By [ad_1]
Hawkeye artist David Aja says Marvel Studios should better compensate comic book creators for adaptations of their work.
Hawkeye artist David Aja was not shy about calling out Marvel Studios’ track record of improperly compensating creatives.
Over the weekend, Marvel unveiled the poster for the upcoming Hawkeye series, featuring Clint Barton, Kate Bishop, and Lucky the Pizza Dog in front of a down-facing arrow with a purple-tinted cityscape inside of it. The area around the scene is all white, and the logo is identical to the one from the comics by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth. The tableau itself also mirrors the cover of Hawkeye #6 by the team, as a fan pointed out on Twitter with a side-by-side comparison. But the user only mentioned Fraction’s name when discussing how much it mirrors the comic run that the show will pull much of its story and imagery from.
Nightwing writer Bruno Redondo replied to the post, asking people to not just credit writers but artists as well, tagging Aja and pointing out that it’s his art that the poster is based on. Aja then weighed in, writing, “Even better: Stop crediting, start paying, haha.”
Even better: Stop crediting, start paying, haha.
— David Aja (@davaja) October 25, 2021
The original tweeter then replied with an apology to Aja and agreed that Marvel Studios should properly pay the artists and writers whose work has been used to build out the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And this issue is nothing new, as many former comic book creatives have discussed in the past.
It was recently revealed that Marvel pays creators $5,000 when adapting their work, regardless of the millions and sometimes billions that the projects can earn. Ed Brubaker, whose work on Captain America largely inspired the MCU’s version of Bucky Barnes, said he’s made more for his cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier than from his work being adapted into a hugely successful film — not to mention the Falcon and the Winter Soldier series.
Hawkeye will clearly borrow heavily from the work of Fraction and Aja. Aside from the visual elements, numerous characters from the run, like Lucky, the Tracksuit Draculas, and the Clown, will feature in the series. And star Jeremy Renner confirmed Clint will have a hearing aid in the show, a major component of the comic book story.
As Disney and Marvel negotiate issues surrounding streaming payments for actors, it may be time for the companies to reexamine how comic book writers and artists are compensated.
Hawkeye arrives Nov. 24 on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere.
About The Author
[ad_2]
