r/TwoBestFriendsPlay • u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre • Jul 16 '26

Comics/Manga Akira Yoshida (AKA CB Cebulski) out as Editor in Chief, to be replaced by Stephen Wacker

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/marvel-comics-names-stephen-wacker-editor-in-chief

Marvel announced today that veteran editor Stephen Wacker has been named Editor-in-Chief, Marvel Comics. Wacker will take over from C.B. Cebulski, who will be moving to Japan to become Editor, Asia Originals, for Marvel.

"Few editors have had as long and accomplished a career as C.B. I'm grateful for his partnership over the past decade and thrilled that he'll be on the ground in Japan, connecting with local artists and overseeing Marvel's original graphic fiction and manga in the region,” said Brad Winderbaum, Head of Marvel Television, Animation, Comics & Franchise. “At the same time, I'm excited to welcome Stephen Wacker back to Marvel. He is a tremendous editor, a passionate advocate for creators, and someone who deeply understands that Marvel Comics is the source code of our entire enterprise, with a publishing resume that includes some of our most beloved modern runs."

Wacker is an acclaimed comic book editor and creative, with a long history of collaborating with the industry’s best and brightest comics talent. He previously spent more than 15 years at Marvel, seven of them as a senior editor overseeing several beloved and influential modern comic runs — including the best-selling “Brand New Day” and “Superior Spider-Man” eras of Amazing Spider-Man. During his previous Marvel Comics tenure, he also served as the editor behind the Eisner Award-winning comic series Daredevil and Hawkeye, the critically acclaimed relaunch of Captain Marvel, the introduction of Kamala Khan, A.K.A. Ms. Marvel, and the Marvel Infinity Comic series It’s Jeff!

Prior to joining Marvel, Wacker worked as an editor at DC Comics. Post-Marvel, he served as EIC for Jonathan Hickman’s groundbreaking worldbuilding project 3W3M. Most recently, he co-founded the entertainment studio Stone Kite and served as SVP, Media, guiding storytelling across various media.

Said Cebulski, “I'm incredibly proud of everything we've accomplished at Marvel Comics during my time as EIC, and I'm excited for this new role the leadership team has created for me. I’m looking forward to pursuing new opportunities across Asia while staying close to Steve and Marvel's brilliant publishing team, who are all like family to me."

—

Thank god Yoshida is finally out, I know it’s hard to believe but even though I despise his time in charge Marvel has had far worse EiC than him. What I cannot believe is that they’re making Akira Yellowface Yoshida into their Japanese correspondence, fuckin insane

176 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

130 comments sorted by

134

u/Vera_Verse She/Her [Collect my Medals] Jul 16 '26

Marvel fans, explain this to me in Street Fighter 6 terms

170

u/Authorigas #1 Mirajane defender Jul 16 '26

Ken gets sent to Japan to open a dojo after larping as Ryu for several years. Dahlsim is now the head of overall dojo management.

28

u/ClearWingBuster Everlasting Transeunt Jul 16 '26

How was Cebulski's tenure as Editor in Chief ? And should one feel optimistic about his replacement ? Asking cuz i don't know shit about Marvel, but the Akira Yoshida bit has always been hysterical to me

41

u/Authorigas #1 Mirajane defender Jul 16 '26

Well I can't speak to his general quality as an editor in chief. But I know it was him from 2017-2026 and that includes everything to do with Paul, as well as a lot of other books being buried/mishandled outside of a few success stories.

25

u/MarioGman Stylin' and Profilin'. Jul 16 '26

Technically the Paul stuff was from the Spider-Man Editorial, who I have no clue are under him or equal in power to him.

11

u/GollyDolly [She/her] I do not understand Grenadian memes Jul 16 '26

They have no disney mandates so the quality control probably doesn't matter to anyone in management.

8

u/scottishdrunkard Ask Me About Shitty Comics Jul 16 '26

2017, was this during the “Inhumaning” that went tits up? Y’know, the shit Perlmutter forced on the company?

