A Memorium in Four Colours – Jim Shooter
This week we say goodbye to a true, true titan of comics history, as Jim Shooter pulls his chair up to the great writing, editing desk in the sky. Normally, when I have been doing these obituaries, I have passed over divisive elements of people’s careers. I don’t believe Shooter set out to be divisive in his distinguished career; he made decisions based on his love for comics. So the good, the bad and the ugly will remain this time and don’t think Shooter would have had it any other way. Living on the other side of the pond from all the big comics news, I discover things in different ways. On the morning of July 1st, I woke to an Instagram post from Marc Bernardin showing the cover to Secret Wars #4. Was he just posting a favourite cover or an image related to some movie news? As I scrolled to the caption, I was greeted with the shocking news of Jim Shooter’s passing. Secret Wars was a subject that came up a lot that day, but it is a mere ripple in a truly outstanding career.
Has anyone ever started their career at DC in such unique circumstances and then gone on to be so revolutionary at Marvel in a completely different capacity? When Jim Shooter was writing comics for DC at age 14, he was living all of our dreams. His age gave DC an insight into the reading habits of their rivals Marvel. He created such characters as Karate Kid and Ferro Lad, which tapped into this kind of thinking and breathed new life into The Legion of Superheroes. If you were to just critique Shooter in his creative career, love him or hate him, you can not deny it is an impressive catalogue of work. As well as writing both Action and Adventure comics at that age, he also boasts a healthy body of Superman work, not only on the main title, but also Superboy, Jimmy Olsen and Worlds Finest. He created the Superman villain Parasite, who has appeared in live-action and animated series many times. He was also the first to pen the idea of Superman and Flash having a race. Again, this is something that made its way onto the big screen with its inclusion as a post-credits scene being the one highlight of the ‘Whedon Cut’ of the Justice League movie. Over at Marvel, as I said, Secret Wars is perhaps the Jewel in the Crown. A 12-issue series he conceived as editor and penned himself. Within this series he created The Beyonder, Titania, Volcana and the second Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter. On a personal level, it’s not a series I fully got to grips with as a whole. But it is jam-packed with great moments. There are moments that are still talked about today as brilliant, like Hulk holding up a mountain or Doom defeating Galactus. Then there are the moments that reflect his career, moments that divided opinion like Spider-Man single-handedly defeating the X-Men. Sticking on the personal track, he does have a nice little nine-issue run on Daredevil, which includes two entertaining done-in-one issue fights with Bullseye as well as introducing Paladin in #150, who would go on to have something of a cult following. I recently read the Korvac Saga and found it a very interesting read. There are so many characters involved, but it never feels muddled at all and weaves a story where the smaller moments shine through and spotlight the Avengers and the team dynamic in different ways than you would expect compared to today’s era of event comics. For every two highs comes one bad low. Secret Wars 2 couldn’t live up to the hype of its predecessor. Then came the fabled New Universe. Again, this is a negative that came out of a positive. There was talk within the House of Ideas that Marvel should start every title again from day one. Shooter was involved in this pitch, but for whatever reason, it never came to fruition. Later, the idea was floated again and not to miss an opportunity and keep the precious 616 intact, he came up with the New Universe. All the series within The New Universe were far from being hits. However, they did have a lot of top talent working on them, another sign of Shooter’s dedication to the cause of making good comics. However, they now all have some mythical status amongst the fans and are continually picked out of bargain long boxes for pure enjoyment. I myself am very much drawn to Marc Hazzard: Merc.
In his time at Marvel Comics, as Editor in Chief, he oversaw an era of dominance over the Distinguished Competition. He oversaw an era that inspired the next generation of creators and entertained many, many more. An era that saw stories that still stand the test of time and are dredged for big screen use time and time again. In his time the hits far outweigh the misses. Rob Liefeld called him the most important Editor in Chief since Stan Lee. His reign, though many may call it a reign of terror, oversaw such classic runs like Claremont and Byrne on X-Men, Frank Miller’s Daredevil, Byrne’s Fantastic Four and Walt Simonson’s Thor. History may say these runs could have grown and gone in all new, bolder directions without his editorial input, but it’s worth remembering that he was bold enough to take the decisions to put these creators on the board in the first place. He allowed the deaths of Elektra and Jean Grey. Byrne and Simonson were very experimental in their forms of storytelling in their respective titles, and he let them do it. And while Claremont might not have agreed with his ideas to expand the X-universe. His business head saw the possibilities of cashing in on Marvel’s most popular series and pushed into production X-Factor, New Mutants and Wolverine, to name a few. Personally, I think Marvel is healthier for it. While he may leave behind a track record of equal parts hits and misses. I didn’t even touch on Valiant, but everything went sour in the 90’s so he can’t be held responsible for that! His career is a tale of fast rising and thinking with initiative beyond the norm. There are tales of broken promises and broken friendships. But he did it all for his love of comics.
Jim Shooter leaves behind a legacy the likes of which we will never see again in comics. A story like his is well worth a deeper dive if you know nothing about him or think you know everything. A character as colourful as the ones he manipulated around the page. There is an MCU movie with Secret Wars in the title. Since his 1984 magnum opus there have been a handful of Marvel series to homage the title. It would only be fitting if in the movie itself or the credits, he was rightly recognised in a big way. There is no doubt this would rub some people up the wrong way, but it is fully deserved, and he would like the spotlight one last time.
My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.
