Jim Shooter, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Through Crucial 80s Era, Dies At 73
Jim Shooter, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Through Crucial 80s Era, Dies At 73
Though his tenure was marked by controversy, Shooter brought Marvel to creative and commercial peaks.
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His tenure was marked by stories of creative blowups and controversies, including his insistence that the X-Men character Phoenix had to die to atone for crimes she committed in the story, over the objections of the creative team.
I thought this was a great, ballsy move, actually. IP owners naturally want to milk their product for as long as possible, but this was a real indication that Shooter wanted to go in more realistic directions. The real problem wasn't in killing her off IMO, it was in later teams endlessly bringing her back from the dead.
In 1987, after Marvel had been acquired by New World Pictures, Shooter, whose welcome was already wearing thin, was, by some accounts, fired for demanding editorial autonomy and the payment of royalties.
“He really polarized people, but it was because he had a passion for what he was doing,” said Bill Sienkiewicz, who drew Moon Knight and New Mutants during the 1980s. “He went to bat for freelancers in a way you don’t see many people in editorial roles do today.”
Some might call him draconian, or an AH, but I think these two moves say a lot about him wanting to look after the creators and not just to go in the 'comics as economic product' direction.
I mean, as far as comics as a product, he did pretty much create the "Giant Crossover Event"^tm First with Contest of Champions, then Secret Wars.
IIRC as the article already mentioned, these were the kind of his moves that were quite unique, experimental and even trail-blazing. I thought the first SW was a pretty interesting yarn, even if this kind of thing later got turned in to a product. But that was going to be the case, regardless. Anything successful was always going to be imitated until turned in to product.