the MCU has been a huge success but not
everything this comic book company
touches turns to gold
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down the top 10 mistakes
Marvel wants you to forget before we
begin we publish new videos every day so
be sure to subscribe for more great
content for this list we’ll be looking
at business mistakes bad branding
decisions and mishandled situations
which given the fallout Marvel likely
regrets and wishes they’d approach
differently
number 10 Image Comics comic book giant
marble is losing 8 of its top creators
of superheroes the reason control over
their creations it’s no secret that
comic book creators have long gotten the
shaft when working for a major publisher
for decades the rule is that writers and
artists create characters but their
employer owns the rights to them in the
early 90s however a group of writers and
artists working for Marvel finally said
enough is enough and rather than
tolerate the work-for-hire approach any
longer went out and started their very
own imprint where creators maintained
ownership of their characters the guy
who is running Marvel at the time and
made a public statement saying that that
creators were interchangeable and didn’t
really matter what we were saying was as
the creators do matter and the creators
need to be treated well given the
success of Image Comics which has since
grown to be the third largest publisher
in the business synonymous with quality
original titles like Sega and The
Walking Dead Marvel probably wishes they
treated their talent a bit better we
were and going to Marvel and basically
say like look you know we’re out of here
you know we don’t we don’t like working
for you
number 9 Jim shooter and Defiant comics
real storytelling in common
it was always citing Shakespeare this
and that but he was he got fascistic
about it
sadly feuds with marvel rarely end as
well as it did for the image guys Jim
shooter worked at Marvel for over a
decade eventually becoming
editor-in-chief notoriously strict and
reportedly hard to work with he was let
go in 1987 the problem is Marvel had
fired someone with a wealth of
experience in the industry and sure
enough he quickly went about putting it
to good use
first he founded Valiant Comics which
despite numerous hardships and ownership
changes still exists today in 1993 he
went on to found defiant comics but when
he announced the first title plasm
Marvel sued their ex editor-in-chief
citing similarities to one of their
properties Marvel lost but in the
process they financially crippled
Defiant which soon closed shop not
exactly a proud victory number eight new
number ones you know what never gets old
the satisfaction of seeing a
long-running series hit milestones like
50 issues a hundred issues and 500
issues you know what’s exciting for
about a week and loses it appeal almost
immediately
renumber in a popular series with a new
number one in the hopes of getting a
sales boost manufacturing a new
must-have issue and acting like it
actually means a fresh start
though DC and Marvel are both guilty of
this Marvel arguably ushered in the
first major wave of renumber ring in the
90s under the new ownership of Ron
Perelman more on him later flash-forward
and it’s still happening to the point
where number one means very little what
Marvel really wants you to forget every
time they roll out new number ones is
that there’s really nothing new about
him number seven selling off movie
rights it’s fantastic
yes it is to be fair most of these movie
rights were sold during a time of great
financial need on Marvel’s part but more
on that later
regardless there’s no denying that over
the years there have been some seriously
terrible Marvel movies produced that the
company likely wishes had never seen the
light of day
daredevil Ghost Rider all of the
fantastic four movies these subpar films
have impacted public perceptions of the
characters the 1994 Fantastic Four movie
was so potentially damaging the Marvel
bought the finished film rather than see
it released for many times the price
they initially sold the rights for when
the MCU finally happened they found
themselves without these strong
characters
number six the no prize this was a weird
concept from day one but it’s not the
bizarre marketing that’s the problem
it’s the inadvertent unforeseeable
consequences that likely makes Marvel
regret the no prize reward system as a
reward for pointing out continuity
errors or problems in comics Stanley
came up with a brilliant idea of sending
fans a reward in the form of nothing but
an empty envelope though the no prize
concept introduced in 1964 was far from
being the start of reader publisher
interactions some have suggested that
this invited unprecedented scrutiny to
Marvel comic books helping to produce
the critical comic book reader of today
hilariously the no prize was later
changed to reward fans for justifying
continuity errors number 5 embarrassing
media crossovers Marvel has proven that
it has what it takes to make the leap
from television and film with great
results that’s not what we’re talking
about over the company’s history they
have partnered with other companies
brands and properties in hopes of
reaching new demographics often with
disastrously cringy results like when
they teamed up with guiding light a soap
opera of all things for a crossover
episode and accompanying Comet okay
that’s weird
there have been countless crossover
issues teaming up popular titles with
characters from music and television
like Eminem and the Punisher or the
Avengers and David Letterman issue the
less said about NFL Super Pro the better
number for throwing away original
artwork when you’re creating something
new these rough drafts feel utterly
worthless it’s almost impossible to
predict whether your creation will ever
see the light of day let alone go on to
become a beloved icon with all that
being said the folks over at Marvel
