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Thanos creator Jim Starlin has falling out with Marvel over story dispute

By Wade Sheridan
Marvel villain Thanos as seen in the trailer for "Avengers: Infinity War." The creator of Thanos Jim Starlin has had a falling out with Marvel's comic book division. Image courtesy of Marvel/YouTube
Marvel villain Thanos as seen in the trailer for "Avengers: Infinity War." The creator of Thanos Jim Starlin has had a falling out with Marvel's comic book division. Image courtesy of Marvel/YouTube

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Jim Starlin, the creator of Marvel villain Thanos, has seemingly cut ties with the company's comic book division after clashing with an editor.

Starlin voiced his frustrations with working with Marvel in a Facebook comment posted recently as the company prepares to release the writer's new graphic novel, Thanos: The Infinity Siblings in February.

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"Just to set the record straight, Marvel Comics didn't pull me off any books, they just made it clear they weren't interested in using me on any of the tie-in series to the movies or regular series. Even though I lobbied heavily to write the Thanos on-going that task was twice given to other writers, which is Marvel Editorial's right to do," Starlin said in the comments section on Facebook to an article he shared about being taken away from Thanos.

"What I objected to and what will be keep me from doing any further work for Marvel Editorial was Tom Brevoort approving a plot for the current on-going series, which was pretty much the same as the Thanos story arc in the graphic novel trilogy Alan Davis and I have been working on for Tom for close to the past year," he continued about how a Thanos on-going series has a similar storyline to his planned graphic novel series.

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"The on-going will be in print before the graphic novel trilogy. To avoid spoiling anyone's enjoyment of these two stories I will not be summarizing the striking similarities," Starlin said before referring to Brevoort.

"At first Tom denied giving his approval to the plot. When that turned out to be false, he switched to claiming there was nothing similar about the two plots. When that didn't fly he changed his story to it was all an accident. These changes of excuse and other bits of procrastination ate up a month, by which time the current Thanos on-going art team was too far along for anything to be done about the situation. Too bad for me. So I am moving on," the 68-year-old said.

"And, yes, Marvel Entertainment has treated me very well and generously. Them I like."

Starlin's Thanos will be featured heavily in Marvel Entertainment's next Avengers film titled Infinity War, with the all-powerful character arriving on earth to do battle with the company's top heroes as seen in the film's first trailer.

Thanos' arrival on earth and battle with the Avengers has been teased throughout Marvel's cinematic universe with the villain appearing in a handful of end-credits scenes and in Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon defended Starlin on Twitter in a response to a tweet sent out by comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz who said Starlin "deserves to be treated fairly, respectfully, across the creative board."

"His work is as important to the MCU as anyone's," Whedon said, referring to the Marvel cinematic universe.

On Facebook Wednesday, Starlin said that his Thanos Infinity Siblings trilogy will still be published.

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