8. Marvel Renamed X-Force To Stop Rob Liefeld Getting Royalties
The early noughties were a time of transition for Marvel Comics. Struggling to find their way out of bankruptcy, the company had been trying everything they could to try and make money, including licensing their characters to anybody who asked (why else do you think the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie got made?) and constantly relaunching titles in an effort to keep things fresh, new and attractive to new readers. This included, in 2002, a revamp of the series X-Force, Cable and Deadpool, which were each also renamed X-Statix, X-Soldier and Agent X, respectively. Makes sense, right? The titles hadn't been posting great sales under their old names and intimidating issue numbers, so trying out a new moniker and taking them back to #1 was a foolproof way of boosting profits. Or was their intention altogether more sinister...? Following the relaunch there was a conspiracy theory floating around that the real reasoning behind renaming the comics was so that artist Rob Liefeld, who had a hand in creating all three comics, would stop getting extravagant royalty cheques from the financially flagging company. Fun as it is to rag on The Rob, this particular urban legend was revealed to be just that. Ignoring that any supposed contract Marvel had with Liefeld would have remained valid regardless of a title change, there's the more obvious fact that no such contract existed, and the pouch-obsessed artist hadn't received any royalties from Marvel in years. Besides, the re-titling didn't boost sales at all, and everything went back to normal within a few months.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