they’re artists in particular really
must kick themselves on a regular basis
for all of the sketches that they simply
tossed into the wastebasket in an
interview with playboy he explained that
back in the day they didn’t have the
room to keep stuff around so most of the
original pages of now iconic issues were
simply thrown out number three 90s
character designs neck neck is usual
shoulder pads I don’t know I’m not sure
yeah what do you think I don’t know a
Liefeld character without shoulder pads
is almost naked you could also just call
this the Liefeld effect in the 1990s
dark and gritty were the words of the
day at least as far as comics were
concerned Marvel wasn’t alone in
facing this artistic trend DC was right
there with them but hey he sees mistakes
are for another list to address Marvel’s
male characters became impossibly
muscular and their costumes became
overloaded with pouches belts strings
for ammunition and random jegi spikes
basically the thinking seemed to be the
more hardcore the better as for the
female characters waist lines became
non-existent while hips and breasts
became massive seriously neither male or
female characters could have survived in
a world that respects the laws of
physics he’s got the biggest shoulder
pads ever existed I figured he was
number two in humans I’m an inhuman like
the rest of you this recent wound is
going to leave a scar
after years of talks about an Inhumans
film and even some rumors about Vin
Diesel playing the role of Black Bolt
Marvel ultimately opted to go the
television route while agents of shield
got off to a rough start and iron fist
was poorly received Marvel television
has generally done quite well to date
that’s what made the abysmal inhuman
series such a shock it got an IMAX
premiere despite shoddy special effects
which only emphasized his visual
shortcomings with the first season
scoring just 10% on Rotten Tomatoes it
was a harsh lesson at this point in the
game Marvel you can’t get away with
shortchanging any franchise please just
number one
Ron Perelman his direction and price
hikes a unique few figures in the
history of comic book publishing czar as
hated as Ron Perelman in 1989 the owner
of McAndrews & Forbes added Marvel
Entertainment Group to his Empire the
industry was booming but by the end of
the decade Marvel was facing bankruptcy
and most insiders blame Perelman he
maximized profit by raising prices and
increasing the number of titles and
variant covers taking advantage of his
readers while saturating the market fans
rebelled and comic shops started failing
resulting in a drastic sales drama of
course during this time Pearlman also
acquired huge debt in marvel’s name
eventually filing for chapter 11
bankruptcy protection after a lengthy
legal battle and some creative thinking
Marvel bounced back but these mistakes
almost ended the business
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
everything this comic book company
touches turns to gold
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down the top 10 mistakes
Marvel wants you to forget before we
begin we publish new videos every day so
be sure to subscribe for more great
content for this list we’ll be looking
at business mistakes bad branding
decisions and mishandled situations
which given the fallout Marvel likely
regrets and wishes they’d approach
differently
number 10 Image Comics comic book giant
marble is losing 8 of its top creators
of superheroes the reason control over
their creations it’s no secret that
comic book creators have long gotten the
shaft when working for a major publisher
for decades the rule is that writers and
artists create characters but their
employer owns the rights to them in the
early 90s however a group of writers and
artists working for Marvel finally said
enough is enough and rather than
tolerate the work-for-hire approach any
longer went out and started their very
own imprint where creators maintained
ownership of their characters the guy
who is running Marvel at the time and
made a public statement saying that that
creators were interchangeable and didn’t
really matter what we were saying was as
the creators do matter and the creators
need to be treated well given the
success of Image Comics which has since
grown to be the third largest publisher
in the business synonymous with quality
original titles like Sega and The
Walking Dead Marvel probably wishes they
treated their talent a bit better we
were and going to Marvel and basically
say like look you know we’re out of here
you know we don’t we don’t like working
for you
number 9 Jim shooter and Defiant comics
real storytelling in common
it was always citing Shakespeare this
and that but he was he got fascistic
about it
sadly feuds with marvel rarely end as
well as it did for the image guys Jim
shooter worked at Marvel for over a
decade eventually becoming
editor-in-chief notoriously strict and
reportedly hard to work with he was let
go in 1987 the problem is Marvel had
fired someone with a wealth of
experience in the industry and sure
enough he quickly went about putting it
to good use
first he founded Valiant Comics which
despite numerous hardships and ownership
changes still exists today in 1993 he
went on to found defiant comics but when
he announced the first title plasm
Marvel sued their ex editor-in-chief
citing similarities to one of their
properties Marvel lost but in the
process they financially crippled
Defiant which soon closed shop not
exactly a proud victory number eight new
number ones you know what never gets old
the satisfaction of seeing a
long-running series hit milestones like
50 issues a hundred issues and 500
issues you know what’s exciting for
about a week and loses it appeal almost
immediately
renumber in a popular series with a new
number one in the hopes of getting a
sales boost manufacturing a new
must-have issue and acting like it
actually means a fresh start
