In the comic book industry, no project even by the best creative teams is guaranteed until the comic actually appears on the shelf. Throughout its long history, Marvel Comics has more than had its fair share of projects that were announced but never materialized.
The fact that books are solicited by the publisher but never get any further can happen for many reasons. There could be financial troubles, a lack of time from the creators, or even a shift in direction from a publisher. Ultimately, some projects never see the light of day, while a lucky few are merely delayed or published in another format. But there are plenty that are never seen gain.
10 Grant Morrison & Mark Millar's Plan To Resurrect The 2099 Universe Never Happened Due To Marvel's Financial Problems
Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, who teamed together for the Skrull Kill Krew, had a few projects they wanted to do but were unable to do for various reasons. Marvel Tales: End of the World was pitched as Professor Xavier merging with Cerebro and destroying the Marvel Universe. Marvel Tales: Apocalypse, their other story would have revived the Marvel 2099 line was solicited and on the docket to be published.
Besides reviving the 2099 universe, the story would have introduced a Captain America 2099, Iron Man 2099, and Avengers 2099 series to expand the universe. After the announcement of the series, it would be scrapped after Marvel began having financial difficulties, which would ultimately contribute to its failure and never seeing publication.
9 Even Jack Kirby Couldn't Rescue The Comic Adaption Of The 60's Television Show The Prisoner
Marvel's "Bullpen Bulletins" in July 1976 announced that the British television show, The Prisoner, created by Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein, would be coming to the pages of comics. The series, originally to be written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Gil Kane, was handed to Jack Kirby upon his return to Marvel. Kirby would script and pencil a 17-page test issue, but that was as far a the series got, aside from the few pages inked by Mike Royer. The reason for the comic not moving forward was never fully revealed, only that Stan Lee decided to cancel the project.
8 Fans Of The Thing Were Grimm When The Miniseries By Barry Windsor Smith Never Materialized
The Fantastic Four's blue-eyed Thing had a solo title was a continuation of the Marvel Two-In-One series that teamed him with various Marvel heroes, which ran from 1983 to 1986 for 36 issues. In the final issue's letters column, it was mentioned that The Thing would soon return to his solo adventures written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith, who had previously written and illustrated a story in Marvel Fanfare #15 (July 1984) starring Thing.
However, the project never materialized or saw publication until January 2006, or was even mentioned until Windsor-Smith announced on the website Comic Book Galaxy that he was negotiating with Marvel to publish the story as a graphic novel. Once again nothing more happened with the story, which remains unpublished.
7 Due To Other Commitments Miller Never Got To Tell His Legendary Daredevil Story, Born Again
After completing his Daredevil Born Again arc with artist David Mazzucchelli, where Karen Page, Daredevil's former lover, trades Daredevil's identity to Kingpin for a drug fix, Frank Miller announced plans for a follow-up to the story. While the story's details remain a mystery, Miller planned to collaborate with artist Walt Simonson for a two-part arc. Though announced by Marvel, the book never was completed or published. Years later, in an interview, Simonson said that the project never happened due to Frank working on his Dark Knight Returns, while he was handling art chores on X-Factor.
6 Rachael Summers Was Just One Of The Merry Mutants Who Was Supposed To Get The Miniseries Treatment
Rachel Summers, the time-displaced daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from "The Days of Future Past" timeline who found herself stranded in the Marvel Universe, was slated for a solo miniseries. In 1986 Marvel announced writer Chris Claremont along with artists Rick Leonardi and Dan Green, would be doing a six-limited series spinning out of X-Men #209, with Rachel discovering her origin and who she is.
Though the numerous announcements, the series was canceled before the first issue was completed. Claremont had written the script for at least the first few issues, and Leonardi had completed the pencils, with a few pages of issue #1 inked and lettered before determining that it was going to be too complicated connecting past, present, and future logic, leading to the series' cancelation.
5 The Punisher And Nick Fury Were Supposed To Team Up In A Graphic Novel Co-Written And Drawn By Jim Lee
One of the first Marvel characters that artist Jim Lee worked on when he started at Marvel Comics was The Punisher. In 1989 after a stint on Alpha Flight, Lee worked on Punisher: War Journal before getting his big break on X-Men. When The Punisher Annual #4 came out in 1991, there was a house ad promoting an upcoming hardcover original graphic novel Punisher: Rules of the Game, that Lee would be cowriting with Gregory Wright, who was also doing the art. The premise of the story was supposed to have Punisher teaming up with Nick Fury, but aside from the promotional art, the story was never realized, mainly due to Lee's other commitments and his eventual departure from Marvel to help form Image Comics.
4 Even The Power Of The Mystic Arts Couldn't Help Doctor Strange To Deliver The Solicited Creative Team
The second volume of Doctor Strange (vol. 2) was initially supposed to be drawn by Frank Miller. In a 1981 house advertisement for Doctor Strange, it was announced that fans should "Watch for the new adventures of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme—as mystically conjured by Roger Stern and Frank Miller!" In the end, the only contribution would be the cover for Doctor Strange #46, released in April 1981 due to commitments that prevented him from being available to work on the series.
In 1993, writer David Quinn took over Doctor Strange but had his run cut short. Quinn had numerous ideas planned for the book, such as a story involving Marvel's version of Dracula and having Strange run a school for kids with supernatural powers.
3 Intended To Be An Ongoing Series, Giant-Size Super-Heroes Never Made It Past The First Issue
In the mid-70s, Marvel Comics put out a line of Giant-Sized comics, with the oversized issues featuring various heroes and villains. Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1, released in June 1974 and featured Spider-Man, which was intended to be an ongoing series that also reprinted earlier issues as backup material. The first story had Spider-Man encountering two foes, Morbius the living vampire and Man-Wolf, who was also known as John Jameson. The final panel of the issue announced that issue #2, entitled The Night They Tore Old New York Down!, was announced but it never was published.
2 Fallen Angels Introduced Some Interesting Characters But Never Really Got To Explore Them
Fallen Angels was an eight-issue limited series, written by Jo Duffy and art by Kerry Gammill, that spun out of The New Mutants series in 1987. The main characters of the series were Sunspot and Warlock of the New Mutants, Boom-Boom who had recently left X-Factor, Multiple Man and Siryn, Moon-Boy and Devil Dinosaur, and two new mutants, Chance, who could enhance or inhibit the abilities of other mutants at random and Ariel, a teleporter who could turn doors into temporary gateways.
Following the success of the first series, it was announced that Duffy would be teaming with artist Colleen Doran for a six-issue sequel that was supposed to focus instead on Chance, Ariel, and other characters besides the former X-Men. Originally scheduled for a 1989 release, the series never was published even though two of the six issues were complete.
1 The Fantastic Four Graphic Novel Would Have Explored The Father-Son Dynamics Of The Heroes & Villians
Fantastic Four: Fathers and Sons was a graphic novel that was announced in 1988's Marvel Age Annual #4 but was never finished or published. The story was written by Danny Fingeroth with art by Mark Bright until he left only completing a few pages of artwork, and Al Milgrom was tapped to handle the art chores. The story was set to follow the relationships between father and son Reed and Franklin along with father and son Quasimodo and the Mad Thinker. When there was finally time to complete the project, the story and characters no longer fit into continuity, and Marvel could not locate the original pages that had been completed.