Though former Topps employee Adam Levine recently came under fire for what appeared to be an unprompted death wish on comic creator Rob Liefeld, new developments reveal that Levine was quoting a podcast that has since deleted their original upload.
Bounding Into Comics originally reported that Levine wished Liefeld “had died instead of Chadwick Boseman”, but after the initial report was published, several individuals reached out with further information surrounding Levine and the statement.
Foremost was the subject of Levine’s employment, as it was clarified that he does not work directly for Topps, as incorrectly identified by an industry publication, but rather as a free-lance consultant for SideKick Trading Cards, a licensee of Topps.
Levine was also not the original ‘author’ of the statement but was instead quoting an attempt at humor made by the hosts of The Weekly Planet Podcast in their latest episode, “Rest In Power, Chadwick Boseman”.
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After Levine’s statement was brought to public attention, The Weekly Planet deleted, edited, and re-uploaded the episode in question to remove the comment about Liefeld.
However, despite the attempt to erase the statement from the record, a reference to it still exists in the edited version of the podcast, as at around 13:20, one of the hosts notes that he “still has Rob Liefeld on his side.”:
As of writing, The Weekly Planet crew has neither commented on the issue, taken responsibility for the statement, or issued an apology to either Levine or Liefeld.
Although it currently appears as if Levine was thrown under the bus by The Weekly Planet, Levine would later issue a pair of apologies for the quote.
In an initial Facebook post, Levine simply stated that he was “Sorry for this Rob Liefeld nonsense,” as he “certainly never meant any harm to anyone, not by it.”
Levine would later provide a full apology for the original post to Bleeding Cool that read, “Early this week, I posted a joke to Facebook that I had heard on a popular comic book podcast, that I regret. My post was hurtful and offensive and for this I am truly, deeply sorry. I will make sure to be more sensitive on Facebook in the future.”
After these apologies were published, Liefeld himself would take to his personal Facebook page announced that he had “removed all negative content on my page” and that “by every account I can measure, I live a blessed life” before wishing his followers a happy Labor Day Weekend.
What do you make of these developments? Is The Weekly Planet using Levine as a scapegoat? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!