The writer of the Luke Cage: City of Fire miniseries has said that Marvel has cancelled the series before its debut.
Ho Che Anderson posted last week that the Devil’s Reign tie-in miniseries, which was set to kick off on Dec. 29, is “dead in the water.”
“No easy way to say this,” Anderson said on Instagram. “I got the word Luke Cage got cancelled this morning, one month away from its premiere. The scripts are all written. The first issue is done and is a thing of absolute beauty. Issues 2 and 3 are deep into production. Covers have been drawn. People have gotten excited, and with good reason as far as I’m concerned. I remain as proud of this as any work I’ve ever done. Maybe someday it will be seen. But as of today this comic is dead in the water. If you want answers I am not the man to ask. My heart is broken. I’m taking a social media break to lick my wounds. Somewhere god is having a chuckle.”
Luke Cage: City of Fire was announced back in July, as Marvel said Anderson, the writer of King, Sand & Fury and Godhead, would team up with three different artists — Farid Karami on #1, Ray-Anthony Height on #2 and Sean Damien Hill on #3 — for the miniseries. The story was supposed to feature Harlem’s hero taking on “a shadowy rogue group” called the Regulators, who have ties to NYC Mayor Wilson Fisk, following the murder of a Black man in Cage’s community by a crooked police officer. Then in September, after announcing the upcoming Daredevil-centered crossover event Devil’s Reign, Marvel revealed that City of Fire would tie into the event.
Marvel has not given a reason for the cancellation, whether it was due to low sales or because of some issue with the contents. The first issue is still up on the Penguin Random House Comics Retail site, but the second and third issues are no longer there.