Amazing Spider-Man will publish its 700th issue, a milestone for any publication, with a massive celebration.
Then Marvel’s canceling it.
Uh… what?
Marvel has apparently fallen victim to New 52 Disease, wherein a publication’s legacy matters a lot less than selling as many issues as possible to collector zombies. Marvel is rebooting all of its books, as we’ve noted before, and apparently that includes canceling a whole bunch of books to make room for new ones.
Not that everyone’s happy about it:
The Marvel NOW relaunches were precipitated by many of the publisher’s most popular writers winding down their long-running arcs at around the same time, allowing for new creators to work on various characters for the first time in many years. Does that apply to Spider-Man and writer Dan Slott, who’s been the primary creative force behind the Amazing title for the last several years, and who to the best of my knowledge was not bringing the book to a climax? Slott has yet to be announced as working on anything in the Marvel NOW line, and he’s keeping mum on Twitter.
Yeah, we’d be a little upset too.
Also getting canceled are Cap’s book and Wolverine’s, which have been ongoing since the ’60s and the ’80s respectively.
It’s not like Spider-Man won’t have an ongoing book, and we know Cap, at least, will be getting one with Rick Remender and John Romita as a creative team. Still, it seems weird that a book that has lasted 700 issues is getting the ax for a publicity stunt.
Really, that’s DC’s shtick.