No Endings in Comic Books.
General
- Often a case in comic books, especially when a comic ends abruptly. Occasionally the plotline will be picked up again in another book or resolved if a series is brought back into publication. Trade paperbacks are also infamous for this sometimes, as far as leaving storylines unresolved or ending in the middle.
By Title:
- Happens in the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons comic. A lich has kidnapped one of the characters because he wanted her as a "wife". Everything was set for a rescue, but the series was dropped, resulting in just one final unconnected special and a new Spelljammer line.
- Anything involving Captain Britain. Alan Moore's departure, the cancellation of the original strip, and the final issue of Excalibur all end with a tag saying "Never The End" instead of "The End". This may be a reference to King Arthur, who Brian was often compared to, and whose own tombstone noted that his story wasn't over yet.
- Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the United States ends with a note saying that historians never have to write endings, as history will never truly end. He then trails off abruptly in mid sentence.
- Daredevil: Typhoid Mary ends with Typhoid Mary having kicked Daredevil's ass and leaving him in a burning building, as she gloats about having broken his heart and messed with his life.
- The 2009 Doctor Strange ends with Dr. Strange's would-be apprentice Casey Kinmont getting sucked into an alternate dimension by a malevolent entity. Dr. Strange, allied with the demon who owns Casey's soul, vows to rescue her. And...scene.
- We later get a resolution in Doctor Strange (2018). Turns out Strange spent the better part of a year looking before his obsession with finding her nearly gets him and the Earth annihilated by a monster called Jundo. He temporarily removed his memories of Casey to focus himself on sealing Jundo away, but not before she kills the demon Strange entrusted the memories to without Strange noticing. Now Casey's back nine real-time years later feeling betrayed and pissed, impersonating the good Doctor while he was out in space (long story).
- In the ElfQuest short "The Heart's Way" one of Skywise's three girlfriends (yeah!) is upset with him because she wants commitment rather than just fun. Another character suggests she take her time. The ending shows her standing outside the hut where Skywise and the other two girls are making out, but the ending lampshades the ambiguity of whether she joins them or walks away.
- Essential Howard the Duck doesn't reprint the last few issues of the original series, most likely because they weren't written by Steve Gerber.
- G.I. Joe:
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) ended with Cobra brainwashing Storm Shadow and other turncoat Cobra members, effectively restoring Cobra to full strength after years of decline due to the defections of Storm Shadow, Destro, Baroness, and Zartan. The last issue is a one-off issue where Snake Eyes writes a letter to his army friend's adopted son about life in the military.
- G.I. Joe has been restarted by IDW, with Larry Hama picking up where he left off, and with time having passed between then and now. The old numbering has even been resurrected for the series. Of course, seeing as Hama is a Vietnam veteran, there might be a question of whether or not he can finish up this time.
- The Hush Returns arc of Gotham Knights was left completely unresolved, in a sort of bizarre Mexican Standoff between Batman, Hush, and the Joker armed with a remote-controlled pace maker inside Hush's chest. The resolution of the fight was revealed in Hush's subsequent appearances; turns out Batman left Hush to die and the Joker gave Hush a massive heart attack. He came back, but not without a long recovery.
- I Hate Gallant Girl ends with Tempest having just survived a vicious attack from the title "heroine" and just itching for the chance to get back at her. You'd almost think the book was Cut Short halfway through.
- Jew Gangster ends with Reuben taking his sister home after he's further ingrained with the Jewish mob. What happens next to any of the characters is anyone's guess.
- The Novelization of Knightfall. Alfred is gone and Bruce hasn't decided whether to resume being Batman. The final lines of the book are potent."Bruce, is there still a Batman?" Tim asked finally.
"Damned if I know," Bruce said. note - Métal Hurlant / Heavy Metal Magazine: Almost all stories end this way.
- Nova: The Nova Essential TPB not only omits the Fantastic Four issues that wrap up the Sphinx subplot (which ends abruptly in the last page of the TPB, with a proclamation to read Fantastic Four to find out what he's up to), but also the story where Rich Rider loses his powers. Granted this omission is due to the fact that that story takes place in Rom Spaceknight, which can't be reprinted due to copyright problems.
- Spider-Woman: The Essential Spider-Woman TPB Vol 2 omits the issues of Avengers that deal with her final battle with Morgana LeFey and losing her powers.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- The original universe was in the middle of a story arc where New Mobotropolis was being manipulated by Naugus while Sonic was chasing after a robotized Sally among a slew of other storylines going on. Just as they succeed in capturing her... their universe ended up going through a Cosmic Retcon thanks to a ugly legal battle between a former writer and the comic's publishing company, ultimately leading to a lot of storylines never being resolved.
