10 Comics Too Big To Fail (That Did Anyway)

Back in the early 1990s, a group of writers and artists left Marvel Comics en masse due to their disagreement with the publisher's views on creator's rights. That group of eight included Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, Whilce Portacio, Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, and Rob Liefeld.

They were titans in the industry, and they left the House of Ideas to found Image Comics. Their departure dealt a heavy blow to Marvel, and the industry has since adapted to acknowledge the publishing power of Image, which now rivals that of DC and Marvel, though with less quantity in the marketplace.

To try and recover some of the lost quality the departure cost Marvel, the company offered Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld the opportunity to jump back into the Marvel Universe via Heroes Reborn, a one-year multi-title story arc, which was outsourced to Marvel's former employees' studios at Image Comics. With their return came the cancellation of Marvel's longest-running series', followed by an immediate relaunch.

There was a lot of buzz and fanfare supporting Heroes Reborn, and it seemed like a surefire hit. Problems arose creatively, and the series ultimately failed when Jim Lee refused to illustrate another issue when Marvel offered the option to continue Heroes Reborn indefinitely. The resulting fanfare died down, and despite an initial upsurge in sales figures, Heroes Reborn died out, and the sequel series, Heroes Return, lacked the involvement of Liefeld and Lee.