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

1. The Last Galactus Story

John Byrne and Terry Austin's The Last Galactus Story is one of the more bizarre examples on this list, mainly because it was cancelled out of the blue and no efforts to assemble the final, unpublished issues have been made since.

The Last Galactus Story does what it says on the tin. The Devourer of Worlds, aided at this time by herald Frankie Ray, aka Nova, finds himself investigating a trail of destruction across the cosmos. Entire galaxies have been wiped from existence, and the duo set on a path to the centre of the universe to figure out why.

It's the exact kind of epic, cosmic storytelling fans love to see from Marvel, with Byrne at the peak of his talents. The story was published as a part of Epic Illustrated, but with sales of the book diminishing, Marvel pulled the plug. By this point, nine chapters of The Last Galactus Story had been published, which meant fans were left high and dry in regards to getting some much needed closure, and that's still the case today.

So, why did The Last Galactus Story never see completion? Well, according to Marvel Comics of the 1980s, it was down to a number of factors. First, the aforementioned cancellation of Epic Illustrated; second, because Byrne's efforts to work the story into The Last Fantastic Four Story were unsuccessful; and lastly, because Byrne ended his partnership with Marvel following the cancellation of X-Men: Hidden Years.

Though it's not much consolation, Byrne has detailed what his plans were for the last few issues before, in a conversation with CBR back in 2000. It all sounds very epic - possibly even too epic for Marvel's Epic Illustrated.