History ExecutiveMeddling / ComicBooks

** Recently, it seems Sega is trying to push back the [=SatAm=] and made-for-the-comic characters to focus more on Sega's own characters, some theorizing due to a lawsuit between Archie and former writer Ken Penders.

*** Falling sales is debatable, while this was [[JerkAss Denton J. Tipton]]'s claim, his replacement Andy Schmidt later said that the drop in sales was nowhere as bad as Tipton claimed.

* Kieron Gillen, during his tenure in ''Journey into Mystery'', had {{Loki}} die to spring back to life as a new incarnation of himself, a teenaged godling without recollection of his past life and able to grow for himself a better, nicer personality. At the end of his tenure [[spoiler: Gillen had "his" Loki utterly erased from existence, and replaced by the adult, restored, Loki in the teenaged body of the new Loki]]. He then explained on his blog how such a drastic plot twist was motivated by an attempt to avert some blatant, over-the-top cases of executive meddling screwing with his vision of Loki.

***** The Bat-Man's original attitude was [[GoodIsNotNice "lawbreakers deserve whatever comes their way."]] In his debut, he threw a thug off a roof to his death and punched the mastermind through a railing into a vat of acid. Not just Batman, either. In Detective Comics #50, when Dick Grayson was about a dozen issues old, ''[[Characters/{{Batman}} Robin]]'' throws a murderous jewel thief [[DisneyVillainDeath off of a bell tower.]]

* '[=SatAM=]' ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehog'' is ''very'' different from [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog the games]], the titular character being the only perfect match between them. Unfortunately, Sega doesn't quite understand that [=SatAM=] is an AlternateContinuity, and so has caused sometimes painful Executive Meddling in the [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog Archie comic based on it]] to attempt to use it as a merchandising vehicle for the almost-completely unrelated game series.

* ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'': The original conclusion for the ''DarkPhoenixSaga'' called for Dark Phoenix being psychically lobotomized; however, then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter ordered writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne to come up with something more drastic as punishment for her crimes, and she was killed off. This is a positive example, as Jean's death is remembered as one of the most poignant and touching moments in all the MarvelUniverse.

* 'SatAM' ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehog'' is ''very'' different from [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog the games]], the titular character being the only perfect match between them. Unfortunately, Sega doesn't quite understand that [=SatAM=] is an AlternateContinuity, and so has caused sometimes painful Executive Meddling in the [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehog Archie comic based on it]] to attempt to use it as a merchandising vehicle for the almost-completely unrelated game series.

* ''[[Series/SonicTheHedgehog 'SatAM' Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' is ''very'' different from [[SonicTheHedgehog the games]], the titular character being the only perfect match between them. Unfortunately, Sega doesn't quite understand that [=SatAM=] is an AlternateContinuity, and so has caused sometimes painful Executive Meddling in the [[Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehog Archie comic based on it]] to attempt to use it as a merchandising vehicle for the almost-completely unrelated game series.

* Publishers operated under the bizarre, nonsensical idea that some comics won't last beyond a certain time despite what ''all'' sources and sales figures might say; they even considered cancelling ''2000AD'', Britain's most popular sci-fi comic and the "birthplace" of ''JudgeDredd''. Fortunately, the computer game company Rebellion bought the title, which continues to this day.

* Originally, ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' would have involved the Charlton Comics superheroes whose rights DC had acquired. They would not permit AlanMoore to do his proposed storyline with the actual Charlton characters, so instead he created [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of them. Even before TheMovie, many more comics readers will have heard of the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' characters than the Charlton originals.
** Somewhat justified in that Moore wanted to kill off [[spoiler: Peacemaker]] and [[spoiler: the Question]], whereas DC still had plans for them.
*** Moore himself has said that he agrees with DC's decision, as his story was much more effective as it was written. He was able to do more with his own characters than he could have with the Charlton characters.

