Examples of Editorial Sabotage that happened in Marvel comics

[shades of eternity]

Imagine how bad ass!

this comic is a living embodiment of canceling a sure thing.

a comic that has Jen, Ben and Hank in it is guarenteed to have awesome dialogue.

edit: although I'm starting to get a agents of smash vibe in hindsight.

[ShazamHusker]

Then there's 'House of M/Decimation'. So progress is being made on the mutant rights front in the X-books. Xavier's School is now an actual school instead of just a base of operations for the X-Men, and there are a number of mutant communities. So what does editorial do? They have Wanda Maximoff go nuts and say three words, "No more mutants". This results in most of the mutants being de-powered, half the cast of 'New X-Men: Academy X' being thrown under the bus, and a new era of hopeless and darkness for the X-books.

Worst of all, they didn't even NEED to have Wanda do that Diabolus Ex Machina. In the pages of Astonishing X-Men, there had been an ongoing storyline revolving around a 'Mutant Cure'. They could have continued THAT storyline instead by having some villains make it rain Mutant Cure on the world. That way, they could have achieved the same results (less mutants), but without the cheap, lazy stunt of just having a sorceress say 'No More mutants'. Instead, they made the Mutant Cure storyline irrelevant, as well as a number of other interesting story arcs that looked like they could have gone somewhere good.

All of these are acts of editorial sabotage that, for me, throw me out of the story and remind me that in the Big Two comics companies, editorial edicts often triumph over good storytelling sense. These are forced, inorganic, and illogical. In a different world where editorial sabotage didn't exist, they wouldn't have happened.

I thought these were excellent points. I was out of comics at the time these story lines initially went down, though, I have since read most of them to date. I think the "Mutant Cure" angle could have actually played out better than the whole House of M. Obviously a lot happened post House of M, but the could have even pushed an AvX earlier -- maybe there is an anti-mutant on the A side of the ledger that the X side discovers played a role.

Someone also pointed at Schism as an issue, which I can see to a point. If you consider House of M, the decision to split off even more seems silly; however, I always thought the reasoning was weak. I actually thought that the events during or post-AvX may have made a more logical split, especially since it seemed like the split didn't matter that much. So, they stay intact going into AvX.

[Link]

I didn't got through all of the pages but from what I've read no one brought up Fear Itself. Nothing came of fear itself...and it was pretty much forgotten after it was over.

[HaveAtThee]

I didn't got through all of the pages but from what I've read no one brought up Fear Itself. Nothing came of fear itself...and it was pretty much forgotten after it was over.

I think I read somewhere that Fraction wanted to do a Thor/Captain America team-up story and Quesada decided to morph it into a full-on event in anticipation of the release of both Captain America and Thor (in 2011).

[Ishmael]

For full-on editorial interference, I think the changed ending of the Dark Phoenix Saga has to remain in the top spot. Jean Grey's story would've been so much more interesting if she'd had to face the consequences of her actions (or whatever Claremont/Byrne had planned afterward). Instead, we get X-Factor, which pretty much ruined the Uncanny run (hard to take any of that seriously when you know it's not really her) as well as Scott Summers (hated the way they had him leave his wife). That was pretty much the jumping off point for me on the X-books.

[ed2962]

For full-on editorial interference, I think the changed ending of the Dark Phoenix Saga has to remain in the top spot. Jean Grey's story would've been so much more interesting if she'd had to face the consequences of her actions (or whatever Claremont/Byrne had planned afterward). Instead, we get X-Factor, which pretty much ruined the Uncanny run (hard to take any of that seriously when you know it's not really her) as well as Scott Summers (hated the way they had him leave his wife). That was pretty much the jumping off point for me on the X-books.

The original ending was going to be the Shi'ar de-power Jean to the level where she was in X-Men #1 '63 and she and Scott were going to semi-retire from the team.

[Zero Hunter]

For full-on editorial interference, I think the changed ending of the Dark Phoenix Saga has to remain in the top spot. Jean Grey's story would've been so much more interesting if she'd had to face the consequences of her actions (or whatever Claremont/Byrne had planned afterward). Instead, we get X-Factor, which pretty much ruined the Uncanny run (hard to take any of that seriously when you know it's not really her) as well as Scott Summers (hated the way they had him leave his wife). That was pretty much the jumping off point for me on the X-books.

That is a case of the editor making the right call. Without the death of Phoenix no one would even remember that story today. It made it a classic.

[Ken Ashcroft]

That story was a classic, whether or not Phoenix had died or not.In fact the entire Claremont/Byrne run is regardless as one of the most memorable and most popular stints in Marvels history.

[Wiccan]

DPS wouldn't be as epic as it is if it wasn't for her death. The problem, though, is how they brought her back, with that ridiculous "it wasn't really her" plot, that only existed because of the editors moralism that "Jean can't be a mass murderer superhero, so let's say she never did that!"
At least, the retcon was kinda softned with some other plots we had, and now everyone just act like it was totally really Jean.

[lordozone]

For full-on editorial interference, I think the changed ending of the Dark Phoenix Saga has to remain in the top spot. Jean Grey's story would've been so much more interesting if she'd had to face the consequences of her actions (or whatever Claremont/Byrne had planned afterward). Instead, we get X-Factor, which pretty much ruined the Uncanny run (hard to take any of that seriously when you know it's not really her) as well as Scott Summers (hated the way they had him leave his wife). That was pretty much the jumping off point for me on the X-books.

She killed a world. I think it was totally the right call to do that. If they didn't made an intersting story after this it's the writers fault. My (little) problem with Marvel actually is that it seems to have no consequences for the heroes after they turn Villains. Wanda Maximoff has depowered millions of mutants and killed a lot in the process, but now she is a hero again. Tony Stark and Captain America was at odds after Civil War, and nothing. Doctor Strange has seemingly killed a lot of worlds with the black priests and was the right hand of Doom in Secret wars and then nothing. Tony Stark and Captain America was once again at odds during the road to secret wars (Captain America willing to kill Tony Stark during the last incursion) and then nothing. It seems that, beside Scott Summers and Namor, the heroes can do the worst deeds, they will never be punished.

[autbey]

The Terrigen Mist is a pretty blatant example.