STORY: Jim Starlin Returns to Thanos in New Marvel Graphic Novel

The new Thanos work seemingly marked a happy ending to a feud between Starlin and Marvel, following Starlin speaking out about the company’s lack of contact -- and remuneration -- over Thanos’ appearances in the Marvel Studios movies, with Starlin even pointing out that Thanos had been created before his time at Marvel, something taken by many as preparation for potential legal action against the company.

In a recent Facebook post, however, Starlin wrote that he was “not sure what I’m going to do now, seeing as how I can’t do any further Thanos/Adam Warlock stories, as was the plan.”

In a later comment made in the same thread, he elaborated further. “This time, after I brought Adam Warlock back from the dead in the Infinity Revelation [graphic novel], someone at Marvel anonymously put a corporation-wide-no-use restriction on the character, effectively putting the breaks on the on-going plans I had for him and [Thanos],” he wrote.

Adam Warlock, a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby during their time on the Fantastic Four comic book series and later massively reinterpreted by Starlin throughout multiple series in the 1970s and 1990s, is rumored to make a cameo appearance in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, potentially explaining any larger plans Marvel may have in mind.

As is the way of the Internet, Starlin’s comments were twisted to the point where they became that the character of Thanos himself was being placed on the shelf. When a fan asked Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort about that on Tumblr, he responded “Thanos will be appearing as much as ever in our books,” adding that what was actually happening was “something else ... that Jim probably shouldn’t even have taken public on his Facebook page. But he did, so there you go.”

When contacted by THR, a spokesman for Marvel declined to comment.