Please, more like this. As someone who reads comics but doesn't know the backroom stuff, this was fascinating. The stories of characters being retconned, changes in direction, reasons behind certains decisions? Hells yeah.
You should check out Marvel: The Untold Story by Sean Howe. There's a lot about the BTS stuff going back to the founding of Marvel up through the beginning of Marvel Studios.
That's the difference between strong leadership and a power-mad idiot. When someone genuinely knows what they're doing and isn't afraid to say no to bad ideas being presented to them it's always going to cause friction. This is where transparency is needed because if there's a big picture being worked towards then the leader needs to share that with everyone under their authority since it firmly establishes the boundries everyone has to work within.
I’ve met this man four times in my life already and he has been the sweetest man of all! You can just tell the passion he has for Comics and he is always willing to talk to anyone. Honestly I really think he’s the friendliest Comic person I’ve met
If it's true that some staff made a guyfawkes with his face and burned it at a party it shows there was some very immature and idiotic people at Marvel who deserved to be fired or have their opinions dismissed.
The thing about the Dark Phoenix saga is that Claremont and Byrne made the first big mistake in trying to show Dark Phoenix’s madness and power by an act so reprehensible (the destruction of an entire solar system and an intelligent alien species) that the consequences HAD to be extreme or the morality would play false. So when they bluffed Jim Shooter with killing off Jean Grey he was absolutely right to make that call. For the story it was thematically and dramatically the perfect call. It deepened all the subsequent melodrama of the X-Men comics for years afterword and made those books an even MORE hot property! Until later they started bringing her back again and again and again… But “comic book death” is a whole topic for another time. The point here is that Shooter was objectively the best thing to happen to Marvel Comics and the 80s Marvel Comics are the best there ever were and it’s largely due to one guy accepting the fact that he had to be hated and feared to get stuff done. Jim Shooter therefore is the perfect Comic Book villain. Like the best of them like Dr. Doom, he just so happened to be RIGHT most of the time. 😏
Imo the Krakoan era perfected the formula, I could stay in those books forever and it's directly due to the resurrection, willingness to explore the cosmic and philosophy, and the overwhelming amount of lgbt people and people of color. 80s comix are inevitably my second favourite era though because of similar reasons even despite being a 90s baby. They tried too hard to me leather wearing cool guys haha. Would love a canon Jimmy Shooter as a Doom variant, you're onto sumn there
He was right about at least considering the comic code as a guideline that could be marginally crossed. The PDI in modern Marvel is too many panels I don't want. They should start a new series called Super Romance Spotlight and keep it all in that. Big seller there. 'Course, we know where they'd take the romance. Maybe not a big seller.
Absolutely and speaking of Jean she really didn't grow after the F4 resurrection until Morrison got his hands on her. Having her in Krakoa was kinda pointless and X-Men Red was just okay so the point still stands.
Great video, Rob! And I totally believe Shooter's explanation of why he was fired. Upper management isn't going to care that creative types are unhappy if Shooter's style is improving their business. But when you mess with the money, they'll axe you with the quickness.
I literally said the same thing in my diatribe where I gave three reasons why I believe Jim Shooter. Upper executives just do not care about that especially if a guy is making the company tons of money and literally saved it from being sold off for parts.
Do more videos like this Rob because I'm sure most fans have no idea of a lot of the behind thr scenes stuff that might help explain & or better understand why certain things are the way they are, etc!
What's neat to me is I was there as a Marvelite during that period. It's neat hearing what went down while all I cared about at the time was peering over the tables at flea markets and finding who had used issues. I never understood the reason for all of the slit cover comics I own.
I thought Rob Liefeld was the most hated guy in Marvel. He single handedly dismantled the X-Men franchise, the beating heart and soul the Marvel Universe especially after Chris Claremont 's run.
Great breakdown on the BTS. Seems to me like Jim Shooter advocated for integrity and honesty in the industry. The no nonsense type character that individuals either adapt to or runaway from.
Shooter would go in SDCC when it really was a comic-con. There would Lee. There would be the King Jack Kirby. There would be talent of the day. In those days you don't attack Lee. Because Shooter had become MARVEL CORPORATE, all the sins of Lee (yes, there are a-plenty) were heaped onto Shooter. Shooter became at these conventions a living symbol for everything wrong done Kirby and Ditko, all the while Shooter was fighting to get Kirby his original art back to him. Yes, MARVEL needed more than just just the incredible artistic talent. They needed a servant-leader and editor to reign it in and let things flow in the best way. Shooter was that. Yes, Jean Gray needed to face consequences, and that wasn't some deontological moralizing -- for the same reason that in the MCU Wanda, even sick and overwhelmed, needed to face consequences by removing herself by her own agency (until Doom brings her back for AVENGERS V). Yes, Spider-Man CAN beat the X-Men without Xavier's help, sorry!
Nah, it is far from dying. Go listen to the Billy Joel song "WHY DO I GO TO EXTREMES?":@@Akkbar21 That applies to you if you really think that the most successful film franchise in the history of cinema (yes, including QUANTUMANIA and THE MARVELS box office) is "dying." Repeat and rinse with that song.
