Like many a Western comic book fan and creator, veteran industry talent Jim Starlin is fed up with Marvel Studios’ refusal to treat the men and women who came up with the characters they’re milking with any amount of respect – especially after having seen how DC Studios has apparently bucked that trend with The Flash.
The man who created such Marvel characters as Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, and Shang-Chi, voiced his opinion on the topic on June 11th following a viewing of the Scarlet Speedster’s forthcoming solo film.
“Was really surprised by how much I liked the new Flash movie!” beamed Starlin. “One terrific flick.”
Ending his post with a dig at Marvel Studios, the writer of DC’s A Death in the Family storyline added, “I was especially pleased to see the creators of the Flash acknowledged early in the end credits instead of way after the caterers and so many others. Wish the Marvel movies would do the same.”
Of course, Starlin’s frustrations are more than justified, as Marvel Studios’ treatment of those who penned and illustrated its source materials has been historically and notoriously disrespectful.
For example, in Avengers: Endgame – which not only focuses on a core cast of characters he created, but is also heavily inspired by his seminal The Infinity Gauntlet storyline – Starlin, along with the other Marvel creators whose creations appeared in the film, is not listed in the film’s final credits until roughly a minute into their runtime, right after Marvel Studios’ security team.
This trend has continued up through their Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, wherein the contributions of such creators as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber, and Ernie Hart are not highlighted in its end cards, but rather likewise buried within its final credits.
Said visual end cards instead simply declare that Ant-Man’s latest adventure was “Based on the Marvel Comics”.
And though the exact details of how The Flash treat the creators of Barry Allen, writer Robert Kanigher and artist Carmine Infantino, DC Studios’ most recent release shows that this ‘credit burial’ is slowly beginning to fall out of fashion.
As seen in the end cards of last year’s Black Adam, original Captain Marvel creators Bill Parker and C.C. Beck are credited right in between the film’s executive producers and its director of photography (However, it should be noted that the specific writer who conceived of Teth Adam, Otto Binder, is not credited until the ‘Special Thanks’ section of the credits’ conclusion).
The Flash is set to finally cross its theatrical finish line on June 16th.
NEXT: ‘The Flash’ Review: An Unfunny, CGI Monstrosity Of A Superhero Film