I sure know how to pick them:
Defenders canceled with #12

In all the excitement about Marvel canceling Fantastic Four for the second time in two years and relaunching it with a new #1, Matt Fraction revealed late in the story (can’t blame him — he’s not the reporter — but seriously, you’re like halfway through before the news hits) that Defenders will end its run with issue #12.

The fact that the once twice-a-day posting frequency of this blog has been reduced to approximately twice-a-year might betray a certain apathy toward comic books of late, but there are still several titles I’ve been really enjoying. One of those was the relaunched Moon Knight, which was awesome and which was also canceled after 12 issues.

I can’t help but notice both books were canceled due to low sales (which is admittedly a good reason to cancel something), both books featured mid-to-low level characters … and both books were $3.99. Seriously, how many die-hard Moon Knight or Dr. Strange fans are out there who can sustain books like this? Obviously, not enough, but you’d think there’d be some kind of awareness that if you’re going to take a chance on a book starring mid-level characters that you’re going to need some kind of incentive or bait to get people to take a chance on it. I suppose maybe the theory was that the strength of the creators would help, but clearly that can only take a book so far.

That said, I am looking forward to the Fraction / Allred team-up on FF, and I’ll probably keep reading Fantastic Four even post-Hickman (another of the books I’ve really been liking!).