This was super interesting to me. My grandfather Carl owned a comic shop for 30 years. He founded it as a book swap in 1979 and transitioned it into a comic specialty store due to interest directly in the wake of Jim's actions. Without Jim Shooter there REALLY is no telling whether that business decision would have worked out and who knows where I'd be today. I wish I could ask my pops what he thought of the guy, sadly he passed in 2010.
@I_identify_as_blackula no. A childlike, super intelligent being that no one took seriously, but if he could just make everyone love him, it would all be perfect.
It's partly because of him that the symbiote Peter Parker found in Battle World was born in 1984. And by extension, Venom, after bonding to Eddie Brock in 1988.
Shitting on Jim Shooter was Comics Journal regular feature back in the day - by the time he started Valiant it went overdrive. Wizard also was going hard on Shooter even before the Kirby situation.
@@MatthewMoreau I imagine they did like it for many things such as how to determine how valuable or rare a comic back could be. I have no idea if Wizard is still around. I haven't bought a comic book in a long time. way too expensive but back in the 1980s Wizard as I remember it was pretty much anti Marvel.
@@HeyYou992 and he made sure that nothing could be explicitly queer. That's why there was no textual evidence of any queerness even when charecters obviously were written that way like with Storm, Kitty, and Racheal Summers. That's still censorship, even if you have a job title attached to it, and he did it long after anyone payed attention to the comics code.
I really enjoy the backstory of the business of comics in this video.I hope you make more in digestible chapters, anecdotes. Great job! A really enjoy the part when you tie the business and with the comics by describing the history of Dark Phoenix.
I saw the title and I was like Jim Shooter but it’s only because I hear the way Sal talks about him on back issues and from that I assumed correctly it seems that he is unliked
Really enjoyed the pacing and the information. I would only say I wish this was longer. Long format documentary style videos are wanted and needed for sure.
Would love more behind the scenes videos like this! Something like the rise of hickman or geoff johns where you go over their early career and what led to their marquee stories would be super interesting
I love this style of video! Learning the behind the scenes and history of marvel comics helps deepen my appreciation for the comic book industry as a whole! Thanks for this! 🎉
I've met Jim Shooter twice so far, hopefully I'll be able to meet him a third time at the end of this month, and he's a cool dude. Love hearing his stories, not just about his time at Marvel, but talking about his association with people like Wallace Wood, Steve Ditko, and so forth. Very interesting stuff. He was not a bad editor-in-chief at all, employees always have a tendency to not have the best attitude towards the boss. We had a great era of Marvel Comics when he was in charge. Look what happened to them in the '90s. *edit: I've met Jim Shooter 5 times now. Gonna be 6 this weekend.
Rob this would actually be a great weekly series for you to introduce where you dive into history of the comic book industry it's so insightful and I wouldn't want to learn any of it from anyone else.
I always liked Jim Shooter. I think it's unfortunate that his by the books mentality did run off some talent, but also some of that could have been attributed to immaturity of that talent. I think in hindsight has he stayed they could have all eventually worked together again, like when you hear Claremont today say that Jim was right.
That was damn interesting. Would love to see more videos like this every now and then. It was a bit of fresh air to get a little BTS of the comic book industry and it's apparent DEEP history. It never dawned on me just how long it's actually been around for and going on, kind of crazy in retrospect.
Jim Shooters 80's 'Secret Wars' got me into comic books. The crossover of titles, continuity, and a toy line to boot was economic and creative genius. Stan Lee helped the potential of what a shared Marvel universe could be but Shooter poured the cement that has slowly chipped away since his departure.
I believe this is true, I've worked many places and no one cares when basic employees are treated unfairly, but the minute ANYTHING starts affecting upper management or the bottom line, even if it's just a rumor, heads roll, so I believe this.
That he was overseeing quality work being produced but got fired bc he was mean seems silly. His underlings accidentally performing a spell that destroys him at a barbecue is some real comic book stuff, though. The lesson is don't make people hate you enough to burn an effigy if you .😅
The late 60’s to 70’s Marvel was interesting to say the least…(they did drugs at Marvel Comics back then…well how else would you describe how Steve Ditko came up with those visuals for Dr.Strange, or the concept of Man Thing)
@@spencerpommier806 see I’d agree with that take I just find it funny that he keeps writing Spider-Man with Hellions/X-Men in mind. E.g writes Hellions brings back Madelyne Pryor Jeans clone, writes Spider-Man brings back Ben Reilly Peters clone. First big Spider-Man event he uses both said clones as villains - the event does more for Madelyn then it does for either Peter or Ben etc, just feels like he’s trying too hard to do too many things rather than just writing for the character which I could forgive if it was his first time on the character however he’s written for Spider-Man before. Not sure if it’s that he’s trying to do a Dan Slott and leave his mark on the character or if it’s a mix of that and editorial pushing. Spencer’s run wasn’t anything special but he at least worked hard to mend many of the issues fans had with the book since OMD and the Quesada mandate and Wells just undid all that work in the span of a few months.
@@blueflare4139 see I’d disagree, while I personally didn’t enjoy a lot of his run he did have landmark stories for the character, Superior Spider-Man, Spiderverse, Big Time etc
@@Wezt334 yeah no, see those stories yes those are landmark ones but with some other ones they’re very questionable. I know about his response to some of the criticism for some of those questionable stories. There’s stuff to pick at but no cherry pick with some of the major stories though and they’re hype like spiderverse or superior I like them, I haven’t seen enough big time.
