Following my article about how Jim Starlin is no longer going to write the character of Thanos and how Starlin is leaving Marvel Comics, the story has now gone viral and been picked up by various mainstream news networks.
THR is the latest posting an article titled: “Thanos Creator Cuts Ties With Marvel Comics After Clashing With Editor.”
Now the creator of Thanos, Jim Starlin, has once again taken to his official Facebook page to comment on the matter with mention that his problem is with Marvel Comics editorial and not the movies (Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios are separate companies at Disney):
I just want to state again that the Disney Corporation and Marvel Entertainment have treated me exceptionally well. Plus, what I have seen of and heard about the movie has convinced me that it is going to be a simply incredible flick. My conflict is with Marvel Editorial.
In a previous statement on Facebook, Jim Starlin explained that the decision to stop writing Thanos and to leave Marvel Comics has to due with his relationship with the Senior Vice President of Publishing and an editor at Marvel Comics, Tom Brevoort:
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.
Regarding Jim Starlin’s relationship with Marvel Entertainment (Marvel Studios), the creator of Thanos was recently invited and attended a set visit to The Avengers Infinity War, as Thanos is being played by Josh Brolin and starring in Infinity War and Avengers 4 :
This is isn’t the first time that Marvel Comics and Tom Brevoort have shunned a creator when a movie based on said creator’s work was about to be released, as Brevoort and the Marvel Comics editorial team also removed Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning off of the Guardians of the Galaxy comic that inspired the movie.
Similar to Jim Starlin, Marvel Studios also welcomed and thanked Abnett and Lanning by inviting them to the set of Guardians of the Galaxy (pictured l-r: Andy Lanning, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, Dan Abnett):
Jim Starlin does have one last story about Thanos coming out in February with Thanos: The Infinity Siblings.
Here is the info:
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
