Popverse's top stories of the day

• Dune: Prophecy creators promise to bring the "complexity" and "grand scale" of Frank Herbert's books and Denis Villeneuve's movies to TV
• Marvel's TV head says there's "absolutely" a future for Jon Bernthal's Punisher after his Daredevil: Born Again appearance
• Meet the Grim Reaper of The Walking Dead TV show cast, and what goes into killing someone off in the show

These days, even comics with Eisners, star talent, and plenty of buzz can get cancelled out of the blue. Think of the Si Spurrier/Aaron Campbell Hellblazer as a perfect example (although, yes, I know that one came back). However, there once was a comic that, in a shocking turn of events, came back from the brink of cancellation multiple times thanks to its extraordinarily loyal readers. That book was Spider-Girl, and recently, its editor revealed the inside scoop on its miraculous longevity.

That editor was Marvel's own Tom Brevoort, who regularly dishes out industry insights on his substack, Man with a Hat. In the most recent edition, a fan going by the name of TD Mollusk brought up the surprising Spider-Girl run, bluntly asking "Do you have any stories about what kept that project kept going?"

And oh boy, was the answer "yes."

"SPIDER-GIRL was seriously the book that would not die," Brevoort begins, "and that was entirely due to a remarkably adept group of fans and supporters who were able to keep the series going by hook or by crook for well over 100 issues."

You read that right, loyal Popversian, the readership for the Mayday Parker-starring series kept it running into the triple digits, an idea almost unheard of today. At least, unheard of for any solo run not starring a tentpole character. 

"And the thing that they did that no other fan group has been able to duplicate since," Brevoort marvels, "was to get the sales on the title to pop up every time the threat of cancellation loomed before them."

But just how did the fans manage to swing this, especially in the days of the internet's adolescence? For context: Spider-Girl ran from 1998-2006, then relaunched as Amazing Spider-Girl, which lasted until 2009. It's hard to say, and Brevoort fully admits that.

Related: All of Marvel's Spider-Man TV series, ranked worst show to best show!

"I’m not entirely sure how they went about it," writes the editor, who is currently heading up Marvel's line of X-Books, "I do know that they petitioned the buyers at major bookstore chains to ask Marvel for collected editions that could be sold through their stores—but they were incredibly effective at it."

"Any time news broke that the book would be ending," he continues, "this group of fans would spring into action—and suddenly the sales numbers would spike up, to the point where the Powers That Be decided to keep the book going a little bit longer." 

Kind of amazing, right? (Or maybe... spectacular!) In the history of modern comics, how many almost-niche comic runs get that kind of treatment? For his own part, Brevoort has never quite seen anything like it, which is saying something for someone who has been in the industry for decades.

"Nobody has been able to duplicate their efforts since," he concludes, with an air of unmistakable respect, "regardless of how much they loved a given book and advocated for its continuation. Those SPIDER-GIRL fans were one-of-a-kind."

So here's to you, Spider-Girl fans - congrats on showing so much love to a book that you kept it going against all the odds.

Maybe send some of that love to the new Hellblazer?

Marvel's most reliable superhero has proven he can do a whole lot more than just 'whatever a spider can.' Swing into Spidey's history with Popverse's 10 best Spider-Man comic books, our Spider-Man movie watch order, and if you want our opinions on the subject, read our articles ranking Spider-Man's actors and Spider-Man's girlfriends.