Virginia and Vision in Vision #2. Image : Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire ( Marvel )

Writer Chelsea Cain has penned some of Marvel’s best comics in recent years, which is one of the things that made the targeted harassment campaign against her in the wake of her excellent Mockingbird series so difficult to witness. But now, a new series she was in the middle of has been canceled before the pre-order period was even over.


News that Cain was set to return to Marvel to write a new series focusing on Vision and his daughter (and Champions member) Viv was cause for excitement a few weeks ago. But last night Cain took to her Twitter to announce that the publisher has suddenly axed her series out of the blue. In fact, even though four completed issues were turned into the publisher already, Newsarama reports, “This decision comes one full month before retailers’ orders for The Vision #1 were due to Diamond Comic Distributors.”


According to the Hollywood Reporter, Marvel’s decision to cancel the series boiled down to the publisher wanting to take Vision and Viv in a different direction in the long term. io9 has reached out to Marvel and Cain’s representatives for comment and will update if we hear back. ( It should be noted that Marvel already declined to comment to THR.)

Given that Cain’s The Vision was only ever meant to be a six-issue limited series and she was brought on to write the series before Tom King’s run on the book was even over, one has to wonder what it was about Cain’s plot that Marvel took issue with—specifically, what could have possibly been at odds with the characters’ overall trajectory. Cain has spoken openly about her intention to focus the series on the dynamic between a single father and his rebellious teenage daughter, a natural and logical story to delve into considering what Vision and Viv have been up to in Marvel’s comics as of late.


Cain also pointed out on Twitter that cancelling The Vision also means that readers won’t get the chance to see Marvel newcomer Aud Koch’s illustrations:


Whatever the reasoning is behind the cancellation, it’s a loss for everyone. H opefully, more light will be shed on why this series— which honestly sounded like it would have been amazing— might never see the light of day.