Marvel: The Buckley Blunders!

So I'm a bit of a sports nut. I'm a giant sports freak. My whole life, I’ve follow all the league’s, the players, the movements, the business. Born and raised in Southern California, Ive been surrounded by top schools and franchises competing at elite levels my entire life. I’ve watched pro sports grow beyond their station and expand to dominate the field of entertainment, especially in this world of streaming, live sports. In the face of the growing relevancy of pro sports, the urgency for success has become even more rabid, immediate. You’d think that the comic book entertainment business would follow suit. It has not.

Your major sports are the premiere entertainment businesses of our day, they're slooted in key prime time windows, NFL, NBA, MLB, big games, big matchups. Big prime time brackets. Millions of people continue to watch them. It's an expanding, growing business. They're selling tons of ads across multiple platforms, more than I ever imagined. I mean, if you told me ten years ago that Amazon would be broadcasting games, whether it's football, NFL, NBA, MLB, and there it is, you’ve seen it, there's a little window right there with which to buy, purchase a product, right now. It’s a fascinating world of entertainment and commerce that is being shaped around us. The appetite for success has never been bigger.

One year ago, the New York Knicks, a team I have always admired, fell short in their pursuit to reach the NBA Finals. And in the face of that disappointment, they immediately fired their acclaimed, oft celebrated Coach, Tom Thibodeau. Coach “Thibs” was gone. 

“Thibs” was a brilliant coach. The Knicks had gone further than even the most optimistic pre-season predictions. It felt weird that when coming that close to glory, that close to achieving the goal, that they would so quickly change course, fire their coach. The league was shook. It was ruthless, it was cold and it was meant to send a message, we can do better, we need to be better, right now. In the aftermath, they hired Mike Brown. Mike Brown is a veteran NBA coach. He coached for the Cavaliers, Lakers, Kings, always likeable, affable, fun guy, good basketball mind. The pressure to win it all was now his.

Brown definitely coaches the Knicks in a different manner than Thibs, who hung his hat on playing really tough defense. Mike Brown has unleashed them offensively, and they're scoring more points than I remember any Knicks squad. The differential with which the Knicks are beating people right now. I checked this morning, it's like 19.5 points per game. It's some ridiculous number. The owner of the Knicks, Mr. Dolan, made a proclamation, “It’s Championship or bust.” Thibs didn't get them there. They changed course when it seemed to make the least amount of sense, but it was the most crucial decision they made in decades. They made change. These general managers make these coaching changes because they affect the importance of the franchise impact and the performance of the players in terms of getting them championships, getting them rings. Mike Brown comes in and in one year, they're going to the NBA finals. They've won eleven straight. They swept the last two rounds. The Knicks are performing at an incredible fashion, but you wouldn't believe a year ago when the sports world was shocked, reeling. Go back, look at those headlines. Coach Thibs firing was shocking. And I've said before, I do not understand why Disney does not roll more heads, especially those that are underperforming. And when we look at the track record of one Feige, Kevin Feige, and all his Feige flops. His performance is much worse than anything that has been going on with the Knicks or with the Denver Nuggets, who fired their championship Coach within 22 months of Mike Malone leading them victory in the NBA Finals. There is no Tolerance for failure in sports. 

Feige, with flop after flop after flop, remains comfortably on top regardless of a five year losing streak. Now the the trades, because I guess the ad money ran out or whatever, but at some point they all eventually speak truth. They now confirm that Fantastic Four lost money, it was a flop. Captain America 4 lost money, it was a flop. Thunderbolts lost money, it was a flop. All three underperformed, lost money. All three films reflected the coaching and management style of one Kevin Feige. Matt Belloni, he hosts an amazing podcast that I listen to, The Town. He covers Hollywood, he covers dollars and cents, he covers the box office with integrity.

So many of the box office pundits, the people dedicated to covering the box office, they want to keep the expectations as lofty and as high as possible, without discouragement, because they want you to get out and see the films. It plays out on a regular basis. It feels like they are incentivized to attempt to thwart any negative perceptions for as long as possible, no matter how clear and obvious the results are. They don't want to discourage you because they want to try to manifest success. There's a couple films that they’re trying to do that with right now but they're going to get they're due, the bill is gonna come due and not in a positive manner. Belloni doesn’t work like that, he shares the facts without the agenda.

Without a doubt, Spider-Man is going to break through with massive success. It should hit a billion easy. Spider-Man is not one of these movies I'm talking about. And for all intents and purposes, Doomsday is way too big to fail. I've talked about it here. I’ll get back to Doomsday. 

