It is one of the most controversial and recognized names in an industry where conflicts and egos abound. jim shooter nothing escapes that context. He is even an essential part of several clashes, at the same time that he was one of those figures that revitalized the comics sector during the 80s, with changes and bets that, some time later, still have an impact on narratives such as that of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was a man obsessed with this style of publication that would later end up being a key piece both in Marvel like in DC.
His relationship with comics began when he was a child. Due to surgery, he had to spend more time than expected in bed between the ages of 12 and 13. During those days, he read all the comics that he could. And there is an image that is associated with the figure of him. It’s about a guy sitting on the ground with comic book towers taller than him. All that information was processed in such a way that he used it to compose his own stories. At 13 he sold his first story to DC, Adventure Comics No. 346, published in July 1966.
Thus began a working relationship that took him down different paths and controversies in the two most important publishers within the genre, DC and Marvel. He is credited with makeovers, crafting a key comic for fans eager to have a key “event” story or crossoveras well as other tensions that make up a character with different nuances and an obvious influence on the sector.
His origins in DC
That first delivery of Jim Shooter to DC was composed of both the texts and the drawings. He was hired by Mort Weisinger. About this, Shooter commented years later that “they must have thought that I was a student of some university degree”, not that I was a child.
Shooter continued to collaborate with DC, going on to deliver content related to the legion of superheroes and characters like Karete Kid and Ferro Lad, among others. The first title can be understood as the first antecedent of the author in terms of the composition of works in which different superheroes are involved. One of the aspects that caught the attention of his work was his facility for drawing.
In an industry where there are often complementary couples, where one person writes and the other does the art, this guy was offering DC both sides. He started with the drawings and then added the dialogues. This method, over time, was changing and becoming more formal scripts. In addition, the proliferation with which he acted aroused the curiosity of colleagues and other authors, some of whom drew ideas from him for their own projects. Jim Shooter continued to do the legion of superheroes and attracting the attention of superiors.
One of them was the publisher of Superman, Mort Weisinger, who called him on that occasion to treat the character. During his work as part of the team on this comic, Jim Shooter created one of the classic villains in history: Parasite. The author combined his work with the surprise of suddenly finding himself in the universe in which he had been as a reader. He did it motivated by a reason: at home, the accounts did not close in the best possible way. Urgent of money, he leaned on what always fascinated him: graphic stories.
Jim Shooter and his time at Marvel
Jim Shooter’s story in Marvel comics is a before and after within the house of ideas. In 1969 he started as an editor. He stepped aside for a while to go back to DC and write stories like super girl and continue with legion of superheroes. But, as pointed out the specialized channel comictropes, his relationship with his supervisors was not the best. He left DC to join the competition.
His return to Marvel came in January 1976, as an editorial assistant and writer. A few years later, Marvel began to grow for different reasons and the rotation in the main positions of the company began. Stan Lee traveled to Los Angeles to take over another branch of the business, leaving the post of editor-in-chief to roy thomaswho took the place in 1972. After this, four more names passed through that site, one hot potato that no one seemed to be able to handle with ease.
So it was until the arrival of Jim Shooter in 1978. His main goal was for Marvel to regularize its delivery and publication deadlines, after several delayed projects that represented losses. The new editor-in-chief restructured part of the department, having a group of editors who kept him informed of progress.
There were authors who complained about his way of managing publications, for seeming “dictatorial” or too strict. Along with these claims, the stories continued to be produced and implemented a system in which the creative work of the authors was recognized in relation to the number of works sold. Some of them were even surprising, such as Daredevila story that did not see much potential and that, however, grew to become a classic, with adaptations in the cinema and on TV.
tensions
His time at Marvel also left what is perhaps the main controversy in his career. The company developed a story about Hulk in which Bruce Banner he was about to be raped by two homosexual men. These, with their clothing, evoked the outfit that the Village People group used for the video YMCA. That was a problem because it was interpreted as a homophobic gesture and could encourage hatred towards that community.
According to what is stated in the book Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the SuperheroJim Shooter was not interested in adding characters in a progressive key: “There is not gays in marvel comics“, said. This occurred at a time when different minorities were beginning to have greater visibility. It wasn’t the only time that Shooter got into arm wrestling with writers or company sentiment, in a managerial career that had as many successes as internal disputes that led to several of the departures of key firms within the organization.
Jim Shooter was fired from Marvel in 1987. He tried to buy the company, which had been put up for sale, but failed to outbid Marvel’s top offer. Ron Perlman. The creative continued with part of his work in his own company, Voyager Communicationswith which he had several successes, but if the resonance of the DC or Marvel platforms.
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Jim Shooter was the author of the first stage of Secret Warspublished between 1984 and 1985, under the line of Stan Lee. She did it together with the drawings of mike zeck Y Bob Layton. Shooter, who had been intertwining superhero stories since his time with legion of superheroesrecreated in this piece of Marvel a request that little by little was installed in more followers of comics: stories in which different personalities converged in the same space.
Secret Warsalthough it was not acclaimed by the critics of the genre, it has a good esteem among the readers for the above. Its value, over time, has been on the rise: it is the first story dedicated to a crossover in which multiple heroes and villains face off. Since then, it has been more common to find different characters entering and leaving stories that, at first, were foreign to theirs.
His influence also beats in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, through productions such as Avengers: Infinity Wars Y end game. The narrative that will close its Phase 6 with two events of this style, the last film, Avengers: Secret Warsis related to the second stage of the homonymous comic, published in 2015. In that story it will be presented after Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. The multiverse collapsed, the heroes must regroup to find a solution that allows them to save the reality they know. A narrative possibility opened by a character with his own graphic novel story, for better and for worse, Jim Shooter.