Top 10 Tuesdays - Top 10 Delayed Stories

For this week's Top 10 Tuesdays, I wanted to create a list of the top 10 most delayed story lines or issues in modern comics. I have decided to concentrate on modern stories that were extremely delayed because those are the ones that are freshest in our collective memories as fans. I organized the list from least to most delayed, based on the knowledge that I have. I am quite sure I missed a couple, so feel free to comment and let me know which famous delays I forgot to include in my list.

TOP 10 TUESDAYS - TOP 10 DELAYED STORIES

#10 - Iron Man - Viva Las Vegas
by Jon Favreau and Adi Granov

Delay Time: Around 7 months. Originally set out to come out in accord with the Iron Man movie in May of 2008, the second issue was cover-dated September 2008. No issues have come out since then.

Reason: Both creators are apparently busy with the second Iron Man movie: Favraue and Granov were both involved with the first one which was a critical and commercial success. Joe Quesada, Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, commented on the series after a reader question, confirming that the series has gone on indefinite hiatus until further notice. The series was set in the same universe as the movie and featured a look and feel similar to it, which (in theory) fans of the movie would have liked to read after seeing it.


#9 - Ultimates Vol.2
by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch

Delay Time: Around 8 months for the final issue. Additional delays between other issues.

Reason: Both creators are known for delays in their output,and the series was plagued of delays from the beginning, including parts of the first volume before this one. A group of factors contributed to the delay of the final issue: Mark Millar suffered from a long battle with disease, plus he was also occupied with Marvel's Civil War event (which was also delayed), and Bryan Hitch's delays for the art on the final issue, which featured an 8-page foldout of a huge battle scene and was double-sized.

Interested in this book? Purchase Ultimates 2 Vol 2: Grand Theft America from Amazon.com and help support The Weekly Crisis!

#8 - All Star Batman and Robin
by Frank Miller and Jim Lee

Delay Time: 8 months. Another series that was plagued by delays on pretty much all the issues, the latest issue was cover-dated August 2008

Reason: None given. Both creators involved have suffered from delays in the past, with the series having a very sporadic schedule despite high commercial success. Frank Miller was recently involved in a film adaptation of The Spirit, which probably kept him very busy. Jim Lee is busy with his involvement in the DCU MMO video game. DC has stated that the series is on a hiatus at the moment and no further issues have been solicited or mentioned.

Interested in this book? Purchase All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder from Amazon.com and help support The Weekly Crisis!

#7 - Superman - Last Son
by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, and Adam Kubert

Delay Time: Around 1 year of combined delays. The final issue came out 19 months after the first part of this 5 part storyline

Reason: The artist, Adam Kubert, is notoriously slow in his progress (as seen by the delays of the second part of Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Matt's Note: Woops! Turns out it's Andy that's working on Batman, not Adam. My bad!). The fourth issue came out months later because of delays on his part. The fifth and final issue came out almost a year after, in the form of an Annual, because of an unmentioned disease that Kubert suffered during that time that furthered delayed him.

Interested in this book? Purchase Superman: Last Son from Amazon.com and help support The Weekly Crisis!

#6 -Fell
by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith

Delay Time : Around 1 year of delays for each of the latest two issues.

Reason: Not quite sure. The series was originally an experiment to provide more compressed stories. Ellis is quite a prolific writer and produces a lot of comics besides this one, so it is possible that he is concentrating on other projects for the time being. This is a purely creator-owned comic, so there's the possibility that Ellis just does not want to write it any more. Ben Templesmith has also been involved in other projects as well, but to my knowledge he isn't known for turning in late or delayed art.

Interested in this book? Purchase Fell Vol 1: Feral City from Amazon.com and help support The Weekly Crisis!

#5 - Planetary
by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday

Delay Time: Over 2 years plus other delays. The first issue was cover-dated April 1999 and was supposed to be a bi-monthly series, but it went on hiatus between 2001 and 2003. After it resumed, issues started coming out irregularly and the latest published issue (#26) was cover-dated December 2006 and the final issue has yet to come out.

Reason: A combination of disease on Ellis' side, previous engagements by both creators, and other factors. Ellis has stated that the script is done and was set to come out last year, but there has been no news about it so far and we are to assume that it is still being illustrated by Cassaday. Cassaday was involved in Astonishing X-Men for the better part of the last couple of years, (which was also late on several occasions) and is also illustrating other series as well.


#4 - The Authority and WildC.A.T.S.
by Grant Morrison and Gene Ha/Jim Lee (respectively)

Delay Time: Around 2 years for both series. They were supposed to come out in late 2006/early 2007, with only one issue for WildC.A.T.S. (December 2006) and two for the Authority (February 2007) being actually released.

Reason: Grant Morrison became tied up in other projects he was working on for DC, most notably the year long event 52 and probably early preparations for Final Crisis as well. Most recently, it was announced (as seen in our recent Week in Review) that WildC.A.T.S. is eventually going to be released as a graphic novel and Keith Giffen is going to finish the script for the Authority based on the previous work/script by Morrison.


#3 - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk
by Damon Lindelof and Lienil Francis Yu

Delay Time: Close to 3 years. The third issue of this mini-series was slated to be released for April 2006. It did not come out until March 2009.

Reasons: Apparently, previous engagements by Lindelof, who is a writer of TV-series Lost. The series reached an almost comedic status among comic book fans because of the delays, like the "Chinese Democracy" of comics. Because the readers believe a fight between two characters such as the Hulk and Wolverine is a pretty straightforward promise, the delays seemed even more ridiculous to them. Once the script was finished, Yu was busy illustrating Secret Invasion which added to the delays, until issue #3 finally came out last month. The rest of the mini series is supposed to be coming out on time again.


#2 - Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do and Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target
by Kevin Smith and Terry Dodson/Glenn Fabry (respectively)

Delay time: More than 4 years. Both series started in 2002, and Spider-Man/Black Cat wasn't finished until 2006, while Daredevil/Bullseye remains unfinished.

Reason: Kevin Smith was involved in producing and directing one of his films (Jersey Girl) which could possibly explain some of the delays, that allowed him to go back and finish one of the series. No real reason has been given for the delay of the other one other than Smith's self admitted laziness and lack of desire to finish the story.

Interested in this book? Purchase Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do from Amazon.com and help support The Weekly Crisis!

#1 - Miracleman
by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham

Delay Time: 18 Years. Last released issue was cover-dated in July 1991. No issues have come out since then.

Reason: After Alan Moore's influential stay on the title, Neil Gaiman was set to have an 18 issue run. Due to the collapse of Eclipse Comics, the publisher of Miracleman, the remaining parts of Gaiman's stories were never published. Since then, a legal battle over who owns the copyrights of the character between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman has stopped any further stories from coming out. Gaiman is still attempting after all these years to finish his run on the title.

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