The Falcon and the Winter Soldieris just one more successful MCU production from Marvel Studios to grace Disney Plus' vast superhero catalog, but theWinter Soldier co-creator really wouldn’t know itfrom 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 theconcept for Bucky Barnes' Winter Soldier alter-egowhile they were both working in theCaptain Americacomics 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 ofCaptain America’s second and third films, as well the mainline series treatment inThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
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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 inThe 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 givenThe Falcon and the Winter Soldiereaster eggsor adsmake 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 thecomedian to request help directly from Netflixin 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 Soldieris exclusively available on Disney Plus.
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