History ExecutiveMeddling / ComicBooks

* Creator/MarkMillar and DC butted heads during his run on ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' as DC kept insisting and editing or changing things to tone down what he wanted to do, reaching its nadir during the "Brave New World" arc, which was sidetracked with the "Transfer of Power" -- and when Millar got the book back, it was after 9/11, so DC now had grounds to force these changes. That said, a lot of the problems are the result of Millar himself as he wasn't easy to work with and a lot of the stuff he wanted to do were arguably tasteless including the Colonel, an analogue of the late Jenny Sparks, engaging in necrophilia with her corpse and the brainwashed and turned into a SexSlave Swift having her mouth used as an ashtray in a sexual manner.[[note]]There's also the fact he wanted to clearly show UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush as part of the coalition to take out the Authority, but this definitely would've been tasteless post 9/11; while Millar had Magneto humiliate Bush in a degerading manner happened in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'', that was also ''before'' 9/11 happened[[/note]]

* Creator/MarkMillar and DC butted heads during his run on ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' as DC kept insisting and editing or changing things to tone down what he wanted to do, reaching its nadir during the "Brave New World" arc, which was sidetracked with the "Transfer of Power" -- and when Millar got the book back, it was after 9/11, so DC now had grounds to force these changes. That said, a lot of the problems are the result of Millar himself as he wasn't easy to work with and a lot of the stuff he wanted to do were arguably tasteless including the Colonel, an analogue of the late Jenny Sparks, engaging in necrophilia with her corpse and the brainwashed and turned into a SexSlave Swift having her mouth used as an ashtray in a sexual manner.[[note]]There's also the fact he wanted to clearly show UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush as part of the coalition to take out the Authority, but this definitely would've been tasteless post 9/11, unless having Magneto humiliate Bush in ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' was before 9/11 happened[[/note]]

** The original conclusion for ''ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga'' called for Dark Phoenix being psychically lobotomized; however, then-Editor-in-Chief Creator/JimShooter ordered writer Creator/ChrisClaremont and artist Creator/JohnByrne to come up with something more drastic as punishment for her crimes, and she was killed off.

** ''War Games'' was created after someone high in DC's editing department requested a story that would end with Stephanie Brown's death. Then-''Batgirl'' writer Dylan Horrocks opposed the story considerably and refused to have anything to do with it, save having Step guest star during her time as Robin.

** Amongst the other comics they ''did'' cancel at around the same time was ''Series/RedDwarf Smegazine'', which was canceled just at the point when a sales spike from the 1993 series might have been expected. In an example of TropesAreNotBad, this ended up being the right move, as the 4, 2, and 10 year gaps between each of the next series would likely have killed it off anyways.

* The short-lived 70s book ''Champions'' was pitched as a book involving leftover X-Men Angel and Iceman having adventures in Los Angeles. However, a mandate by Len Wein that the team had to have at least five members and "[[TheBigGuy One must be super-strong,]] [[TheChick one must be female,]] and [[WolverinePublicity at least one must have his own comic.]]" This led to the book also having Hercules, Black Widow, and Ghost Rider on its roster - needless to say, not an especially focused lineup.

* ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1987}}'': Editorial mandated that Artemis Goddess of the Hunt couldn't appear in the book after ComicBook/{{Artemis}} of Bana-Mighdall became a supporting character. They thought readers would be too confused by two (very different characters) with the same name.

** The ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'' has a long and complicated history, but the short version is that high sales of the initial issues lead to the marketing department forcibly extended it from its six-month arc to last for two years. Tons of changes were also made to the story during development time by various people outside of the creative team, leading to certain aspects like Judas Traveller that nobody on staff fully understood or knew what to do with.