* Kieron Gillen, during his tenure in ''Journey into Mystery'', had {{Loki}} die to spring back to life as a new incarnation of himself, a teenaged godling without recollection of his past life and able to grow for himself a better, nicer personality. At the end of his tenure [[spoiler: Gillen had "his" Loki utterly erased from existence, and replaced by the adult, restored, Loki in the teenaged body of the new Loki]]. He then explained on his blog how such a drastic plot twist was motivated by an attempt to avert some blatant, over-the-top cases of executive meddling screwing with his vision of Loki.

* A couple strips of ''ThePerryBibleFellowship'' have been removed because they were offensive. (Namely, a strip in which a boy gives a girl a pair if ballerina slippers and the final frame shows her in a wheelchair. Even the author admits it was rather offensive.)

** Before ''One More Day'', there was the infamous ''Clone Saga'' in 1994. It was initially supposed to be a six-month arc, but after sales were good, Marvel's marketing department forcefully stretched out the story by almost ''two years'', ending in 1997.

* ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'': The original conclusion for the ''Dark Phoenix Saga'' called for Dark Phoenix being psychically lobotomized; however, then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter ordered writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne to come up with something more drastic as punishment for her crimes, and she was killed off. This is a positive example, as Jean's death is remembered as one of the most poignant and touching moments in all the MarvelUniverse.

* In the early days of ''{{Dilbert}}'', Scott Adams was planning on adding Satan to the strip's cast. The syndicate wouldn't let him, so he ended up creating the character of Phil, Prince of Insufficient Light, the ruler of "Heck". An example of ExecutiveMeddling having good results since even Adams agrees that this was much funnier than his original plan.

** Nigel Kitching, a writer for the comic, wanted Amy to be a funny, ActionGirl who teases Sonic for [[TheGadfly kicks and giggles]]. He wanted the two to have a bond similar to the ones in early twentieth century "screwball comedies" like [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Wonderful_World_(1939_film) It's A Wonderful World]]. A director decided GirlsNeedRoleModels so Amy's personality was changed to be [[GirlsAreWiser more sensible]] and CloserToEarth than the boys. Nigel noticeably has had CreatorBacklash, saying Amy was a one-dimensional stereotype. He gave up writing her until ''SonicAdventure'', where she returned to her original persona.

** These publishers operated under the bizarre, nonsensical idea that some comics won't last beyond a certain time despite what ''all'' sources and sales figures might say; they even considered cancelling ''2000AD'', Britain's most popular sci-fi comic and the "birthplace" of ''JudgeDredd''. Fortunately, the computer game company Rebellion bought the title, which continues to this day.

** One of the comics' writers wanted Amy to be a more comical foil with her own flaws to develop upon (essentially an early version of game!Amy) however executives eventually pushed him into making her tougher and tomboyish. In the last arc of the series Nigel was able to mostly write her the way he wanted to, however it came off as almost [=OOC=] compared to the previous arcs. Said change has been mostly polarizing.

** One of the comics' writers wanted Amy to be a more comical foil with her own flaws to develop upon (essentially an early version of game!Amy) however executives eventually pushed him into making her tougher and tomboyish. In the last arc of the series Nigel was able to mostly write her the way he wanted to, however it came off as almost [=OOC=] compared to the previous arcs. To fans this change was a good thing, making her the [[BadassAdorable polar opposite]] of her other depictions in other series.
*** Actually, the fans' reaction to Amy's executive meddling-induced change was polarized. Many thought Amy developed into a pretty bland and personality-free character whose only reason for being in the title was fighting baddies along Sonic and the rest of the Freedom Fighters.

* Bob Budiansky, original writer of the Marvel ''{{Transformers}}'' comic book, was continually forced by Hasbro to introduce new characters during his run, causing him to burn out as the quality of the stories took a nosedive. Eventually, a burnt out Budiansky passed the writing duties on to Marvel U.K.'s Transformers writer Simon Furman, who brought to the American title the pseudo-religious/supernatural themes such as Primus, and Unicron being a dark god (the original cartoon version was just something a MadScientist apparently whipped up for no discernible reason.)

** The meddling has continued with [[Batgirl2009 Bryan Q. Miller's]] {{Smallville}} Season 11, with previews indicating Stephanie Brown would show up as Batman's partner Nightwing. Editorial intervened and had it changed to Barbara Gordon.

* Originally, ''{{Watchmen}}'' would have involved the Charlton Comics superheroes whose rights DC had acquired. They would not permit AlanMoore to do his proposed storyline with the actual Charlton characters, so instead he created [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of them. Even before TheMovie, many more comics readers will have heard of the ''{{Watchmen}}'' characters than the Charlton originals.

*** It may have been bad for comics but it was better for them than being shut down altogether. The Code was a preemptive action taken by Execs to self police their industry because they knew they were about to be shut down completely thanks to a public outcry led by Wertham and McCarthy. Ultimately, the meddling performed by the execs was a good thing here.

** Along those same lines, GailSimone has confirmed that her "Death Of Oracle" storyline in ''BirdsOfPrey'' was supposed to lead to Cassandra adopting a new identity and joining the team (partly to offset complaints about the MonochromeCasting in the series). She claims she even began writing Cass' debut issue before being told that Cassandra's return would instead be handled in GrantMorrison's ''[[GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman Inc.]]'' title.

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** Kyle Rayner fans ultimately got theirs, when the makers of the ''JusticeLeague'' cartoon omitted Kyle from the show in favor of John Stewart. This move pretty much united the fandoms against John Stewart.

** The last issue of the comic's ''[=EndGame=]'' story arc was intended to be a 40-page extravaganza, with a different ending which left Sally (who was dropped from a tall building by a Freedom Fighter tricked into wearing a Sonic costume and taking out what she ''thought'' was one of the gang's mortal enemies) stone dead. However, fan reaction to Sally's fate and Sega's push for using her as a marketing device forced the story to be cut down to the normal 27 pages, and changed Sally's death into a coma. The re-release of the arc in the ''Super Special'' anthology rectified most of these problems. Of course, then Sally's {{Chickification}} came along, later followed by her becoming a CreatorsPet, both of which may very well be considered a FateWorseThanDeath.

* The British ''Sonic'' book, ''SonicTheComic'', was brought to cancellation because of Executive Meddling: the publishers did not have faith that the book would continue its popularity, despite selling more than ''2000AD'' at one point, and began decreasing the budget and demanding that there only be one new story per issue, the others being reprints of older stories. Then the comic became 100% reprint, the cover illustrations being just about the only new thing in them, until finally, the comic was axed completely.

** Another casualty of executive meddling (along with writer issues) was the identity of the Hobgoblin. They did, eventually, reveal the Hobgoblin to be the person who the original writer had intended all along. ([[spoiler: Roderick Kingsley]]) Of course, recently they wanted a new Hobgoblin...

** One reason that Furman could introduce the "pseudo-religious" themes were the distinct ''lack'' of meddling on the UK title. As long as he didn't directly contradict the US stories, he could write pretty much whatever he wanted. There was one time time early on where Hasbro wanted the UK book to promote the Special Teams when the toys came out in stores, even though the US reprints had not yet reached the story where they were introduced. So Furman wrote a story which basically involves the Autobots looking into the future and seeing these new Transformers in action.

** The biggest example of this may be that Didio and the editorial staff had complete control over the storyline for ''Countdown to Final Crisis'' specifically because Didio hated everything about DC's previous weekly series, ''52''. Of course, many comic fans liked ''52'', while '' Countdown'' was universally loathed.
*** According to an interview with Mark Waid, Didio declared ''Countdown'' to be "''52'' done right." His tastes obviously differ from the fanbase's.
**** Though it has been said that by 'done right', Didio was referring to the fact that ''Countdown'' told the story it was supposed to, while ''52'' quickly went off in a completely difference direction, hence forcing DC to create a side-miniseries to do what ''52'' was technically supposed to do (explain the changes that had happened to the DC universe during that one year period). Granted, Didio and the editors backed off that statement and let much of Countdown be erased from continuity because of how loathed it became. (Grant Morrison, who wrote the main storyline of ''Final Crisis'' itself, stated that he completely ignored ''Countdown''.) Still, it can be argued Didio's frustration over 52 came from knowing that, despite how good a story it was, it wouldn't stop the millions of letters he'd get screaming "Why is Robin's costume different? How did Donna Troy become Wonder Woman? Dammit, DC, you were supposed to TELL US THESE THINGS!!!" (And yes, [[UnpleasableFanbase those letters would have come if not for World War III]])