I remember that one of the things I liked about Marvel at that time was that they tried to not only maintain continuity, they also tried to keep all of their comics in a timeline that progressed at the same rate for all titles. Crossovers, which were rare at the time, would reference where a given issue fell with regards to the crossover’s issue number.
Jim Shooter sounds like an awesome guy. People can't deal with those that command respect. Show up for work? do your work? That stuff just melts people.
Jim Shooter sounds like what in my time as a US Marine called an "ugly leader". It was all about efficiency over empathy. He made Marvel a machine. And being more efficient, made money. But at the same time, you sacrifice friends. So, i think that the real story about exposing corruption, especially seeing what happened to Marvel pre Disney buy, I think there are some nuggets of truth in what Shooter is saying. What the full story is, we will never know.
Never paid much attention to this back when I was a kid but as an adult I find the behind the scenes stuff fascinating. If you got more of this, bring it on!
I dig stories about the industry and the artists / players who bring all of these awesome stories to us. The business / career side of comic books is much less important to the average comic book reader than the comics themselves but those of us who have read them our whole lives really do sit and wonder about the people who run the show. This is good content for your viewers and I support videos such as these. Good shit rob
I thought this video was going to be about Ike Perlmutter because he forced Marvel Comics to try and replace the X-Men with the Inhumans and put Black Bolt everywhere in the 2010s 🤣.
When I was younger, I wanted to work with Marvel comics. Boy, am I'm glad that I wasn't born exactly fifty years earlier to have endure Jim Shooter's management.
I know Jim Shooter would not have approved of comics like Thunderbolts, (Jim Shooter pretty much had a black and white world view {Heroes were good, Villains were bad, end of discussion} ) If Jim Shooter was there in the 90’s we wouldn’t have had Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza’s take on Baron Zemo, which is the Baron Zemo that got used for the MCU
So as of late my new favorite comic RUclips channel is this dude Mattt… he does this very exact thing. Pick a player in comic history and tell their story. It’s such a well done page and that reminds me of this. Your knowledge of history is so rich, hell yeah mane… bring it on.
I think its the reason why a lot of us liked Marvel, it was less strict and more fun... but there's always a line, a place where business and fun separate, and most people don't know where its at. When I was in the Army I had a great CO, ex-Ranger went green to gold, and loved working for him. He was a little looser than the standard officer, but I always knew that line of being personal and professional. Over time soldiers would get butt-hurt over the way he ran the company, but never realized that they were the ones being the problem. Shooter wasn't perfect, but I'd take him over any other EIC.
I loved the video, Rob. I'm a longtime Marvel reader, but I didn't know all of the ins-and-outs of Shooter's tenure at the company. More videos like this please.
Marvel Hates Jim Shooter for he was right, and it what led to their downfall in the 90's the rise of the OMD mafia since he wasn't whipping the ego powered people like quesada and slott in their places. ANd many of the good stuff marvel made in the 80's, including the origins of many transformers characters came from him and Bob Budiansky.
He was dealing with some of the most talented writers and artists such as Chris Clairemont John Byrne who had big egos as well. Jim Shooter probably did as well and when you had that of volitile mix of talented people with big egos there's going to be a lot of contention. But in the end Jim Shooter basically saved the company from financial collaspe. Someone mentioned that the Beyonder a character that was created by Jim Shooter was an extension of Shooter himself and I heard many of writers and artists notably John Byrne hated the Beyonder as a character as much as he disliked Shooter.
Love your presentations. Shooter doesn't deserve the hate. This is how it is: From Lee-Kirby-Ditko through Shooter's firing, Marvel gave stories with as much originality as they can have. After? Rehash. Some EXCELLENT rehash -- perhaps the greatest Marvel story ever told is rehash, Hickman's 2015 SECRET WARS and everything that built up to that from Hickman's FF run. But still rehash. CIVIL WAR? Already read that back in the 60s really. AVSX? Yeah, that's an issue of UNCANNY X-MEN before ten issues had been given. Sorry if this upsets you! 80s Marvel was GREAT. Not good, GREAT. And yes, all of the talents in those days including Claremont and Byrne were enhanced by Shooter. Sorry if that upsets you! Shooter knew the characters WELL. He knows Doom has the heart of a lion. It is LONG OVERDUE to give this great (not perfect!) man (who by the way risked his life to stop a woman from being murdered) the praise he deserves. Do you like Lee and Kirby and Ditko? Amen, you should. Do you enjoy the MCU and AVENGERS movies? You should. You can thank Shooter because if he didn't arrive in the late '70s and steer the ship through the '80s as he did, talking about the Avengers might just be like talking about CASPER and HOT STUFF and other IPs that had their day and went the way of the dinosaurs.
this was a breath of fresh air, rob. as someone who dearly misses the content from your second channel, this reminded me of that. excellent research as well.
I met Jim Shooter about 6 years ago. I thanked him for virtually saving Marvel by making the tough decisions that others didn’t want to make. I saw him as a brilliant savant who is uncomfortable with people, sort of what the character Sheldon Cooper is on The Big Bang Theory portrays.
I firmly believe that the alternate timeline where Shooter didn't become editor-in-chief ended up with a much weaker Marvel that didn't build up to the 90s peak, and didn't get the MCU Infinity Saga either.
