How Tom Cruise’s face cost Marvel thousands of dollars
Tom Cruise is a very famous man. In fact, he might just be the most famous living actor in the world today. For over four decades, his face has been plastered over some of the biggest movies of all time. If he keeps up his beauty regime of alien plasma and magic beans, then he’s probably going to look exactly the same for the next 100 years or so.
If there’s one franchise that the diminutive star can be described as the ‘face’ of, it’s ‘Mission: Impossible’. Cruise has played IMF agent Ethan Hunt across eight different movies, battling baddies, chasing MacGuffins around the world, and surviving increasingly larger and unlikely explosions. Despite the series releasing its ‘Final Reckoning’ in 2025, it can’t be ruled out that he’ll return to the series one day to kick even more international terrorists squarely in the chops.
It all started with that first film way back in 1996. Directed by the great Brian de Palma, Mission: Impossible set the tone for everything that was to come over the next 30-odd years. The gadgets; the running; the incomprehensible villain schemes that you have to completely switch your brain off to enjoy; it all began here. The film was a big deal and received a considerable marketing push all over the world. This is where Marvel Comics enters the picture.
Promo campaigns can be really dull, so to spice things up, Marvel was drafted in to make a Mission: Impossible comic book. Set out as a prequel to the movie, it adds context to the movie’s main characters with Ethan Hunt as the pivotal point in the story was created by Marv Wolfman, while the legendary Rob Liefeld handled the artwork.
Best known for drawing impossibly muscular characters (and for co-creating Deadpool), Liefeld was requested specifically by Cruise. The recent honorary Oscar recipient was a big fan of his work and felt he’d be the one to do his visage justice. Unfortunately, that’s not how things worked out. According to Recalled Comics, despite the artist receiving Cruise’s blessing, he was never given permission to use his likeness. Without access to the real Ethan Hunt’s face, Liefeld was forced to improvise and create a brand new look for the daring espionage agent.
He came up with a fairly generic ‘handsome man’ look for the character, one that you couldn’t imagine anyone having a problem with. Alas, that’s precisely what happened. Upon viewing an advance copy of the comic, Cruise reportedly asked for two panels to be redrawn. His complaint? The new Ethan Hunt looked “too feminine”. There’s a lot to unpack there. Marvel were forced to recall and destroy every issue with these panels. However, a few of the original copies got out, and are not something of a collector’s item among comic fans.
This wouldn’t be the only time Cruise screwed Marvel over. He was initially considered for the role of Tony Stark in Iron Man, but turned down the part that eventually went to Robert Downey Jr. He must be a DC guy.
