After three series — the six-part Agents of Atlas mini, the 11-issue Agents of Atlas ongoing, and the current monthly Atlas — it looks like Jeff Parker’s run on the 1950s Marvel Comics characters is ending with September’s Atlas #5.
The news was revealed by no less of a source than Parker himself, in an interview published today by ComicsAlliance (they interviewed Gorilla Man, too, which is a pretty good coup). The writer said that it was his choice to end the book — whose most recent iteration started in May — and called the current 3-D man storyline “a definite highwater mark.”
It’s a good bet the characters will stick around the Marvel Universe after the series, written by Parker and penciled by Gabriel Hardma, end — Atlas member Gorilla Man is featured in a solo three-issue miniseries starting this week, read a preview here and an article about it here. Namora starred in a one-shot last month.
July 13th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
That soon!
wow, when it doesnt hit, it really doesnt hit
July 13th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Well, can’t say I’m surprised although I’ll definitely miss it. It looks like this title was pulling in just 19,000 copies a month in sales. You can’t really blame Marvel, they marketed this pretty aggressively for what was at best a mid-tier book sales-wise, and even had all these satellite series around it.
Compared with DC, Marvel seems to have a tighter financial leash on their books. What tipped me off that it was ending soon was the fact that Parker and Hardman are going to be doing the Hulk soon.
Also, I think the Atlas team is just too different from the rest of the mainstream Marvel universe to tick. I always felt it was closer to being an indie or even a DC book since DC has all these legacy characters from the 50′s around.
I suspect that if this had this been a DC book, it might have survived; Atlas’ sales are better than REBELS’ but REBELS is almost 20 issues in already.
July 14th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Sorry but this is so not surprising, Marvel have recently published a plethora of books that have no sales appeal to customers what-so-ever, and the customers have voted with their wallet, and good for them too, it’s about time.
Look for Hawkeye & Mockingbird, Young Allies, Black Widow, Iron Man: Legacy, Avengers Acadamy to name but a few, to follow suit shortly.
Maybe the message here is to actually publish something of quality, instead of providing shelf filler, and readers will respond in kind, keep churning rubbish out for the sake of rubbish, and you’ll kill an ever decreasing market even sooner!
July 14th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Yes. Those Deadpool books are all high quality.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:58 am
I’m crushed! Atlas does feel different from the rest. It’s by far my favorite comic & team of the past 5 years or more. Marvel’s “Age of Heroes” otherwise has bored me to death, with the possible exception of Thunderbolts. It’s got to be that Parker’s success now leads Marvel to put him on the bigger books that need help, much like what happened to my previous fave writer, Dan Slott. Unfortunately, Marvel put Dan on the Save Spider-man team, after negating Spidey’s last 20 years… which is terrible since Dan’s best stuff was utilizing recent or obscure minor characters. Now it’s just up to Jeff Parker to bring in Atlas guest stars wherever he goes!
July 21st, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Wonder if Parker will be the first writer to ever get Thunderbolts cancelled? If that happens I’m sure he would embrace the acoolade with open arms to his many other honors. Tom Brevoort knows TEH talent when he sees it folks!
September 11th, 2010 at 2:11 am
Once again trade waiting kills a great series.
For shame.
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