Addendum/Retraction

A little over a year ago I posted a blog on this very site that made a few bold accusations in regard to Marvel Comics "borrowing" a few ideas from me. Through the magic of the interwebs and the great Jim Shooter's blog, I came in contact with Tom Brevoort, the Senior Vice President of Publishing at Marvel Comics. While Tom and Jim seem to have some "issues" to work through, Tom's posts on Jim's blog were reasonable and thoughtful, so I thought that it couldn't hurt to reach out to him to see what he had to say in regard to my contentions.

Yes, I will take the first appearance of The Punisher off your hands, Mr. Brevoort.

I fully expected to be ignored and/or swept under the rug but, amazingly, Tom took the time to respond to my accusations in a considerate, 2000+ word email that I took to heart. I believe the guy. Here are some notable excerpts from that email:

"...I can tell you absolutely, without any reservation or hesitation, that nothing entered into it outside of the ideas, conceptions and brainstorming of the creators involved." 

"Our creators are perfectly capable of coming up with the storylines themselves—they don’t need to steal ideas from other people. And if somebody walked in the door with ideas that good and the ability to execute them, we’d hire them—we’re in the business of cultivating talent, not swiping from them." 

"This all sounds very cold and clinical and down-putting I’m sure, but let me assure you, seriously, legitimately, and properly, there is no way that anybody involved in HOUSE OF M or CIVIL WAR lifted the concepts for those stories from you or what you proposed. I’m sure that this will be a difficult thing for you to accept, having lived for so long with an anger towards Marvel and these people, but it is absolutely and unequivocally the truth."

Now, I'm sure some of you out there will say, "He's just handling you, you fool! They'll do anything to avoid a messy lawsuit!" and I thought that myself at first...

...BUT...

...He didn't have to say anything at all to me. Not one single, syllable. He could have just sat back, watched his Disney stock options climb through the roof and said, "I'm not touching that mess with a 10 foot pole!" I already made it abundantly clear that I no intention of suing anyone. Even if I wanted to sue, I just don't have the resources (i.e. money) to take on the Marvel/Disney corporate giant. That's a fucking windmill I just cannot tilt. So, he could have just avoided me and my potential, legal morass altogether, added my email to the crank pile and that would have been that. In fact, I would have been more suspicious if he did do that. I would have thought he had something to hide, was afraid to say anything to me and would err on the side of caution. But I got just the opposite: 2000 or so words of truth and common sense. And I, for one, completely appreciate that time and effort. 

There's a saying that goes, "It takes a big man to admit when he is wrong." Now, I'm not saying I'm a "big man" or anything like that but I was wrong here and I can cop to that. And honestly, I'm kind of glad that I am wrong because being wrong here restores my faith in humanity...just a teeny, tiny bit.

And that's kinda cool, I think.