Who gets to decide what happens to a comic book character? (Stan Lee/Marvel)?

Question

For instance, when a character that Stan had created dies, does Marvel Co., Stan or the characters creator get the ultimate say whether or not a character dies?

How about if its a character created by a "nobody" who works for Marvel? Do they just say, I think its time to kill this character... or do the rights already belong to Marvel, so the creator has no say? Finally does the mother company, Marvel or otherwise, give a final "severance" payoff to the creator since he/she won't no longer be able to make licensing money ?

Answer 1

That is true. Most comics characters never stay dead. Bucky came back as Winter Solider. Even the second Robin (Jason Todd) is back now.

As far as royalties, dead characters can always come back in flashback stories, alternate universes, re-tellings of old stories, and trade paperbacks. For example, yes Captain America died, but you can currently still find him in the Onslaught Reborn mini-series and Marvel Zombies vs the Army of Darkness comic.

So who has the final say on what character gets to die? The high-ups/bosses at Marvel.

Answer 2

In the long run, Marvel gets the final say in where the the stories go and who lives and dies. Since a character who dies usually does not return, the royalty of the last use would be considered severence.

Answer 3

The writer brings his idea up to the editor who then makes the call. You can't have one writer killing someone off when another writer is planning on using the charter in the coming months. It's the editors job that the writers don't get in each others way. Stan Lee position is more of a honorary one when it comes to comics. He works more with the Hollywood side of Marvels business.

Answer 4

To Brian F

Marvel resurrects it's characters (especially the mutants) all the time. There used to be an unwritten rule that only Bucky (Captain America's partner from World War II) stayed dead but recently that rule was broken by his own resurrection.