Marvel Has Officially Canceled the Black Widow Comic Series

Marvel Has Officially Canceled the Black Widow Comic Series

Marvel Comics has officially canceled the Black Widow comic series. The move has left fans of the series surprised as the series had garnered comic fans’ interest in its 15 issues. The fifteenth issue is set to wrap up the latest arc but Natasha Romanoff’s story will not be continuing at this time. The series was written by Kelly Thompson, with art by Elena Casagrande, inks by Elisabetta D’Amico, colors by Jordie Bellaire, and edited by Sarah Brunstad.

The series trajectory showed that Thompson’s plans extended much farther than the 15 issues the publisher has allotted, with the series bringing multiple arcs within its run, the most recent and popular arc, Die by the Blade, Thompson introduced a new character of her creation, The Living Blade. The new character was a formidable swordsman who shared a history with Black Widow going back to Madripoor. The arc contained absolute brutality and a vicious fight ensued between The Living Blade and Black Widow that saw Black Widow defeated and having one of her arms cut off.

Thompson made the unfortunate announcement in her Substack newsletter and noted that she cannot discuss the details of the cancellation. She also stated that is optimistic that she and the rest of the creative team on the Black Widow series may be able to continue telling their story in the future. You can read Thompson’s statement from her official Substack and the editor’s note found on Black Widow #15 below:

“So, this IS the final issue…for now. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to talk about it, a lot of you have been asking, and it has deeply pained me to take a pass on those questions, especially since this is a book I love so much (maybe my favorite book I’ve ever done at Marvel), but there’s a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes and it’s not always something you can talk about publicly.

To be honest, I still can’t talk about as much as I’d like, but what I can say is… there ARE plans for a bit more story from this creative team. Things are still being wrangled, but I am optimistic it will work out AND be worth the wait.”

Source: Kelly Thompson/Substack