after its Legacy rebranding.

Marvel’s March solicitations also suggest that more titles may be headed for the chopping block; the cover for Hawkeye No. 16 promises a “fond farewell” to the title character, while promotional text for Champions No. 18 asks “is it finally time to disband and give up the fight?” Other titles speculated by fans as potentially ending based on ominous catalog text include She-Hulk and Iceman. Unlike other publishers, Marvel does not traditionally announce final issues of series in advance.

Update 2: Writer Kelly Thompson confirmed via Twitter that the Hawkeye series was indeed ending:

Yeah, as some of you are guessing from that cover, #16 will be our last issue of #Hawkeye. Obviously I’m disappointed, but I’m really proud of our book & 16 issues is a solid number in modern times. And there’s maybe something interesting coming next? We’ll see! https://t.co/TDl849G6Kp

— Kelly Thompson (@79SemiFinalist) December 19, 2017

Sources within Marvel couldn’t confirm the status of individual series, but suggested that plans were already in process to use characters and storylines in future comic book series.

Dec. 19, 3:47 p.m. Updated headline and story to reflect Margaret Stohl tweeting that Captain Marvel has not been canceled.

Dec. 19, 4:06 p.m. Updated headline and story to reflect Kelly Thompson’s confirmation that Hawkeye was ending.