- The post-reboot comic, while wrapping up the first major story arc, was canceled in part 3 of a Milestone Celebration of past games, leaving ongoing plotlines unresolved. Averted in the comic's unofficial fan-revivals.
- The Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane series ended up having this type of ending. After spending a lot of time building up the Peter/Mary Jane hook up, the final scene of the series ends with Peter and Mary Jane reaching to hold each others hands. To everyone's annoyance, the follow-up series (which is not written by Sean McKeever) does not follow up on this and establishes M.J. and Peter are still just friends. They have a nice moment in the final issue sharing a pizza together, though. According to later interviews with McKeever, Peter and M.J did indeed become a couple in his version of events and some plans he had for follow-ups would have involved a love triangle with Johnny Storm, but that Peter and M.J would still come out of it as a couple
- Super Agent Jon Le Bon ends this way in Season 2, Volume 5. The entire season built up to Jon seeing a recording of the final battle with Big Beaver, to restore his missing memories of it. As it turns out, Jon actually sacrificed himself to subdue Big Beaver when he acquired great powers, and the Agency retrieved the near-identical second-to-last clone body from Big Beaver's old laboratory to replace him. After he witnesses the whole thing, the comic does a progressive close up into one of his irises, ending before his reaction to these revelations can be shown.
- The Mighty Thor: Thor/Loki: Bloodbrothers is a story about Loki having finally taken over Asgard, and now being faced with the decision of whether or not he will execute his brother. The entire story makes it seem as though there will be some big battle between the title characters at the end, but instead all that happens is that Thor escapes his dungeon, and as Loki begs for mercy, Thor strikes his hammer down and that's it. No epilogue, no resolution, no conclusion. Not a satisfying one anyway, at least not at first. Though one could argue that the abrupt ending is more powerful and tragic, it's still really frustrating and unsatisfying to the reader at the moment.
- Transformers:
- Transformers: Generation 2 suffered this: Transformers ended with Megatron and Optimus Prime striking a truce/alliance against the "second generation" Transformer Empire, with Liege Maximo (head of the second generation Transformer Empire) gloating on his throne about how the alliance between the two sides won't last and him already plotting his next move against the Autobots and Decepticons.
- Transformers: Generation One: In "The War Within: The Age of Wrath", three issues were done but due to Pat Lee running his company into the ground, the remaining issues will never see the light of day.
- Transformers has done something similar as G.I. Joe under IDW, only they threw out the Generation 2 comics altogether and started a series called "Re-Generation One", picking up from issue #81, to follow #80, the last G1 comic.
- Twisted Dark: "Paranoia" ends with the robbers who broke into Keith Conatser's house approaching his position, unaware he's waiting for them, a gun in each hand.
- What If?: "What If Hulk's Girlfriend Jarella Had Not Died?" ends with the good guys winning a battle against the bad guys, but not the war, and some relic appears as Chekhov's Gun but is never fired. It's as if the story was supposed to be longer, or receive a Sequel Episode, but that never happened.
- X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David V4 leaves an entire storyline dangling (X-Factor going to Genosha, after the US decides to deport a bunch of Genoshan mutates seeking asylum) because David left the storyline after the first issue due to executive meddling. Not to mention reprinting the X-Cutioner's Song storyline tie-in issues.
- Fans of Jim Lee's X-Men run have suffered this as well, as his last couple of issues of X-Men have never been published, leaving "Mutant Genesis" with major cliff-hangers as far as the Mojo/Longshot storyline.
- X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams, which ends with Xavier collapsing and near death (in part because the subsequent issue, wasn't drawn by Neal Adams).
- The X-Wing Rogue Squadron comics, set before the X-Wing Series books, end with the Mandatory Retirement arc. Great arc end. Bewildering series end. Apparently it was canceled. Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole actually scripted a six-issue arc, The Reenlistment Of Baron Fel, that would transition the X-Wing comics to the X-Wing books and to The Thrawn Trilogy, but cancellation stopped that from being produced. The authors shrugged and turned the script into one of the four-part novellas that they've collaborated on before. ...And this is even now sitting on their hard drives, unsold.
- Illustrated novel Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection, positions itself as being the recovered journal of a young doctor who tried to survive the initial stages of the Zombie Apocalypse in 2012. The journal traces his journey from the middle of infected Seattle to The Farm, a safe haven set up by a small group of civilians in Western Canada, and after the destruction of The Farm, his journey to another (far better defended) safe haven in the highly isolated town of Churchill. There he's treated with suspicion from the locals, and his Evil-Detecting Dog reacts badly to the people. In a journal entry, the writing suddenly trails off mid sentence, and there are hints of blood spatters on the edge of the page. An afterward simply says that no one knows what happened to the doctor, and no survivors were found in Churchill.
