Top 5 X-Men Controversies | Byrne, Morrison, Claremont, Lee

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John Byrne Quits / Scott Lobdell Hired

John Byrne returned to the X-Men franchise at Marvel from 1991 to 1992, succeeding longtime writer Chris Claremont, who left after 17 years working on the various X-Men related titles. John Byrne's return as the new writer was brief, as he only scripted Uncanny X-Men issues #281–285 and 288 with artist Whilce Portacio, and X-Men issues #4–5 with artist Jim Lee.

Morrison surprises Quesada with DC exclusive
DC had signed writer Grant Morrison to a two-year exclusive contract. One of the top scribes in comics, Grant Morrison has always had strong ties to DC, where he came to prominence with Arkham Asylum, Animal Man, and Doom Patrol. Even after Morrison agreed to write New X-Men for Marvel in 2001, he continued to write for DC, producing Vertigo titles such as Filth. Morrison's recent run on New X-Men has been a success, with the title placing consistently in the top ten. An inside source told ICv2 that Morrison's remaining run on New X-Men would be short (issue #154 is reportedly his last). If so, Morrison's defection to DC could be a blow to Marvel, unless the 'house of ideas' can come up with a suitable replacement.

De-emphasizing X-Men because of FOX
1) There are only so many hours in the day, and so many initiatives you can have going at once. So you need to pick and choose where you want to spend your time and your efforts.

2) If you had two things, and on one you earned 100 percent of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you’d be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn’t you?

This of course refers to the licensing deals that Marvel struck with Fox for X-Men and Fantastic Four, plus Spider-Man with Sony. Both deals were made when Marvel was going through bankruptcy in the mid-1990s due to a run of bad business decisions and the popping of the comic book bubble. The deal with Sony was eventually re-negotiated to give Marvel more favorable terms, which is why you still see Spider-Man cartoons and products on store shelves. The same can’t be said for Fox and X-Men.

Image 7 walkout

The early 90’s were a good time to be Marvel Comics. Their reputation for gritty, intriguing story-telling and extensive slate of beloved characters had them on top of the comics world. That reputation drew the attention of top artists and creators from around the globe. They flocked to Marvel for the chance to put their stamp on their favorite characters and to create bold new worlds of their own. Marvel took ownership of their talents, took ownership of their ideas and took ownership of their art. Marvel took home most of the money too.

Things finally came to a head in December 1991 when a team of Marvel’s top creators led by Todd McFarlane demanded that Marvel give them ownership and creative control over their work. Marvel did not listen. McFarlane and seven other of Marvel’s chief creative talents including: Jim Lee, Rob Leifeld, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larson, Jim Valentino, Whilce Portacio and Chris Claremont walked away and formed Image Comics. The so-called “X-Odus” (many of the creators had come to fame while working on X-Men) was a severe blow to Marvel

Chris Claremont forced out

X-Men #1 is still the best-selling comic book of all-time, with sales of over 8.1 million copies (and nearly $7 million), according to Guinness World Records, which presented honors to Claremont at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. The sales figures were generated in part by publishing the issue with four different variant covers which showed different characters from the book, large numbers of which were purchased by retailers, who anticipated fans and speculators who would buy multiple copies in order to acquire a complete collection of the covers. Chris Claremont left the series after the first three-issue story arc, due to clashes with editor Bob Harras.

#xmen #marvelcomics #controversy

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