Tom King? Oooooh Jim Shooter....the guy who made Marvel actually work is the bad guy? I disagree. Yeah he was harsh but that what was needed at the time and truthfully is needed again now.
Yes Rob! Please do more of these insider comic videos so the hard working folks behind the pages can get their flowers and recognition. Love to see it,
Love this video I’ve been watching your stuff for over 5 years and I will never stop watching new random comics and storylines you start but I would love more of these types of videos as well
Glad u asked for a opinion bc my first thought was “Rob should definitely do more videos like this”. Despite not being in the Rob Corp I have been a long term fan of urs since the very early days and you alone have taught me more about comics than any other source including comics lol. Informative videos on the history of nerd culture in comics and similar topics would be a great addition to this channel.
I love your passion for comics but just as much, perhaps more, is how you explain comics history. Getting to hear about how a story came to be due to real world events is surprisingly fascinating.
Please make more videos like this dude! As much as I love comics, I love the real world history of them just as much and you do such a great job at telling it.
This video was informative and greater. We need more comics history like this. Not only to break your monotony or covering stories but also because I’m sure these are fun for you as well
More of these please Robb i know alot of this but not all and its nice to have it all laid out, really shows the die a hero or live long enough to become a villan time line
Please, more like this. As someone who reads comics but doesn't know the backroom stuff, this was fascinating. The stories of characters being retconned, changes in direction, reasons behind certains decisions? Hells yeah.
Are you familiar with the Cerebro podcast? If not, enjoy
You should check out Marvel: The Untold Story by Sean Howe. There's a lot about the BTS stuff going back to the founding of Marvel up through the beginning of Marvel Studios.
Yeeeesssss!!!!!!! Totally in the same boat friend. This is good. ANOTHER!! 🍻
Agreed
Also jerk comics does a great background of comic industry
I always looked at him as the coach that everyone hated.... That took you to the championship and won.
Great analogy. And let's throw into that a coach who was actually a good, but not perfect, man.
Perfect example.
That's the difference between strong leadership and a power-mad idiot. When someone genuinely knows what they're doing and isn't afraid to say no to bad ideas being presented to them it's always going to cause friction. This is where transparency is needed because if there's a big picture being worked towards then the leader needs to share that with everyone under their authority since it firmly establishes the boundries everyone has to work within.
jim shooter = larry brown
Coach Carter then
I’ve met this man four times in my life already and he has been the sweetest man of all! You can just tell the passion he has for Comics and he is always willing to talk to anyone. Honestly I really think he’s the friendliest Comic person I’ve met
If it's true that some staff made a guyfawkes with his face and burned it at a party it shows there was some very immature and idiotic people at Marvel who deserved to be fired or have their opinions dismissed.
I saw him an convention fanexpo Toronto miss my chance but if I see him again I'll be happy to talk with him.
@@Slyarno2795he even did a small show in Markham a few years ago, super approachable
Vince Colleta defended him at the time. That was about all. Tough to tell what was going on.@@ericliu8488
I recommend Sean Howe's book. Excellent business book in addition to being a history of comics.
The thing about the Dark Phoenix saga is that Claremont and Byrne made the first big mistake in trying to show Dark Phoenix’s madness and power by an act so reprehensible (the destruction of an entire solar system and an intelligent alien species) that the consequences HAD to be extreme or the morality would play false. So when they bluffed Jim Shooter with killing off Jean Grey he was absolutely right to make that call. For the story it was thematically and dramatically the perfect call. It deepened all the subsequent melodrama of the X-Men comics for years afterword and made those books an even MORE hot property! Until later they started bringing her back again and again and again… But “comic book death” is a whole topic for another time.
The point here is that Shooter was objectively the best thing to happen to Marvel Comics and the 80s Marvel Comics are the best there ever were and it’s largely due to one guy accepting the fact that he had to be hated and feared to get stuff done.
Jim Shooter therefore is the perfect Comic Book villain. Like the best of them like Dr. Doom, he just so happened to be RIGHT most of the time. 😏
If I'd seen this comment I wouldn't have written my own! 😅
Imo the Krakoan era perfected the formula, I could stay in those books forever and it's directly due to the resurrection, willingness to explore the cosmic and philosophy, and the overwhelming amount of lgbt people and people of color. 80s comix are inevitably my second favourite era though because of similar reasons even despite being a 90s baby. They tried too hard to me leather wearing cool guys haha.
Would love a canon Jimmy Shooter as a Doom variant, you're onto sumn there
He was right about at least considering the comic code as a guideline that could be marginally crossed. The PDI in modern Marvel is too many panels I don't want. They should start a new series called Super Romance Spotlight and keep it all in that. Big seller there. 'Course, we know where they'd take the romance. Maybe not a big seller.
Jim Shooter is based
Absolutely and speaking of Jean she really didn't grow after the F4 resurrection until Morrison got his hands on her. Having her in Krakoa was kinda pointless and X-Men Red was just okay so the point still stands.
Great video, Rob! And I totally believe Shooter's explanation of why he was fired. Upper management isn't going to care that creative types are unhappy if Shooter's style is improving their business. But when you mess with the money, they'll axe you with the quickness.
I agree it is highly probable
He also resolved the issue with the late John Verpoorten, Marvel's production manager and advances made in good faith but poorly accounted for.
