Marvel Comics' Nebula title canceled after year-plus hiatus

Nebula
(Image credit: Jen Bartel (Marvel Comics))

Marvel Comics' unfinished limited series Nebula will not be returning from hiatus, and has been canceled by Marvel according to a person familiar with the project. Nebula's creative team was writer Vita Ayala, artist Claire Roe, colorist Mike Spicer, and letterer Travis Lanham.

(Image credit: Claire Roe/Mike Spicer/Travis Lanham (Marvel Comics))

This mid-series cancelation leaves Nebula at an odd moment - marooned on a strange planet called Mahn Zhyly, with no memory of who she is after an attempted upgrade to her cybernetics went wrong. Although she's lost memory of her plight, she is being hunted by a bounty hunter named Devos the Destroyer (a returning '90s Fantastic Four foe). 

But as Nebula #2 ended, she had a more immediate threat - a returning Ballista Grimm (from the 2019 Thanos limited series), a former soldier for Thanos who was last seen trying to kill Gamora.

Future issues of Nebula were planned to reveal the very first meeting between Nebula and Thanos, before he adopted her as his daughter.

Marvel declined to comment on this story.

Originally launched on February 12, 2020 with a second issue released a month later, the scheduled five-issue Nebula series but was put on hiatus - along with all of Marvel's comic book line - as the COVID-19 pandemic grew in early April 2020. By June, Marvel began re-scheduling all its titles on hiatus but Nebula has remained part of a small group of series that to date have never resumed.

According to Newsarama's source, Nebula #3 has been completed and the fourth issue is completely drawn. A script for the fifth and final issue was turned in on schedule, per our source.

Assuming plans don't change and Nebula #3 through #5 aren't published eventually, here is a collection of the unreleased covers of the issues by Jen Bartel, as well as a variant cover by Kris Anka:

March 2020's Nebula #2 marked the character's last major appearance in Marvel Comics.

While the fate of the Nebula limited series is now known, another Marvel limited series - Christos Gage and Todd Nauck's Gwen Stacy - remains in the same publishing purgatory with only two of five planned issues released, leaving the complete story untold 

These are but some of the Marvel titles missing in action as of late. 

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)