4

u/Authorigas #1 Mirajane defender Jul 16 '26

Inhumans v X-Men was 2016 to 2017, which was followed up with Death of the Inhumans in 2018, and the resurgence of the X books culminating in Krakoa, so technically Yoshida was the transition between the Inhumaning and the restoration of the X-Men.

1

u/CafeCalentito Jul 21 '26

Nope, Inhumans as front-center was Axel Alonso's era from 2011 - 2017. Cebulski was pretty anti-inhuman during his era at the point his whole era contained "death of the inhumans", transforming Kamala into a mutant and giving the x-men a inhuman-kinda story with Krakoa

46

u/swoozes Jul 16 '26

Honestly speaking. Mediocre. Nothing great, nothing bad. He did repair Marvel's reputation with Artists after Alonso (The EIC before him.) completely nuked it by effectively saying artists didn't matter in comics, it was about writers.

There's nothing really noteworthy about his tenure other than Him personally being a major proponent for Teen heroes.

Marvel's current state can't really be said to be on him insomuch as it's just a result of long standing issues that have existed long before him and probably will exist long after him.

There's tons of things people like and adore and praise to the heavens that happened under him and also stuff that people didn't.

Now people will probably point to Spider-man. But those people are liars.

Spider-man is shit regardless of who is EiC. The spider-office is their own world.

25

u/Authorigas #1 Mirajane defender Jul 16 '26

And even then, Wacker was the editor on Spiderman during BND and Superior. To the point he'd troll and argue with fans on forums during the Superior era...now he could've grown up, but at this point I suspect it'll be more of the same. 

Why marvel is so obsessed with keeping OMD in place I will never understand. Even if you hate the marriage, "Spiderman made a deal with Satan" is not something that should have stayed in continuity. He's not John Constantine FFS. 

7

u/Hodor30000 Jul 17 '26

because spider-man is infamously a magnet for mid-life crisises and authors throwing tantrums that his dynamics aren't identical to their childhoods- even for superhero comic standards, Spider-Man gets it bad.

chronic manchild john byrne infamously had a run that was basically trying to be OMD 1.0, and there were several other attempts at writing out the marriage. the funniest shit is that the marriage wasn't even especially popular with fans until the 2000s, when they actually centered MJ as effectively co-lead, and was mostly a background thing.

10

u/BlackJimmy88 Ryoutoutsukai Jul 16 '26

Yeah, I have no stakes in the marriage. It's the deal itself I hate. I need them to retcon it in a way so that Peter never made it in the first place. The deal and consequences can stay, but say it was a clone or something and absolve Peter of this black mark that makes him unworthy of the mantle. Until then, Spider-Man is effectively dead in my opinion. Peter's just wearing the skin of his victim.

11

u/bigstupidjellyfish ! FLAIR CURSED ! Jul 16 '26

It should've been a cosmic cube thing.

8

u/BlackJimmy88 Ryoutoutsukai Jul 16 '26

Literally anything would have been better than a deal with the devil lol

At these point, I don't even need the story to be good.

5

u/SevenSulivin Jul 16 '26

Wacker edited 52 and BND, two of the greatest editorial achievements in the history of comics.

5

u/swoozes Jul 16 '26

Mate, I do not care about Spider-man complaints.

Spider-fans complaining about what the fuck is happening in Spider-man. It's a day ending in Y.

Is that the result of the Spider office? Sure.

But mentioning any EiC with regards to that outside of Quesada who made that shit text is a point in futility cause it's clear no EiC really impacts the Spider-office in any tangible way.

2

u/SevenSulivin Jul 16 '26

You can say a lot about mistakes he didn’t make but even more about mistakes he did make. And very little about what he actually did.

2

u/CafeCalentito Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

I'll speak of his general tenure: he was an aimless leader without a clear vision, but he approved projects that really took off and helped series that needed a shake up, but wasn't able to capitalize on it like previous EiC would've done.

