Posted in: Comics, Doctor Strange, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Movies, Spider-Man | Tagged: Ben 10, Bill Metzger, damage control, dwayne mcduffie, joe casey, nick dragotta, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, steve rude, Tramell Tillman
Tramell Tillman’s Spider-Man Character Based On A Real Life Klansman
Joe Casey reminds us that Tramell Tillman’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day character is based on a real life Klansman
Article Summary
- Tramell Tillman plays William Metzger in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a Marvel character co-created by Joe Casey.
- Joe Casey says William Metzger was originally based on real-life white supremacist Tom Metzger in X-Men: Children of the Atom.
- In Brand New Day, Tillman’s Metzger leads Damage Control and targets superpowered threats, hinting at a bigger MCU role.
- Casey also revisits Marvel’s long-running creator pay disputes, citing America Chavez and other film adaptations.
Comic book creator and co-creator of Ben 10, Joe Casey recently posted to Substack,
“Just a few short months ago, the rumors emerged that actor Tramell Tillman had been cast in the film as a character — lifted directly from the comicbooks that serve as the MCU’s tried and true quickly across the icy cold face of the internet (as rumors often do) and I became understandably curious…”
Well, just having seen the film, yup, Tramell Tillman is Bill Metzger, head of Damage Control in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Of course, in the comics, Bill Metzger isn’t the head of Damage Control, co-created by fellow Ben-10 writer, the late Dwayne McDuffie.And Joe Casey recalls the character.
“… because, along with renowned artist, Steve Rude, I actually created the character of William Metzger for our 1999 mini-series, X-Men: Children of the Atom (which, ironically, was a new take on the origin of the X-Men, which is now supposedly on deck in the films). Metzger was the leader of an organization with a very on-the-nose name, the Anti-Mutant Militia, and by the end of our series, had met his grisly demise at the hands of Magneto.”
And I noticed that both Joe Casey and Steve Rude are listed in the “Special Thanks” section at the end. As is Dwayne McDuffie.
“Now, from what I’ve heard, the “William Metzger” that appears in the film this summer is the head of the Department of Damage Control who secretly (or not so secretly) harbors intense anti-mutant sentiment. Apparently, Tramell Tillman has been signed for a multi-picture deal with Marvel, so presumably this character will carry through into their upcoming X-Men films. Tillman is certainly a skilled actor and I have no reason to believe he won’t absolutely kill in the role.”
There is nothing specific about anti-mutant sentiment from the character in the film, but he targets what he sees as superpowered threats and flips them to be of service to Damage Control. And Joe Casey says just who he is;
“one of the more curious aspects of this entire thing is that the character — as originally depicted in X-Men: COTA — was white, intentionally modeled (and obviously named) after real life white supremacist racist scumbag, Tom Metzger (in basic concept, if not appearance… I’m not sure if Steve Rude really knew from Tom Metzger). The move to cast a black actor in the role was an… interesting choice on Marvel Studios’ part. So I’m not convinced that anyone there was fully aware of the character’s inspiration. But if it serves as a cool “f**k you” to other racist shitheads out there (who perhaps idolized Tom Metzger, God knows why), even better.”
Well, I just went down a rabbit hole. But as to the appearance of the character in Spider-Man: Brand New Day,
“Did Marvel — either the film division or the publishing division — give me any kind of heads up that they were using the character? Of course not. Did either of them reach out to even discuss any kind of financial compensation — fair or not — based on Steve Rude and I having created the character? Of course not. That’s typically not the Marvel way. But, hey… I’ve been here before.”
He has, and it was with someone who has gotten a lot higher profile of late as well.
“The most egregious example for me would have to be America Chavez, a character I created with artist, Nick Dragotta for a 2011 mini-series titled Vengeance. She ended up playing a fairly pivotal role in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And this was after already appearing in animated series, video games and being sold as action figures. There was even authorized America Chavez-branded apparel. And, like I said, this stuff pre-dated the movie.”
And now Nick Dragotta is the co-creator of Absolute Batman.