Sadly true the majority of the time.
I literally said the same thing in my diatribe where I gave three reasons why I believe Jim Shooter. Upper executives just do not care about that especially if a guy is making the company tons of money and literally saved it from being sold off for parts.
Do more videos like this Rob because I'm sure most fans have no idea of a lot of the behind thr scenes stuff that might help explain & or better understand why certain things are the way they are, etc!
"Why everyone loves Hickman" would really butter my biscuit
What's neat to me is I was there as a Marvelite during that period. It's neat hearing what went down while all I cared about at the time was peering over the tables at flea markets and finding who had used issues. I never understood the reason for all of the slit cover comics I own.
I thought Rob Liefeld was the most hated guy in Marvel. He single handedly dismantled the X-Men franchise, the beating heart and soul the Marvel Universe especially after Chris Claremont 's run.
Great breakdown on the BTS. Seems to me like Jim Shooter advocated for integrity and honesty in the industry. The no nonsense type character that individuals either adapt to or runaway from.
Shooter would go in SDCC when it really was a comic-con. There would Lee. There would be the King Jack Kirby. There would be talent of the day. In those days you don't attack Lee. Because Shooter had become MARVEL CORPORATE, all the sins of Lee (yes, there are a-plenty) were heaped onto Shooter. Shooter became at these conventions a living symbol for everything wrong done Kirby and Ditko, all the while Shooter was fighting to get Kirby his original art back to him.
Yes, MARVEL needed more than just just the incredible artistic talent. They needed a servant-leader and editor to reign it in and let things flow in the best way. Shooter was that. Yes, Jean Gray needed to face consequences, and that wasn't some deontological moralizing -- for the same reason that in the MCU Wanda, even sick and overwhelmed, needed to face consequences by removing herself by her own agency (until Doom brings her back for AVENGERS V). Yes, Spider-Man CAN beat the X-Men without Xavier's help, sorry!
@@BibleAlivePresentationsjust let the mcu die.
Nah, it is far from dying. Go listen to the Billy Joel song "WHY DO I GO TO EXTREMES?":@@Akkbar21 That applies to you if you really think that the most successful film franchise in the history of cinema (yes, including QUANTUMANIA and THE MARVELS box office) is "dying." Repeat and rinse with that song.
This was super interesting to me. My grandfather Carl owned a comic shop for 30 years. He founded it as a book swap in 1979 and transitioned it into a comic specialty store due to interest directly in the wake of Jim's actions. Without Jim Shooter there REALLY is no telling whether that business decision would have worked out and who knows where I'd be today. I wish I could ask my pops what he thought of the guy, sadly he passed in 2010.
I used to go to Carl's (B.S.I.), regularly starting in 1986, so I remember much of this, as it happened.
Bro I love this. Please do more videos on writers and editors and artists
I love to hear about the behind the scenes aspect of the comic industry. If you did more of these I would eat it up.
Lets all take a minute to remember The Beyonder was a Jim Shooter stand in.
The ultimate being. Editor -n-Chief has the final say in what goes to print.
@I_identify_as_blackula no. A childlike, super intelligent being that no one took seriously, but if he could just make everyone love him, it would all be perfect.
@@kylecarter1599 The whole concept went straight over your head
@I_identify_as_blackula if you think it's just because Shooter was EIC, it went over your head.
It's partly because of him that the symbiote Peter Parker found in Battle World was born in 1984. And by extension, Venom, after bonding to Eddie Brock in 1988.
More of these please !!!!
This is dope af
Shitting on Jim Shooter was Comics Journal regular feature back in the day - by the time he started Valiant it went overdrive. Wizard also was going hard on Shooter even before the Kirby situation.
Wizard was pretty anti Marvel back then even though Marvel writers had done some of the best stories imo written.
@@oldgordo61People really liked Wizard.
@@MatthewMoreau I imagine they did like it for many things such as how to determine how valuable or rare a comic back could be. I have no idea if Wizard is still around. I haven't bought a comic book in a long time. way too expensive but back in the 1980s Wizard as I remember it was pretty much anti Marvel.
@@oldgordo61 Well, it wouldn't been if Jim kept his mouth shut
Shooter has a bad reputation, but his methods work. Comics go out on time, and it was the greatest time to be Marvel reader. Jim got screwed!
His comics had excellent continuity connectedness.
And he also censored the shit out of everything.
@@travisbewley7084 It's not censorship, it's editorial. It was Jim Shooter's literal job to manage what got produced under the Marvel banner.
@@HeyYou992 and he made sure that nothing could be explicitly queer. That's why there was no textual evidence of any queerness even when charecters obviously were written that way like with Storm, Kitty, and Racheal Summers.
That's still censorship, even if you have a job title attached to it, and he did it long after anyone payed attention to the comics code.
@@travisbewley7084He didn't say true things. He's stupid.
I really enjoy the backstory of the business of comics in this video.I hope you make more in digestible chapters, anecdotes. Great job! A really enjoy the part when you tie the business and with the comics by describing the history of Dark Phoenix.
I saw the title and I was like Jim Shooter but it’s only because I hear the way Sal talks about him on back issues and from that I assumed correctly it seems that he is unliked
Really enjoyed the pacing and the information. I would only say I wish this was longer. Long format documentary style videos are wanted and needed for sure.
