7 Comic Book Story Arcs That Were Never Finished (And Why)

One day you're crafting the best Galactus comic ever, and then...

The Last Galactus Story
Marvel Comics

A story without an ending - while still a story - inevitably feels incomplete. More so than most other mediums (bar perhaps television), comics are particularly prone to cancellation before a given storyline has reached its conclusion. Some never even make it to the stands, while others are at least given the chance to wrap up an arc before drawing to a close. The following comics however, didn't enjoy such fortune.

Either because of a scheduling conflict, a battle over creative control or just an untimely cancellation, some of the most beloved stories in the medium never got to end on their own terms - if they even got an ending at all. For fans invested in a series over a period of months or even years this always tends to come as a bitter shock, but for those creators absorbed in their work, cancellation can sting for a long time after.

Sadly, depriving writers and artists of the opportunity to wrap up a given arc isn't a problem consigned to a bygone era. The trend has continued into the 2010s and one would assume things won't change in the new decade either; cancellations are symptomatic of larger, more ingrained issues entrenched in the industry.

It never gets any easier, and the following books are a testament to that very fact.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.