Following yesterday’s unexpected cancellation of Thanos: Son of Titan from Marvel Comics, fans and the comics press were surprised when no official explanation came from the publisher before word spread far and wide throughout the Internet that the book wasn’t going to come out, giving rumors that the cancellation involved anger on the part of Thanos’ creator Jim Starlin an opportunity to propagate.Rumors that there was any particularly interesting story behind the title’s cancellation were quietly quashed by a Marvel editor via Twitter late yesterday afternoon, although no further details were offered.”For those interested, plans have indeed changed on Thanos. Nothing too dramatic, we just jumped the gun a bit,” said Marvel editor Stephen Wacker via Twitter. “Joe Keatinge and Rich Elson both have projects coming up in the Spidey office that we’ll be announcing soon. They’re bloody great!”Keatinge characterized the tweets as “everything there is to say,” and indicated that he was pleased with his situation at Marvel.Fans have been baffled by the change, which was announced via a Diamond Comics Distributor e-mail to retailers early yesterday. Since Thanos appeared briefly at the end of Marvel’s The Avengers, the villain’s popularity has skyrocketed, leading to inflated costs on back issues, new collections of old material featuring the cosmic conqueror and his appearance as an antagonist in Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Avengers Assemble, where he’s squaring off not only against The Avengers, but also against Marvel’s next big screen-bound team: The Guardians of the Galaxy.
