Sam Wilson dukes it out with the Red Hulk on Mahmud Asrar’s variant cover to Sam Wilson: Captain America Vol. 1 #2 (2025), Marvel Comics
In a sad if not expected moment for the artistic integrity of the overall medium, Marvel Comics Executive Editor Tom Brevoort has finally confirmed fans’ long-held assumption (and fear) that the publisher’s operations now exist primarily to serve as a ‘content farm’ for Marvel Studios’ television and film ambitions.
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) lands ahead of his own sonic boom in Captain America: Brave New World (2025), Marvel Entertainment
Brevoort, who also serves as the publisher’s Senior Vice President of Publishing and oversees its X-Men line, provided this insight into the company’s current direction while answering fan questions for the February 9th entry of his personal Man With A Hat Substack blog.
That week, a reader prompted by their recent building of LEGO’s new X-Mansion set, inquired with the editor as to if there was any particular reason that he and the rest of the X-office declined to take any aesthetic inspiration from the team’s X-Men: The Animated Series/X-Men ’97 era for their recent ‘From the Ashes’ editorial relaunch, particularly given that this version of Marvel’s Merry Band of Mutants holds “the most mainstream recognition”.
The X-Men ride again in X-Men Vol. 7 #1 “Fire-Baptized Species” (2024), Marvel Comics. Words by Jed MacKay, art by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles.
In turn, the editor explained, “X-Men ’97 and that LEGO X-Mansion [are] based on the X-Men of a particular era—an era that fans were very vocally afraid things would be shifting back to when the progressive Krakoa era had run its course. But the purpose of Marvel Publishing is to be out in front, the tip of the spear, generating new ideas and new stories that can serve as creative fodder for eventual film and animation development.”
“So trying to revert things to 1992 or whenever would seem to be defeating the purpose in a major way,” he concluded. “Better, I think, to try to develop new status quos that future X-Men projects in film and television can draw from.”
Cyclops (Ray Chase) attempts to stop rioters from interrupting Magento’s (Matthew Watterson) trial in X-Men ’97 Season 1 Episode 2 ‘Mutant Liberation Begins’ (2024), Disney Plus
As noted above, readers have long presumed that the ‘House of Ideas’ now exists solely to pump out ‘source material’ for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially of just how much attention Phase 5 and 6 gave to the publisher’s recent, post-Disney-acquisition stories like Thor’s fight against Gorr the God Butcher (as originally told in 2013’s Thor: God of Thunder Vol. 1 and adapted in Thor: Love and Thunder), Riri Williams’ building of her own Iron Man armor (2015’s Invincible Iron Man Vol. 3/Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), and Kamala Khan’s awakening as an Inhuman (2014’s Ms. Marvel Vol. 3 Ms. Marvel), over the fifty-years of stories that preceded them.
However Brevoort’s blog post serves as the first outright confirmation of the fact by someone directly connected to either entity.
Kamala Khan is exposed to the Terrigen Mists in Ms. Marvel Vol. 3 #2 “No Normal. Part 2 of 5: All Mankind” (2014), Marvel Comics. Words by G. Willow Wilson, art by Adrian Alphona and Ian Herring.
While an admitted death rattle for the idea of mainstream comics as any sort of ‘creativity/creator first’ endeavor, this development is particularly worrying given the fact that Disney and Marvel Comics already go out of their way to avoid treating creators with the financial recognition they deserve, and that’s unlikely to change even with creators working with the colloquial knowledge that their work will potentially pull in millions of dollars in ticket sales, licensing deals, and merchandising.
Between such situations as Rocket Racoon co-creator Bill Mantlo having to fight for his rightfully due profits from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Spider-Man 2099 creator Peter David being left to crowdfund his medical bills despite the blow-up success of Across the Spider-Verse, and Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld’s recent disrespecting during development and premiere of Deadpool and Wolverine, history suggests that modern creators are being taken for an absolute ride just for the chance to live out their life-long dreams of working for one of the Big Two.
Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) remains the only bright spot in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment
In a funny bit of coincidence, at the same time Brevoort made his post, the MCU was gearing up for its latest release, Captain America: Brave New World.
Now playing in theaters, the film is directly based on 2014’s Captain America Vol. 7, wherein the Earth-616 version of Sam Wilson is handed the mantle of the Star-Spangled Avenger after Steve Rogers’ age catches up to him after he loses the super-soldier serum.
Sam Wilson makes his debut as the Star-Spangled Avengers in Captain America Vol. 7 #25 “The Tomorrow Soldier: Conclusion” (2014), Marvel Comics. Words by Rick Remender, art by Carlos Pacheco, Stuart Immonen, Mariano Taibo, Wade Von Grawbadger, Dean White, Veronica Gandini, and Marte Gracia.
Mentioned In This Article:DisneyMarvelMarvel ComicsTom Brevoort
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To the surprise of few, Marvel Comics Exec Editor Tom Brevoort has confirmed that the publisher now exists to provide Disney with IP fodder. Read More