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Writer Frank Tieri has confirmed that Marvel’s Black Knight will end with issue #5:

Ok, bad news time, folks… I can officially talk about this now and can confirm that yeah, issue #5 of BLACK KNIGHT will indeed be our last. It sucks and there’s a lot I could say about it but in the end, the bottom line is the market is what it is these days and the sales just weren’t there. It was an honor and a privilege to bring Dane’s adventures in Weirdworld to you — and we’re not quite done yet as we’ll be wrapping up our storyline which actually can act as a limited series the way it’s structured. Proud of the work we did here and wanted to thank Team BK for all their efforts and great work. And most of all I wanted to thank the BK fans who have always been great in their support– without you there would never have been a BLACK KNIGHT book to begin with. Wish I had better news but hopefully you guys will enjoy the next 2 issues as we close this thing out. The ebony blade sheathes for now…


Set in the post Secret WArs Weirdworld fantasy-themed milieu. the series, which had art by Luca Pizzari was dark take on the character, with a “Breaking Bad meets Game of Thrones” vibe. Bad and the modern medieval landscape of Game of Thrones. The first issue launched at 39,381 but issue #2 had a steep decline to an estimated 22,081 copies and one can assume standard attrition following that.

I’m told several more Marvel series are about to get chopped, part of a disappointing relaunch for several titles post-Secret Wars. 

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12 COMMENTS

  1. So sad. One of my favorite all-time characters. Unfortunately the creative team was really not the best for this character. Here’s hoping SOME DAY they give him another ongoing chance…

  2. Launching eight zillion new titles all once means that most of the non-A-list ones are going to suffer. This is definitely the first of many axes to fall.

  3. I agree with Greg. Why don’t the companies do like Marvel and DC did in the Silver Age, and launch titles one at a time (on a bimonthly schedule) and nurture them along? Flooding the market always results in lots of casualties, as the Big Two learned in the ’70s.

    As I’ve mentioned before, we seem to have returned to the ’70s, with titles getting cancelled after less than 10 issues.

  4. Greg and George are absolutely correct– George, the reason Marvel and DC don’t handle things that way (logical as it may be) is that having fewer titles doesn’t help make this fiscal quarter better than last year’s corresponding quarter, and with both companies under the corporate thumb more than ever they don’t have much choice but to continue to flood the market with even more titles to make up the attrition.

  5. One key problem is that they are worried more about maintaining shelf space and not freeing up retailer dollars for other things.

  6. A character nobody cares about, spinning off from one of the worst-selling miniseries from Secret Wars. What brainiac thought this title would sell in the first place?

  7. A lot of these 2nd and 3rd level titles may have had a better chance at $2.99 than $3.99 I imagine. Avengers $3.99, check. Spiderman $.3.99, check. Black Knight and Red Wold at four bucks? I don’t think so.

  8. This is the downside of being an intellectual property warehouse instead of, you know, a publisher. Rather than looking around for something new or at least trendy to throw out there and see if it floats, which led Marvel to produce such stuff as CONAN, MASTER OF KUNG FU, ROM, MICRONAUTS, GHOST RIDER and TOMB OF DRACULA and DC to put out ARAK, WARLORD, BLACK LIGHTNING, RONIN, AMETHYST and ELECTRIC WARRIOR.

    Now they just keep churning through their backlist of C and D-list characters, most of whom have already demonstrated their limited appeal. I mean, Black Knight? At least El Aguilar would have had the whole Latino angle going for it.

    Mike

  9. I’m shocked — SHOCKED — that a title that likely served no other purpose than to reregister the trademark is being cancelled again.

    And who will be surprised when Howard The Duck doesn’t get cancelled (again) when Marvel thought it was a good idea to lead off with $5 (FIVE DOLLAR) issues out of this latest relaunch?

    My money is on Howling Commandos going next. Then Illuminati and Red Wolf. Hercules might survive if it ties in with Dr. Strange/Scarlet Witch. Cuts may be more brutal than that.

    This is a case of *way too much* product being flung out at prices too high to sustain it. Something actually interesting (“The Vision”) will probably suffer as a casualty of all of this.

  10. Maybe it pleases the corporate owners and the shareholders when the Big Two flood the market. But when faced with a glut of new — or, these days, revived — titles, most readers will play it safe and stick with the top-tier superhero books. Especially when readers are asked to pay $5 for some of these pamphlets.

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