Rob Liefeld has taken another shot at Marvel Comics, calling “right now” the “worst era” in the publisher’s history. The Deadpool creator’s acrimonious split with Marvel has made him one of the company’s most vocal critics in the past year, after decades of off/on collaboration. Now, in his latest salvo, Liefeld says “Marvel publishing is at rock bottom.”
Liefeld shared his take on X, stating that the contemporary eras of X-Men, Spider-Man, Avengers, and all Marvel’s top franchises are all at low points right now.
As the comic industry collectively looks back on this year, and ahead to the next, Rob Liefeld’s call-out of Marvel Comics is sure to stimulate the discourse surrounding Marvel’s trajectory further.
Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld Declares “Right Now” The “Rock Bottom” Era For Marvel Comics
Liefeld’s Public Spat With His Ex-Publisher Escalates
Even before the final issue of Rob Liefeld’s swan song Deadpool miniseries was released, the author/illustrator was already alluding to discontent with Marvel Comics, suggesting that he would speak freely once his relationship with the company was officially severed once and for all. Since then, Liefeld has been increasingly “knives out” for Marvel.
Liefeld hasn’t held back on his criticism, taking every available opportunity to blast Marvel Comics for its treatment of creators and its increasingly corporatized approach to the business of comics. When Marvel fans were in an uproar, recently, upon finding out that Miles Morales’ co-creator Sara Pichelli doesn’t earn royalties on the character, Liefeld was quick to jump into the fray.
Liefeld’s latest comment brands the current era of Marvel Comics the “worst” in the company’s nearly century-long history. “The glory days are so far out of view.” The thing is, Liefeld’s opinion isn’t coming in a vacuum. Instead, it is echoing the unease of many longtime readers, who feel similarly about the state of Marvel storytelling.
Marvel Might Be Financially Secure, But Readers Worry It Is Going Creatively Bankrupt
Rob Liefeld’s Callout Is A Reminder Of How Much Marvel Has Changed
Marvel Comics has had some fraught times throughout its history. The Star Wars comic adaptation is said to have “saved” Marvel, on the brink of insolvency at the time, in the late 1970s; the company literally went bankrupt in the mid-1990s. Today, as a subsidiary of Disney, and thanks to the MCU, Marvel Comics is seemingly more financially secure than ever.
Yet what concerns fans, and what Rob Liefeld is diagnosing, is creative bankruptcy. More and more Marvel books are increasingly “mid.” A handful of Marvel titles every year are legitimately great, or at least strive to be, but even the best stories Marvel tells struggle to stand out amidst the volume of comics published each week, every month, all year long.
Fans can argue over the actual “rock bottom” for Spider-Man, or The Avengers, or X-Men, but the point Liefeld is making is that Marvel is not the company it once was. Like the “ship of Theseus,” everything that made it what it once was has been replaced, and the Marvel Comics that Rob Liefeld worked for no longer exists.
- First Appearance
-
The New Mutants
- Alias
-
Wade Wilson
- Alliance
-
X-Men, Avengers, Astonishing Avengers, Deadpool Corps, Frightful Four, Great Lakes Initiative, Heroes for Hire, Mercs for Money, Secret Defenders, Six Pack, Thunderbolts, Weapon X, X-Force
- Race
-
Mutant