Anonymous
asked:
Did you really keep Charcoal dead because the creator of the character annoyed you with his legal challenge? Even though the storyline was designed for Charcoal's return and by doing so you didn't serve the story? I'm thinking your new nickname should be Tom Petty

If you want to call it petty, then fine. But Charcoal was the result of a Create-A-Character contest, the prize of which was that the character would appear in THUNDERBOLTS. It was a fun fan thing, a way to encourage reader interaction with and connectivity to the series. And so the winner showing up later with a lawyer trying to hold us up for money after the fact left a very sour taste in everyone’s mouth–it took something that was intended to be fun and spoiled it. (And let’s not get into the question of the non-existent enormous piles of money that Charcoal was earning for Marvel.) So he was slated to be pulverized to dust, and I decided that we’d keep him that way, and never use him again. That was a change to the storyline, sure, but not materially, in that Charcoal’s return hadn’t been plotted out at that point, merely the idea that he’d be able to pull himself together at some point. Turns out that wasn’t the case–and won’t be for as long as I’m in a position to prevent it.