10 Weirdest Controversies Surrounding Comics

In 2005 and 2006, a mysterious new writer began making waves at Marvel. Writing stories for Wolverine, Thor, and Kitty Pryde, Akira Yoshida drew on his upbringing to create exciting martial arts stories set in his homeland of Japan. Having previously worked for Tokyo-based publisher Fujimi Shobo, Yoshida was given a chance to make his name in the western world of comics. Marvel were proud that a non-Anglophone writer could achieve such success in the US, and took this chance to boast of their commitment to diversity.

And then, as suddenly as he had appeared, Akira Yoshida vanished from comics.

Rumours began to spread. What had become of this promising writer? Many Marvel editors admitted they had never met him in person, and his 'former employer' Fujimi Shobo had never even heard of him. Editor Mike Marts claimed that Yoshida had once shown him his collection of Godzilla memorabilia over lunch, but this turned out to be a completely different Japanese man that Marts somehow assumed was Yoshida.

Ten years later, the truth was finally revealed: Akira Yoshida had never existed. He was the alter-ego of C.B. Cebulski, the very much not Japanese editor-in-chief of Marvel. Cebulski had masqueraded as a Japanese man in order to get around the rule that, as an editor, he couldn't write his own stories. Not only was this shady as hell, but it was blatant appropriation. Or, as Cebulski called it on the day it was revealed, "old news that has been dealt with."

Real classy, Yoshida.