Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #3. Remember that comic? Trust me – everyone seems to, even though it hasn’t come out. More than a year after it was due in stores, people still ask about it all the time. Writer Damon Lindelof hasn’t forgotten about it, either, as he said earlier this week that he’s finally turned in the script to #3 and is nearly done with #4.

Pretty quickly after this news hit the ol’ Interweb, I read some comments on the story. Let’s just say not all of them were very kind. The message behind most of them was something to the effect of “This kind of lateness is unacceptable; let’s teach Marvel a lesson by refusing to buy this book.” While I think we can certainly all agree that late books are never a good thing, I find myself falling into a different camp – the camp that wants to see how the story ends. Especially if I’ve got a year and a half’s worth of built-up curiosity. Certainly, the quality of the comic itself plays a role – I’d easily wait a year if I had to between issues of All-Star Superman. Thank heavens I don’t! And The Ultimates was good stuff, even if it took its time getting there. But other readers may not be as patient as I am – do even gold-standard books like those lose readers with their tardiness?

So, what’s more important to you readers out in Heroesonline Blogland? Finish out a story you enjoy that happens to be really late, or “stick it to the man” and skip the end? Is there a happy medium? Or does it even really matter, given the growing number of readers who “wait for the trade” these days? I’m sure anyone who picks up Spider-Man/Black Cat now isn’t too torn up by Kevin Smith’s delays at the time, for example. Enquiring minds (or maybe just mine) want to know!