Ed Brubabker Criticizes Disney/Marvel For Lack Of Winter Soldier Royalties

[Agent Z]

Brubaker opened up about his strange relationship with the Winter Soldier’s rise to prominence in the MCU, from how it would take weeks after Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Comic-Con announcement before Marvel Studios reached out to him about the news, to turning down a check for a thank you credit in Civil War that he described as “an insult,” and how the writer makes more money from his brief cameo in Winter Soldier’s flashback sequences than he does in residuals from having brought the Winter Soldier to life in the first place. “As the years went on, I just started to think ‘how come we’re not getting anything for this?’,” Brubaker wondered. “We can get a ‘Thanks to’ or a credit, but these movies are making billions of dollars, and it feels like we just kind of got a bad deal.”

It’s created an animus for the writer that he now feels seeing Bucky rise to even higher prominence in the current moment, co-starring in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+. “I think I might be the only person in America who is not excited about this show,” said Brubaker, who has not watched any of the series so far. “When I see ads for [The Falcon and the Winter Soldier], it kinda makes me feel sick to my stomach.”

He added, “As a company, why would [Marvel] want that to be the way the creators feel? When I work with people I try to give them the best deal possible, and if something ends up being a bigger thing, I’ll try to actually adjust their deal ... I want everybody I work with to feel like they got a really good deal, and they were treated well.”

https://io9.gizmodo.com/marvels-wint...omi-1846690659

[Alan2099]

So, he's upset that he doesn't get credit for adding long hair and a cyborg arm to a character that was created back in World War II?

He didn't create Bucky.
He didn't even create bitter jaded, gun totting Bucky that had been kept on ice. (We already had Nomad.)

All he did was put some spit and polish on a character that was already there and used elements from another character that was already there.

[Snoop Dogg]

brubaker captain america is a flop but if they are going to adapt his material they should cut the whole creative team a check, they probably didn't even put everyone who made the books they adapted into the credits

[Eto]

brubaker captain america is a flop but if they are going to adapt his material they should cut the whole creative team a check, they probably didn't even put everyone who made the books they adapted into the credits

Bruh....for real?
Really man.?!

[Agent Z]

edited post.

[mugiwara]

So, he's upset that he doesn't get credit for adding long hair and a cyborg arm to a character that was created back in World War II?

He didn't create Bucky.
He didn't even create bitter jaded, gun totting Bucky that had been kept on ice. (We already had Nomad.)

All he did was put some spit and polish on a character that was already there and used elements from another character that was already there.

That's still an issue with characters copyrights, and something I'm afraid leads to more and more writers creating their own OC instead of using pre-exsiting C/D list characters.

Let's say there is a Thunderbolt movie and Songbird becomes the breakthrough character. Who would get the royalties? Busiek and Bagley or Screaming Mimi's creators?
Who would get the money for Layla Miller? Brian Bendis or Peter David?

[SuperiorIronman]

That's still an issue with characters copyrights, and something I'm afraid leads to more and more writers creating their own OC instead of using pre-exsiting C/D list characters.

Let's say there is a Thunderbolt movie and Songbird becomes the breakthrough character. Who would get the royalties? Busiek and Bagley or Screaming Mimi's creators?
Who would get the money for Layla Miller? Brian Bendis or Peter David?

It's a simple answer. Who made the character? If Layla Miller came from Brian Bendis he'd get the credit. If you made Layla become "The Amazing Ted" you'd get credit for creating The Amazing Ted but you wouldn't own Layla Miller. If The Amazing Ted was a separate character you'd own The Amazing Ted. Rob Liefeld is credited for the creation of Deadpool so he'd get the credit for that even if Wade Wilson took on another identity. If Deadpool became Spider-man you'd see credit to Liefeld and Spider-man's creators as well.

This all assumes it's not work for hire which often comic works are and so nobody would own any of it anyways. Oftentimes even if it's not you'll find creators just don't think to do anything with that because you never know what's going to be popular anyways let alone reprinted. It's an all too common story.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Controversies like this are very interesting for how they reveal people for what they truly are.

It's likewise an extension of what was discussed here:
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...46#post5484146

So, he's upset that he doesn't get credit for adding...

A character who was:
-- Aged Up.
-- Converted from innocent sidekick to immortal brainwashed assassin.
-- The name and title "Winter Soldier"
-- The explanation and new origin story.
-- The concept that made the revived Bucky into a serialized character.

...long hair...

He doesn't have "long hair" on the TV Show but he has everything else Brubaker got him.

He didn't create Bucky.

His point is that he created the Winter Soldier, the name and mantle on which the TV show is sold and promoted as well as the most beloved of the Captain America movies.

All he did was put some spit...

Pro-Tip: Never give people ammunition against yourself.

It's a simple answer. Who made the character?

Well Bucky was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, i.e. the version of the character who was a Robin-expy. They didn't create "The Winter Soldier".

