Yesterday's solicitations for new Marvel periodicals shipping in December confirmed that Amazing Spider-Man, Wolverine, and the team-up title Captain America and... (formerly just Captain America) will all come to a close with that month's issues. These very long-running series will join the ranks of other Marvel titles that have been concluded and set to relaunch or return in a different form in October as part of the publisher's Marvel NOW initiative, including The Mighty Thor, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants.

The Amazing Spider-Man news is a little surprising. Unlike most superhero comics still in publication, the title has only been renumbered from #1 once, back in the 1990s, and resumed its original numbering with 2003's issue #500. There's little doubt that Marvel will shortly announce a new home for Spider-Man himself, but the question is by whom will it be created? The Marvel NOW relaunches were precipitated by many of the publisher's most popular writers winding down their long-running arcs at around the same time, allowing for new creators to work on various characters for the first time in many years. Does that apply to Spider-Man and writer Dan Slott, who's been the primary creative force behind the Amazing title for the last several years, and who to the best of my knowledge was not bringing the book to a climax? Slott has yet to be announced as working on anything in the Marvel NOW line, and he's keeping mum on Twitter.

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The conclusion of Wolverine is a little less interesting. The series has been renumbered at least three or four times since it launched in 1988, and a Marvel Comics without a Wolverine solo title is too contradictory a notion to contemplate.


Similarly, Captain America and Black Widow #640 will bring to an end the Captain America title that's been reconfigured numerous times since the 1960s, most recently as a Cap team-up book with characters including Bucky, Iron Man and Hawkeye. Whether or not the team-up concept survives Marvel NOW, we do know that Rick Remender and John Romita, Jr. will be working on a new Captain America title launching in November.

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