Marvel Masterworks is coming back, and Marvel Comics has nothing to do with it.
That combination tells you everything about where Disney is taking Marvel’s publishing business, and it is exactly what our insiders called weeks ago.
News out of San Diego Comic-Con is that Clover Press has picked up the license to revive the Masterworks line.
Per Bleeding Cool, Clover publisher Hank Kanalz broke the news to retailers at the closed-door ComicsPRO event at the con, and a Kickstarter pre-launch page is already live.
Popverse reports the relaunch arrives in 2027 and opens with new volumes of Uncanny X-Men, Super Villain Team-Up, Mighty Thor, and Tomb of Dracula.
The plan reportedly keeps the legacy numbering and a classic cover option while adding a fresh unnumbered design aimed at new readers. Clover also intends to finish the runs Marvel left hanging a volume or two short when it pulled the plug.
Marvel Killed Masterworks, An Indie Publisher Saved It
Marvel quietly ended the nearly four decades old line, with soft sales getting the blame. The premier archival hardcover format, the one reprinting the Silver Age foundation the entire company is built on, simply stopped.
Clover Press is run by IDW co-founders Ted Adams and Robbie Robbins, and it already works with Marvel on the licensed The Marvel Art Of series of art books. So Masterworks isn’t a one-off. It extends a licensing relationship Marvel already had in place.
Our Insiders Said Disney Wants To License Out Marvel Comics
Back in June, our insiders told us Disney is “less interested in publishing” and is looking at licensing Marvel Comics out to other publishers rather than producing the books in house the way it has for decades.
They pointed to John Byrne’s X-Men: Elsewhen and Alex Ross’s Fantastic Four: Full Circle landing at Abrams ComicArts as the model. Now the company’s flagship archive line goes to Clover Press with crowdfunding footing the bill.
It doesn’t stop there. Also out of Comic-Con comes word that Marvel is launching a new manga line in Japan through Kadokawa. Another Marvel comics product, another outside publisher doing the work.
Rob Liefeld Said To Believe It
All of this lines up with the report that Marvel will phase its publishing over to Webtoon by 2030, which Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld answered with two words: “Believe it.”
Liefeld then explained why, saying the big entertainment corporations are going all-in on tech for the savings, calling them “bottom line, period.”
There is even a fun wrinkle here. Bleeding Cool notes Kanalz is a Youngblood co-creator, the book Liefeld launched Image Comics with. The guy rescuing Marvel’s archive line comes from the crew that has been telling everyone where Marvel publishing is headed.
Marvel Comics Isn’t What It Was
Add it to the pile. C.B. Cebulski is stepping down with Stephen Wacker taking over as editor-in-chief, and Marvel Comics is abandoning New York for Hollywood after nearly 90 years as Kevin Feige consolidates publishing under the studio.
The books that built this company now survive through an indie publisher and a Kickstarter page while Disney cashes a licensing check. Good on Clover Press for saving Masterworks and finishing those runs, because collectors absolutely win here. But nobody should pretend this is anything other than Disney backing out of the business Marvel was founded on, one license at a time.