though DC and Marvel are both guilty of
this Marvel arguably ushered in the
first major wave of renumber ring in the
90s under the new ownership of Ron
Perelman more on him later flash-forward
and it’s still happening to the point
where number one means very little what
Marvel really wants you to forget every
time they roll out new number ones is
that there’s really nothing new about
him number seven selling off movie
rights it’s fantastic
yes it is to be fair most of these movie
rights were sold during a time of great
financial need on Marvel’s part but more
on that later
regardless there’s no denying that over
the years there have been some seriously
terrible Marvel movies produced that the
company likely wishes had never seen the
light of day
daredevil Ghost Rider all of the
fantastic four movies these subpar films
have impacted public perceptions of the
characters the 1994 Fantastic Four movie
was so potentially damaging the Marvel
bought the finished film rather than see
it released for many times the price
they initially sold the rights for when
the MCU finally happened they found
themselves without these strong
characters
number six the no prize this was a weird
concept from day one but it’s not the
bizarre marketing that’s the problem
it’s the inadvertent unforeseeable
consequences that likely makes Marvel
regret the no prize reward system as a
reward for pointing out continuity
errors or problems in comics Stanley
came up with a brilliant idea of sending
fans a reward in the form of nothing but
an empty envelope though the no prize
concept introduced in 1964 was far from
being the start of reader publisher
interactions some have suggested that
this invited unprecedented scrutiny to
Marvel comic books helping to produce
the critical comic book reader of today
hilariously the no prize was later
changed to reward fans for justifying
continuity errors number 5 embarrassing
media crossovers Marvel has proven that
it has what it takes to make the leap
from television and film with great
results that’s not what we’re talking
about over the company’s history they
have partnered with other companies
brands and properties in hopes of
reaching new demographics often with
disastrously cringy results like when
they teamed up with guiding light a soap
opera of all things for a crossover
episode and accompanying Comet okay
that’s weird
there have been countless crossover
issues teaming up popular titles with
characters from music and television
like Eminem and the Punisher or the
Avengers and David Letterman issue the
less said about NFL Super Pro the better
number for throwing away original
artwork when you’re creating something
new these rough drafts feel utterly
worthless it’s almost impossible to
predict whether your creation will ever
see the light of day let alone go on to
become a beloved icon with all that
being said the folks over at Marvel
they’re artists in particular really
must kick themselves on a regular basis
for all of the sketches that they simply
tossed into the wastebasket in an
interview with playboy he explained that
back in the day they didn’t have the
room to keep stuff around so most of the
original pages of now iconic issues were
simply thrown out number three 90s
character designs neck neck is usual
shoulder pads I don’t know I’m not sure
yeah what do you think I don’t know a
Liefeld character without shoulder pads
is almost naked you could also just call
this the Liefeld effect in the 1990s
dark and gritty were the words of the
day at least as far as comics were
concerned Marvel wasn’t alone in
facing this artistic trend DC was right
there with them but hey he sees mistakes
are for another list to address Marvel’s
male characters became impossibly
muscular and their costumes became
overloaded with pouches belts strings
for ammunition and random jegi spikes
basically the thinking seemed to be the
more hardcore the better as for the
female characters waist lines became
non-existent while hips and breasts
became massive seriously neither male or
female characters could have survived in
a world that respects the laws of
physics he’s got the biggest shoulder
pads ever existed I figured he was
number two in humans I’m an inhuman like
the rest of you this recent wound is
going to leave a scar
after years of talks about an Inhumans
film and even some rumors about Vin
Diesel playing the role of Black Bolt
Marvel ultimately opted to go the
television route while agents of shield
got off to a rough start and iron fist
was poorly received Marvel television
has generally done quite well to date
that’s what made the abysmal inhuman
series such a shock it got an IMAX
premiere despite shoddy special effects
which only emphasized his visual
shortcomings with the first season
scoring just 10% on Rotten Tomatoes it
was a harsh lesson at this point in the
game Marvel you can’t get away with
shortchanging any franchise please just
number one
Ron Perelman his direction and price
hikes a unique few figures in the
history of comic book publishing czar as
hated as Ron Perelman in 1989 the owner
of McAndrews & Forbes added Marvel
Entertainment Group to his Empire the
industry was booming but by the end of
the decade Marvel was facing bankruptcy
and most insiders blame Perelman he
maximized profit by raising prices and
increasing the number of titles and
variant covers taking advantage of his
readers while saturating the market fans
rebelled and comic shops started failing
resulting in a drastic sales drama of
course during this time Pearlman also
acquired huge debt in marvel’s name
eventually filing for chapter 11
bankruptcy protection after a lengthy
legal battle and some creative thinking
Marvel bounced back but these mistakes
almost ended the business
do you agree with our picks check out
these other great clips from watch mojo
and subscribe for new videos every day
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