The Marvel comic company dropped a partnership with the defense industry giant Northrop Grumman and canceled a launch event scheduled for New York Comic Con on Saturday, after plans for a special series featuring branded superheroes alongside the legendary Avengers characters met with fierce opposition.

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Some fans had planned to protest at the Comic Con event, after Marvel announced via social media that it would launch the limited edition series at its booth at the Jacob K Javits Conference Center on the western side of Manhattan. On Saturday, many attendees welcomed the cancellations.

"I think it was a terrible idea to begin with to try to merge these two worlds," said Nick Greer from Groton, Connecticut, who was dressed as the Marvel character Nick Fury. "They saw the backlash and they shut it down."