Has Jeff Lemire Quit Working For Marvel?

Rumors abound that writer Jeff Lemire has decided that when his contract with Marvel ends, so will his association with the company.

Over the last decade or so, it has become fairly common for new writers to make a name for themselves working for Marvel Comics and then leave after a few years. Most of the time, the writer in question heads to Image or Dark Horse, somewhere they can own what they work on and leave work-for-hire behind.

The list of creators who have done this reads like a who’s who or Marvel’s greatest hits. Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, Ed Brubaker and Jonathan Hickman are just a few that have found great success working on their own properties after leaving Marvel. Hell, you could include all the Image founders if you wanted to.

And word is that you may be able to include Jeff Lemire on that list as well.

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Lemire was already an up and coming talent in comics before working for Marvel. His work on Sweet Tooth for Vertigo and Essex County for Top Shelf put him on lots of reader’s radar. Based on that he signed an exclusive contract with DC and became a key player in the New 52. There he wrote a critically acclaimed run on Animal Man and worked on the weekly series The New 52: Futures End.

From there he went over to Marvel where he worked on a number of high profile projects including Extraordinary X-Men, Old Man Logan, Moon Knight and the Inhumans vs X-Men miniseries. He also relaunched Bloodshot for Valiant with Bloodshot Reborn.

However, if you look at the upcoming Marvel solicitations, there is less and less that includes Lemire’s name among the credits.

According to Bleeding Cool, rumors at the recent Emerald City Comic Con say that once Lemire’s contract with Marvel is over, he will not be renewing it. Instead Lemire wants to focus on creator owned work such as this month’s Royal City from Image Comics and whatever else he may decide to work on.

That doesn’t mean Lemire’s superhero days are over. Valiant has already announced that Lemire will continue to work with the company on Bloodshot Salvation, the second part of the much longer Bloodshot story Lemire wants to tell.

But it looks like those hoping to see Lemire back on the X-Men or continue with Thanos may be out of luck.

Must Read: Bloodshot Feature Film Has Found A Director

Honestly, no one should be shocked by this. More and more creators use Marvel and DC for the money and to make a name for themselves in the industry. Once they do that, the appeal of creating the next Walking Dead or Saga is just too tempting. And who wouldn’t want to work on stuff you create instead of more of the same with Marvel?

Royal City is on sale now with Bloodshot Salvation coming this September.