By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Recently, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld surprised fans around the world when he declared that he would never again work with Marvel after an alleged incident with Kevin Feige. Liefeld claimed that he was snubbed by the other man during the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere before making a rather explosive claim: “Kevin Feige does not treat comic book creators well.” The MCU fandom was shocked, but they shouldn’t have been because Feige similarly snubbed Winter Soldier creators Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting.
Rob Liefeld And Kevin Feige
All of this started when the Deadpool creator went to attend the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine. According to Rob Liefeld, Kevin Feige did not acknowledge him on the red carpet and this snub “was meant to embarrass, diminish, defeat me.” Liefeld also made other allegations, including that he and his family were denied entry to the film’s afterparty and that photos of him and the Deadpool & Wolverine creative team were subsequently deleted.
Because of all this, Rob Liefeld came to the decision to cut all ties with Kevin Feige and Marvel. “At some point, you go, ‘I’ve received the message, and the message is clear,’” he said, implying that Marvel no longer wants him around. Newer fans of the MCU might find these allegations downright shocking, but if you’re old enough to remember how Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting were treated by Marvel bigwigs, you won’t be that surprised.
The Winter Soldier Debacle
Some important context here is that Brubaker is responsible for creating the Winter Soldier character along with Steve Epting. Together, these two transformed the classic Captain America sidekick Bucky Barnes into a brainwashed Soviet assassin with a robotic arm. He went on to be a title character in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the character’s creators showed up, in tuxedos, to attend that film’s premiere party.
Brubaker, it seems, had a similar experience to Rob Liefeld and got severely snubbed by Kevin Feige’s company. Reportedly, Brubaker and Epting were turned away when they attempted to attend the premiere party. The only reason they got access is that Brubaker called up Sebastian Stan, who subsequently made sure they were allowed into the party.
The story about what happened to Brubaker and Epting is remarkably similar to Rob Liefeld’s tales of woe concerning Kevin Feige and other executive powers that be. Like Brubaker, Liefeld is the co-creator of an insanely popular Marvel character, Deadpool, which you might think would merit certain courtesies like an invite to the after-party. However, Liefeld maintains that he was snubbed, which seems especially heinous considering that Deadpool & Wolverine pulled the MCU out of an apparent death spiral.
Marvel vs. Creators
At this point, it seems like nothing will reverse Rob Liefeld’s decision to walk away from Marvel, including Kevin Feige. But we can’t help but cheer for the Deadpool creator’s effort to shine a spotlight on how poorly comic book creatives are treated by executives who go on to make millions and millions of dollars off their characters. Liefeld is notorious for his inability to draw feet. Fortunately, the legendary creator planted his own feet firmly into the ground in resisting a mega-corporation’s attempts to allegedly hurt him.
And when it comes to calling out executives who richly deserve to be cut down to size, we can only hope Rob Liefeld gives “maximum effort” to his subsequent criticisms of Kevin Feige.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter