Yesterday I posted an article blasting Marvel Comics when it was learned Jim Starlin won’t be writing the character of Thanos anymore.
Thanos is being used as the main character of perhaps Marvel Studios’ biggest movies ever with The Avengers: Infinity War and The Avengers 4.
While in my article I assumed that Marvel wouldn’t let Jim Starlin write Thanos anymore, that assumption turned out to be partially correct, as Marvel Comics turned down Jim Starlin’s request to write the Thanos ongoing comic upon two occasions.
Jim Starlin has commented on the situation with an update on Facebook where he notes he wasn’t pulled from any comics, but that the Senior Vice President of Publishing and editor at Marvel Comics Tom Brevoort approved a plot for the Thanos ongoing comic, which is the same as his graphic novel that gets released in February:
Just to set the record straight, Marvel Comics didn’t pull me off any books, they just made it clear they weren’t interested in using me on any of the tie-in series to the movies or regular series. Even though I lobbied heavily to write the Thanos on-going that task was twice given to other writers, which is Marvel Editorial’s right to do.
What I objected to and what will be keep me from doing any further work for Marvel Editorial was Tom Brevoort approving a plot for the current on-going series, which was pretty much the same as the Thanos story arc in the graphic novel trilogy Alan Davis and I have been working on for Tom for close to the past year. He had 200 pages of script and 100 pages of pencils on this project when he gave the green light to a strikingly similar plot. The on-going will be in print before the graphic novel trilogy. To avoid spoiling anyone’s enjoyment of these two stories I will not be summarizing the striking similarities.
At first Tom denied giving his approval to the plot. When that turned out to be false, he switched to claiming there was nothing similar about the two plots. When that didn’t fly he changed his story to it was all an accident. These changes of excuse and other bits of procrastination ate up a month, by which time the current Thanos on-going art team was too far along for anything to be done about the situation. Too bad for me. So I am moving on.
And, yes, Marvel Entertainment has treated me very well and generously. Them I like.
Starlin also commented not to blame current Thanos writer Donny Cates:
Don’t lay any blame on Cates. He was completely unaware of what was going on.
THANOS: THE INFINITY SIBLINGS OGN-HC
Written by JIM STARLIN
Penciled by ALAN DAVIS
Cover by JIM STARLIN
Jim Starlin and Alan Davis return in the first volume of a new trilogy! The Mad Titan has everything he ever wanted — but satisfaction is not in Thanos’ vocabulary. When a temporal distortion on Titan draws his attention, he finds the purpose he’s been searching for: saving himself! An old enemy lurks in the far future, and it will take the combined wits of Thanos, his brother Eros and time-travel master Kang the Conqueror to stop it — and save the Multiverse. But there are other players in this cosmic chess game — and Thanos may find himself outmatched! What lies ahead for the so-called Avatar of Death? 112 PGS./Rated T+ …$24.99 ISBN: 978-1-302-90818-8 Trim size: standard
