Well, holy balls, Marvel Comics has announced that they are shifting leadership and ultimately replacing Marvel Comics head Dan Buckley with Brad Winderbaum, who will now be the Head of Marvel Television, Animation, Comics, & Franchise. It likely means they are cutting out an executive role to save money, but will call it a “strategic shift.”
Buckley has been at Marvel on and off since 1990. Working as the President of Marvel Entertainment from 2017-2025, he has only been doing the Head of Marvel Comics and Franchise job since last year. He will stay on through part of 2027.
C.B. Cebulski, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, will now report to Winderbaum.
What Disney did was roll together all of Marvel under one leadership role.
Along with this change, David Adbo will move over from Disney to work as the General Manager of Comics & Franchise and will report to Winderbaum.
What did Adbo do before this job?
He was the General Manager of Disney’s Music Group. Which is nothing like Marvel Comics, but I guess they figure a general manager is a GM no matter where they go? (Something stinks about this whole thing.)
Maybe Buckley wanted to retire or do something else? Would explain his staying on for another year or so to help with transitions.
Kevin Feige gave the usual inflated comments about new people moving up, saying,
“Brad’s exceptional creative leadership and David’s deep experience in operations and digital innovation will be a powerful pairing as we begin building out the next 90 years of Marvel’s comic book legacy. Brad brings a proven ability to lead creative teams and craft ongoing, episodic narratives that resonate with our fans around the world, while David offers a strong track record of operational excellence and strategic growth. I’m excited for what they’ll be able to do together.”
At the end of their press release, Feige finally gives a statement about Buckley,
From events like Civil War, Secret Wars, X-Men: Age of Krakoa, and the soon to be released Marvel Midnight imprint, to the expansion into video games, television, animation, and more, Marvel’s influence on popular culture expanded under Dan’s leadership, bringing our characters and stories to new fans around the world. Dan has left a lasting mark on Marvel’s legacy and on the comics industry, and I’m deeply grateful to him and pleased we will have his full support through this transition.”
This, of course, brings up the question that other comics-related people and my husband have been asking for years, “Will these changes lead to the outsourcing of some Marvel Comics titles?”
We don’t know, but it seems more and more likely as Disney tries to streamline everything for maximum profit and efficiency. Marvel has been losing more and more of the comics market to DC in recent years. Maybe they are trying to change that?
Time will tell how this all plays out, but I expect more and more changes as the new CEO, Josh D’Amaro, moves forward on his plans for the company.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
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