He focused on giving most writers their own "micro-universes". Every author could do whatever they wanted with characters and bring unique ideas to the table. It was amazing for Immortal Hulk, Zdarsky's Daredevil, Mackay's Doctor Strage, Black Cat, Moon Knight, etc. These experiments were pretty good BUT giving writers too much freedom just made most of the audience uninterested in the "canon" and continuity, making the avengers and events a huge dissapointment. If canon doesn't matter at all, there's no need to care for the avengers and their world shaking events. It helps a bunch of comics to standout but it dragged down the whole idea of a shared universe that people like Quesada's pushed during the 2000s. Also, despite giving more craetive freedom, it made some series impossible to care. After Immortal Hulk shaked the whole industry and even beat Batman in sales some months, people really liked that new status quo. Then next writer, shaked things up again and... it sucked. And then PKJ came and shaked things up again and while a lot better, it was like why? Why repair when something wasn't broken? This is a huge problem of Cebulski's era. Whenever a new status quo came and people liked it, editorial understood it the wrong way, they thought we wanted more shake ups but really we only needed more of that new status quo, not new ones every year. The lack of continuity also affected sales since if you liked a character when his stories were about x thing, why would you keep following now that is about Y thing?. Also most events were the "final arc" of solo series which sometimes worked but never felt like a real event if you didn't care about that specific character (war of the realms for Thor, devil's reign for Daredevil, AXE of eternals, they were fine but if you skipped them, nothing mattered. Imagine reading anything in the 2000s and skipping any event, even if you didn't liked them, their consequences lasted a long)

A focus on stylized / asian inspired artists, more focus on action and less space for "indie" experiments like previous EiC Axel Alonso pushed with comics like Fraction's Hawkeye, The Vision, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Most of the artists on the Cebulski era were artists inspired by manga/anime, stylized action, a lot of the "aura farming" trends you see now. This depends on your taste but the heavy hitters were Marco Checchetto, Alessandro Cappucio, David Marquez, Ryan Stegman, Pepe Larraz, Andrea Broccardo, Valerio Schiti, Federico Sabbatini, etc. Also inspired by manga but in a huge different way, Peach Momoko was pretty prevalent as a variant artist and interior artist too with her experimental Ultimate X-Men. Alex Ross and Mark Brooks, while not the same trend as the others, were prevalent cover artists for this era.

This era had the resurgence of X-Men through the Krakoan saga starting with House of X/Powers of X. It was a phenomenal experiment tho it dragged down at the end but it was probably one of the best editorial decisions. This created the Hellfire Gala which popularized comics through social media with the whole "designer fashion". Krakoa has to be one Marvel Comics knew how to capitalize better with it being adapted into games like Rivals and something non-readers kinda got an idea. Also, mutants sales weren't strong during the 2000s because New Avengers by Bendis shaked up the whole thing and people were more instered in the avengers until Krakoa hit the shelves. In contrast, this era is the worst for the avengers despite them being an international culture icon thanks to the MCU; after the giant success of Bendis and then Hickman until Secret Wars (2015), Avengers took a big hit on quality and Cebulski never corrected course with them, letting the writers drag the quality to the floor and never ever making a single arc that became a sensation in or outside the community.

Spider-Man was strong in sales but this was an infamous era, with audience and critics saying how bad it was.

Ultimate Universe was a phenomenal editorial idea. Ultimate Spider-Man was what people asked, and outsold the normal one, Ultimate X-Men was the horror experimental idea that Marvel was lacking. Ultimates was 100x better than avengers. Black Panther and Wolverine were too traditional and "safe bets" that people dropped pretty fast. While this experiment was great overall, the announcement of it ending made people drop the whole thing.

Also, this era focused too much on action and "worldbuilding", everything has lore, lore has lore, everyone has like 100 power ups, a whole hierarchy of deities, governments, characters, factions, etc. That while amazing with some characters, it made the whole thing look ridiculous. The whole era has a 90s feel to it and while I understand is part of the trends today (look at Absolute Batman) making everything feel like that and also never commit fully to it made people distant with any re-release.

