Marvel's Stealth-Canceling of Series Continues to be Annoying

I have previously written about Marvel and how they seem to basically enjoy acting like a new comic series is an ongoing (no set endpoint) before suddenly acting like it was meant as a mini-series all along (despite zero warning) and canceling it with issue 5/6/8/10/whatever. It is basically stealth-canceling a comic by attempting to gaslight us with claims of, "Oh, the latest run of, 'West Coast Avengers,' truly was meant to just be 10 issues," or, "That latest, 'Iron Man,' book was intended as just 10 issues, too. Oh, and shut up about, 'New Champions,' seeming to end after issue eight." It's irritating, tacky, and plays us all for fools. Oh, and yes, DC has done this too, but quite a bit less.

I guess getting eight or ten issues of a book is better than not even five (sympathy for Joe Garrison AKA the knock-off Punisher) or so, but it is still a bummer. I don't like getting excited for a comic and thinking I'll be enjoying reading it for a while, only to be told, "Gotcha! We're shutting it down and might relaunch things again with a fresh #1 in a handful of months or a couple o' years!" I mean, seriously, the, "Hellverine," mini-series was popular, so it got an ongoing, only to appear it is canceled as if it were another mini? Someone on Reddit has a handy list illustrating how this is not an isolated incident in the least, with merely, "Spiderboy," and, "Daredevil," getting out of at least the teens of numbering. They achieved 20 (Spider-Boy) and 25 (Daredevil) issues before being canceled. I am unsure what the future holds for Spider-Boy, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that we'll have a new Daredevil series on the stands before 2025 wraps. I guess Marvel gets to celebrate a milestone 25th issue and then will most likely attempt to get more juiced-up sales with a fresh #1 not too much later. I'm annoyed, clearly, but I guess Marvel doesn't want to be upfront about a book either being planned as a mini-series or simply admitting a book is getting canceled due to bad sales.

I Enjoyed but Also Have One Quibble with, "West Coast Avengers," #1

I read the latest iteration of, "West Coast Avengers," by Gerry Duggan and Danny Kim, and quite enjoyed it! The debut issue features Tony Stark and an assortment of heroes (and reformed villains) working to help the Western end of the United States stay safe from danger. The West Coast Avengers comics have always had an interesting mish-mash of a cast from the days when it was Hawkeye's team in California, and this new series contains bigger names (Iron Man, Spider-Woman, War Machine) and random characters (Firestar, new addition Blue Bolt, a reformed Ultron). One thing slightly bugged me, however. You see, a potential villain is revealed at the issue's end, and...Ultron is up to no good.

The idea of taking a monster like Ultron and having him be a good guy now (due to events in some other mini-series) is a cool change to the usual formula, for real! The extra twist that he's still plotting destruction with, "The Gospel of Ultron," being advertised as coming in 2025 at the issue's end kind of ruins things. I mean, it is zero surprise for Ultron to be doing evil again--even if it is slightly different in the sense he seems to be fusing humans with machines (kind of like he used to be with Hank Pym) instead of outright wanting to kill all humans.

I don't mind Ultron being a baddie, but why would you solicit him as reformed and make a big deal out of it only to do an immediate rug-pull and declare, "Nope, he's going to be a problem!" It is my one quibble with the new series even if it leads to a cool story from this new, "Gospel," of that mischievous machine. It just could've been less obvious this was going to happen.