[justanotherclassic]

Bubaker and Epting didn't create Bucky, but they certainly created the concept of The Winter Soldier and the surrounding mythos. Let's be real: if not for Brubaker, Bucky wouldn't have made it through the first movie, if he was even included at all. They're making bank over a concept that exists due to Brubaker. Furthermore, so many themes presented in Brubaker's run feel almost foundational to the arc of MCU Cap. While I think Marvel is technically in the legal right, it's still a shitty thing to do considering how much they owe to Brubaker's run.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Bubaker and Epting didn't create Bucky, but they certainly created the concept of The Winter Soldier and the surrounding mythos. Let's be real: if not for Brubaker, Bucky wouldn't have made it through the first movie, if he was even included at all. They're making bank over a concept that exists due to Brubaker. Furthermore, so many themes presented in Brubaker's run feel almost foundational to the arc of MCU Cap. While I think Marvel is technically in the legal right, it's still a shitty thing to do considering how much they owe to Brubaker's run.

Brubaker isn't disputing the legality, just the moral aspects.

I think Marvel not offering any appreciable rewards for freelancer contributions especially when they as a company have oodles of money and dollars and as Brubaker noted, many of the execs credit as Executive Producers on the Netflix Shows contributing to stuff they didn't do or create, is immoral and wrong, and just bad policy overall.

Comics' Credits and exploitation is a complex subject and not every issue is the same. The issue with Brubaker isn't identical to Kirby's issues or Siegel and Shuster's, or Bill Finger's for example.

Same problem since Watchmen. That's why I have no respect for writers like Tom king, who know how this line of work is hard, and betray their fellow workers, like Alan Moore.

Tom King is a profound disappointment as a laborer in the comics business. He preened as a fancypants comics writer but first chance he got, he shived the guy whose style he's spent a better of decade copying.

Say what you want about Grant Morrison, and Alan Moore has said plenty about them, but even they didn't do something like this.

Ed Brubaker by the way publicly defended Alan Moore in that time:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-creat...of-alan-moore/

[Zero Hunter]

Bubaker and Epting didn't create Bucky, but they certainly created the concept of The Winter Soldier and the surrounding mythos. Let's be real: if not for Brubaker, Bucky wouldn't have made it through the first movie, if he was even included at all. They're making bank over a concept that exists due to Brubaker. Furthermore, so many themes presented in Brubaker's run feel almost foundational to the arc of MCU Cap. While I think Marvel is technically in the legal right, it's still a shitty thing to do considering how much they owe to Brubaker's run.

But that poses the question of would the whole concept of the Winter Soldier had been as big as it was if it had not been Bucky to begin with? The answer is no. Take Bucky out of the equation and the Winter Soldier is a just a left over cold war weapon with no emotional atachment to Cap. The main reason the concept took off to begin with is because it was Steve having to face off against his friend.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

But that poses the question of would the whole concept of the Winter Soldier had been as big as it was if it had not been Bucky to begin with?

The thing about chicken-and-egg situations is that by their nature you can ask any number of them and any version of them.

Why ask this chicken-and-egg when we can ask so many others:
-- "Would Bucky coming-back-from-the-dead have been as impactful if it had not been for Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting?"
-- "Would Bucky's return have worked had it not been for the title of 'Winter Soldier' created by Brubaker?"
-- "Did anyone care about Bucky really, until Brubaker?"

It's a political choice to frame a chicken-and-egg question most advantageous to the narrative of the company.

The fact is that Bucky Barnes was never the most popular aspect of the classic Captain America comics and when Jack Kirby decided to bring Cap back and keep Bucky missing as a dead sidekick, that was a change few readers at the time objected to. Captain America as Avenger and solo-title did pretty well for some 40 odd years after his "thaw" so there was few to little interest in Bucky Barnes as a character.

Brubaker's run and his Winter Soldier was the first significant story Bucky Barnes was central to, and Brubaker's story radically inspired the Winter Soldier film...i.e. casting an older and taller actor as Sergeant Barnes in The First Avenger, transforming him from sidekick to Steve Rogers' cool best friend and honorary brother. The screenwriters cast Sebastian Stan with the hope that he would eventually play the Winter Soldier in the sequel. None of that happens without Brubaker and his run, being as good as it is.

[Alan2099]

But that poses the question of would the whole concept of the Winter Soldier had been as big as it was if it had not been Bucky to begin with? The answer is no. Take Bucky out of the equation and the Winter Soldier is a just a left over cold war weapon with no emotional atachment to Cap. The main reason the concept took off to begin with is because it was Steve having to face off against his friend.

On that note, would we even be having this conversation if he hadn't added the name "Winter Soldier." Imagine that the character and back story wasn't change at all from the version that did get published. The only difference is that he is still called "Bucky". Would we still be saying that he created anything? At what point does it go from creating a character to just bringing back a old guy with some new updates?

We still consider Lee and Kirby as the guy who created Groot, when modern Groot has almost nothing to do with the original version.

[lordozone]

Same problem since Watchmen. That's why I have no respect for writers like Tom king, who know how this line of work is hard, and betray their fellow workers, like Alan Moore.

[Hypestyle]

have a settlement...? I guess.. what does Mr. Brubaker write currently? Indie work?