More comics history and behind the pages stuff! I had no idea any of this happened, and it’s super interesting.
Comics explained, explaining the history of comics while comicstorian is explaining comics wild times we live in
Don't forget about comicpop!
They explained about either how shitty the comicbook is or how convoluted the story is
Im.a Shooter guy. He got his creators to get there books out on time and oversaw the biggest storylines ever written like the Phoenix saga.
I love this discussion it gives us a behind the scenes view of what was going on in Marvel
Would love more behind the scenes videos like this! Something like the rise of hickman or geoff johns where you go over their early career and what led to their marquee stories would be super interesting
I love this style of video! Learning the behind the scenes and history of marvel comics helps deepen my appreciation for the comic book industry as a whole! Thanks for this! 🎉
I liked Shooter’s run. I loved the Handbook and Byrne’s career.
What’s going on with him? What did he do?
They just hated him because he was strict.
@@TravelsTTG Oh. Thanks. So he was just doing his job.
@@Uatu-the-WatcherThat's a corrupted cop.
@@MatthewMoreau What?
@@Uatu-the-Watcher How is that his job
That first pic of Jim at 0:12 looks like Dead Pool tried to join The Beatles
Hell yeah, right as I started my lunch break
Why you eating lunch at breakfast? 😊
@@mentalphilanthropist35 time difference
@@afd1040 Was a joke, hence the smiley face.
I've met Jim Shooter twice so far, hopefully I'll be able to meet him a third time at the end of this month, and he's a cool dude. Love hearing his stories, not just about his time at Marvel, but talking about his association with people like Wallace Wood, Steve Ditko, and so forth. Very interesting stuff. He was not a bad editor-in-chief at all, employees always have a tendency to not have the best attitude towards the boss. We had a great era of Marvel Comics when he was in charge. Look what happened to them in the '90s.
*edit: I've met Jim Shooter 5 times now. Gonna be 6 this weekend.
Interesting! I know nothing about editorial drama and history. These videos get my vote for more.
I believe it. It's rarely how you treat your "lessers" that gets you in real trouble, it's how you treat your "betters" that does it.
Why would they tell him to be nice to a corrupted writer
@@MatthewMoreau I think you misunderstood what I was saying.
@@Dark_Jaguar What were you saying?
@@MatthewMoreau I was saying this guy didn't get in trouble for how he treated the people "beneath" him, but for how he treated those "above" him.
@@Dark_Jaguar Oh, fax
Rob this would actually be a great weekly series for you to introduce where you dive into history of the comic book industry it's so insightful and I wouldn't want to learn any of it from anyone else.
"I believe Jim" that's my new t-shirt
I always liked Jim Shooter. I think it's unfortunate that his by the books mentality did run off some talent, but also some of that could have been attributed to immaturity of that talent.
I think in hindsight has he stayed they could have all eventually worked together again, like when you hear Claremont today say that Jim was right.
Jim Shooter gets no credit but he not only saved Marvel he also gave us Marvel's best, longest era of quality content.
That was damn interesting. Would love to see more videos like this every now and then. It was a bit of fresh air to get a little BTS of the comic book industry and it's apparent DEEP history. It never dawned on me just how long it's actually been around for and going on, kind of crazy in retrospect.
Jim Shooters 80's 'Secret Wars' got me into comic books. The crossover of titles, continuity, and a toy line to boot was economic and creative genius. Stan Lee helped the potential of what a shared Marvel universe could be but Shooter poured the cement that has slowly chipped away since his departure.
I believe this is true, I've worked many places and no one cares when basic employees are treated unfairly, but the minute ANYTHING starts affecting upper management or the bottom line, even if it's just a rumor, heads roll, so I believe this.
Now that was some comics explained. Good showing sir!
That he was overseeing quality work being produced but got fired bc he was mean seems silly. His underlings accidentally performing a spell that destroys him at a barbecue is some real comic book stuff, though.
The lesson is don't make people hate you enough to burn an effigy if you .😅
Comic History Explained is a great idea man. Especially since you explain things at a level anyone can take in. Please make this a series
I like this type of style you got going on Rob. I would love to see more of it man.
Man, this could be a a whole other channel. The behind the scenes, dirt and business of the comicbook industry. Great idea.
Excellent job, Rob!
A live action Disney+ series about the back story and history of Marvel would be dope.
The late 60’s to 70’s Marvel was interesting to say the least…(they did drugs at Marvel Comics back then…well how else would you describe how Steve Ditko came up with those visuals for Dr.Strange, or the concept of Man Thing)
I’d argue Zeb Wells is fast becoming the most hated man at Marvel
Which sucks his Hellions run at the X-Men office is one of the best Marvel books of the last decade
@@spencerpommier806 see I’d agree with that take I just find it funny that he keeps writing Spider-Man with Hellions/X-Men in mind. E.g writes Hellions brings back Madelyne Pryor Jeans clone, writes Spider-Man brings back Ben Reilly Peters clone. First big Spider-Man event he uses both said clones as villains - the event does more for Madelyn then it does for either Peter or Ben etc, just feels like he’s trying too hard to do too many things rather than just writing for the character which I could forgive if it was his first time on the character however he’s written for Spider-Man before. Not sure if it’s that he’s trying to do a Dan Slott and leave his mark on the character or if it’s a mix of that and editorial pushing. Spencer’s run wasn’t anything special but he at least worked hard to mend many of the issues fans had with the book since OMD and the Quesada mandate and Wells just undid all that work in the span of a few months.
