The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is just one more successful MCU production from Marvel Studios to grace Disney Plus' vast superhero catalog, but the Winter Soldier co-creator really wouldn’t know it from looking at his bank account. Although comic book writer Ed Brubaker has previously expressed his frustrations over the show’s existence, four episodes have done little to take that bitter feeling away.
Brubaker and fellow artist Steve Epting came up with the concept for Bucky Barnes' Winter Soldier alter-ego while they were both working in the Captain America comics in 2005, deciding to bring back a superpowered version of Barnes as Cap’s latest antagonist. The brilliant decision was well received by comic book readers, so much so that Marvel Studios decided to turn the Winter Soldier into the main focus of Captain America's second and third films, as well the mainline series treatment in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
During a recent appearance on Kevin Smith’s Fatman Beyond podcast, Brubaker elaborated on his side of the story in a way that couldn’t simply be captured by the fan newsletter he sent out before. Most shockingly, Brubaker claimed to have received more money in the form of residual compensations from the Screen Actors Guild for a brief two-second cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, despite not even getting a proper invite to the movie’s premiere and the film afterparty event, overall compounding to what he called a “Jack Kirby ulcer growing in my stomach.”
Per the writer’s own words, the closest Marvel Studios has come to upgrading his past compensation was offering him a check for a “Thank You” credit in The Winter Soldier, an amount that was so tiny he considered it an insult. Brubaker’s statements are a far call from the more calmed and accepting behavior he expressed in writing, which seems understandable given The Falcon and the Winter Soldier easter eggs or ads make him “sick to [his] stomach.”
While even Brubaker recognized the nature of the contractual work comic book artists do, he also highlighted that Marvel isn’t really tied down to keep him completely shunned from better compensation for creating the Winter Soldier. He even used Dave Chappelle as an example of this, whose terrible contract with Comedy Central over Chappelle’s Show caused the comedian to request help directly from Netflix in order to procure himself a better deal, something the streaming giant had no problems facilitating to let Chappelle know it had his back.
While few would argue artists like Brubaker deserve to cash in fully on the fruits of their work years later, it would seem the least big companies could do is honor them with some form of financial compensation so they wouldn’t feel so wronged by them. As Brubaker says, artists like him shouldn’t really have to worry about what will happen to their families once they’re gone.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is exclusively available on Disney Plus.
Source: Kevin Smith|YouTube