00:00You know how amazing television series like Firefly get cancelled way ahead of their time?
00:05Well, unfortunately, the same can happen to comics, taken from us far too soon.
00:10With that in mind, I'm Will for WhatCulture, and here are the 10 best comics cancelled before their time.
00:1610. Chase. Chase was a series launched in 1998 and revolved around Cameron Chase,
00:22an agent of the Department of Extranormal Operations,
00:25which was tasked with monitoring superhuman threats to national security in the United States.
00:30Basically, it was a cross between the X-Files, the Department of Paranormal Activity, and S.H.I.E.L.D. all rolled up in one.
00:37Chase was an agent who had a considerable distrust of superhumans,
00:41seeing as her father was one, but was killed while she was still a young girl.
00:45The series was well written and beautifully illustrated,
00:48but one of the key features was that it centred around a female lead,
00:51with the character of Cameron Chase being well-structured and fascinating.
00:56Sadly, the series failed to find an audience,
00:58with only nine issues of the main run being published,
01:01and the 10th issue tying into the DC One Million storyline.
01:05That issue won the Comic Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favourite Story back in 1999,
01:10which goes to show just how well-written Chase actually was.
01:149. Semper Fi.
01:16These days, it seems odd to think of comic books featuring stories about warfare,
01:20but when you look back, that's one of the ways comics gained popularity in the early days of World War II.
01:26Since that conflict ended, comics left the genre behind,
01:29but returned to it in later years due to the Vietnam War.
01:32Enter Semper Fi, which focuses primarily on the United States Marine Corps' involvement in Vietnam.
01:38The book was written by a veteran of the conflict, Michael Palladino, who was a devil dog himself.
01:44Each issue was broken down into two stories,
01:46a main one illustrated by John Severin or Andy Kubert,
01:50and a backup story illustrated by Sam Glansman, a veteran of World War II.
01:55Even with great writing and illustration, the series only managed to last nine issues,
02:00before Marvel pulled Semper Fi from its lineup,
02:02and the team went on to work on other projects.
02:05The title is Latin for Always Faithful,
02:07and is the Marine Corps' motto still in use today.
02:118. The Crew.
02:12Caspar Cole was a New York City police officer who took over the role of Black Panther to help his career get a boost.
02:18His activities got him involved with a dangerous gang,
02:21but he also managed to pick up some of the same superpowers the Black Panther enjoyed.
02:24This pushed him to create a new identity for himself, White Tiger.
02:28This story unfolded in the new title, The Crew, which was first published in 2003.
02:34Cole was joined by three other men,
02:35who were also at war with the gang he was trying to take down as the Black Panther.
02:40Honestly, the book had a lot going for it when it launched.
02:42The amazing artwork perfectly highlighted the storyline written by Christopher Priest,
02:47which followed the first few issues on each team member,
02:50and what brought them into the group called The Crew.
02:52Unfortunately, the book didn't make much of a splash, despite the talent behind it.
02:56It was cancelled by Marvel after only seven issues were published.
03:00The series was relaunched in 2017 as Black Panther and The Crew,
03:04but that also got cancelled after only five issues.
03:08Seven, Justice Society of America.
03:11The Justice Society of America was a prominent superhero team for DC Comics in the pre-crisis continuity,
03:17but following the crisis on Infinite Earths, the group went missing.
03:20In 1991, they were brought back in a miniseries,
03:23and that's such...
03:24The series just couldn't achieve the same level of success as the Justice League
03:28and other superhero teams the publisher had out at the time.
03:31It was cancelled after only three books,
03:33but ultimately saw the publication of 12 complete issues.
03:37Six, Sword.
03:39Sword, otherwise known as Sentient World Observation and Response Department,
03:43made its first appearance in Astonishing X-Men 5 in 2004.
03:47The concept worked well enough,
03:49so Marvel greenlit an ongoing series in 2009,
03:52but it didn't run for as long as the creators might have liked.
03:55In the opening story arc,
03:57Norman Osborn was in charge of the organization,
03:59as well as S.H.I.E.L.D.,
04:00and he was none too happy with their performance in not stopping the secret invasion events.
04:05With this enticing hook,
04:07with the green goblin in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.W.O.R.D.,
04:09it's a shame the series didn't make it past five issues.
04:13The first issue managed to sell just under 22,000 copies,
04:16but the second issue saw a drop of nearly 7,000.
04:19That's spelled death for S.W.O.R.D.
04:21It was later collected into a trade paperback titled S.W.O.R.D.
04:24No Time to Breathe in 2012.
04:27Five, Thor.
04:28Mighty Avenger.
04:30It's difficult to imagine given his popularity in comics and the MCU,
04:34but a Thor comic failed to find much of an audience when it was released back in 2010.
04:38Thor, the Mighty Avenger, was released in advance of the first Thor movie
04:42with the intention of following that continuity in comics.
04:45The idea was that people who enjoyed the movies but didn't know much about the comics
04:49could pick up issues of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, and bridge the gap.
