It pays to monitor Diamond’s weekly “Product Changes” list — some big news often slips in there, like today’s announcement that Marvel Comics series Young Allies has been canceled with issue #6.
That means that issue #7, previously solicited and scheduled for December, isn’t happening. It also means that the Young Allies annual — announced earlier this month as part of the Paul Tobin-written “Game On” crossover between Spider-Girl and Avengers Academy — will actually ship two months after the last issue of the series. (And that story may have changed names — it was called “Arcade: Death Game” at NYCC.)
Sean McKeever is the writer of Young Allies, and it was revealed at New York Comic Con past this weekend that he’s working on something for Marvel called “Onslaught Unleashed,” starting in February. As Comics Alliance pointed out, Young Ally Nomad/Rikki Barnes is tied to the whole original Onslaught deal — she’s from the same Heroes Reborn Earth created by Franklin Richards in the Onslaught: Marvel Universe one-shot — so maybe McKeever is picking up on Young Allies plot threads in that books.
To read Newsarama’s interview with McKeever on Young Allies from March, head over here.
October 14th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Onslaught’s back? Does that mean that so are Marvel’s money woes?
Bring on the Sep 1996 sales conditions!
October 14th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Ouch. Poor McKeever. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a writer that good get dicked around as much as he has by both of the big two.
October 14th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
That sucks. The only reason I was picking up the book was for Firestar and Gravity. Hopefully those two will show up somewhere else.
MikeM
October 14th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Crap.
October 14th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Blimey, they don’t give books a chance to build via good reviews, do they?
October 14th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Well Martin, Marvel doesn’t anyways.
October 14th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I mean, can anyone say they’re really shocked by this news? This book was a half-starter, shoulda-been limited series to begin with. Freakin alterna-verse Bucky can’t lead a team book! If you’re going to try a book like this, & including a mis-characterized Firestar, at least add another former New Warrior & try to net some of their inherent fan-base to ignite additional interest.
Everything about this launch reeks of low-sales numbers, poor marketing & decision making on the executive/editorial level. Why in the world would they not start with a limited to test the waters on something like this?
Marvel still hasn’t learned their lesson with new launches apparently. Notice how DC launched Batman Beyond as a mini & it was resoundingly successful & thus was greenlit as an ongoing…. it’s not rocket science.
Sheesh.
October 14th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
How, a book with ‘D-list’ characters (on their best day) is being canceled? This actually smells like a ‘let’s keep/renew our copyrights on these characters all at once by concocting this lame attempt at a team book.
Marvel publishes so much dreck that I had no idea this book even existed.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
This really bugs me. Marvel, stop launching ongoings you won’t get behind for a year. I’m much less likely to give a new Marvel series a shot because they cancel so many, like this one and the new Hawkeye and Mockingbird series, before they’ve had a whole year.
October 14th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Good call, Jeremy. I don’t know, but I’d guess they ask for an outline to come with a pitch. How does that work?
“Nah, you just gotta do all that remain of the 12 issues worth of story in the last 1 you have yet to fully script.” With Doctor Voodoo, didn’t that run like 3 issues? From ongoing down to maybe 4?
Whatever, only 6 for Young Allies is bad enough without even coonsidering the other “ongoing”s recently mishandled.
Marvel sucks.
I like Fraction/Ferry Thor so far, though.
October 14th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
They shoulda put Wolverine on the team….
October 14th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Nice to know I collected this series for nothing…
October 15th, 2010 at 12:21 am
If you advertise your series as a ‘non-team’ and just have them work together by coincidence, it’s going to be tough to get people to care.
October 15th, 2010 at 12:53 am
I loved Sentinal and Gravity so I gave this book a try. Nothing about it hooked me, from the lame villains to the boring team dynamic. This was almost as bad as his Titans run.
October 15th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I ordered the last issue. Hopefully it will become worth something at some point
October 15th, 2010 at 1:51 am
another teen titans imitation that doesnt work
October 15th, 2010 at 2:56 am
Well, I’m disappointed, but I can’t say I’m surprised. I was looking forward to the title and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t rate its chances – particularly not when Marvel buried its launch amidst the release of four new Avengers books, AND on the same week that Avengers Academy #1 dropped. To be fair, though, beyond all of that, I don’t think the book lived up to its potential – it never seemed to be quite the sum of its parts.
October 15th, 2010 at 4:12 am
I was interested in this book when I heard about it (love Firestar and Gravity), but I didn’t pick it up for three reasons…reasons which may sound negative, but hold true…
1) I was already buying too many titles when this debuted.
2) Part of me was convinced it was going to be cancelled in less than a year.
3) Part of me was certain I could find these in a cheap box at a con next summer.
October 15th, 2010 at 8:04 am
I remember talking to Sean McKeever at a Con earlier this year and he was telling me about this “new series unlike any other teen book” that is going to use the characters from the backup of Captain America. I said, “that’s cool” but really I was thinking, “Oh you mean the last 8 pages of Captain America I don’t read?”. To his credit, I don’t read Avengers Academy either, so I guess I’m just not a fan of teen books.
October 15th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Marvel are getting quite good at this. Spider-Woman suffered because of this wishy washy-ness. I love the Black Widow at Marvel and couldnt find a dec solicit for it – i hope this isnt happeneing there too. there is just no security and i hate that
October 15th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Marvel should just declare all new series (except for the A-list characters) mini-series. If they sell well between singles and trade, it gets a new mini. Stop raising readers long term expectations.
October 15th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Monetta, I think you have a great idea there: everything that isn’t a major title should be a mini. Most series would benefit from being a series of series … if you know what I mean. Ongoings always lose steam. If you “relaunch” the title every 6 or 12 issues — maybe giving a bit of a breather between volumes — it’ll keep peoples’ interest, allow people’s wallet a little break-time, enable new fans to jump on board more easily, and make TPBs easy-squeezy too. No brainer.
October 15th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Monetta, that is the perfect solution right there. I mean, after all this time they have to know exactly which characters can support an ongoing without a big name team on board. Use the mini format to its maximum and stop with the 5-issue ongoings. It’s that same kind of pattern that makes readers hesitant to pick up new books. They don’t want to get too invested in something that’s not gonna last through the year.
October 16th, 2010 at 1:04 am
That does suck that Marvel can’t stick behind a book for one year like alot of people said already. I enjoyed the book very much and like the villians they were fighting. The book should have a mini and if it was loved continue it in mini series form that way the stories have more punch and we do not have to worry about cancellation. That is what they should do with Spider-Girl in my opinion and stop starting and stopping the book all the time. If I was DeFalco I would have walked away from Marvel a long time ago.
October 16th, 2010 at 1:16 am
It’s a waste, this title was actually showing quite a bit of potential. This would have been a great title to make an online exclusive then just publish trades.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:16 am
I’m sure Marvel will bring back the Young Allies for another new 6-issue non-mini-series in a couple of years.
And Onslaught returns? Marvel has officially scraped *through* the bottom of the barrel.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
this book was great! I think it will be s.m.’s stepping stone to write other books kinda like gillens s.w.o.r.d and brother voodoo for remender. I guess you just got to look forward to their next gigs. thor was awesome and so was franken castle we all dont have to suck bendis and johns dicks dont be afraid to like a book because the sales are bad love it for the story!!
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