@@Wezt334Slotts mark definetly wasn’t a great one
@@blueflare4139 see I’d disagree, while I personally didn’t enjoy a lot of his run he did have landmark stories for the character, Superior Spider-Man, Spiderverse, Big Time etc
@@Wezt334 yeah no, see those stories yes those are landmark ones but with some other ones they’re very questionable. I know about his response to some of the criticism for some of those questionable stories. There’s stuff to pick at but no cherry pick with some of the major stories though and they’re hype like spiderverse or superior I like them, I haven’t seen enough big time.
I remember that one of the things I liked about Marvel at that time was that they tried to not only maintain continuity, they also tried to keep all of their comics in a timeline that progressed at the same rate for all titles. Crossovers, which were rare at the time, would reference where a given issue fell with regards to the crossover’s issue number.
PLEASE DO MORE ROB!!!! Hope geek culture explained comes back :)
Brilliant Rob. Do more stuff like this, it's fascinating
Jim Shooter sounds like an awesome guy.
People can't deal with those that command respect. Show up for work? do your work? That stuff just melts people.
Absolutely loved this video. Definitely would love a series or even a docuseries of you covering the history of the comic industry and all its players
Jim Shooter sounds like what in my time as a US Marine called an "ugly leader". It was all about efficiency over empathy. He made Marvel a machine. And being more efficient, made money. But at the same time, you sacrifice friends. So, i think that the real story about exposing corruption, especially seeing what happened to Marvel pre Disney buy, I think there are some nuggets of truth in what Shooter is saying. What the full story is, we will never know.
Never paid much attention to this back when I was a kid but as an adult I find the behind the scenes stuff fascinating. If you got more of this, bring it on!
I dig stories about the industry and the artists / players who bring all of these awesome stories to us. The business / career side of comic books is much less important to the average comic book reader than the comics themselves but those of us who have read them our whole lives really do sit and wonder about the people who run the show. This is good content for your viewers and I support videos such as these. Good shit rob
You should do this type of comic book history. Giving us a little info of what goes behind the scene
I thought this video was going to be about Ike Perlmutter because he forced Marvel Comics to try and replace the X-Men with the Inhumans and put Black Bolt everywhere in the 2010s 🤣.
Enjoyed this concept.
Please do more on comic history as far as the industry.
When I saw the title of the vid my immediate thought was Paul Rabin
What a great video! Jim Shooter did an incredible job improving Marvel Comics in the 1980s. He deserves some credit!
A history lesson is always valuable
Loving this style of video where it’s a kind of explainer of comic book history/publishing history. Def want more of these !
Obviously Spider-Man is the most hated person at Marvel Comics, specifically in the eyes of Marvel’s writers
Definetly more. The Marvel behind the scenes is so juicy and scandlous and I love it!
This is sick. Really like this type of video, Rob
You're a troll.
I absolutely loved this video! Please, make a whole series of them and call it "Dark Side of the Ink"...might I suggest Bill Finger next
When I was younger, I wanted to work with Marvel comics. Boy, am I'm glad that I wasn't born exactly fifty years earlier to have endure Jim Shooter's management.
I know Jim Shooter would not have approved of comics like Thunderbolts, (Jim Shooter pretty much had a black and white world view {Heroes were good, Villains were bad, end of discussion} ) If Jim Shooter was there in the 90’s we wouldn’t have had Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza’s take on Baron Zemo, which is the Baron Zemo that got used for the MCU
So as of late my new favorite comic RUclips channel is this dude Mattt… he does this very exact thing. Pick a player in comic history and tell their story. It’s such a well done page and that reminds me of this. Your knowledge of history is so rich, hell yeah mane… bring it on.
4:00 this perfectly describes why I've always preferred marvel.
DC always felt more like an American corporation before anything else.
I think its the reason why a lot of us liked Marvel, it was less strict and more fun... but there's always a line, a place where business and fun separate, and most people don't know where its at. When I was in the Army I had a great CO, ex-Ranger went green to gold, and loved working for him. He was a little looser than the standard officer, but I always knew that line of being personal and professional. Over time soldiers would get butt-hurt over the way he ran the company, but never realized that they were the ones being the problem. Shooter wasn't perfect, but I'd take him over any other EIC.
I loved the video, Rob. I'm a longtime Marvel reader, but I didn't know all of the ins-and-outs of Shooter's tenure at the company. More videos like this please.
Marvel Hates Jim Shooter for he was right, and it what led to their downfall in the 90's the rise of the OMD mafia since he wasn't whipping the ego powered people like quesada and slott in their places.
ANd many of the good stuff marvel made in the 80's, including the origins of many transformers characters came from him and Bob Budiansky.
Love the historical content you should make a history playlist
I have nothing but nice things to say about Mr. Shooter. Maybe he would of prevented the horrible direction Marvel has taken
He was dealing with some of the most talented writers and artists such as Chris Clairemont John Byrne who had big egos as well. Jim Shooter probably did as well and when you had that of volitile mix of talented people with big egos there's going to be a lot of contention. But in the end Jim Shooter basically saved the company from financial collaspe. Someone mentioned that the Beyonder a character that was created by Jim Shooter was an extension of Shooter himself and I heard many of writers and artists notably John Byrne hated the Beyonder as a character as much as he disliked Shooter.