04:53Instead of requiring a new reader to know about decades of comic book history,
04:57they could pick up one or two issues and be hooked.
04:59However, the series only managed to kick out a total of eight issues before being cancelled.
05:04It featured numerous characters from Thor's gallery of friends and foes,
05:07but despite the excellent storytelling and gorgeous artwork,
05:10Marvel killed the title.
05:12Four, The Thing.
05:13The ever-loving Blue-Eyed Thing is one of the most beloved superheroes in Marvel Comics Publishing
05:18Library.
05:19The character first debuted alongside his famous teammates in Fantastic Four 1,
05:23and since that time has appeared in thousands of comic book issues across the Marvel Universe.
05:29While he works exceptionally well as a member of a team,
05:32it seems he doesn't do as well on his own title.
05:34Writer Dan Slott and illustrator Andrea DeVito got together to bring him into his own title back in 2005.
05:40The book was based off a plotline from J. Michael Straczynski's run on Fantastic Four
05:44that set up Ben Grimm as an independently wealthy man.
05:48The idea was that Grimm had earned a considerable amount of money thanks to his time in the Fantastic Four,
05:53and the series took a look at the crazy ways he would spend that cash.
05:56The series was fun and entertaining,
05:58going as far as to end with The Thing throwing a massive superhero poker tournament
06:02based on his longtime hobby of hosting smaller superhero games.
06:06However, like the other titles on this list, it failed to find its audience when it was published,
06:11which resulted the book's cancellation due to low sales figures.
06:153. New Gods
06:16The New Gods was a comic series introduced by the legendary Jack Kirby in 1971.
06:22The series introduced various elements of the DC Universe that are still in play today.
06:26Beings like Apocalypse, High Father, and Darkseid were a part of the New Gods mythology.
06:31The series was one of those books that was so well written,
06:34it didn't land with the wide audience when it was first published.
06:38It touched on issues dealing with religion and mythology
06:40by delving deep into the concepts of an old pantheon of gods,
06:44as well as the new gods who replaced them.
06:46The original series, sadly, only lasted for a total of 11 issues
06:50before DC Comics gave it the axe in 1972.
06:53But the concepts didn't lay dormant for long.
06:55Many of the characters and concepts of Kirby's original books
06:58were brought back as a reprint in the mid-80s.
07:00But by 1989, a 28-issue series hit the shelves.
07:05Since then, the New Gods have been featured in various books
07:07and published in additional volumes, proving that Kirby's work endures.
07:122. Contest of Champions
07:14Contest of Champions was originally a video game that pitted heroes against villains,
07:19which itself was based loosely off the 1982 comic of the same name.
07:23Translating that to a comic book series required a story,
07:27which is why Marvel hired Al Ewing to do just that.
07:30One of the ways Ewing managed to make the book work
07:32was by digging deep into Marvel's archives.
07:35He pulled out characters few remembered,
07:37including Punisher 2099, Night Thrasher, and Outlaw.
07:40He didn't stop there, though.
07:41He utilized the entire Marvel catalog
07:43to pull in characters from different realities of the multiverse.
07:47The stories and concepts afforded to Ewing for this book
07:50made it an astounding read.
07:52It was full of interesting trips
07:53through the more obscure elements of the Marvel Universe,
07:56and thanks to the killer artwork, it looked fantastic to boot.
08:00However, because of poor sales, the series ended up getting cancelled early.
08:04But given the amount of room Ewing had to work with,
08:06this could have developed into a truly remarkable comic.
08:091. Incredible Hulk
08:11Believe it or not,
08:12the very first Incredible Hulk comic book series got cancelled before its time.
08:17Back in 1963, Stan Lee joined forces with Jack Kirby
08:20to create the giant green rage machine in his launch series.
08:24But it only managed to make it to six books before it was cancelled.
08:28The early Hulk series was a lot different from the books that followed,
08:31which may have had something to do with its cancellation.
08:33For one thing, he could only turn into the Hulk at night,
08:36until that went away and Bruce Banner was always the Hulk.
08:39Then the story made it that he could only Hulk out with a gamma radiation machine.
08:43By the sixth issue of the original series,
08:45Bruce Banner had managed to find a cure for his condition.
08:48But as we now know, it didn't take.
08:50The series ended with that sixth issue,
08:52and it took his joining and then leaving the Avengers
08:54for the character to truly cement his status in the Marvel Universe.
08:59Two years after the cancellation of this series,
09:01Marvel returned the Incredible Hulk to print,
09:04albeit in the pages of Tales to Astonish.
09:06He eventually went on to become one of Marvel's greatest characters.
09:10But his first series only managed six issues,
09:13which is pretty crazy when you look back at the Hulk's lauded history.
09:16And there you have it, folks.
09:18Ten comics cancelled before their time.
09:20Feel free to drop this video a like if you enjoyed it,
09:22and drop me a follow on Twitter at uslydaogu.
09:25I'm Will for what culture.
09:26Thanks for hanging out, and I'll see you next time.
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