Jim Shooter of Marvel Comics has died
Jim Shooter, the editor-in-chief of Marvel in the 70s and 80s has died. His reign was influential and controversial.
He had an edict that there were to be no gay heroes at all, something John Byrne got around very subtly with Northstar in “Alpha Flight”. He changed the original Dark Phoenix ending so that she would die, he wrote the shitty “Secret Wars” series and created the Marvel New Universe in 1986 which was a big flop. But he also was behind the Claremont X-Men, the Roger Stern Spider-Man, and the Walt Simonson Thor.
He wass also super tall.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 2, 2025 11:16 AM
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He also wrote a darn good run of Legion of Super-Heroes, starting when he was just 13 years old.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 1, 2025 11:23 PM
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Terrible news for the emotionally stunted adults who care about comic books.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 1, 2025 11:24 PM
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No gay heroes? Good riddance.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 1, 2025 11:26 PM
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I wonder if John Byrne's knees allow him to do cartwheels at his age?
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 2, 2025 12:10 AM
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He did so many great things and so many horrible things over his career. I'd hate to be the one delivering his eulogy.
He wrote a lot of excellent comic stories that I love, but I'll never forgive him for ruining my favorite Avenger, Hank Pym.
Hope the other side is better for you, Jim.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 2, 2025 1:22 AM
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An absolute jerk to co-workers. He killed the original JLA/Avengers crossover after both DC and Marvel agreed to it and George Perez had started drawing it. He also was not very kind to other artists. Legend? Yeah right.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 2, 2025 1:36 AM
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One artist was drawing a comicbook in the top 5 at Marvel. Shooter made his life so miserable the artist called DC and they offered him a gig immediately.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 2, 2025 1:38 AM
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Shooter would often just come up with decisions and have them implemented overnight. One was that there were no longer to be multi-issue stories, just one-shots. That screwed up a lot of plans, it also didn’t last.
He was a micromanager. But his reign saw some great stories.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 2, 2025 8:19 AM
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Shooter wrote “A Very Personal Hell” where Bruce Banner aka The Hulk, was menaced by two gay guys in a YMCA shower in NYC.
Because of course he did.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 2, 2025 8:26 AM
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In terms of sales and profitability he brought Marvel to it's absolute peak and he played a positive part in establishing creators' rights, as I understand.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 2, 2025 9:10 AM
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Should he ever be forgiven for “Secret Wars II”?
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 2, 2025 9:54 AM
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Should he be forgiven for New Universe?
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 2, 2025 10:29 AM
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Oh god, no, R12. The original Marvel teams in the early 60s were lightning in a bottle. You couldn’t have duplicated that if you tried.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 2, 2025 10:35 AM
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R1 Hunh? For real? Just 13?
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 2, 2025 10:57 AM
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R5 Oh, man. He did a number on Hank Pym. Almost 50 years later that shit has stuck with the character. Well, he's dead now but even his Ultimate counterpart is heading down that road.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 2, 2025 11:01 AM
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Jim Shooter would be a good porn name, but I'd change the spelling of the first name to Gym.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 2, 2025 11:16 AM
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