Please continue this format! So informative and helps brings to light the Comic Book history of yester years
I think the most hated person at Marvel is...well...Marvel right now.
Zeb Wells Dan Slott
Bob Iger is
@@greatestever2560 and Nick Lowe
Jim Shooter’s toy deal with Mattel for the first Secret Wars comic book series was brilliant.
I would take Jim over what we have today… at least the writing stayed inline and was interesting
keep 'em comin' dude, that was awesome
Thank you for making these types of videos. You da GOAT roob!
I liked it Rob! It's always cool hearing about the ins and outs of the industry
Love your presentations. Shooter doesn't deserve the hate.
This is how it is: From Lee-Kirby-Ditko through Shooter's firing, Marvel gave stories with as much originality as they can have. After? Rehash. Some EXCELLENT rehash -- perhaps the greatest Marvel story ever told is rehash, Hickman's 2015 SECRET WARS and everything that built up to that from Hickman's FF run. But still rehash. CIVIL WAR? Already read that back in the 60s really. AVSX? Yeah, that's an issue of UNCANNY X-MEN before ten issues had been given. Sorry if this upsets you!
80s Marvel was GREAT. Not good, GREAT. And yes, all of the talents in those days including Claremont and Byrne were enhanced by Shooter. Sorry if that upsets you!
Shooter knew the characters WELL. He knows Doom has the heart of a lion. It is LONG OVERDUE to give this great (not perfect!) man (who by the way risked his life to stop a woman from being murdered) the praise he deserves. Do you like Lee and Kirby and Ditko? Amen, you should. Do you enjoy the MCU and AVENGERS movies? You should. You can thank Shooter because if he didn't arrive in the late '70s and steer the ship through the '80s as he did, talking about the Avengers might just be like talking about CASPER and HOT STUFF and other IPs that had their day and went the way of the dinosaurs.
this was a breath of fresh air, rob. as someone who dearly misses the content from your second channel, this reminded me of that. excellent research as well.
I met Jim Shooter about 6 years ago. I thanked him for virtually saving Marvel by making the tough decisions that others didn’t want to make. I saw him as a brilliant savant who is uncomfortable with people, sort of what the character Sheldon Cooper is on The Big Bang Theory portrays.
Oh shut up
I firmly believe that the alternate timeline where Shooter didn't become editor-in-chief ended up with a much weaker Marvel that didn't build up to the 90s peak, and didn't get the MCU Infinity Saga either.
Tom King?
Oooooh Jim Shooter....the guy who made Marvel actually work is the bad guy?
I disagree.
Yeah he was harsh but that what was needed at the time and truthfully is needed again now.
💯
Yes Rob! Please do more of these insider comic videos so the hard working folks behind the pages can get their flowers and recognition. Love to see it,
Isn’t Jim the architect of avengers 200 the worst avengers comic ever. So I’m pretty sure he deserves the hate.
But he also brought us Secret Wars so we can forgive him for that.
Carol Danvers wonted that D
Dude all great comic creators have made horrible shit.
I missed this style of video. Every time in the past, when you did historical or deep dives, I would get excited.
Jim: "Do your job."
The artists: "AAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
still not as bad as zebb wells
Nah he wrote Hellions one of the best Marvel books of the last decade. If you're only reading X-Men he's beloved
@@spencerpommier806 but if your reading Spider-Man hes absolutly hated and i hate to say it but Spidey is more loved worldwide than the X-Men.
John Byrne and Chris Claremont: oh yeah? We'll kill Jean Grey off!
Jim Shooter: bet.
Absolutely love this type of video. I enjoy the history and insight. Thank you!
Love this video I’ve been watching your stuff for over 5 years and I will never stop watching new random comics and storylines you start but I would love more of these types of videos as well
Please do more videos like this! This topic was absolutely fascinating.
Glad u asked for a opinion bc my first thought was “Rob should definitely do more videos like this”.
Despite not being in the Rob Corp I have been a long term fan of urs since the very early days and you alone have taught me more about comics than any other source including comics lol. Informative videos on the history of nerd culture in comics and similar topics would be a great addition to this channel.
These types of videos are so fire. Really puts the "Explained" into "Comics Explained"!
I love this style of video. Very informative and I like how you just gave the facts and didn't draw a conclusion for us. Let's see more like this.
I love your passion for comics but just as much, perhaps more, is how you explain comics history. Getting to hear about how a story came to be due to real world events is surprisingly fascinating.
Rob I love you so much brother and I hope we get more of you talking comic book history. This is amazing.
More vids like this can definitely help fellow comic books lovers really learn something new or even help remember stuff lost through time
Ngl this is a really interesting segment of your channel that I think need to continue. Deep dives into comic book industry history is hella awesome.
Please make more videos like this dude! As much as I love comics, I love the real world history of them just as much and you do such a great job at telling it.
This video was informative and greater. We need more comics history like this. Not only to break your monotony or covering stories but also because I’m sure these are fun for you as well
More of these please Robb i know alot of this but not all and its nice to have it all laid out, really shows the die a hero or live long enough to become a villan time line