‘Deadpool’ creator Rob Liefeld to leave Marvel after 30 years
After multiple decades of writing and illustrating Marvel comic books, Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld has announced that he is severing ties with the company. The artist’s departure comes as a result of his treatment throughout the production of Deadpool & Wolverine last year, which he was openly frustrated by.
Liefeld’s sour relationship with Marvel seemed to kick off during the early stages of production on Deadpool & Wolverine, with the creator sending an email to the higher-ups at Marvel Studios requesting that he be given more prominent credit for the creation of the Deadpool character, who first appeared in The New Mutants issue 98 back in 1990.
Usually, character creators are given a standard credit card at the end of Marvel movies. Still, Liefeld requested that he be given a more prominent credit at the beginning of the film.
Notably, he did not make the same request for the character’s co-creator, Fabian Nicieza, and has repeatedly downplayed Nicieza’s involvement in the creation. “I am the human imagination behind it all,” Liefeld wrote in an email to Marvel.
At the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine, the first Deadpool movie project to be carried out by Marvel Studios rather than Fox, Liefeld found that neither himself nor his family were invited to the after-party. The creator also claimed that Kevin Feige, president of the studios, deliberately ignored him throughout the event. “It was meant to embarrass, diminish, defeat me,” he shared on his Robservations podcast.
Citing what he views as dismissive treatment by Feige, Liefeld made the decision to sever his ties with Marvel, who he first worked with at the age of 19 on an Avengers storyline.
“Kevin Feige does not treat comic book creators well. That is my personal experience,” he revealed on the podcast. The illustrator also added, “At some point, you go, ‘I’ve received the message, and the message is clear,’” explaining his reasons for leaving Marvel.
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