NS: Chuck Wendig Gets Axed From Marvel

[cygnia]

I initially became aware of this from the Absolute Write forums.

In Which I Am Fired From Marvel

"And then we announced SHADOW OF VADER juuuuust last weekend, and people were excited, and I thought everything was good. I was not made aware of any issues, and my online self has always been my online self, so.
Except, yeah, no. Today I got the call. I’m fired. Because of the negativity and vulgarity that my tweets bring. Seriously, that’s what Mark, the editor said. It was too much politics, too much vulgarity, too much negativity on my part.
Basically, because I was not civil.
Which, of course, is their decision to make. I’m not their boss. (And, turns out, they’re not the boss of me, either. Har har.) (I joke because otherwise, I cry.)
My understanding over this call was that this was a Marvel decision, not an LFL decision, but I can’t really confirm that. The editor said he had made the call. He seemed genuinely upset at my tweets and profanity, so maybe that’s accurate. And again, that’s his right to do so. If they honestly feel that my presence will damage the book, I don’t want that. I want the book to shine, and artists like Juanan Ramirez and Greg Smallwood to do their amazing thing. Artists like that are gods in my mind, so I’m happy to not distract from their literal magic.
But it does set a troubling precedent. One we’ve seen already – James Gunn, Jessica White, and so on – of folks fired because they riled up the wasp’s nest of asterisk-gate. And it seems odd to be mad that I’m mad about politics when – well, look around. Climate change, kids in cages, sexual harassers at the topmost tiers of power, and so on. A call for civility as the PA GOP candidate threatens Tom Wolf with a golf cleat stomping. I dunno, man."

Comments

[cyberghostface]

Wonder if this why Dan Slott deleted his twitter account, he was fairly political.

[owlbrigade1]

Someone posted the tweets which (allegedly) got him in trouble over on The Outhousers site and if it is true then it really does cross the line. I don't think we can put this on the same people who got Gunn, this seems more like a self inflicted wound here.

[angelophile]

Personally I'm glad to see Marvel creators' social media output being monitored. It's long overdue and the attitude towards fans and retailers by creators working for the company has been terrible over the past decade or so. That said, it does seem ridiculous they rushed to defend their EiC, and sweeping a bunch of personal attacks that border on stalking that their creators have made under the carpet (mentioning no names, cos one of them already has been), while firing this guy for more generic, if foul mouthed, political tweets.

[coldfury]

I'm not sure I agree with this take. What exactly do we learn from this? That writers can't have political opinions on twitter? You can have Spider-Man team up with Obama but you can't vent your frustrations with the current administration?

If he went over the line calling for violence, or absolutely trashing fans who disagreed with his politics, that would be one thing, but apparently he was too crass in his political statements?

Comparing this to Roseanne, which the poster at Outhousers does, is intellectually dishonest. Roseanne was fired for being flagrantly racist in her tweets and pushing batshit conspiracy theories, not right wing. Nothing I see Chuck having said in that post is comparable in the slightest.

[cyberghostface]

If you’re referring to Dan Slott, he wasn’t stalking anyone, he responded to some tweets that mentioned his stuff. The comicsgate people/Douglas Ernst (who is obsessed with Slott) tried to make it a thing that wasn’t.

[poshmerchant]

Disney's supplication to the Nazi mobs is pretty chilling in this.

Wendig's FAQ about this:
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2018/10/15/monday-morning-faq/

Cora Buhlert post about Wendig, Gunn, and Cain:
http://corabuhlert.com/2018/10/16/chuck-wendig-james-gunn-chelsea-cain-and-the-silencing-of-creatives/

[janegray]

Agreed.

[owlbrigade1]

I agree that calling it the equivalent of Roseanne's behaviour is too far and certainly very disingenuous, but the level of graphic vulgarity is just beyond the pale. It is unprofessional. There is a difference between stating your honest political opinion and screaming obscenities to the world, and I think that was the latter.

[laughing_tree]

"It is unprofessional."