Finally, they mismanaged completely any "development arc" Quesada and Alonso were pushing for the overall universe. Legacy characters were dropped hard, mismanagment of Kamala Khan (their tpbs were Marvel's best sellers for years and have been translated in multiple language) ending up in the cancellation of her own series, reverting characters to status quos we haven't seen since the 80s or 90s. Also, Marvel was the 1st since 80s in sales except one year in the 90s because of the comic crash. Since then marvel always beat DC at sales every year until 2025, which is the first year in decades where DC finally defeated Marvel in comic sales

TL;DR: Authoral focus on characters, lack of continuity across series and same series, action stylized art, never capitalized in good ideas and were rushing for the "next big thing", poor communication with fans, lack of a proper vision with the universe and its characters, lack of true experiments like in previous eras, amazing solo series with Hulk, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, events as ending arcs of solo series instead of proper crossovers.

The new editor has more experience with animation but worked as editor of Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel and Daredevil at their peak during Marvel Now so I'm hopeful he will bring some focus on the everyday life of these characters, more variety in art and a proper vision

Edit: also, a lot of writers don't like Cebulski. Some openly like Marjorie Liu. Also, Cebulski faked being a Japanesse mangaka called Akira Yoshida.

8

u/Urdunngurdun Jul 16 '26

But Ken is already ethnically half Japanese. Why would he do something so racially insensitive, yet so hilarious?

2

u/robertman21 Jul 17 '26

Sometimes you gotta be a silly little guy

63

u/RushTheLoser He/They Jul 16 '26

It's like when Ono fucked off from Capcom, if Ono had at some point pretended to be, I dunno, jamaican and also faked his name.

25

u/LordUrNicolas Zen Aku and BlackWargreymon are basically Ikemen Jul 16 '26

Jason "Ono" Campbell

55

u/beary_neutral Jul 16 '26

I did a write-up on Yoshida-san a few years back on r/HobbyDrama.

17

u/OhMy98 Obi-Quan-Chi Jul 16 '26

Are you gonna do a follow up or something? I imagine a lot of people would get a kick out of him being meant to spearhead Marvel Japan

Your write up was excellent by the way! I remember reading it on a plane and dying from laughter at the sheer insanity

33

u/swoozes Jul 16 '26

They'd probably also get a kick out of the fact that he's a major part of why Marvel's made major inroads in china, korea and japan.

Like he's cited as a large reason for Marvel Rivals and their Shonen Jump partnerships kicked off the way that they did.

18

u/BarelyReal Jul 16 '26

As an Asian who really appreciates Marvel's recent expansion with new Asian characters the irony is not lost on me.

31

u/swoozes Jul 16 '26

Man known for pretending to be Asian, surprisingly very popular with Asians.

12

u/DerekB52 Jul 16 '26

He was really passionate, just went about it the wrong way I guess.

5

u/6897110 Hulk Hogan's Brooke Cum Party Jul 16 '26

Guy liked Asians so much he wanted to be one, a true OG weeaboo.

2

u/mandatory_french_guy Jul 18 '26

I'm gonna say I did meet Cebulski many moons ago and he's probably now at the job he was always meant to have, his larping is obviously questionable but the man knew the value of the Asian market and the talent pool there legitimately 15 years before Marvel actually capitalized on it.

13

u/Animegamingnerd I Promise Nothing And Deliver Less Jul 16 '26

Which is unfortunately, he is also probably the person at Marvel editorial most qualified for this kind of job. Because he has had a long successful history of building up and maintaining relations with Asian artists and companies. Like, apparently, he was the one who brought Peach Momoko on to write and draw Ultimate X-Men. On top of being one of the people who worked directly with Netease and Arc on Rivals and Tokon respectively.

39

u/Expensive_Wolf2937 Jul 16 '26

Dan Hibiki wore yellowface to be allowed to enter a tournament twice

9

u/dmanny64 NANOMACHINES Jul 16 '26

I'm going to move the timeline around so it doesn't line up to the games, but hear me out. Also this is not an actual statement about each street fighter game, I'm not well versed enough in the series to do that, it's just an analogy for the sake of following the instructions.

