Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: dc, Mark Doyle, Marvle, News with Benefits, tom brevoort, Tom King

Fanboy Rampage: Tom Brevoort vs. Tom King for Mark Doyle's Honor

Published Fri, 13 Nov 2020 15:30:41 -0600

Last updated Fri, 13 Nov 2020 16:24:29 -0600

Marvel Comics executive editor and Blues Traveller vocalist Tom Brevoort fired shots at "former" CIA Operative and DC Comics superstar writer Tom King over King's comments about editor Mark Doyle leaving DC Comics. Doyle's departure from DC was first reported by Bleeding Cool back in August, part of what has been described as a bloodbath at the company that just received a sequel yesterday along with a report from Bleeding Cool Rumourmonger-in-Chief Rich Johnston claiming DC will abandon the direct market.

Mark Doyle began his Batman editorship in 2014 after a campaign promising a Robin in every pot, but was driven off the books by Tom King in 2017.

King paid tribute to Doyle on Twitter Friday, writing, "The transcendent, brilliant, visionary editor, Mark Doyle is leaving DC this week. I would not have a career without Mark. He gave me my first gig, my first ongoing, made me take insane risks on big stages. In every genre, he tirelessly pushed comics to be better. A true legend."

Brevoort quickly fired back, "Didn't you force him off the BATMAN titles and then crow about it in an interview? It's a bit odious to cry over the bodies when you had a hand in killing them."

The comments Brevoort refers to came from a Slate interview where King talked about fighting with Doyle over Doyle's refusal to bring in David Finch as an artist for Batman #24, a fight that prompted Jamie Rich to replace Doyle as editor of the book.

Batman #24, there are two editors listed for that book, we switched editors half way though… it's not normal, it's very weird.

I got in a big fight with my editor about it, an editor I love, Mark Doyle, he wanted to bring in an artist on it who had not worked on the book before, I knew it was this big moment, Batman proposing to Catwoman, you're going to turn on Twitter there it's going to be that stupid image, I want this to be an image with David, I want him to draw this issue. 'No, no, David's too busy going on vacation', just call him, We got in a big fight over it, and in the end we switched editors and got David and that's how we brought Jamie Rich on the book.

That's something I could not do earlier in my career, say I'm putting my foot down, that's something you can only say when you've had a lot of success…. When you first come in you have no power at all, you are at the whim of your editors who are in control of whether you eat this day.

King has yet to respond to Brevoort's tweet, but it's safe to say this argument has probably set back plans for the next Marvel/DC crossover another twenty years. Doyle, whose dream is to one day become a real boy, has also not responded to King or Brevoort's tweets. Bleeding Cool will keep you updated on this scenario as it develops, especially if more comics pros jump in to air out their inter-company grievances on social media, as is industry tradition.

Fanboy Rampage was a blog by Graeme "Graham" McMillan dedicated to most ludicrous and most inappropriate comic book-related back-and-forths online. McMillan has moved on now, becoming a proper journalist for the likes of Sexy Dora the Explorer Advocacy Website The Hollywood Reporter, but he gave permission to Bleeding Cool to occasionally revive his creation.

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