I buy 4 marvel books regularily: Exiles, Spider-Girl, Agent X, and Ultimate Spider-man. Today I found out two of them, Spider-Girl and Agent X, have been cancelled after their 61st and 12th issues and Exiles, like Spider Girl and Agent X, is one of the 13 books whose price was increased to avoid cancellation so who knows how much longer it'll be around.
I'm not shocked that Agent X is cancelled. There was an obvious decline in quality the very first issue after Gail left, and I think it'll only get worse. Hopefully thay'll be able to end it respectably.
Spider-Girl has dodged the axe afew times, but something feels more final this time. It just barely broke She Hulk's record for longest running female title at Marvel. And given how Marvel has been "supporting" this book(I've never seen ads for it, and there were no plans for any TPBs) I think they decided it was good enough to break the record, but not by any sizable margin.

There was a Spider-Girl trade.

But it saddens me that it got cancelled as well. Not that I read it, mind you, but it kept the people who like 70s style Marvel Books happy, and showed that Marvel hasn't completely lost touch with the past.

Theres plenty of good books out there to read if all your favorites get axed. Ultimate Spider-Man will be around for a while, and if you like that I would recommed other Ultimate books, except fro team-up, those are pretty ####py, but Ultimate X-men and the Ulitmates are both well written with good artwork.

I know how you feel about Marvel, I had to give up on the X-Men titles when they went ultimate. They drastically changed everything about the characters from one issue to the next with no explanation other than "6 months later...". What ever happened to the evolution of the character? In the past if you wanted to make changes you used a story arc. I'm not opposed to changes but I'm insulted by the lack of effort in the transition. Any idiot can push the reset button, but it takes a real writer to advance a story line. Good luck finding new titles.

Strazin... anywho (or how as in "how is that spelled?") hes the bestwritter they've got right now on their big titles (Amazing Spiderman). The only other good read is Black Panther by Priest. It should be a big title, but you know marvel... GM is doing a good job *snicker* if he was writting Ultimate Xmen (then this riot story arc would rock) his take on the classic Xmen just doesn't fit. & the manga Uncanny is kinda weird. it looks cool, but not for an xmen title. guess we can't have Jim lee art with Claremont tales forever. we can dream.

EDIT: added the word forever.

I've been collecting comics a long time, and I've had to see some of my favorites go too. Be glad they are just cancelling them instead of putting progressivly less talanted writers and artists on them until you can't even stand to read it anymore. Marvel used to do that a lot.

There are plenty of great Marvel books out there right now that I bet you've not tried.

X-STATIX / X-Force is Marvel's best book on the market. It started off as X-Force #116 but relaunched almost a year ago as X-Statix #1 because it annoyed the old X-force (which has effectively been cancelled) fans. Superheroes as image-obsessed pop icons; a great concept played out with wonderful storytelling and incredible characterization which you all value so much :-)

Other good Marvel books:
Amazing Spider Man (starting with #30; J. Michael Straczynski, the bastard, broke my vow to never buy another spider man title. I hate him because he's made me love it)

Daredevil (all runs on it since its relaunch have been great; but most recently Bendis' start at issue 26)

Alias (Marvel's 2nd best series; another Bendis one. Hilarious, touching, exciting, and dirty. Everything you could want.)

Hulk (Starting back at #34. Bruce Jones is doing stuff that's taking Hulk in an entirely new direction; he hardly ever even becomes hulk anymore. Its slowly developing, but to those of us with patience it's called "pacing".)

I know it hurts when your favorites get cancelled... I hate Dc for axing "The Spectre" and i STILL lament the passing of Marvel's "Warlock & The Infinity Watch" after 8 years or so... but we must move on. There's no swaying sales on our own without buying a million copies of each issue. It's not like there isn't a ton of other stuff on the market, though. Dc Vertigo's "100 Bullets" is an amazing title and a VERY-indie series called "Amelia Rules!" is the most delightful thing in existence

Avengers has been great so far with Geoff Johns as writer and looks to really kick into high gear tomorrow with the first Oliver Copiel issue. Very classic style Marvel without seeming out of date or repetitive.

Daredevil is quite possibly one of the most mature and intelligent superhero books around. The pacing is extremely slow but each storyarc builds towards a strong conclusion. I'll trade characterization for big fights anyday.

New X-Men is a book that everyone seems divided on that I respect and enjoy. For the first time since the late 80s someone is actually trying to achieve something in a mutant book other than telling the same stories in the same style with only the most superficial changes to give the impression that there has been some sort of development of character. No more issue after issue of the played out Remy/Rogue love affair. Gone is the constant talk of an impending war with humanity that never happens. Gone are the ubervillains like Sinister and Bastion and Onslaught who perpetuate more of the same. For the first time in a long time we see a school training students to grow as people, not just to take part in some task force that fights with bad guy task forces. For the first time in as long as I can remember the X-Men actually feel relevant.

