How Marvel and DC stiff comics creators in the age of the superhero movie

For years now, the cinema has been dominated by superheroes, especially from Marvel. With series like Loki and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they’re spilling over into streaming TV as well. These properties have made billions of dollars for Marvel and DC, but how much of that money is actually going to the people who created the characters and storylines we’re enjoying onscreen?

One of the huge advantages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that it can draw on decades of comics stories, many of them written by people who are still alive. But those people aren’t always enjoying the kind of success you would imagine. Take Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, who revived Captain America’s sidekick Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier in Marvel comics. On screen, the character is played by Sebastian Stan. “For the most part, all Steve and I have got for creating the Winter Soldier and his storyline is a ‘thanks’ here or there, and over the years that’s become harder and harder to live with,” Brubaker wrote in a newsletter. “I have a great life as a writer and much of it is because of Cap and the Winter Soldier bringing so many readers to my other work. But I also can’t deny feeling a bit sick to my stomach sometimes when my inbox fills up with people wanting comments on the show.”

The Guardian looked into this issue in a very thorough article on the topic. Comics creators generally are work-for-hire, meaning they’re usually owned nothing beyond a flat fee and royalty payments for their work. That said, both Marvel and DC have contracts that allow for creators to get paid a tiny share of profits should their characters and stories be adapted as films or TV shows, but it sounds like those contracts are honored only sporadically, if the creators get to sign them at all; according to The Guardian’s sources, some Marvel creators didn’t realize they existed.

There is a “general sense” that it’s harder to get paid at Marvel

“I’ve been offered a [special character contract] that was really, really terrible, but it was that or nothing,” said one anonymous Marvel creator. “And then instead of honoring it, they send a thank you note and are like, ‘Here’s some money we don’t owe you!’ and it’s five grand. And you’re like, ‘The movie made a billion dollars.’”

Five thousand dollars seems to be the normal payout Marvel gives in hopes that creators don’t pursue things further and actually try and calculate how much they’re owed under their contracts, which is a huge undertaking most aren’t equipped for. “I can count on one hand the number of creators who’ve actually audited a major comics company,” said Jimmy Palmiotti, who writes for DC characters like Jonah Hex and Harley Quinn. “Lawyer up, always, with comic book company contracts. They are not in the business of feeding you the math.”

As part of these contracts, sometimes creators get invited to movie premieres, although even that isn’t foolproof. For instance, when Brubaker and Epting showed up in tuxedos to the premiere party for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is based on their comic, they were told they weren’t on the list. Brubaker texted Sebastian Stan, who let them in.

Marvel and DC have been mistreating comics creators for decades

Some writers do get better contracts, like bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who had a run on Captain America after Brubaker and Epting. But it’s very dependent on who you are and what the comics companies think they can get away with. “Long before I was writing Captain America, I read [Brubaker and Epting’s] Death of Captain America storyline, and Return of the Winter Soldier, and it was some of the most thrilling storytelling I’d ever read,” Coates told The Guardian. “I’d rather read it than watch the movies – I love the movies too – but it doesn’t seem just for them to extract what Steve and Ed put into this and create a multi-billion dollar franchise…Just because it’s in a contract doesn’t make it right. If I have some kind of leverage over you, I can get you to sign a contract to fuck you over. It’s just legalist.”

And really, even if you are a big name, you can still get screwed over. Take what happened to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, who wrote Watchmen for DC back in 1986. That pair got what was thought at the time to be a pretty good contract that included a share of merchandising sales, but after Watchmen became a big success, DC released merchandise but called it “promotional items,” meaning it didn’t have to pay Moore and Gibbons.

That story also illustrates that these kinds of shady maneuvers have been going on for a long time; they’re just happening on a much bigger scale now that superhero movies are so popular.

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