Talking about Jim Shooter can generate as much heated argument online as discussing whether Stan Lee or Jack Kirby did more for Silver Age Marvel Comics. While Shooter was a terrific writer, I remember his tenure as Marvel’s editor-in-chief produced any number of bad creative and policy decisions. Like a number of other comics creators (and creators in other fields) he hit the level at which nobody could tell him no and he assumed his own judgment was right.
That was my view as a comics reader at the time. In the wake of his recent death, plenty of creators have spoken up about the man’s good side. Kurt Busiek recently posted on Facebook about how Jim Shooter paid him for coming up with the idea for resurrecting Jean Gray. Busiek suggested it back when he was just a fan; there was no legal obligation to pay him but Shooter did (Jean should have stayed dead, but I’m still impressed by Shooter’s consideration). “He was always a pleasant to interact with on a personal level, but I never worked for him directly, and I know that could be a very different experience.”
Jim Starlin, also on FB, says Shooter “was instrumental in improving the lot of the freelancer writers and artists who produced Marvel Comics during his time as editor-in-chief: getting many freelancers onto Marvel’s medical insurance program, setting up incentive pay (royalties), making sure people got paid for the work they did. Though Marvel has since rolled back most of the benefits Jim gained for freelancers, there was a time when working for Marvel Comics was a good gig. That was Jim’s doing.”
Starlin also credits Shooter with being more open to creative work than he’s often given credit for. And that there was “no going around behind your back to screw you surreptitiously. And that is a rarity in the comic book business.”
Plus there’s no question that Shooter did some great work as a writer (even if he also wrote the oh-so-meh Secret Wars and created Marvel’s equally meh New Universe). An incredible run on the Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes —
Introducing the unstoppable Parasite, one of the few Silver Age villains who could go toe-to-toe with Big Blue —
He created the all-powerful wizard Mordru to fight the Legion, one of the great invincible villains.
He also did some good writing at Marvel.
I’m sure someone out there is doing their best to sum up Shooter’s life and his works and decide whether the good outweighs the bad. I don’t feel the need to do that. Goodbye Mr. Shooter: thanks for the many stories you wrote that I enjoyed.
All rights to images remain with current holder. Covers top to bottom by Curt Swan (x 2), Neal Adams, Gil Kane, George Perez.