But, with regards to the success or distinct lack thereof with regards to Marvel, what can’t Disney make the same succinct and definitive decisions as the big, storied sports franchises, like the Knicks or the Nuggets? These payrolls are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. these arenas, the tickets, the media rights represent hundreds of millions of dollars. These clubs are making huge amounts of money, just like your entertainment businesses, just like your Marvel films. And maybe now, there are fresh faces guiding them to greater heights. What’s Marvel’s excuse? 

Finally, as a result of recent actions, just maybe, possibly, upper management are beginning to see the forest for the trees. They are discovering what the rest of us have know for sometime. Marvel needs a purge.

Without a doubt, the biggest thing that happened in comic books in recent months, was the removal, the stepping down, the letting go, the the kicking out of one, Mr. Dan Buckley, from Marvel Comics. Now, here's what happened. This news happened, we were all completely absorbed by it. There were people who were literally shocked. There were people who called me, stammering, short of breath. They they could not believe that this, this thing, what everyone thought was never going to occur, because he had he had been so far insulated, so far protected because it was the old regime, The Iger Era that he operated in. The old regime which which had become comfortable just being kind of comfortable. They'd become comfortable with mediocrity, and it showed in every aspect of the Disney portfolio. But as you know, Disney has a new new Boss, Josh D'Amaro, and suddenly everything is under fresh scrutiny. 

One of the things that really blows me away and and several of you said this to me, sent me the articles from April 2025, and this speaks to again the thing that matters most to this show is the integrity of my reporting. On April 22nd, on my podcast, 2025. I shared a missive about Marvel's troubles. I stated, and I quote, " I can't, I can't make folks go on the record, but I can tell you, based on my DMs, that comic book professionals en masse agree about the train wreck that the X-Men office has become. Sad is that this was once the gold standard of comic books, of comic book storytelling. The guys at the top of the executive suite, in publishing, they have to go. Buckley, Bogart, Gabriel. These guys have no new moves. They are spent, they are tired and it shows. Start over.”

My comic book career has been across the careers seven editor-in-chiefs, and counting. To say I've seen it done way better, way brighter, by more focused, more accomplished minds, is the understatement of the year. The Marvel Quotaverse is what is crushing publishing. There's always a slew of new number ones with limited life quick cancellations. We are closer to more, all new number ones each month.They have to go. We're calling them " The Buckley Boys." The Buckley Boys. Well, guys, David Gabriel let was let go a month ago. And then last week, Dan Buckley was let go. Dan, David, David. David has gone. David Gabriel is gone. He was tired. He was spent. As the kids say, he was washed. And he is out. Both gone, serving out their remaining time in a lame duck capacity

Dan Buckley was the guy that was watching the door, holding the door, protecting his buddies, letting them be a little more kind of "off" in what appeared to be, to my veteran eyes, my experienced gaze, more lazy, much less sharp, not refined. Now he's gone. No one is covering the door. I'm sharing this with you, because, as I've stated, the integrity of the show, my experience and my opinions matters. Now more than ever.

You guys sent those headlines to me, I had forgotten. But there it is, April 22nd, 2025. I called it, and now it's happening. The new guy came in, Mr. D'Amaro, and you guys, he's running THE entire company. Now, he's asking "Get me the reports on all the divisions. Get me publishing, get me the reports on licensing, on film, on television.” He's reevaluating everything. Don't cry for these guys as they are removed. They qualify and are lined up for the biggest Disney compensation packages possible.These guys are making out fantastically. Do not shed a tear for them. Their time was over a long time ago, but it took new management coming in, looking for cuts, looking for refinements, and away we go. Is it possible there are more on the way? 

One very practical, pragmatic application of what we are seeing play out, is as new management looks over the books, they are seeing and discovering rival numbers from competitors and they are asking, why aren't our comic books making money? I'm gonna tell you that I believe this is one of, if not the most important reasons, a factor that finally found the bill coming due. And that's because DC Comics is showing everyone what you can really make if you lean in creatively and where some significant money, I’m talking millions of dollars from comic book publishing.  The competition is spurned on by the achievements of others. Don't think for one minute that all the headlines that the Absolute books have been garnering and all of the crazy success that Image comics is experiencing have been lost on Disney. 

There are people who are listening. When that new head of Marvel, Winderbaum, the guy taking over for Buckley, is on a podcast saying that his favorite book is Absolute Batman. You're kind of cooked. Maybe at that point he already knew he had the job. He was cooked. And if you go back to here, here's one of the things that I want to share with you guys. 

