Just how editorially-controlled are the X-Books?

[Hybrid]

It's something I've consistently heard both by fans and creators that the X-Books are hard to access for the other Marvel writers due to the X-Office being under some kind of iron fist (and I'm not talking about Danny Rand). This creates the feel of a partial disconnect, which varies over time, but the X-Books tend to be mutant-centric with less use of General MU appearances compared to others. I tried googling how exactly it was, but didn't get an answer, so I'm asking here as I'm sure I'll get one.

Just how tight is the control on the X-Books compared to other Marvel titles? What's the exact cause of this?

Here's a hypothetical scenario:

I'm a writer of a Spider-Book, and I want to have some mutant characters appear in the book as more than just some background filler. They actually interact with Spidey and bear on the current plot, taking place in both sides' status quos. How hard would it be to get the approval of the X-Office to do that?

If anyone has solid answers, please say so. Thanks.

[AbnormallyNormal]

I don't have a solid answer to your question.

At first I thought you were going to be talking about within the X-line itself and whether writers were able to implement their ideas or they were more executing "pushes" come up with "from above", which has definitely been a perceived problem for quite a while.

Your topic is something , that if it is happening I would think of as a GOOD thing. We want the X-line to have cohesion and control over its own narrative without wider MU getting in its way. If wider MU writers are able to understand the planning for the X-line and go along with it for their stories I'm fine with that though, but I don't want them just putting in mutant characters and then we get blatant contradictions with what's happening in the X books yknow?

[Hybrid]

I guess I could've worded it better or added more. I was mainly talking about the editor control of the X-Books vs. everyone else in Marvel, as I remember creators such as Kurt Busiek saying that it's under a tight grip. He wanted to an X-Book, but never did, because he was intimidated by it.

So all around, how is the editor control for them?

[Anduinel]

That's one you might want to save for an X-Men Monday, but I think how much sharing the offices do is going to be controlled by a lot of things: the attitudes of the actual people in charge, the current status of the characters in question, the popularity of the IPs, etc.

[tuck frump]

I guess I could've worded it better or added more. I was mainly talking about the editor control of the X-Books vs. everyone else in Marvel, as I remember creators such as Kurt Busiek saying that it's under a tight grip. He wanted to an X-Book, but never did, because he was intimidated by it.

So all around, how is the editor control for them?

Doesnt Busiek hate everything that came after the 05? No wonder he was shut down and thanks Jeansus for small favors.

[Omega Alpha]

Bob Harras was known for micromanagement. Later on, the whole "genies" thing by Quesada, plus the movie rights issue that made Marvel wanting to sideline the X-books.

[Anchorsify]

It’s just not known very well how much of what happens is editorial mandate and how much is the writer’s intent.. for the most part, that is kept very behind the scenes.

But you get snippets here and there, especially from past writers once they are done with their time at marvel, who will speak on it some.

Jim Shooter pretty infamously mandated kitty and Piotr break up because of the age difference and created the Zsaji nonsense to do it during secret wars, which was awful.

Guggenheim has mentioned how the original plan was to actually have kitty and Piotr get married but on a retreat some marvel editor suggested the fakeout and they changed it partway into gold’s run.

Writers tend to take the flak for things even if it is the editors mandates that create them, which is a shame. I believe there was another former writer that spoke about wanting to include more LGBT characters and themes and
Marvel said they were interested but didn’t actually follow up any and sort of gave them the brush off and quietly dismissed the proposal.

It’s very clear marvel editors have a lot of sway but not clear how they exert that influence or why or which editor is responsible. They would probably get eaten alive on forums like this if their decisions were public knowledge though, because the last ten years or so of x-men comics have been pretty lackluster.

[jwatson]

It's something I've consistently heard both by fans and creators that the X-Books are hard to access for the other Marvel writers due to the X-Office being under some kind of iron fist (and I'm not talking about Danny Rand). This creates the feel of a partial disconnect, which varies over time, but the X-Books tend to be mutant-centric with less use of General MU appearances compared to others. I tried googling how exactly it was, but didn't get an answer, so I'm asking here as I'm sure I'll get one.

