Rob Liefeld is still on the warpath against Marvel.
Executing a doctorate-level class in bridge burning, Liefeld continued his recent feud with Marvel in a series of tweets.
Man, I can’t make folks go on the record – but I can tell you, based on my DM’s, that comic book professionals en masse agree about the train wreck the X-Men office is. Sad. Was once the GOLD standard of comic book storytelling.
The guys at the top of the executive suite in publishing have to go – Buckley, Bogart, Gabriel. These guys have no new moves, they are spent and tired and it shows. Start over. My career has been across 7 EIC’s. Seen it done way better by brighter and more focused minds.
The Marvel QuotaVerse is what is crushing publishing. Always a slew of new #1’s with limited life, quick cancellation. We are closer to all new #1’s each month, every month.
I will never do more work there. No need. No desire. They offered me stuff all thru last summer. I was so relieved to deliver my last page.
The co-creator of Deadpool continued in yet one more salvo:
Can’t emphasize this enough. Out of moves. Nothing fresh to offer. More tricks that customers and retailers reject. A sea of derivatives. Poor management of talent. Start over.
While Liefeld did do a bit of work for Marvel in the most recent “Deadpool Era”, back in February he declared himself OVER Marvel, citing a snub at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere as the last straw. Since then Liefeld has regularly been going H.A.M. on Marvel on Twitter and doubtless on his podcast as well.
The executives Liefeld suggested be fired are CEO Dan Buckley, SVP of Business Affairs and Talent Management David Bogart, and SVP of Sales and Marketing David Gabriel. Notably he didn’t mention Executive Editor/SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort – even though the two have been publicly feuding for decades. EIC CB Cebulski can also keep his job. All these Marvel poohbahs are two decades+ fixtures at the House of Ideas, so I doubt they are going any where.
My inbox quickly lit up as Liefeld’s comment circulated. While such an outburst can be seen as a marketing stunt for the recently released Youngblood remaster, there might be a tiny grain of truth to suggesting Marvel needs some new approaches. Some have remarked on a “Marvel Malaise” in recent years, and low rates have left many creators unhappy, including a recent salvo from Dustin Nguyen that several creators chimed in on. It was noted by many that DC was the clear winner at the recent ComicsPRO meeting, and Marvel’s announcements were pretty standard.
On the other hand, Marvel is still the #1 publisher, as reported at ICv2:
After a sharp decline in market share to 33.3% in the last quarter of 2024 (see “Marvel Slips, DC Gains Ground“), Marvel Comics came back with a 37.9% share in Q1 2025, up 4.6 share points. That increase came mostly at the expense of the smaller publishers; DC Comics’ share dropped just about a point and a half, from 26.9% to 25.5%, during the same period.
Every other publisher except Image Comics lost ground as well, including the non-top-10 publishers, who dropped from 9.7% to 8.6% as a group. Image surged from 9.8% to 12.1% in Q4 2023 (see “Q4 2024“) and has stayed at 12% or above ever since.
So it’s hard to ask that Marvel change things up when they are still the biggest dog in the yard. The “Marvel Malaise” narrative was going around two years ago, before the Ultimates relaunch livened things up. By all accounts periodical sales are still holding their own, so it’s hard to makes a case for a big shakeup. Even Marvel’s dreadful performance in bookstores is being addressed with the Premier Collection, and some other things. It makes me even sadder that we won’t be able to see 2024’s Bookscan numbers to see if Marvel improved at all.
Liefeld doesn’t seem to be putting down his hatchet any time soon, as he addressed more of his feelings in a new episode of his Robservations podcast:
NEW Robservations! X-Men In Crisis! One Year into the most recent re-launch, drowning in canceled titles and falling sales, we offer 5 fixes before it’s too late! https://t.co/lyZP2WvniK pic.twitter.com/OeVQionhe2
— robliefeld (@robertliefeld) April 23, 2025
I haven’t had the time to listen to this, but if you want to see a happier version of Rob, he seemed pretty chipper when we sat down with him to talk Youngblood a few weeks ago:
