10 Amazing Comic Storylines Derailed By Editorial Politics
5. Heroes Reborn
In a move that shocked the industry and was, as one editor described, catastrophic to morale for those still working at the company, Marvel killed off the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom and a host of other characters as part of the Onslaught event in 1996, and relaunched the The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Captain America. But this wouldn''t be just another reboot. Marvel relinquished control of its characters and paid millions to the California studios of Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld two artists that had defected from the company to form Image a few years earlier to create these core titles, while other long-time Marvel creators were unceremoniously kicked to the curb.
The editorial decision was met with harsh criticism from those within the industry and outside of it. Writer Kurt Busiek told a newspaper, The Marvel reader is essentially being told that Marvel's long-term history is more or less irrelevant. It's secondary to what will make the character more popular and what will make the company more money. And even though the controversial decision was fiscally motivated, in some instances, Heroes Reborn didn't even help sales.
In one instance, the successful Mark Waid/Ron Garney run on Captain America was cut short in favor of Liefeld's re-imagining of the character (with a laughably disproportion chest), and sales actually went down on the book.
A year later, Marvel ended its experiment and reintroduced all the heroes under the banner, Heroes Return.