** The legal case between Archie and Penders. It was said that everything made for the Archie comic was now property of Sega. That meant characters, concepts, etc. Back in the early '90s, it was obvious no one minded the house at Archie and when Penders caught on about 15 years later, he quickly copyrighted his characters, which lead to the lawsuits. The problem here was that the lawsuits put Archie in a bind - Sega was adamant that those characters were theirs and if Penders won, then it would go against the mandate and threaten the comic. To save face, all of Penders' characters and concepts (and later, all of those not made by Flynn) were dumped and Penders was given a mandate to cut off all of his characters from everything Sonic, which lead to the ContinuityReboot that was ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide''.
** According to conversations with Ian Flynn, one of the big mandates was that the video game characters couldn't have relatives. This would initially lead to Sonic and Tails being unable to call their parents by those familiar titles and Eggman's connection to Snively downplayed. When the CosmicRetcon hit, Uncle Chuck was (apparently) no longer Sonic's uncle ([[HonoraryUncle with the name being just an endearing title to the scientist]]), and Snively being renamed "Julian Snively" with no familial connection at all to Eggman. This is despite the fact that both characters were part of the Saturday morning cartoon. This also makes utilizing Sonia and Manic from ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' harder as many ''Sonic'' fans would recognize the two as siblings and expect them to be as such, but they can never say they were.

* This trope lead to the CreatorKiller of Creator/TakeTwoInteractive's own comic company, Double Take. Take Two had hired former Marvel Comics editor Bill Jemas (who was also responsible for the tripe that was ''ComicBook/{{Marville}}'') to create a new comic universe and planned to do so using ''VideoGame/XCom'', ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' and ''VideoGame/BioShock'' as a massive SharedUniverse (how that would have worked is really unknown). However, the games division was ''really'' protective of their franchises and didn't want this "outsider" messing with them, forcing the entirety of Double Take being yanked out of Take-Two's offices and into a new office. Scrambling for something to replace what they lost, they decided to focus on ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' and try to turn that into a superhero universe. However, that was met with incredible disappointment and the company would ultimately fold without really getting it's foot out the door.

* ''ComicBook/LibertyMeadows'', during its syndicated period, was heavily censored. The strip relies quite heavily on sexual allusion and was more than willing to nudge the line between PG-13 and R whereas the executives wanted something "five-year-old-friendly". This eventually led to the artist Frank Cho dropping syndication altogether. However, Cho has stated that he is still grateful for the suggestion to change Leslie into a frog, instead of keeping him as a talking lima bean.

[[folder:Other Comics]]

* ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'': Creator Stephan Pastis has talked about several strips over the years that his syndicate has asked him to change for one reason or another, and he had usually agreed due to the strips in question being so edgy that the risk outweighs the reward. In the treasury ''Pearls Sells Out'', Pastis writes about a particular strip that his syndicate wanted changed because it showed the characters drinking beer. Pastis flat-out refused to do so, arguing that he wasn't "gonna keep looking over...[his]...shoulder" every time he submitted a strip and worrying about their attitude. With the exception of a few minor edits, Pastis says that the syndicate has since left him alone and that he understands most other syndicates wouldn't have even published ''Pearls'' to begin with.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'':
** In the early days, 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". Adams later said that it turned out much funnier than his original plan.
** PlayedForLaughs InUniverse in a strip where Dogbert tells a writer to make a few changes to his manuscript so it can be more publishable:
--->'''Dogbert''': Make the main character a purple dinosaur instead of a detective. Add some upbeat songs and eliminate the murder.\\
'''Writer''': It's a murder mystery!!\\
'''Dogbert''': Oh, that's original.
* ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'': A couple strips were removed because they were offensive.[[note]]Namely, a strip in which a boy gives a girl a pair of ballerina slippers and the final frame shows her in a wheelchair. Even the author admits it was rather offensive.[[/note]]

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': A few strips were never published due to fear of their bizarre content causing backlash, such as one strip that appears to have a dog humping an upside down car due how the artwork was done, while others were given edits without creator Gary Larson's permission. In the ''The Prehistory of The Far Side'' book (which contains the unpublished strips) Larson admitted that he would occasionally go a bit overboard, but he did have a small gripe about the changes being done without his input.

