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We have a new JSA #1 out this week by Jeff Lemire and Diego Olortegui, embedding it into recent DC Comics continuity.
Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: jim lee, rob liefeld
What Jim Lee Would Have Done At Marvel If Returned To X-Men This Year
What Jim Lee would have done at Marvel if he had returned to X-Men this year... as was seriously being discussed.
Article Summary
- Marvel approached Jim Lee to return to X-Men after the Krakoan Age with an attractive offer.
- Jim Lee declined due to intense workload, preferring his executive role at DC Comics for more family time.
- Lee considered Marvel largely due to the upcoming Deadpool and Wolverine movie and X-Men '97 revival.
- Ultimately, Lee re-signed with DC, likely leveraging Marvel's offer for a better contract.
Back in January, Bleeding Cool reported on the Robservations podcast by Rob Liefeld, that stated that Jim Lee came close to returning to the X-Men comic books last year. And that Marvel Comics approached Jim Lee to leave DC Comics in the spring of 2023 and come to Marvel to return to draw X-Men and have Jim Lee take over the books after the Krakoan Age wraps up this year. With a very healthy offer. Which, while not something that Jim Lee took, was very handy when Lee was negotiating his current DC Comics contract.
The reason given, according to Rob Liefeld, is that he has not done much interior work since he was drawing ten pages an issue on Suicide Squad for the first seven issues with Rob Williams back in 2016. And he didn't want to commit to such as run, and the intense and laborious work and deadlines needed, at this time in his life. And that his executive career gives him family/holiday time that drawing on an artboard may not. Though Rob Liefeld believes that Jim Lee will draw the X-Men sometime in his life.
Well, recent conversations I have had confirmed much of this but put some flesh on the bones. Apparently, it was Jim Lee who made the approach to Marvel to consider his options. With the Deadpool And Wolverine movie then coming, the X-Men '97 cartoon revival based on much of Jim Lee's work, and his observation that most people were asking him to sign his X-Men comics rather than Batman, something was in the air. The discussions had revolved around Jim Lee being part of the X-Men movie franchise, working with Kevin Feige as well and working for Marvel, doing X-Men covers, short stories and the like.
It didn't happen. Jim Lee stayed and re-upped at Warner Bros as Publisher and CCO at DC Comics. One can presume that they compensated him handsomely for not making an X-Men movie with Kevin Feige, And maybe that was his plan all along, Jim Lee is the most consummate businessman in comics, and one hell of a poker player after all.
But if anyone wants to run a What If Jim Lee Had Returned To X-Men In 2024, I'd be up for reading it.
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