Liefeld (himself a controversial figure in the comics world) aired out his grievances in a recent episode of his podcast and a follow-up interview with The Hollywood Reporter. He says that though he got to attend the premiere of 2024’s biggest film Deadpool & Wolverine, he was denied an invitation to the afterparty, and Marvel brass—including top boss Kevin Feige—didn’t even acknowledge him at the event. He even claims that photos of him with the Deadpool & Wolverine creative team were deleted.
Liefeld seems to have enjoyed a better relationship with 20th Century Studios before Fox got absorbed into the Disney (and therefore Marvel) machine. He thinks the icy treatment from Feige and Marvel Studios stemmed from an email he wrote asking for a more prominent credit in the Deadpool movie and other possible opportunities to be involved (he apparently did not ask for more money, it should be noted). “Marvel’s treatment of creators has never been their strength. Without the worlds, the characters and the concepts that we create — and in this specific case, the world of Deadpool — there are no films to shoot. No blockbusters to distribute. … I am not the easy button at Staples. I am the human imagination behind it all,” he wrote in the email (per THR). “Comic book creators cannot continue to be relegated as afterthoughts. This is easy to address. Unless I reach out to address it, it will never manifest.”
After sending the email, Liefeld says not only did it go unanswered, but also that his agents got an angry call from Marvel saying “We are NOT Fox!” Though his name appeared as an Easter egg in Deadpool & Wolverine and he was invited to check out the set while it was filming, he says he felt “unwelcome” during the visit. Ultimately, this treatment seems to have contributed to his decision to stop working with Marvel altogether; he will no longer work on comics for the publisher, with whom he had been working for more than 30 years. He felt it was “important” to share what happened on his podcast, though the experience made him “sad.” He told his listeners, “Kevin Feige does not treat comic book creators well. That is my personal experience.”
