Decades before Stan Lee brought together the Marvel Bullpen, it was the company that would one day be known as DC Comics that began the modern superhero tradition with the creation of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. In the decades since, the comics industry has been an ever-changing business constantly striving to adapt to the times.

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Some comics, like those starring DC's Trinity of heroes, never go out of print. Others have been cancelled before they were ever released.

10 Alan Moore's Watchmen Spinoffs

before watchmen: minutemen

Writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons forever changed the comics industry with the creation of Watchmen -- a twelve-issue miniseries that deconstructed the tropes of the superhero genre while delivering a gritty, gripping tale of political intrigue on the eve of Armageddon. If there is such a thing as a perfect comic, this is it.

The creators had a contract that stated they would regain the rights to their work one year after it went out of print. As such, DC Comics never stopped printing it, cheating the two and causing Moore to leave the company for good. Had DC not done this, Moore had hoped to work on other comics within The Watchmen's universe, including a prequel starring the Minutemen.

9 Static Shock

Static Shock

The iconic superhero Static is a fan favorite and was the star of both a comic of the same name and the classic Static Shock cartoon in the DC Animated Universe. He has also appeared in the Young Justice cartoon and starred in his own title during DC's The New 52, impressing fans with his . Static's comics have always felt rooted in reality, simultaneously tackling social issues and supervillainy.

Static was set to return in 2018 along with several other Milestone heroes. Unfortunately, one of the characters' creators, the legendary Dwayne McDuffie, passed away. His widow has been engaged in a lawsuit against others who helped create Static and several other heroes under the Milestone imprint, meaning the proposed 2018 series never launched. Whenever Static does return, it will be in a very different context.

8 Wonder Woman #84

Diana in her golden armor with a colorful background in Wonder Woman 1984

The movie Wonder Woman: 1984 is an upcoming superhero epic that will have the Amazon warrior fighting during the height of the Cold War. Given the title, it seems strange that DC Comics changed the numbering of Wonder Woman comics to prevent there being an issue #84--which would have come out this year--the same year as the film!

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In 2016, Wonder Woman's main title was relaunched with issue 1 as part of DC: Rebirth. In December of 2019, Wonder Woman issue 83 was released. The next issue came out in January. It was advertised as #750, returning to the original numbering system since the character's original release. While this is a bigger event to commemorate, it also missed an opportunity to tie into the film.

7 Milestone

In the 90s, Dwayne McDuffie was one of a handful of creators who helped found Milestone Comics, an imprint of superhero comics focused predominantly on characters of color. Five new Milestone titles were scheduled for release in 2018 as a way to reboot (and update) the line, including Milestone #1 Featuring: Icon and Rocket.

Icon is one of the best Superman allegories in all of comics, while his sidekick Rocket is smart, confident, and edgy in a way that grounded his stories for readers. Their Milestone title was supposed to tell the sorts of stories that Superman could not in his own series (presumably looking at the politics of power and race). Sadly, this was cancelled with the other Milestone comics.

6 Earth M

All tolled, there were five titles that were supposed to come out as part of the relaunch of the Milestone line in 2018. Beyond the two listed, the other three were supposed to be Love Army, Duo, and Earth M--the last being the most mysterious of the lot.

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Gavin Jasper at Den of Geek has hypothesized this would be an alternate universe Batman-inspired title that looked at some of the moral ambiguities of vigilantism. Given that the big appeal of the book would have been its mystery, it seems unlikely this will ever be printed, as the hype around such a project is necessary to get readers interested in the mystery.

5 WildCats

Wildstorm Comics had a series of popular titles in the 90s and 2000s, including the superhero team WildCats--a team so popular they even got their own cartoon series in the 90s. The writer Warren Ellis had contracted a deal to bring the WildCats back as part of rebooting the Wildstorm universe.

Recently, it was revealed that Warren Ellis had used his status to take advantage of a number of women. His contract with DC has been terminated as a result, and so his WildCats series--which had already seen a delayed release--is almost certainly cancelled.

4 Final Wild Storm Comic

Warren Ellis's WildCats comic would have been one of four titles set in his new reimagining of the Wildstorm Universe--the first of which was simple called The Wild Storm. Another miniseries, Michael Cray, has been released as well.

What the final title would be is unknown. Whatever it might have been, it will not exist now, nor will any DC titles from Ellis for a while.

3 Warren Ellis's Death Metal Tie-In

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo took the comics world by storm with their hit event series Dark Nights: Metal--a bold dark fantasy story that infused cosmic horror into the superhero genre. One reason the event was so popular was that it had several tie-in comics which emphasized the scope of the story but never flooded the market with a deluge of connected stories.

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The sequel story, Dark Nights: Death Metal, has begun. Warren Ellis was expected to write a tie-in issue, but this will no longer be the case.

2 Batman: Bellicosity

Kevin Smith is known for his goofy stoner comedy, but he has scripted some of the most compellingly dark superhero comics of the 2000s. After his success on Green Arrow: Quiver, he wrote a pair of Batman stories. The first comic, Batman: Cacophony, was a masterpiece, but its sequel, The Widening Gyre, was so despised by fans that it never got to continue the story he set up.

Kevin Smith had been teasing fans that he would release a story focused on the hero Baphomet, which Smith said on Twitter would be named for the hero and which was later announced with a 2014 release date under the title Batman: Bellicosity. To date, DC has been silent on why this book has not come out, though the negative reaction to The Widening Gyre seems likely.

1 Twilight of the Superheroes

Alan Moore had planned to write a story set decades in the future of the DC Universe, in which the heroes met their final end, as older and younger heroes alike met their doom.

When DC cheated Moore over the rights to The Watchmen, he left the company, resulting in this comic never being published. It was the end of an era, not of superheroes, but of Moore's time with the publishing company that wanted to kill the rights of its creators.

NEXT: DC: 10 Famous Heroes From The 2000s That Are Forgotten