According to Newsarama, Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson’s The Boys has been cancelled by DC. Not just regular cancelled, but really cancelled – the next four issues which had been solicited, as well as the first paperback collection, won’t ship.
I can’t say I’m at all disappointed (my thoughts on the first few issues are here), but this is a pretty surprising decision. The Boys was probably Wildstorm’s only unqualified hit of the past year or two; a cancellation suggests either serious creative differences (Darick Robertson’s sole comment thus far is that “DC was not the right home for The Boys.”) or that some upper-echelon DC or Time-Warner exec found out about the book and demanded it get the boot.
Or perhaps there’s something else going on (that probably involves any number of other factors). This week on his mailing list, Warren Ellis mentioned that the next issue of the Wildstorm-published Desolation Jones hadn’t been solicited, for reasons that would become apparent later – suggesting there’s some sort of announcement to be made. (Though he specified it’s not an artist change, and just today denied the book would go over to Vertigo)
So I wonder if there’s something going down at Wildstorm beyond just The Boys; a reorganization of some sort that didn’t include Ennis & Robertson’s book. It’s not hard to call the last year a disappointment for Wildstorm: The relaunch of their superhero line was underwhelming to say the least, and a complete disaster given the disappearance of its two flagship titles. Some sort of re-branding, along with an editorial cull (of both books and personnel), might be in order.
It should be interesting to see what comes to light over the next few days.