Rob Liefeld is taking another swing at Kevin Feige. Days after the Deadpool co-creator declared he had “cut ties in all ways” with Marvel following last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine premiere and claimed that the chief creative officer of Marvel and president of Marvel Studios “does not treat comic book creators well,” Liefeld has suggested that the longtime MCU producer be benched over Captain America: Brave New World‘s box office performance.
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“Get Feige off the mound. He’s spent,” Liefeld tweeted in response to the film’s 82% drop in its second weekend at the box office.
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While no home run, the Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford-starring Captain America sequel is no strikeout, either: it spent its second week at No. 1 following a solid $100 million start over the Valentine’s Day/Presidents Day weekend, and has since taken in $141 million domestically and another $148 million internationally for an estimated global cume of $289 million.
That marked 35 consecutive No. 1s at the domestic box office for the Feige-led, Disney-owned Marvel Studios. Since 2008’s Iron Man launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio’s 35 films have collectively grossed over $31.5 billion to become the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, including two $2 billion grossers — 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame — while Feige has produced a total 11 films that grossed more than $1 billion.
Before becoming president and producer at the then-independent Marvel Studios, Feige served as an associate producer and, later, co-producer or executive producer on Marvel adaptations like 2000’s X-Men, 2002’s Spider-Man, and 2005’s Fantastic Four.
Brave New World‘s second-week drop off, fueled by poor critical reception and a B- CinemaScore grade (the worst grade for any MCU movie), comes after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania suffered a then-record drop of 70% over the same period in February 2023. (The Ant-Man threequel also received a “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes and a B grade on CinemaScore.) Later that year, Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels bombed at the box office with a franchise-low opening of $46 million, and dropped 78% in its second week in November 2023. But last summer, the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman-fronted Deadpool & Wolverine earned nearly $1.4 billion to become the highest-grossing R-rated film in history.
Deadpool & Wolverine was the final straw for Liefeld, who said in a recent episode of his podcast that he and his family weren’t invited to attend an afterparty at the film’s New York premiere and that he felt snubbed by Feige on the red carpet.
“It was meant to embarrass, diminish, defeat [me],” Liefeld said. “Disney is the deciding factor here. To have them say, ‘You and your family are not welcome here. We tolerated you for the screening.’ At that point, I knew in my heart I couldn’t go forward. At some point, you go, ‘I’ve received the message, and the message is clear.’”
The podcast came just ahead of the Feb. 12 release of Deadpool Team-Up #5, Liefeld’s last-ever Deadpool issue that was published with little fanfare from Marvel Comics.
