Record: Jim Shooter

When Jim Shooter - who began his career at DC, writing mostly Legion of Super-Heroes stories and possibly some Superman tales - became Marvel's EIC, he did have talent to display, but he could also be a very divisive figure, and there were at least a few questionable steps he took with lady cast members of the MCU - plus one questionable comment he made about at least one lady of the DCU - that are worth pondering.

• When Chris Claremont and John Byrne were originally turning Jean Grey into the Phoenix, and practically into a planet killer (the narrative claimed she'd wiped out 2 billion alien residents of another solar system) in the pages of X-Men, they originally wanted to end the tale by having the X-Men bust her out of prison on the planet they'd been taken to, but Shooter believed Jean would have to face consequences for the crime she'd committed. Viewed in that context, of course that was repulsive and required punishment. But why didn't he challenge the whole premise of turning Jean into the Phoenix in the first place? Wasn't she created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a character we were meant to be rooting for? Where did even Shooter get off by allowing such a horrific premise to be put in motion? Granted, Shooter did approve of retconning away the whole premise of Jean-as-Phoenix in 1985, establishing instead that she'd been replaced in her role by an alien life form that committed the crime in the Shiar empire's solar system. But he still led to a horrible situation in later years where the story from X-Men would be copycatted by various writers, and even situations where writers like Grant Morrison and Brian Bendis would undo the 1985 modification for no good reason. And Shooter never commented on all that?
• After Ms. Marvel's series was cancelled at the end of 1979, Shooter later took to what could be described as kicking Carol Danvers to the curb rather forcibly. He established in Avengers #200 that she'd been teleported into some kind of limbo world run by Immortus, a being who could probably have been related to Kang, brainwashed into becoming his lover, and then came the bizarre Oedipalian tale where Immortus impregnated Carol with himself, and after the machine he tried to use to make it possible to dwell at ease in the real world was wrecked, he admitted he'd influenced her, but at that time, the Avengers just let it all slide, much like they thought it was great she'd "become pregnant" without even knowing the child was his own father(!), and let Immortus take her back into limbo. In the Avengers Annual of 1981, Chris Claremont modified all that, with Carol telling the Avengers she was devastated they'd just stood by without question, leaving the Avengers group themselves feeling suitably ashamed. What exactly was Shooter's motive for undermining the use of a girl who could have potential for building stories around? He did not do any favors with that questionable setup, even if the door was left open there for Carol's return.
• When the original Spider-Woman series came to an end during Shooter's tenure in 1983, the premise at the time was to kill off Jessica Drew altogether, and practically have her memory erased from everybody's minds. Fandom convinced them to reverse that setup, and in Avengers soon after, any lethal fate Jessica may have had set up at the end of her solo book was reversed, though at that time, her powers were drained. But she did continue to make appearances in books like Wolverine's solo a few years later. Yet it's a shame that there too, Shooter appears to have tried throwing out a character who could've made a good wellspring if talented writers were to take up the job.
• Shooter also made insulting comments about Legion of Super-Heroes' Dream Girl, when he said in a social media debate that she was "dumb". He also insulted Cosmic Boy, if it matters. What kind of stupid, pointless comment was that supposed to be anyway? Apparently, an attempt to obscure how it's the writer's fault for any poor characterization that might've occurred at any time.

I think there were some good stories to be found when Shooter was writing comics like Legion, and later when he ran Marvel as editor, but he was sadly little different from some writers and even message board troglodytes who seem disinterested in improving professional writing and artwork, and arguably, Shooter left behind a sad situation in his own way that could take ages to repair, if at all. And it was insulting to the intellect if he thought any characters should be tossed into death limbo because their own series may not have fared well in sales. That too is an ultra-cheap tactic that did far more harm than good to comicdom.