Today is the day that Marvel Comics changes forever

It’s decision day at Marvel Comics. 

Back in July, it was announced that Marvel had new leadership, including a new editor in chief, Steve Wacker,  and would be moving their offices to the west coast to be closer to Disney and Marvel Studios. Employees had until September 15th to decide if they would make to move to Marvel’s new headquarters in Los Angeles, or look for a new job. 

It’s a huge decision for people who have lived in New York for their entire lives, in some cases, and have families, homes, mortgages, roots, memories. My heart goes out to everyone who has to make this decision. And nothing about the business side of things should take prominence over the human cost of this. 

Marvel’s actual move is expected to take place sometime next year, but we’re told that major culture changes are already taking place inside the company – as they would need to. In some ways, the change was inevitable – a rumor about Marvel moving to the West Coast spread like wildfire back in 2019;I dismissed it at the time, but the clock was ticking. 

Also some of the things I mentioned in 2019 just aren’t relevant any more. Perhaps most importantly, DC has overtaken Marvel in sales, buzz, and overall innovation. The tried and true methods that were working in 2019 – “We’re Marvel, dammit!” –  no longer move the needle. 

So now the question becomes who will stay and who will go. The Hot Stove League has been churning away with speculation, but as I write this only one person has publicly declared for Burbank, Sven Larsen, VP of Licensed Publishing. Larsen is one of the absolute key players at Marvel – he’s responsible for everything from Captain America for Dummies to the amazing Alex Ross Dimensions, just out this month. So his making the move is a good start for the Burbank team. 

Larsen posted this news on his FB page – where he’s been making many candid and public posts of late.  I’m not going to directly link to it, but it’s a commentary on the sad state of comics journalism that a VP at Marvel has been making many informative posts and not one outlet has picked up on it. 

So it’s what’s become known as “Decision day” around the Marvel offices, the day when we have to let HR know whether we’re moving to LA or not.

And it’s an agonizing day for all of us, no matter what the decision. One commenter on an earlier post thought that I was being insensitive to people’s struggles with this decision. The truth couldn’t be further from that. For the last three months, my colleagues and I have struggled with this. We’ve sat in each other offices, decamped to coffee bars and restaurants, debated it endlessly. Every person’s journey is their own and my heart breaks for people having to choose between family and roots and a job and place they love. Unless you’re “in the bubble” or the spouse or family of someone who is, I think it’s hard to fully comprehend how impactful this is on all of us. I won’t use the cliche that “we’re a family” but I will paraphrase the line from TED LASSO “ain’t no place like this place, anyplace”. That doesn’t mean that we’ve been living in some idylic worker’s paradise (far from it). But we’ve been doing this together for a long time. There’s a bond between us and a lot of mutual love, friendship and respect.

And today is the end of all that. Because this group won’t be together any more. As I told my team weeks ago, “You can’t think us this as moving with Marvel Comics. You have to think of it as joining a new company that happens to be called Marvel Comics.” It’s like graduating high school and going to a local college. A bunch of people from your old high school may be there. But it’s a completely different experience.

So pour one out for this era of Marvel. And pour one out for comic book publishing in New York City. 90+ years is not a bad run.

BTW, in case you’re wondering, Monica and I have made the tough decision to move to CA. I’ll talk more about that later. Today my focus is all on NYC and endings. New beginnings can wait till tomorrow.

“You can’t think us this as moving with Marvel Comics. You have to think of it as joining a new company that happens to be called Marvel Comics.”

BAM! POW! Nailed it. 

Other major Marvel personnel whose decisions are of major import include, of course Tom Brevoort, who has had a more than 30 year career at Marvel as executive editor and svp publishing; Nick Lowe, vice president of content, digital publishing and executive editor, another fixture; senior editor Wil Moss, editor behind many of Marvel’s most recent successes; and David Bogart, svp of business affairs and talent management. 

I won’t speculate on any decisions here, but any of these key players leaving would mean lots of changes at Marvel. 

And lots of changes are coming. 

But, playing out the idea behind the scenario, it would also mean more oversight from Disney corporate, inevitable downsizing, and, quite bluntly, the end of the magical ideal of the Marvel Bullpen. It’s an ideal that Disney has used in promoting the whole Marvel Mystique in the MCU and beyond. But with Stan Lee dead, maybe no one needs that mystique any more.

I think I read the tea leaves correctly. When Stan died he took the bullpen mystique with him (even though it had been gone for decades anyway). Marvel’s creative stagnation since then only sealed the deal. 

While we’ll have a year of long goodbyes, today marks another milestone in the history of comics: the beginning of the end of New York City as the epicenter of the comics publishing business. With superheroes long ago having become corporate IP first and comic book characters second, it was an inevitable evolution…but it’s still a sad one on many levels. 

Whether they stay or go, we wish the best to all our Marvel colleagues making this difficult decision today.