Ultimate title cancellations.

[The Frankster]

Yeah so I gotta say, I think Ultimatum is an awesome mini-series, seeing main characters get killed off and to have David Finch's dynamic art grace the series.

However I am a bit saddened about the cancellation of Ultimate Spider-Man.  It was that series that got me buying spider-man books and marvel titles after not reading a spidey book for 5 years due to the stupid clone saga.  However Bendis did his own version of the clone saga and made it one of the best storylines in the series.  It was a good title to read to escape the Marvel Universe when it got dull. 

However since Stuart Immonen took on as lead artist the book has been lame.  They should've at leats had Bagley draw the last issue.  Well I know his art will be featured in the spin-off two-parter to the series.

[pctchuck]

It seems that the industry is changing to short story arcs that can be easily collected into graphic novels.  The days of an ongoing, long-running title may be a thing of the past soon.  Could it be for the better that the companies put out these short arcs, allowing comic fans to try a story and know that they are getting a full story quickly?  The industry can quickly respond to sales numbers this way and adjust the type of books on the shelves to reflect what the buyer wants.

[Delvie]

I don't know, ptc. I've been tired of the short story arcs since Heaven & Earth. I miss the 10 or 12 issue arcs like Way Of The Warrior. It's like the comic industry has gotten too a.d.d. to think of a long story. @least, the part of the industry that I read & collect. I guess there may just be changes in the industry that I'll have to accept. {Shi crossovers w/out Shi.} {Shi story lines shorter than sneezes.} etc

[kikuchiyo]

I kinda like the shorter arcs only because, with me at least, if a series runs longer, 8 or more issues, I tend to forget which issues I had purchased, especially when they put out variant covers, so I tend to buy duplicates, which of course the lowest a comic costs nowadays is $2.99 and I don't have an extra $2.99 to waste. Also, if I tend to buy a comic based on the cover, then I read the story and I like it, then I have to look for back issues that preceed the issue I read, just to understand the story line. AND, I like to buy a story run before I actually read the comics, which sucks sometimes if the story sucks. Truth be told, though comics are an illustrated medium, I don't focus a lot of time looking at the pictures( sounds strange coming from me, huh?), so when the story isn't ALL THAT, then I bummed I wasted my money on a series of comics that I will not have any interest to read again. When you consider the price for comics now, exactly how much entertainment are you getting for your money? 10-15 minutes worth?
When thinking of collecting new series', I tend to not want to, because of all the crossovers that I can't keep up with. The only series I HAVE to buy on a continuus basis is Witchblade. Though that series can and does cross over with the Darkness, their universe isn't so large that I can't keep up. That is a series where I have about 90-95 percent of the run.

[pctchuck]

Cross-overs killed my collecting a long time ago.  I simply gave up and walked away from DC's Batman titles some time ago, and really gave up on mainstream DC and Marvel about that time.  I tend to go more independant comics, although I really enjoy some of Dynamic's books.  Fables has started a 9 issue cross-over that I'm attempting to read through, but it is not the norm for me.
Like I said before, I mainly read independant books.  So many of the good story tellers are moving to the mainstream and leaving their original books behind (sound familiarTucci, Cho, Mack?).  When I do find a book I like, it may go for months/years between issues (Budd Root's Cavewoman), and then I'm left wondering where the story was last at the previous issue came out.  With all of my boxed comics, I can't simply go and pull out a run of books and bring myself up to speed on the story. 

One place the short arcs worked well for me are the Bomb Queen stories.  Each series builds off of the previous, so continuity is there.

Trust me, I'd love to  have more stories running into the 100 issue mark, like Fables, to read.

I've said in the past that good art is nothing without a good story.  I've read by crappy art if the story catches my attention, but passed by some beautiful art when the story did nothing for me.  I'd love to see more stories that knock my socks off like Billy did with the first issue of Shi all those years ago.

[The Frankster]

I thought Ultimatum was a good series, I understand that Marvel broke the code years ago but it's ridiculous with the gore they've been showing a lot latley i think it's a li'l extreme for a T rating, but hey i love.  Also the fact that other heroes besides Wolverine and the Punisher actually kills the villains..... I just love it.  That part with the Thing was something I've waited to see for soooo many years.

I just wish they coulda given the readers more closure on Spider-Man in the Ultimatum series itself without having to read USM Requiem #2.