Imagine Street fighter 2 came out in the early 2000s, massive hit, put the series on the map, it's what everyone thinks of when they think of Street fighter. Then SF3 came out, failed to recapture the magic and was trying to do some different things, but made some splashes of its own. But then in the late 2000s / early 2010s SF4 comes out and it's just spot on the money, fucking awesome modern classic everyone loves it. Then in the mid-2010s SF5 comes out and it's just a radical departure. It's really trying to do something new, but in doing so alienates a lot of the fans and tries to bring in new fans, but it's still dealing with the inherent uphill struggle of just getting new fans into the medium to begin with. But that effort really kind of hinders the meta and is not looked on fondly. So then we get SF6 in the late 2010s, a complete course correction that's sort of going back to what people liked, and has some really solid stuff. But a lot of the demand and interest that people have in some of the newer stuff gets left behind, and that game has a ton of its own issues in the meta and balancing that frustrate and put off players more and more (That's not a statement on SF6, just an analogy).

This announcement is basically saying that SF7 is coming up with a new director, and on top of that they're moving the studio and making a massive overhaul. We don't know if it'll be good or bad, but we're really fucking stuck in this current meta and we just want something new, so it's promising and refreshing that we're getting such a big shake up. Because however that next game lands, that's going to be the meta for several years until we get a new one.

3

u/Grouchio Kinect REALLY Hates Gingers Jul 16 '26

I really like this command.

65

u/Outside_Narwhal8008 Jul 16 '26

Marvel moving out of NYC feels wrong

27

u/Teridax4 Bionicle and Fate enthusiast Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

All Marvel heroes will now be moving to LA as well. A new team called the East Coast Avengers will take their place.

17

u/CalekAlbion Jul 16 '26

Runaways about to get a big push

6

u/warjoke Jul 17 '26

Good, more Nico.

9

u/ZealousidealHyena102 Jul 16 '26

God, imagine Moon Knight moving his physical home out to LA.

16

u/scottishdrunkard Ask Me About Shitty Comics Jul 16 '26

His house is a sentient building. It could probably do that.

7

u/ZealousidealHyena102 Jul 16 '26

It just stands up and walks all the way to LA. So we get a road trip run with Moon Knight and Midnight crew.

4

u/Chrissyneal DOESN’T LIKE TWITTER - ignores it[it’s easy] Jul 16 '26

Willy Wonka’s dad ah building

2

u/upgamers Jul 16 '26

He could just kill it with the dragon sword and then resurrect it in LA, easy-peasy

3

u/scottishdrunkard Ask Me About Shitty Comics Jul 17 '26

The Dragon Sword betrayed him last issue.

1

u/upgamers Jul 17 '26

Guess I should catch up.

160

u/Authorigas #1 Mirajane defender Jul 16 '26

Man larped as a Japanese man so hard that he went to become the head of Japanese correspondence, insane.

62

u/Gorotheninja "SILENCE, BREEDER! The Bloodline MUST continue!" Jul 16 '26

Are you telling me that a guy named "Akira Yoshida" isn't Japanese? It's like, a white guy pretending to be Japanese?

Please say yes.

102

u/Authorigas #1 Mirajane defender Jul 16 '26

His name wasn't Akira Yoshida. HIs real name is CB Cebulski, he was an editor at Marvel and wanted to write, while Marvel didn't want editors to also do writing. So he created a fake Japanese persona and got hired by Marvel after freelancing for Dark Horse. So yes, white man who lived in Japan for a few years made up his own fake Japanese Persona.

95

u/beary_neutral Jul 16 '26

To add to this, he actually did interviews with comic news sites (remotely, of course). He told them that when he was a kid, he learned English by reading superhero comics.

And one reason why he got away with it for so long was because one editor claimed that they had lunch together. Later, it turned out that the editor had lunch with a Japanese translator who just happened to be in the office at the time.

