To Me, my X-Men: Why Tom Brevoort's Marvel job change is a big deal (and not just for comics)
He helped create the modern Avengers as we know it, and how he's been tasked to do the same for the X-Men
The biggest Marvel news in months - years, if you ask me - is the decision to move Marvel's VP of Publishing/Executive Editor Tom Brevoort to run its X-Men comics line. It will take at least a year to see any of its effect in comics, but the reverbations will be felt in movies, TV, merchandise, and more for years and decades to come.
Why? Because Tom Brevoort is one of the major architects of the Marvel Universe as the mainstream public - read: the Marvel Cinematic Universe - as we know it.
It's hard to underestimate the influence Tom Brevoort has had on the modern era of Marvel, be it Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, or Marvel bedsheets even. Brevoort took over the flagging Avengers comics titles in the late '90s - which at the time, and for two decades prior, had been overshadowed in popularity and sales by the X-Men. That all changed with 'Avengers Disassembled,' a storyline led by Brevoort and the Brevoort-chosen writer Brian Michael Bendis which led into a not-so-subtle reinvigoration of the Avengers title, which propogated multiple Avengers spin-offs, as well as mega-popular events such as Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Secret Wars (all three, which Marvel Studios' picked up to become multi-million dollar successes).
Brevoort is also Marvel's longest-serving employee, starting in 1989 as a college art major interning at the New York based publisher. Brevoort rose through ranks to become a full editor by the late '90s. On the back of his success reinvigorating the Avengers line (and the Marvel Comics line as a whole), he was made executive editor in 2007, and senior VP of publishing in 2011. Through it all though, he maintained the reins as the direct editor of lines such as the Avengers and Fantastic Four, which included several of the team members solo titles.
Now just imagine that mind - and "the engine" (as he calls it) that he is building now - put towards the singular focus of invigorating the X-Men in 2024 and beyond as the X-Men take their place in the MCU.
In Brevoort's own words when he teased this job change earlier this month, Marvel Publishing President Dan Buckley used a combination of "need, flattery, genuine admiration, duty and responsibility" to try to convince Brevoort to sign on.
Given Kevin Feige's start at Marvel in helping shepherd 20th Century Fox's X-Men movies back in the late '90s and early '00s, and his well-known history as a comics fan turned movie studios exec, there is something bigger going on.
Think about it this way: Marvel just moved their highest-qualified editor and shepherd of comics, characters, creators and fellow editorial/design/publishing talent to re-focus his energies centrally on the X-Men.
Make sure you've read all our recommended best Marvel Comics of all time.