This headline is from Daily Variety. This is 2017. That's Dan Buckley. There it is. Dan Buckley promoted a president of Marvel Entertainment. 2017. Disney-owned Marvel Entertainment has promoted longtime executive Dan Buckley to newly created post of president in a reflection of his expanded responsibilities. In 2017, you wanna know what he got? Dan Buckley previously served as president of TV. Publishing and brand, during which time he has directly overseen the expansion of publishing animation, television, and the brand and franchise groups. His oversight does not extend to the Marvel Studios movie production. But Dan Buckley is named president in 2017, and he has publishing, licensing, animation, games. Dan had a whole lot of responsibilities. But less than two years later, massive demotion.

In 2019, from Deadline.com. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige adds Marvel chief creative officer. He will oversee all creative and story initiatives. It says here, Feige is adding the title of Chief Creative Officer Marvel to his title. What that means for the brand is all the company's key creative executives across film and TV. Okay, that was Buckley's. TV will now report to him. Feige's oversight will extend to the overall creative direction of Marvel storytelling and content creation platforms. As part of this, Marvel TV and animation, as well as Marvel Family Entertainment will move under Kevin Feige.

In a nutshell, everything was now Feige’s. Two years after Buckley had all these divisions, they are put over on Feige’s side of the org ledger. Buckley will have dual reporting structure going forward. He will continue to oversee publishing and creative editorial. He reports directly to Kevin Feige.

In 2019, Kevin Feige became the guy that everyone reports to in every division, including Dan Buckley, who lost significant power and influence. A few years later, he would lose games, he would lose digital. As of the last year, year and a half, two years, he's only had publishing, and he was finally stripped of that last week. They let Buckley go. Now he's gonna hang around to show Brad Winderbaum the the ropes, they say he's gonna hang around to point him in the right directions. What took so long?

Brad Winderbaum comes from television. I watched his escape podcast. I do not know Brad at all. I have worked with all of Buckley's boys for over 20 plus years. it was not the most pleasant experience. I never shied from sharing it with you. Dan Buckley did not write a comic. Dan Buckley did not draw a comic. He is not one of those great celebrated executives like Dick Giordano at DC Comics, Jim Lee, currently at DC Comics, Jim Shooter, the legend formerly of Marvel Comics. Even Joe Q, who I thought was middle of the road at best, middle of the road. At least he wrote and drew comics. Dan Buckley is an executive. I met Dan Buckley when he was working at Skybox, when we were doing the Heroes Heroes Reborn Cards. he immediately came off as smug, entitled, kind of lived in the no fun zone, very serious. I asked somebody, what's up with that guy? And they're like, that's how he is.

One day, back when I had been tasked with creating Lady Deadpool and the Deadpool Corps. David Bogart and Dan Buckley, they give me a call. I was in my car about to go in and see an afternoon movie. Deadpool Corps. is slowly coming together, but I’m not writing the script. I get the call, and the two of them are online. It's very serious, very harumph, harumph. And they shared with me, their concern about the schedule on another project I was working on. And I said, I'm not the writer of this, you're aware of that. I don't have anything to draw from, I do not have an official plot or story script from which to generate. And they're like, We weren’t aware of that. I said, Yeah, you should check with your editor, you should check with your chain of title. And they had taken a tone with me that not many people have taken with me in the past or since.

As they kind of backed off because they realized they had the bad information and I can't draw what I don't have. I simply cannot draw a story when I don't have a story to draw from. That's on them. Get me that story, I'll start, and then tell me that I'm not I'm behind, but I don't have anything to draw from. I'm waiting. And before we signed off, I said, “And boys, don't ever, ever talk to me like that again. Do not ever attempt to take that tone with me ever again.”

And there was a silence that I'm not sure they're used to because they're used to applying their bullying nature to people, they aren’t used to people pushing back. They are used to everyone needing Marvel,more than Marvel needs them. And what Buckley and Bogart did for about 20 years between them and then their emissaries, and there were several emissaries. They were calling people, folks who have shared with me, I've had them tell me their stories. that there's a guy, a gentleman, gentlemen, in fact, that worked under Bogart and Buckley, and these were the guys tasked with telling everybody, we're lowering your rates, we're lowering your rates, we're lowering your rates. I'm gonna venture to give you the two reasons major reasons it all fell apart. I'll call them the Buckley Blunders, because I don't need to give you a list of five, I can just give you two.

TALENT EXODUS

The biggest thing that happened on Buckley's watch in the last decade is the talent exodus. I've covered this with you before. It matters. Talent matters. It's very interesting. This is where I'm going to loop in the Doomsday. It's not lost on me as a 58-year-old man that the stars of Doomsday are in their late 40s and 50s, some in their 60s. The characters that you started off rooting for in their 30s are now in their 50s. When you see Robert Downey Jr. and you see Chris Helmsworth and Chris Evans. What you're most definitely not seeing is young Hollywood. You're not seeing Timothy Chalamet. You're not seeing Austin Butler you're not seeing Robert Pattinson you're not seeing Ana Taylor Joy. Okay, they're all in the Dune. They're all in Dune Three.

