Continuing his – admittedly somewhat biased – history of his time at Marvel Comics, former editor-in-chief Jim Shooter has been writing a series of blog posts about the 1980s crossovers between Marvel and DC, and why the Justice League/Avengers crossover destroyed everything:
Many times since I left Marvel, at conventions, in fanzines and more recently, online, there have been laments from readers to the tune of: “How can they let (name of creator) do that to (name of character)? How can they let (so and so) ruin (hero or group).
Well, when I was at Marvel, as much as possible, I prevented such things. I rank the JLA/Avengers plot I wouldn’t approve high on that list.
In other words, I did my job.
It’s a fascinating series of posts (five of them in total: one, two, three, four and five) that paints such a picture of an astonishingly petty DC editorial team that it almost brings its own credibility into question – If everything happened the way Shooter describes, that DC managed to publish comics on a regular schedule during that period is almost unbelievable – while making Shooter out to be a man who’d sacrifice everything for the job. But even with the potential that this is, at best, an extremely slanted version of what actually happened, it’s well worth reading – and check out the comments section, especially in the fourth installment, for extra info on the events described.
July 26th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
of course, if shooter said do it has to be “an extremely slanted version of what actually happened”. yeah, graeme, whatever.
July 26th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
“How can they let (name of creator) do that to (name of character)? How can they let (so and so) ruin (hero or group).
Well, when I was at Marvel, as much as possible, I prevented such things.”
This from the man who ruined Hank Pym for the rest of time by making him a wife-beater… Even though he claims in another post that it was the artist’s fault… Whether the scene was drawn as an accidental smack or as an intentional strike, the result of writing a scene with Pym striking his wife could never have been anything but the stigma of wife-beater attached to him forever.
July 26th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Interesting read… Sounds like the Conway JLA/Avengers story was total crap.
I’d be curious to read the two Supes/Spidey team-ups, as well as Batman/Hulk and X-Men/Titans though. Are these collected anywhere?
July 26th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
@Shaun: “I’d be curious to read the two Supes/Spidey team-ups, as well as Batman/Hulk and X-Men/Titans though. Are these collected anywhere?”
Yep they are, in ‘Crossover Classics: The Marvel/DC Collection Vol. 1′, it collects those four comics.
Peace
July 27th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Awesome! Thanks, Ortiz… I’ll have to track down a copy of that. Sounds fun!