Disagree. It was his personal account.

[lordultimus]

Do we really need to make a big deal about a guy who deflected all criticism with "your ant-LGBT" when the criticism had nothing to do with that?

[laughing_tree]

Examples?

[strejdaking]

Shiiiiiit. I was hoping that particular discourse won't make it here, but I guess it is inevitable.

[owlbrigade1]

The days when your personal online presence was separate from your professional one, especially when your name is your brand, died with the end of the 1990s.

[mazway_75]

Yet another reminder why I avoid Twitter like the plague, even for people I like.

[laughing_tree]

As long as he's not harming anyone or supporting anything that does, what business is it of anyone how vulgar the language he uses in his free time is?

[zachbeacon]

Really don't get why Cain is part of this conversation. Her books didn't sell so they got cancelled. She made it political after the fact with a cover meant to troll Comicsgate-type idiots.

[goattoucher]

It didn't bother me personally, but Disney/Marvel/SW is ostensibly a brand for kids.

On one hand, I think "Too much profanity." was just the excuse they used, and that they have been caving in to comixgaters, but, unfortunately for Wendig, the criticism is true.

I am a public school teacher, and I have to keep a professional and a private social media account to keep the fallout of my political views from impacting my career (a lot of MAGA hats in my community).

[laughing_tree]

Well, there was her Vision series that for some reason Marvel cancelled before the first issue even came out, even though three issues were already in the can.

[zachbeacon]

Were the pre-orders low? If so, that's more an argument that the entire direct market is broken .... Which it is.

[deh_tommy]

I often hear about how terrible Dan Slott is on social media. What did he do wrong?

[deh_tommy]

I disagree, calling anyone a 'prolapsed anus' who will get their righteous comeuppance in the cold fires of a wintery hell is a bit much regardless of whom you're talking about. To me, this is less a case of the Comicsgate hotel being unaccomodating and more general human decency (or lack thereof in this scenario).

[cyberghostface]

Well he’s strongly anti-Trump and has gotten into a few twitter arguments over politics. In particular we have Douglas Ernst who’s obsessed with everything Slott does so the two have gone after each other’s throats. One of the biggest was when Ernst posted graphic Holocaust images for a Superior Spider-Man review (because of Otto’s global warming scheme to wipe out the planet) which pissed off Slott who is Jewish.

In this latter case we had someone make a comment about ASM on Twitter and Slott responded to her tweet. It was pretty obvious that he was just searching for comments on his issues on social media but Ernst and co. made it a big thing about him stalking her because of it. I think they even tried taking it to BleedingCool and Rich had to tell them there was nothing to report on.

To be clear I do think Slott is a bit thin-skinned and leaving Twitter was probably for the best but a lot of the controversies were overblown.

[obsidianwolf]

It all depends on who you ask some think Slott has been unfairly maligned by folks who just don't like him and that he's justified in being harsh back and others think he's an unprofessional jack ass who uses his position as a pro in the field to harass others with no consequences.

I've personally seen examples that support both points of view

[sindra]

Thing with Gunn was that his inflammatory tweets were from a decade ago before he was as big a name and when there wasn't a spotlight on personal politics being quite so derisive. That, and Gunn had apologized for them long before any recent outcry that got him fired.

Wendig was being inflammatory during a time when there is a bright spotlight on any personal OR political discourse even if you're a comics writer, he writes for Marvel which leans towards being an all-ages publisher, and he's unapologetic about anything vulgar he's said, past or present and uses excuses for his behavior on social media.

Wendig was in the wrong and his behavior post-firing hasn't lead me to believe he's learning from the experience a whole lot.

[laughing_tree]

I don't know, but I can't remember any time an entire mini-series was cancelled (not just shortened) for low pre-sales. And there have been some with *very* low sales.

Anyway, Marvel claims the reason is that it clashes with other plans they had for the character. It's not completely impossible, but given the Wendig situation and Cain's own political outspokenness, I have to at least wonder if that's just cover.