Marvel deals with layoffs and the cancelation of a number of titles

Marvel Comics has not been having the best time as of late. 

           

This past month Marvel Comics announced that they were laying off 15 members of their staff from the editorial and production departments, due to cost cutting reasons and not staff performance.  Shortly hereafter, Marvel revealed the cancelation of it's current titles, including critically well-received yet underselling comics such as Iron Man 2.0 and Alpha Flight, also due to budgeting reasons.  Times are looking quite dire for Marvel, to overdramatize it. 

           

While Marvel’s financial woes are unsettling, from a fan’s perspective the cancelation of some of these titles are extremely disappointing.  Iron Man 2.0 was a fun companion title to “Invincible Iron Man.”  Though you would probably never guess this from the title, this comic follows the going ons of Tony Stak's pal James Rhodes, aka War Machine (see Iron Man 2) and was filled with advanced technology and a military esque atmosphere. 

I have not read “Alpha Flight” personally (I dropped it after the first couple of issues due to, ironically enough, budgeting reasons….huh) but it’s been he recipient of vast critical acclaim since it’s debut.  Strangely enough, three months prior to his Marvel had announced that “Alpha Flight would be extended past it’s “limited series aspect into a regular ongoing monthly series.  Given that, I can’t understand why Marvel would choose to cut this title so quickly after making this decision, especially given that Marvel has titles selling less than Alpha Flight…..second thoughts I guess.

Marvel even announced the cancelation of two mini-series that have not even seen release; Victor Von Doom and Destroyers.  Destroyers certainly did have an interesting concept (monster type characters such as She-Hulk, the ever-lovin blue eyed Thing, and the X-men’s Beast are united by an obscure World War 2 character the Destroyer), but I’m more bummed about the cancelation of Doom’s new mini-series,  The last mini series that focused on a younger Doom, Ed Brubaker’s Books of Doom, was a great read, and gave the already rich character of Doctor Doom even more depth. 

Plus, read this interview with Victor Von Doom writer Nick Spencer and tell me that series doesn’t sound like it would totally be an awesome read! Still, the continuing cancellation of these titles certainly doesn’t make Marvel’s financial future seem very bright, and it would not surprise me if Marvel continues to cancel a few more in the coming weeks.  Just please, please do not cancel Scarlet Spider…