10 Jaw-Dropping Comics Cancelled Before They Were Published

7. Punisher/Nick Fury: Rules Of The Game

In the early days of Jim Lee's career, Marvel threw him a very 1990s project: the Punisher teaming up with Nick Fury (old World War II vet white guy Nick Fury) to stop a crooked arms dealer who got his hands on some S.H.I.E.L.D. technology. Scriptwriter/colorist Gregory Wright was enthusiastic as the pages started to roll in, but Lee was a popular belle at the ball at Marvel, and kept getting thrown side projects that slowed "Rules of the Game" down. Then he became the chief artist on Uncanny X-Men, and the X-Men basically owned his schedule until he left Marvel to co-found Image. How Regrettable Is Its Loss? Pretty regrettable. Lee's approach to art, especially in the 1990s, was full of infectious fun and an instinct for what was cool (just look at Fury's hang-glider wings!). Yet he also paid more attention to the rules of storytelling than some of his Image compatriots, especially when he had another scripter to work with. Like Twilight of the Superheroes, this is an idea whose time has really passed, and unlike Twilight, it would be at no risk of being a classic. But it would've been nifty fun if it had come out when it was meant to.