“The thing is, I never signed the infamous “Special Character Agreement” which Marvel provides creators in order to “acknowledge” their contributions to the characters being exploited in media outside of comicbooks. The sole reason I didn’t sign it was because the language of the agreement was extremely — and, I’m certain, purposefully — vague when it came to determining creator compensation. Through my legal reps, I pushed back to get more clarity on the agreement, but Marvel wouldn’t budge. So… no signature, no money. Simple as that. So what do you do? You speak to The Hollywood Reporter, that’s what you do.”
Well, you could have spoken to Bleeding Cool, too. But I suppose THR will do in a pinch. In which they reported;
“Casey has not received payment for America Chavez, outside of the page rates he got when working for Marvel as a writer, when he and artist Nick Dragotta introduced the character in 2011. (Casey rejected what he describes as a “pittance” of an offer ahead of her Multiverse of Madness appearance.) Now, as Casey speaks out for the first time about his compensation, he is cautious not to sound aggrieved. The writer says he hopes going public will help other creators receive better terms when their work is turned into films, streaming series and action figures. “The fact is, Marvel owns America Chavez. That’s not in dispute on any level, but there are still systemic flaws in the way that creators are neither respected nor rewarded,” Casey tells The Hollywood Reporter.”
Vengeance by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta
Doctor Strange Screencap
“Marvel has paid me nothing for America Chavez, not only for appearing in the Doctor Strange sequel, but in numerous animated TV episodes, for the numerous action figures they’ve made of her, for video games she’s appeared in,” says Casey. “They seem to be fine with that… For me, it’s not about money. It’s not even about the respect. I would never expect to be respected by a corporation,” says Casey. “If I’m in a position where I can afford not to take their insult of an offer, and be able to talk about it, maybe the next guy — where that kind of money could change their life — would get a fair shot of receiving that money.”
And in the wake of that, well, it didn’t go great for Joe, and again, this wasn’t the first time.
“Apparently, certain folks at Marvel weren’t too happy that I spoke out. I certainly wasn’t the only creator who went public with their dissatisfaction on matters of this ilk. But, as it turns out, it wasn’t even my first ride in this rodeo (although I’ll admit I didn’t know it until years after the fact). Because here’s yet another instance, which also serves as a little-known fact: in collaboration with artist Javier Pulido, I created a character named Katherine Spar — named after Christine Spar from Matt Wagner’s Grendel, by the way — during my short stint writing the Incredible Hulk monthly way back in 1998.” A decade later, that character was cinematically adapted into “Kathleen Sparr” (as portrayed by Christina Cabot) in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Honestly, I never saw the film when it was first released. But it turned out I didn’t even get one of the perfunctory “thank yous” you get at the tail of the endless credit crawl for that one. And while the altered spelling of the film character’s name might’ve been a way to provide some sort of weak legal cover for Marvel to, yet again, slither out of fairly compensating the creators (without whom they would have no IP to adapt)… it all just ends up making the filmmakers look kinda lame.”
And then there was another one from last year.
“The cover of a series I wrote (collaborating with artist, Chris Weston) called FF: First Family was lifted and used in some random promo clip for last year’s Fantastic Four movie. I mean, they had the actors posed in the exact same manner… oddly enough, when that particular “swipe” went public, two days didn’t go by before Chris and I were invited to the FF film premiere (in our respective cities, of course… him being in London and me in LA). I mean, talk about a crazy coincidence…!”
4: First Family #1 by Joe Casey and Chris Weston (2005) published by Marvel Comics
Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios
“The thing is, I haven’t created that many characters for Marvel. Only a small handful, really. And I’ve written for Marvel, on and off, for the past thirty years. Now it would seem that three of them have been adapted into feature films that, in the case of the Doctor Strange sequel specifically, made close to a billion dollars in box office ticket sales alone. And I’m fairly certain that Spider-Man: Brand New Day will make truckloads of money, too.”
At least you’ll get your $5000 this time, Joe?
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