THEIR CANCELING AGENT-X WTF?!?!?!?!?!

Marvel's never impressed me with their ability to sell good books. They really seem limitted to their established popular characters when it comes to big sellers. Exiles is good, black panther is good, but they don't seem to be able to really develop a hit. Mostly looks like they just try to keep the numbers up on the big books (x, spidey, avengers) and hope something else just catches on. Lately their strategy seems to be the more #1 issues they can put out, the better chance they'll find something that will take off. Its insane Course DC may work the same way when it comes to their mainstream stuff, can't say for sure never read much of it.

AS far as other marvel books go, I have enjoyed most of the ultimate universe, Alias is good stuff. But more of my reading list has moved elsewhere. Primarily DC's vertigo line and a a failry random collection of stuff from other sources.

I know how you feel. I gave up on Marvel almost completely except for Avengers and now it is gone to the dogs as well. So no more marvel for me except maybe a Masterworks Hardcover now and then. The funny thing is I am reading seven titles now from DC: JSA, Power Company, Batman, Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, and Superman & Batman: Generations III. I was a big DC fan in Grade school and then a big Marvel fan in Jr. high and in high school it was about even. a few years after high school I found I was mostly reading Marvel. Now I don't read Marvel at all anymore because of two reasons.

1. They really don't care about what is best for the long run or how their customers feel and think. Example: two years ago they were publishing a book called X-Men the Hidden Years. This title trancended the old series reprint era and connected the histories of the original and first new teams of the X-Men. Writer/Artist John Byrne from the glory days of the X-Men was writing and drawing this title. He was five issues short of completeing an issue for issue replacement when they cancelled it on him. He had to wrap up story lines and drop his final arc because of it. And the book was above their sales quota to maintain the book. So since they did not recieve major amounts of influx of new readers when the X-Men movie came out, they cancelled it and a few other X-Titles. The problem was they killed a profitable book because their overall sales didn't look they way they wanted it. Many, many fans (including myself) wrote in and John Byrne's editor had to beg them to get two more issues to go to print to complete the storyline and not leave the fans hanging in the middle of a story. So they don't care about you or I, or any other reader or collector. They just want your money and they will do any kind of marketing ploy to up sales temporarily rather than work on their product. The last few years for Marvel has been rehash, rehash, rehash, recreate, recreate, recreate... (A quote from John Byne. "Cancelling a profitable book in a failing market is commiting cooperate suicide." They filed for Bankruptcy since then too.)

2. I don't like the ultimates and they are moving their whole line towards the ultimates and they don't care what the older fans/collectors think. I have read Marvel comics since around 1973 or 74 and the age six, and I have given them a great deal of my time and money up until this month as a matter of fact. And their attitude towards people like me is: We don't care about your versions of the characters we are cancelling them and putting out a new one as an ultimate. Again, their attitude towards their customers as a whole is here is our stuff. Buy it and shut up. So I didn't go away mad... I just took my money to DC!!

After all DC doesn't recreate their characters in spite of their customers, they keep the old versions and bring in a new one. Example: you can read the JSA and see Jay Garrick the Golden Age Flash and his compatriots, or the Flash and JLA and read about Wally West and his commrades of the Modern Age, and Barry Allen the Flash from the Silver Age made the ultimate sacrifice and is honored by both....

Now that's my idea of ultimates...

I agree Bizarrome. point one is exactly why I only buy the Amazing Spiderman TPBs.

Drop19 wrote:
New X-Men is a book that everyone seems divided on that I respect and enjoy. For the first time since the late 80s someone is actually trying to achieve something in a mutant book other than telling the same stories in the same style with only the most superficial changes to give the impression that there has been some sort of development of character. No more issue after issue of the played out Remy/Rogue love affair. Gone is the constant talk of an impending war with humanity that never happens. Gone are the ubervillains like Sinister and Bastion and Onslaught who perpetuate more of the same. For the first time in a long time we see a school training students to grow as people, not just to take part in some task force that fights with bad guy task forces. For the first time in as long as I can remember the X-Men actually feel relevant. (end quote)

this almost justifies what GM did, but I still don't support it.

Huh!?!

the change to the xmen. his explanation almost makes sence. It almost gives an excuse for the drastic change on the title. But I can't support it.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by change here. There has definitely been a move away from the more traditional set up/fight/resolution style of the previous two decades. Some of the characters changed in ability and personality pretty quickly.

In the spirit of discourse and all I'm just sort of curious what thing that Morrison did that you can't support.

And regarding the Hidden Years book, it was very ridiculous when Marvel cancelled that title. The decision was reminiscent of Carlin cancelling the healthy JSA book from the early 90s because he didn't want books featuring "old" characters published. A publisher doesn't owe their fans anything, but when a title is selling well and doesn't hinder any other title it seems ridiculous to cancel it.