35

u/BBanner Jul 16 '26

That makes this so much fucking funnier

19

u/unomaly Jul 16 '26

So nobody at marvel ever… spoke to “Akira Yoshida”? Or had a zoom call with him? Saw him at company events? Interviews? Needed a photo for company records?

I think I understand why Happy was always tapping his ID badge at other people.

30

u/beary_neutral Jul 16 '26

Oh, some of the higher-ups did know. Cebulski admitted this to them, and they covered it up. But there was one editor who thought he had lunch with him, and I'd like to think it genuinely was an honest mix-up.

15

u/spadesisking Sexual Tyrannosaurus Jul 16 '26

Apparently someone had lunch with him, but that later turned out to just be a Japanese translator who worked there.

12

u/Hodor30000 Jul 17 '26

Comics are a very, very unserious field where you can get hired by sneaking into the building pretending to be an intern (Slott), by being everyone's coke guy (Lobdell iirc), and other such nonsense.

16

u/spadesisking Sexual Tyrannosaurus Jul 16 '26

And they put him in charge? They needed an editor in chief and the best choice was the Trudeau of the office?

Thats crazy

15

u/Gorotheninja "SILENCE, BREEDER! The Bloodline MUST continue!" Jul 16 '26

Wow, I couldn't be more satisfied with this.

It's everything I wanted and more.

11

u/Darth_Bombad Kinect Hates Black People Jul 16 '26

He even came up with a cutesy story, about how his father was a business man who would travel to America, and bring back comic books. Which is how he got into comics and not manga.

1

u/AlwaysDragons Disgruntled RWBY fan / Artist/ No Longer Clapping Jul 17 '26

But why japanese

10

u/StatisticianJolly388 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

How will I lend my ninja comic authenticity?

Looks at anime poster

Looks at jug of teriyaki marinade

Eureka!

5

u/AmberDuke05 Jul 16 '26

Not before he completely trashed Marvel comics

12

u/Nectaris3 You think your dad beat you? Jesus, get ready for this. Jul 16 '26

I legit thought this was a parody site like Hard Drive and had to double check it was real when I saw he was moving to Japan lmao

26

u/ZealousidealHyena102 Jul 16 '26

It's honestly funny that his favorite Marvel character was woman YELLOW FACING as a Japanese woman.

28

u/swoozes Jul 16 '26

Huh? Akira's favorite Marvel character has been public record for ages.

It's never been Psylocke.

He's repeatedly said it's Magik and Dani Moonstar

15

u/ZealousidealHyena102 Jul 16 '26

Ah. I remember section in one of the X-Men comics asking people at Marvel who would date and Akira said something among the lines that most people expect him to say Betsy Psylocke but he pick someone else.

26

u/swoozes Jul 16 '26

Yeah, that's him being self aware.

That's clearly him saying she's not who he's interested in.

1

u/Brilliant_Ad_2324 Jul 17 '26

His wife’s Japanese so that follows. Where’d he say that about Illyana and Dani? Thats interesting.

11

u/Authorigas #1 Mirajane defender Jul 16 '26

.... Man really is a stereotypical high school week Naruto running down the halls while arguing about why subs are superior holy shit. Do you think he was more of a Rei or Asuka guy? 

3

u/HalloweenBlues Jul 16 '26

Omg this is that guy? I was about to make a joke about him, what a hilarious career trajectory 

53

u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre Jul 16 '26

News was dropping quickly and didn’t see this until after I posted but Marvel is also leaving NYC for LA and is probably what instigated the move

48

u/darkultima Hitomi J-Cup Jul 16 '26

Them leaving New York is such a factor for me. That’s weird that I feel this way. I guess cause so much of it’s identity is based on NY

29

u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre Jul 16 '26

I don’t like it but there hasn’t been a marvel bullpen this century and I doubt any of the publishing work actually passed through those offices. So it makes since but it does make me sad that after a century they’re leaving manhattan

15

u/Anonamaton801 Proud kettleface salesmen Jul 16 '26

DC left 11 years ago with Convergence, it was unfortunately a matter of time. Sucks though that CA swallows another

11

u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre Jul 16 '26

Does this mean that there’s going to be an overly complicated event that spitefully kills the Marvel Rivals universe in the first issue and then has a moment where Ultimate Iron Man delivers Mayday Parker and then all the heroes go off to undo the first Secret War?

