Its been quite a few months for Marvel Comics’ lower tier books. And by quite a few months I mean they’ve been dropping titles like flies. Here is a list of the series that Marvel has very recently canceled, along their sales estimates from Diamond courtesy of ICv2:

X-23 – 24,043

Ghost Rider – 21,012

Alpha Flight – 20,731

Daken: Dark Wolverine – 19,472

Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive – 18,248

Iron Man 2.0 – 15,600 (September numbers)

Herc – 13,190

Destroyers – Canceled before it even came out.

Victor Von Dom – Canceled before it even came out.

Eight books isn’t necessarily a lot to get canceled throughout the course of a year. But this hasn’t been over the course of a year, these books have been canceled over the course of just the past few months, most in the past few weeks. With the announcements coming so bunched up as they did along with some not insignificant layoffs at the Marvel offices, eyebrows have certainly been raised.

So we might as well start wildly speculating!

Which titles, if any, will be next? It helps to have information on hand to make an informed wild speculation, so here are the other regular Marvel Universe series that sell fewer copies than those that were just canceled. Numbers are from the same source as above.

Thunderbolts – 23,712

X-Factor – 23,569

Avengers Academy – 23,412

S.H.I.E.L.D., Vol. 2 – 21,060

Daken: Dark Wolverine – 19,472

Generation Hope – 18,424

Deadpool MAX – 15,865

I’m not saying any of these specific books will be canceled, or that any more Marvel books will be canceled at all. But if any more books are canceled in the days ahead, the above are probably the most likely candidates. (UPDATE: Daken: Dark Wolverine has been canceled.) It’s important to keep in mind that there are all kinds of reasons to cancel a comic book series, but sales is usually the primary reason.

UPDATE: A reliable source close to Marvel assures us that Thunderbolts is safe.