* Creator/ArchieComics's ''Comics/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'': The creative team at the time was preparing for its big epic storyline towards issue #75, "The Forever War", which would have brought back the future "Green Earth Turtles" and showcased the final fight with Shredder. However, the editors at the time balked at this as they absolutely hated the more violent path the comic was taking as well as the "Green Earth Turtles" (it was also because Mirage had started going color around this time and it was taking away from Archie), so they canned the creative team and, ultimately, the title.
* ''Franchise/ArchieComics'':
** There was once a comic called ''Josie'' that ran for six years. It was basically a DistaffCounterpart of ''Archie'' until the success of the ''WesternAnimation/TheArchieShow'' and (more importantly) the success of the hit song from said cartoon "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar,_Sugar Sugar, Sugar".]] Creator/HannaBarbera then approached Archie Comics and asked them about adapting another one of its properties. So in December 1969, Archie retooled ''Josie''. Josie and her friends decided to [[ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats form a rock band]]. It was all done so Hanna-Barbera could adopt the then upcoming [[WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussyCats cartoon]] as a music-based series.
** The last two pages of issue 6 of ''ComicBook/AfterlifeWithArchie'' had to be rewritten after the editor found the story to be too dark. Note this is a dark series set in a ZombieApocalypse that deals with anything from incest to domestic abuse. The fact that the same issue ends with [[ComicBook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch Sabrina]] [[spoiler:about to become the Bride of Cthulhu]] makes fans really wonder how you could get darker than ''that''.

* ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'': A lot in the early years - the Bruguera company even tried to "steal" the characters from Ibáñez and give them to other authors a couple of times. He also had to deal with the Francoist official censorship, which was pretty hard at suppresing ToiletHumor and anything that denoted "subversion". For instance, the cops are called "gendarmes" and their uniforms and cars do not look anything like the Spanish police ones of the time[[note]]While there may be cops in stories written during the Francoist epoch, they dress like British ones, and they even have in their cars the word "Police", instead of the Spanish "Policía". Penals are also non Spanish ones such as Sing-Sing[[/note]]; when a character made any reference to the Spanish Civil War it either disappeared or was changed to "[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the '14 war]]", a war in which Spain never took part, and so on. One character of 13 Rue del Percebe (another comic strip from the same author that sometimes {{Cross Over}}ed with Mortadelo y Filemón), a parodic MadScientist that built monsters for a living, was eventually written out and substituted by a tailor because the dead-hard Catholic government thought that "Only God can create life". This is also why women ''do not appear at all'' in late 50s strips - each time Ibáñez drew one, the censors eliminated so much curves that it ended looking like a broomstick.

* ''ComicBook/LibertyMeadows'', during its syndicated period, was heavily censored. The strip relies quite heavily on sexual allusion and was more than willing to nudge the line between PG-13 and R whereas the executives wanted something "five-year-old-friendly". This eventually led to the artist Frank Cho dropping syndication altogether. However, Cho has stated that he is still grateful for the suggestion to change Leslie into a frog, instead of keeping him as a talking lima bean.

* On May 23, 2019, comic tabloid site Bleeding Cool revealed that Tom King had been booted from ''ComicBook/BatmanRebirth'' following the end of his "City of Bane" storyline, just mere days after he boasted about how he was reaching the end of his 100-issue epic with such a big change that he actually had to contact Warner Bros. and AT&T for permission to do so. While King was allowed to finish his story with the 12-issue maxi-series ''Batman/Catwoman'', fans started to speculate as to what caused this. While officially DC wanted to bring the title back into the fold and involve it in crossover events and such, there are different suggestions as to what happened including editor Bob Harras hating the story and wanting it done, a higher up getting cold feet at what King might have suggested he do, which some theorize would be akin to ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''[='=] ending, DC preferring to use Creator/BrianMichaelBendis more and just poor sales from ''ComicBook/HeroesInCrisis'' and the "Knightmares" storyline.

* ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'': Despite numerous editing inconsistencies, the staff for the ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'' tie-in were explicitly told to make sure Connor Hawke was given the correct skin coloring and racial background. WordOfGod from colorist Nei Ruffino states the editors were aware that making a mistake with Connor was a FandomBerserkButton after the numerous screw ups done in the past, so the editors made absolutely sure it was done correctly this time.

** ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} was very almost killed off because Editor-in-Chief Creator/DanDiDio didn't know much about his character beyond "not Batman or Robin". Eventually he was convinced that a character that had been published consecutively for more than sixty years shouldn't be killed on a whim, so he was spared.

** Writer Creator/ScottSnyder mentioned that Cassandra was present in his script for the first issue of the ''Comicbook/{{New 52}}'' ''Franchise/{{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 UsefulNotes/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 every Bat-book being published at the time except Batwoman.

* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': Creator/{{Dwayne McDuffie}} was not allowed to use any of the Big Seven, and had to constantly rewrite stories around the plots of other books. In one instance, [=McDuffie=] was informed that Hawkgirl was to be killed off in ''Final Crisis'', but at the last second was informed that she wouldn't die after all. The latter news came after a scene reacting to her death was both written and drawn.

** When Barry Allen returned in ''Final Crisis'', Wally West was still around. The two had ''very'' similar costumes, the only difference being that Wally's belt was the modern "arrow" thing and that he didn't have wings on his boots like Barry. In ''The Flash: Rebirth'', artist Ethan Van Sciver was tasked with redesigning Wally's Flash suit to better distinguish him from Barry. He's said that DC gave him ''very'' strict guidelines on what he could and could not do to the suit: the colours had to stay relatively the same, the symbol had to be a familiar Flash symbol and he couldn't have an open cowl. These were all because DC didn't want to come off like they were demoting Wally back into his Kid Flash role or displacing him from the Flash name. Eventually, Van Sciver settled on altering the suit by adding elements of Wally's DCAU suit and Dark Flash: a simpler lightning bolt, white eyes for his cowl and darker red.

** [=DiDio=] and the editorial staff had complete control over the storyline for ''Countdown to Final Crisis'' because [=DiDio=] hated how ''52'''s story got off-track from its original intent to explain the changes that had happened to the DC universe.

** In some early issues of ''Detective Comics'', Batman would shoot criminals to death on a regular basis. One day, DC editorial director Whit Ellsworth asked the writers to tone it down and [[LighterAndSofter make it kid-friendly]], leading to Batman's ThouShaltNotKill attitude that he holds to this day.

** Despite still selling reasonably well 70 issues in, editorial cancelled Cassandra Cain's book with the justification of "we're launching a new Hawkgirl title and we don't want too many female-led books" and ordered the writers to make her pull a FaceHeelTurn. The turn was eventually reverted due to fan backlash.

* ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'': Creator/PeterDavid was restricted with what he would do with Tim Drake (who was Robin at the time) during the mid-'90s to early 2000s because the [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bat-family comics]] editors had the final say on how ''Batman''-related characters were used. One of the restrictions put on him was that Robin couldn't be seen in public, as the Bat-family was supposed to be considered an urban legend InUniverse. He [[BitingTheHandHumor mostly parodied the whole idea]], with Robin hiding in the shadows even in broad daylight and characters saying things like "we know it's you, Tim."

** Near the end of Roger Stern's run, editor Mark Gruenwald wanted Captain America to lead the team again, and requested that the current head of the group, Comicbook/MonicaRambeau, be shown as inferior in order to justify Cap's return. Stern refused, as he felt the idea was racist and sexist (since Monica was the first black character to lead the Avengers, and only the second woman to do so), and was fired as a result.

** From 1995-98, writer Doug Moench and artist Kelley Jones, who where in charge of the main Batman title, where allowed to pretty much ignore the rest of the Bat books and tell their own stories for their first three years of their run. However, on their fourth and last year on the book, editorial demanded that they tied the book with the other bat-titles. Jones [[http://www.gothamwdeszczu.com.pl/en/2013/05/17/interview-kellley-jones/ revealed]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLd6NHwF7N4&t=6159s interviews]] that this caused several cases of AbortedArc, including one they had been building up to for the last three years about a puppeter holding a Batman puppet appearing in the background during multiple issues being introduced as someone who knew Bruce's identity, was capable of manipulating both him and Batman and has been prepearing to confront Bats on his own terms.

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** Creator/StanLee originally wanted to call the series "''The Mutants''," but his boss said that very few readers would know what a mutant was. Lee's protest that ''nobody'', including him, knew what an X-Man was had no effect.

** The legal case between Archie and Penders. It was said that everything made for the Archie comic was now property of Sega. That meant characters, concepts, etc. Back in the early '90s, it was obvious no one minded the house at Archie and when Penders caught on about 15 years later, he quickly copyrighted his characters, which lead to the lawsuits. The problem here was that the lawsuits put Archie in a bind - Sega was adamant that those characters were there and if Penders won, then it would go against the mandate and threaten the comic. To save face, all of Penders' characters and concepts (and later, all of those not made by Flynn) were dumped and Penders was given a mandate to cut off all of his characters from everything Sonic, which lead to the ContinuityReboot that was ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide''.

* ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'': Back in 1999, Creator/MarkWaid asked for his name to be taken off Vol 3 #14 because the editors changed the story to the point where it didn't resemble what he had intended. Set inside the Comicbook/RedSkull's mindscape, Waid's point was that, from the twisted perspective of a high-up Nazi, they weren't the bad guys. In the Skull's screwed-up brain, Cap is both the embodiment of evil and - since he won - the new fuhrer. The editors preferred to make the Skull a CardCarryingVillain (while, paradoxically, removing any suggestion of racism), and Cap simply represented as "that guy the Skull doesn't like because he keeps beating him".
* Len Kaminski [[https://www.cbr.com/iron-man-teen-tony-stark-quit/ revealed]] that ''ComicBook/TheCrossing'' was why he ended his run on ''ComicBook/IronMan''--the editorial staff was insistent on the story, which infamously attempted to retcon that Iron Man was really a ManchurianAgent agent for Kang, and in fact, that very plot point is the exact reason why he left.

* ''ComicBook/{{Marvel 1602}}: Fantastick Four'': InUniverse, King James I offers...''suggestions'' to William Shakespeare such as the witches in Theatre/{{Macbeth}}. A couple of actors nearby comment that Will nearly wept when James ordered ghosts put into Theatre/{{Hamlet}}.

** During Byrne's run on the title he made a habit of having Wolverine kill people off-panel (thought there would always be a veiled reference to it later in the same issue). Jim Shooter had a bad habit of having his assistants read the books, so he wasn't aware of his trend until he actually overheard John Byrne bragging about it to a fan during an autograph session. Jim Shooter then demanded that every character that Wolverine killed off-panel be brought back. Claremont ended up with the unsavory task, and brought them all back as cyborgs, who eventually formed the band of villains known as the Reavers.
* For a brief period, Creator/JoeQuesada at Marvel Comics tried to encourage a "whoever is dead stays dead" policy, in order to combat the increasing perception that [[DeathIsCheap character death is meaningless in the medium]]. It wasn't an editorial mandate as is often mistakenly said (though there probably is some truth that he used the justification not to influence people not to bring back characters he disliked). This policy notably affected several high-profile works for the company: Creator/GrantMorrison had to give Comicbook/EmmaFrost the diamond mutation to take the place the then-dead Colossus would have played, and Beast played the science-guy role that the then-dead Moira Mac Taggart would have had. This edict proved very unpopular with fans, and overturned by 2004 with Magneto being brought back (ironically Magneto was himself labeled "staying dead" even though Morrison always intended on bringing him back). It took four years before fan-favorite Comicbook/{{Psylocke}} was brought back to life in 2005 after being killed off in Xtreme X-Men, as she was originally slated to die in the Psi War arc, which was a few years ''before'' her actual death. Chris Claremont, though, merely planned for her death to be temporary, with the idea being that when she returned, she would be stripped of all of the Crimson Dawn stuff that had been added to her story (including her facial tattoo) plus perhaps even returning her to her original body (and not the Asian body she ended up in), however Claremont's plans were scrapped. Furthermore, when Creator/JossWhedon took over what became Astonishing X-Men, one of the very few editorial mandates forced upon him was to bring Colossus back to life.

** The very graphic death scenes in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers'' were, according to [[WordOfGod Nick Roche]], put in at Hasbro's request, who had apparently grown tired of how easily resurrectable Transformers were starting to be shown and wanted some definitive kills to show that death still meant something in Transformers. According to the trade Springer, Kup, and Perceptor were all going to die in one version. Hasbro vetoed one, IDW another, and the writers didn't go trhougout of the last one.

** Near the end of Roger Stern's run, editor Mark Gruenwald wanted Captain America to lead the team again, and requested that the current head of the group, Comicbook/MonicaRambeau, be shown as inferior in order to justify Cap's return. Stern felt the idea was racist and sexist (as Monica was the first black character to lead the Avengers, and only the second woman to do so), and left the book as a result.

** Creator/WalterSimonson similarly walked away due to the meddling his run received, including editorial giving him permission to have [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman]] join the Avengers, only to rescind that approval after he'd already written them into the book. Prior to that, he'd also been told he couldn't use Iron Man or [[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]], which only furthered his frustration with the gig.