If you were to grab any of their managers or agents, they would tell you how badly Marvel has tried to obtain their services over the last couple of years. I've covered it here so many times. we've been over  and over it. It matters. Why can't Marvel get the young talent? Because the young talent does not want to appear in the Marvel movies. They have seen that the time for those movies, the heat, the passion from the fans has passed them by. So all that they can now do is bring back all your old favorites and they are your OLD favorites. If I'm an OLD favorite, they are also OLD favorites. So old favorite recognizes old favorite, okay? But what they aren't is fresh and new and young. The fresh and new and young want nothing to do with those brand of movies. “No Capes” Leo told Timmy C. Now, if those deals are announced tomorrow and they finally convince someone to cross over, great, we'll talk about it. I haven't seen any of them. The young Zendaya, that Zendaya is still young, but she was on board a decade ago with the Spider-Man movies, okay? Tom Holland feels like the last young guy they signed. Everyone else since has said, “No Mas, No Mas.”  They don't want any interest in doing this. Ironically, it's the same with the Marvel Publishing. Except you can count on Dan Buckley's watch over the last 10, 15 years, we have watched Robert Kirkman leave. Gary Frank leave. You've seen Geoff Johns leave. You've seen Brian Hitch leave. I mean, you guys, the list goes on and on. Mark Millar hasn't been back. He signed an exclusive. He's gone.

Did I say Adam Kubert? Rob Liefeld, that’s a guy I know well. He was moving some books for them, said goodbye. No thanks. “No Mas” . Marvel's talent exodus has been staggering. And and it has not been lost on the community. And a lot of the truth of what's going on in regards to the the talent that Marvel's been interacting with is known by you guys because you put in the comments. I've I see you guys talk about it on X, on Facebook, on Threads, on on on all the different social media. Before I came on today, another podcast had a retailer on. I normally try not to turn up the volume if I'm watching something in in a room that I'm sharing with my family, but said “Hey guys, can I do this? Can I hear this? I I need to hear what this retailer is saying.” The retailer said, Marvel is underperforming across the board. And the podcaster said, Really? And the retailer said, Yeah, some of our Marvel titles, we have only two subs for two subscriptions. He went on to list the title that, ten years ago, that is a top five Marvel title. Two subscribers, two people have it on their pull list. He said they are underperforming across the board. He said they seem to have no vision, they seem to have no idea of what's coming, they just keep throwing up event after event that simply does not resonate. I did a list of my favorite Star Wars comics on the on the 49th anniversary and I shared it here on my Substack.

None of them were events. Now, along the way, there was Dark Empire, there were other events that Dark Horse and Marvel have done. I don't care if it's Star Wars, Marvel, DC, I just don't go for the events. It's not where I believe the passion finds us, finds you, the fan. I believe the the writers and artists that I can speak to as one of them that always wanted to opt out. Frank Miller, Walt Simonson, these guys were not the product of building their resume via some event.

Some crossovers, you know, movement. People respond to passion, they respond to vision, they respond to a writer and an artist. along the way, a lot of a lot of bumps in the road for Marvel as they continue to lose talent. The talent exodus has been staggering. Jimmy Cheung is now drawing books for DC Comics. Steve McNiven is drawing books for DC comics. Maybe he's doing some cover still for Marvel. Olivier Coipel has been over at DC these are the guys that gave you some of the biggest event comic books of Marvel in the early 2000s, Avengers vs. X-Men or X-Men versus Avengers, whatever it was called, Siege, House of X, Civil War, they're all gone. Young Avengers, they're gone. They're still making work. They're making beautiful comics. They're just not making them for Marvel. Why? Because nobody wants to work for Marvel in their current capacity. Marvel has been on a pretty huge losing streak across the board and the industry is comfortable talking about right now, because the glaring success of absolute batman has shown everybody what is possible when you actually have your ducks in a row.

The success of Absolute Batman, the success of Image Comics, has reflected poorly back on Marvel under Buckley’s stewardship. People realize, wow, these guys do not have their act together. And so talent doesn't want to go there and attempt to flex and fail. Talent doesn't want to go there and be part of something that is going to ultimately flounder, something that is going to fail to take off. Talent that is trapped there are miserable. It feels like everything that they're announcing is kind of defeated before it gets going. And I think there's gonna be more of that. I don't believe that that this transitional period is gonna yield a whole lot. Time doesn’t really appear to be on Marvel’s side at the moment, but only time will tell how successfully they shake off the failings of all the Buckley Blunders.