Rob Liefeld Calls For Firings Of Three Marvel Executives And Calls The X-Men Office A "Train Wreck"
Rob Liefeld is no stranger to courting controversy by attacking Marvel Comics for their bad business practices, and this morning, he called for three of Marvel’s top publishing executives to be fired.
The comic industry is in dire straits and we’ve all known this for some time. Sales are atrocious, and the only things moving the needle are alternate universe gimmicks paired with variant covers to exploit a speculator market that doesn’t even read the books.
Even though X-Men relaunched last year with an entire line-wide #1 first issue relaunch, sales are floundering, with several titles already canceled.
Rob Liefeld has made his disdain for Marvel Comics known at several points in his career, including in 2019 when he posted to X, “Had a good long talk with my attorney. Time to hold some feet to the fire for some shady practices over at @marvel. Good times to come @RobertIger.”
He followed up saying, “And, for clarification, when I say Marvel, I’m not taking the west coast cinematic branch. “New York” as referenced here in 2015 Hollywood Reporter.”
Earlier this year, he said he’d never work for Marvel again after saying he was mistreated by the cinematic arm, where he posted, "Kevin Feige does not treat comic book creators well. That is my personal experience. This last issue of Deadpool Team-Up is my final work with all the gang and my last work with Marvel. I had a good time. In stores Feb. 12th!"
In a new Tweet, he’s taken on Marvel leadership calling for the firing of three publishing executives saying, “The guys at the top of the executive suite in publishing have to go - Buckley, Bogart, Gabriel. These guys have no new moves, they are spent and tired and it shows. Start over. My career has been across 7 EIC’s. Seen it done way better by brighter and more focused minds.”
Buckley refers to Dan Buckley, President of Marvel Entertainment since 2017 where he oversees all TV, Publishing and Brand.
Bogart refers to David Bogart Senior Vice President of Operations and Procurement and Marvel
Gabriel refers to David Gabriel, who’s in sales, administration and publishing, who oversees Marvel’s graphic novels and reprints in omnibuses.
It is unknown why Liefeld singled out these three rather than the creatives who are making terrible choices at Marvel Comics, but many in his comments also called for the firing of CB Cebulski, Marvel’s editor-in-chief, and Tom Brevoort, the embattled line editor of the X-Men. However, in a seperate tweet, he did tackle the X-Men offices, saying, “Man, I can’t make folks go on the record - but I can tell you, based on my DM’s, that comic book professionals en masse agree about the train wreck the X-Men office is. Sad. Was once the GOLD standard of comic book storytelling.”
Following up on the controversy, Liefeld posted a new podcast in which he offered fixes for the X-men franchise under Tom Brevoort, saying, “NEW Robservations! X-Men In Crisis! One Year into the most recent re-launch, drowning in canceled titles and falling sales, we offer 5 fixes before it’s too late!”
Liefeld clearly sees the writing on the wall for creative trouble at Marvel, but will they listen to him? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
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Liefeld knows. He’s known for a very long time.
People buy comic books for the same reason they buy print novels. They buy them for the story. If the top tier writers can't think of anything new, maybe they should retire and let them bring in new blood. I know of at least 7 substack writers that can breath new life into the franchises, without starting over.
I also think that the crew of arkhaven comics could do it. I find their stories to be interesting.