Former Marvel Editor In Chief Criticizes ‘Secret Empire’

Former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter oversaw the first major event book from the company with Secret Wars, but he’s definitely not a fan of the publisher’s latest attempt.

While speaking with AIPT at Rhode Island Comic Con, Shooter revealed his thoughts on the Secret Empire comic and his opinion of making Captain America a member of the Hydra.

“Eh, they shouldn’t… Captain America a Nazi? Are you kidding me?” said Shooter. “Jack [Kirby] is rolling in his grave. Joe Simon is going to rise up out of his grave and kill those people. That was so wrong because that was not anything like the original intent of the creators.”

Shooter offered some insight into his philosophy on the business of comics.

“Comics is completely unlike magazine publishing. It’s unlike book publishing. Comics have more in common with single malt scotch than they do with other kinds of publishing because it’s a relationship,” Shooter said. “It’s a relationship marketing business. When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to see what happened to Spider-Man next month. I didn’t give a damn if the cover was foil-embossed–because it wasn’t. It’s all about them loving Spider-Man, the character of Spider-Man, wanting to know what’s going on with Spider-Man. If they miss an issue and they don’t care, you lost.

“So you have to understand, you’re building a relationship. Stan [Lee] took it a step farther and created a relationship between the creators. Everyone felt Stan was their friend. Kids would send him childish confessions. ‘Am I a bad person because I did this or that.’ When they’re involved, you win. When they’re not, I don’t care how many foil-embossed covers there are.

Considering Shooter oversaw some of the seminal storylines that still resonate among Marvel fans today, it’s hard to discount his opinion. And yet the business has changed and certain practices don’t work like they did in the ’80s when he was running the publisher.

However, considering the current changes taking place at Marvel, it’s not difficult to point out that fans might be growing wary of event-driven, variant-plagued publishing initiatives.