** Not mention the Comics Code Authority - perhaps the most {{egregious}} example of ExecutiveMeddling coming into play, which pretty much [[HarmlessVillain robbed Joker of any overtly murderous tendencies.]]

*** An even stronger example is Batman himself. In some early issues of ''Detective Comics'', Batman himself would shoot criminals to death on a regular basis, until DC editorial director Whit Ellsworth asked the writers to tone it down and [[LighterAndSofter make it kid-friendly]]. This sounds incredibly jarring to modern audiences because ThouShaltNotKill has been Batman's defining moral principle for so long, rendering this early facet of his character almost unbelievable.
***** Let's not forget that Batman killed a Russian gangster in those early, pulp fiction days. And I quote, "There is a sickening snap as the Cossack's neck breaks under the mighty pressure of The Batman's foot." The picture is easy enough to find if you do a quick image search on any decent search engine.
****** The Bat-Man's original attitude was [[GoodIsNotNice "lawbreakers deserve whatever comes their way."]] In his debut, he threw a thug off a roof to his death and punched the mastermind through a railing into a vat of acid. Not just Batman, either. In Detective Comics #50, when Dick Grayson was about a dozen issues old, ''[[Characters/{{Batman}} Robin]]'' throws a murderous jewel thief [[DisneyVillainDeath off of a bell tower.]]

** Writer ScottSnyder has since mentioned that Cassandra was present in his script for the first issue of the ''{{New 52}}'' ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' title, but at the last minute his editors forced him to write her out since canonically, she was still supposed to be living in HongKong. He was also barred from using Cassandra and [[Comicbook/{{Batgirl2009}} Stephanie Brown]] in his ''Night of Owls'' BatFamilyCrossover, making them very notable absentees in an event that involved literally every Bat-book being published at the time except ''Batwoman''.

**** Though it has been said that by 'done right', Didio was referring to the fact that ''Countdown'' told the story it was supposed to, while ''52'' quickly went off in a completely difference direction, hence forcing DC to create a side-miniseries to do what ''52'' was technically supposed to do (explain the changes that had happened to the DC universe during that one year period). Granted, Didio and the editors backed off that statement and let much of Countdown be erased from continuity because of how loathed it became. Still, it can be argued Didio's frustration over 52 came from knowing that, despite how good a story it was, it wouldn't stop the millions of letters he'd get screaming "Why is Robin's costume different? How did Donna Troy become Wonder Woman? Dammit, DC, you were supposed to TELL US THESE THINGS!!!" (And yes, [[UnpleasableFanbase those letters would have come if not for World War III]])

* The ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}'' storyarc "OneMoreDay", in which Spider-Man's entire history for the last twenty years has been [[RetCon Retconned out of existence]] after a DealWithTheDevil, seems to have been written almost entirely on the direction of Editor-In-Chief JoeQuesada for the sole reason of removing Spider-Man's marriage to long-time love interest Mary Jane Watson from continuity, thus prompting a healthy debate ([[SeriousBusiness to say the least]]) amongst fans questioning not only whether this plot development was necessary, but also whether a method of staging it which was less convoluted, ridiculous and both out of character and at odds with the overall tone of the series could have been devised. Writer JMichaelStraczynski agreed with the general idea and had been part of the planning process, but he and Quesada fought fiercely on the execution; when Quesada eventually vetoed him, Straczynski wanted his name out of the credits.