After 170 issues, Marvel is pulling the plug on Luke Cage. The long running comic book hero will have his time in the spotlight brought to a close. According to ComicBook.com the hero was not in the March line-up of solicitations for 2018, and the series will wrap up in February, 2018.
On December 20th, 2017, writer David F. Walker tweeted…
“Sad but true…LUKE CAGE (the comic book, not the TV series) has been cancelled. Issue #10 is the last (and best) of the series. Oh well, on to other adventures. Thanks to everyone who supported the series.
“Time to get real…LUKE CAGE was cancelled because it sold poorly. VERY poorly. There are various factors that contributed to those poor sales, but they all add up to the same conclusion.”
Walker is correct. According to ComicChron, back in the summer, Luke Cage moved just over 14,000 units in July. By November, Luke Cage had dropped all the way down to 11,949 units.
Opposite of some other comic book writers, Walker doesn’t make excuses for why Luke Cage was cancelled. He doesn’t blame a specific demographic or accuse the industry of not being “diverse” enough. Instead he chalks it up to people simply not being interested enough to buy the comics in droves.
He finished up his comments by tweeting…
“The success of superheroes in film, television and video games ONLY carries over to comics when people actually buy the comics. Truth is not many people buy comics. Of the top 10 best selling comics in November, only four sold more than 100,000 units. That’s sad.
“Hopefully I’m not coming across as bitter or angry, because today is great fucking day. My brother from another mother @BRIANMBENDIS is home from the hospital & on the mend. That’s all that matters to me.”
Most of the top-selling comic books these days belong to DC. In fact, six of the top 10 selling comic books in November included Batman, while the top two selling books overall belonged to two different iterations of the first issue of DC’s Doomsday Clock .
Luke Cage wasn’t alone in being cancelled, though. There was also Generation X, Hawkeye, Iceman, Jean Grey and The Unbelievable Gwenpool that also got the axe, most of which fit within the Social Justice Warrior comic book label.
One of the comic books still up in the air is America Chavez, where despite the abysmal sales there still has yet to be a confirmation on the comic book series getting the axe.
Much to the dismay of many fans, Captain Marvel is not being cancelled, despite barely being able to move 30,000 units a month, as confirmed by Marvel’s Margaret Stohl.
Marvel writer Matthew Rosenberg tried to dispel some of the panic surrounding the cancellations, stating that the cancellations were all part of a cycle.
There is no bloodbath of cancellations. Some books end so new ones can take their place. That’s just the cycle.
— Matthew Rosenberg (@AshcanPress) December 20, 2017
Some of the fans of the SJW-themed comics tried to make excuses for the poor sales, stating that the physical shipments didn’t tell the whole story and that perhaps digital sales would compensate (an excuse oftentimes used when AAA physical games sell poorly at retail). However, Rosenberg confirmed that Diamond wasn’t the one canceling comic books, Marvel was in charge of that decision and that they’re doing it based on sales.
No. Diamond doesn’t cancel books. Marvel does. And they know what they sell.
— Matthew Rosenberg (@AshcanPress) December 21, 2017
This confirms, finally, that the SJW comic books simply weren’t selling digitally nor physically, and that with new leadership in place, Marvel is doing what’s best for business.