Just how tight is the control on the X-Books compared to other Marvel titles? What's the exact cause of this?

Here's a hypothetical scenario:

I'm a writer of a Spider-Book, and I want to have some mutant characters appear in the book as more than just some background filler. They actually interact with Spidey and bear on the current plot, taking place in both sides' status quos. How hard would it be to get the approval of the X-Office to do that?

If anyone has solid answers, please say so. Thanks.

I don't know but what i do know is several creators have basically said the conspiracy was real and that the X-books had a boot on it's neck because marvel didn't own all the rights. So i don't think the X-office had much of a choice in a situation where they were seen as the red-headed step child. I also find it hard to believe it was the X-office that was like "Hey, let's put a terrigen cloud over all of our books because fun."

[spirit2011]

I guess I could've worded it better or added more. I was mainly talking about the editor control of the X-Books vs. everyone else in Marvel, as I remember creators such as Kurt Busiek saying that it's under a tight grip. He wanted to an X-Book, but never did, because he was intimidated by it.

So all around, how is the editor control for them?

I wonder when Busiek wanted to write a x-men book? When Shooter or Harras was the editor?

I think different editors have different approached for wider Marvel Universe.

For example on Hickman avengers run, he had two x-men characters on his roster.

[Hybrid]

Definitely not when Shooter was EiC, as Busiek rose to fame in the '90s. It's either DeFalco or Harras.

[Hybrid]

I don't know but what i do know is several creators have basically said the conspiracy was real and that the X-books had a boot on it's neck because marvel didn't own all the rights. So i don't think the X-office had much of a choice in a situation where they were seen as the red-headed step child. I also find it hard to believe it was the X-office that was like "Hey, let's put a terrigen cloud over all of our books because fun."

That's true. You gotta love how Marvel started treating the X-Men as an actual property again the moment the buyout became official. It might be even better than the hype of seeing X-Men in the MCU itself.

[spirit2011]

Definitely not when Shooter was EiC, as Busiek rose to fame in the '90s. It's either DeFalco or Harras.

I know little about Harras or DeFalco approach to wider marvel.

What I know that Harras seems to like to give opinions on stories, so this oculd be a reason why Busiek was intimidated.

[Whim]

Maybe before he went on Avengers? Maybe after?

Still think he had the best modern Avengers run and was great with Thunderbolts. Would have been interesting what he may have done.

[PrezValentine]

It's something I've consistently heard both by fans and creators that the X-Books are hard to access for the other Marvel writers due to the X-Office being under some kind of iron fist (and I'm not talking about Danny Rand). This creates the feel of a partial disconnect, which varies over time, but the X-Books tend to be mutant-centric with less use of General MU appearances compared to others. I tried googling how exactly it was, but didn't get an answer, so I'm asking here as I'm sure I'll get one.

Just how tight is the control on the X-Books compared to other Marvel titles? What's the exact cause of this?

Here's a hypothetical scenario:

I'm a writer of a Spider-Book, and I want to have some mutant characters appear in the book as more than just some background filler. They actually interact with Spidey and bear on the current plot, taking place in both sides' status quos. How hard would it be to get the approval of the X-Office to do that?

If anyone has solid answers, please say so. Thanks.

Probably more than the Avengers, going back to the 90s. I'd say we're currently in better state than back then, waaaay better than during the terrigen fiasco, but they're still on a tight enough leash because the whole effort behind Dawn of X shows that they want this to go right since, as Hickman said, they got one shot at this. If we're talking power dynamics, currently JDW is Pain and Hickman is Obito/Madara.

[spirit2011]

Maybe before he went on Avengers? Maybe after?

Still think he had the best modern Avengers run and was great with Thunderbolts. Would have been interesting what he may have done.

He was pretty good on both books, I would be interested in his run on x-men.

It would be interesting to know if h ewanted to pitch before or after his avengers run