10 Comic Book News Stories That Shocked The World‏

9. Brian Wood, The Creep

Last year it was announced that Marvel's adjective-less X-Men title was getting a reboot, thanks to writer Brian Wood and artist Olivier Coipel, and that the new mutant team would consist solely of female characters. The decision was welcomed by fans and the comic book industry as a whole, which had been dealing with a series of controversies that were uncovering the nasty misogyny that lay barely-concealed beneath comic books, the people who made them and the fans who bought them. Wood especially was praised as the guiding force behind the book's line-up, a refreshingly progressive choice by a male comic book writer. Which made the allegations that followed all the more shocking. Having begun his professional life as a designer for Rockstar Games (makers of GTA, Max Payne and the like), Wood had carved himself a path in mature comics with female-lead titles that often saw him collaborating with artists like Becky Cloonan and Rebekah Isaacs. The unfettered swooning over Wood as some kind of feminist comic book icon reached its fever pitch with X-Men, and indie comic creator Tess Fowler could hold her tongue no longer. In her first interview on the subject of the famous comics professional who had sexually harassed her at San Diego Comic Con in 2007, she kept the person's identity a secret. It was only with the raft of new publicity for Wood that she felt the need to name him. In Fowler's telling, she approached Wood at his table with some of her work and asked for feedback, since he was a creator she admired. He feigned interest in her comics, repeatedly hit on her and invited her up to his hotel room (even after she had politely declined numerous times), and afterwards bad-mouthed her and her work on his Facebook page. Fowler claimed to know three other women who had had similar experiences with Wood - and worse. Sadly such harassment is nothing new in the male-dominated industry, but the naming and shaming of Brian Wood was shocking, sad and - crucially - very big news.