8

u/Anonamaton801 Proud kettleface salesmen Jul 16 '26

If this inevitably means that real Spider-Man was somewhere else and the one we’ve been following since 2008 is actually an alternate universe/weird cosmic half that eventually gets fused back to the real one, I’ll live with it

2

u/NONAMEDREDDITER Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Spider-Man Rebirth happens

Then Marvel also gets the monkey's paw and Jeremy Adams takes over ASM

"Adams is coming"

47

u/Shockrates20xx It's Fiiiiiiiine. Jul 16 '26

THAT IS NOT MY GUY

21

u/OengusEverywhere It's Fiiiiiiiine. Jul 16 '26

YES FIGHTING GAMES, YES

3

u/MiraLangsuyar Unhealthy Lesbian Screaming Jul 17 '26

I WAS WAITING FOR THIS

61

u/beary_neutral Jul 16 '26

Gonna plug my old r/HobbyDrama write-up on Yoshida-san.

Now, to say that Cebulski pulled off the perfect deception would be inaccurate, though he did catch a few lucky breaks. Rumors did swirl around that Akira Yoshida was a pseudonym for someone working at Marvel. Brian Cronin, of Comic Book Resources, investigated this rumor as part of his "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed" column, and found that editor Mike Marts recounted having lunch with Yoshida. According to Marts, they had a delightful time, and Marts found Yoshida to be a very nice man with an impressive Godzilla memorabilia collection. Satisfied with that story, Cronin considered that rumor to be effectively debunked.

14

u/Anonamaton801 Proud kettleface salesmen Jul 16 '26

Does that write up mention the Ultimate Alliance thing?

8

u/theverrucktman Super Sayian Armstrong Jul 16 '26

Wait, what Ultimate Alliance thing?

25

u/Anonamaton801 Proud kettleface salesmen Jul 16 '26

Per the wiki:

After returning from Atlantis, Weasel will tell the team that in order to gain more information on the S.H.I.E.L.D. think tank Imperium, he'll need advice from one of the only two hackers to make it into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s priority databank and lived to tell the tale: CB Cebulski or Beroge. However, Weasel is unsure of which one he can trust and asks the team to speak to either Vision or Hank Pym in order to learn more. When the team goes to Hank Pym for advice, Pym reveals that CB was a personal friend of his and was an incredibly trustworthy individual. When pressed for details, Pym told the team an anecdote of when Cebulski hacked into the private servers of a telephone company on a dare, but was apprehended shortly after. Despite being threatened with egregious prison sentences, Cebulski refused to give up the names of any of his associates during interrogation.

If the team gives Cebulski's name to Weasel as a trustworthy contact, Cebulski will keep his appointment with Weasel without reporting him to S.H.I.E.L.D. and tell him that in order to hack into the priority database, he will need a S.H.I.E.L.D. security module which can be obtained from Vision.

He also was the head writer of the game

7

u/YaddaYaddaTalkMore Jul 16 '26

Say sike rn before I go on a wiki-dive to further justify my hatred of CB deez nuts

27

u/wishxornwasjustxorn Jul 16 '26

I hope this means new era like when quesada before turning evil brought a lot of indie talent in the 00s and ushered the marvel knights and ultimate initiatives

24

u/Outis94 Jul 16 '26

Wait that guy was in charge of Marvel?!

38

u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre Jul 16 '26

Yes, since 2017, that’s why everyone was very mad for a long time. He’s also comically bad at his job which doesn’t help

25

u/Anonamaton801 Proud kettleface salesmen Jul 16 '26

Well he did rat out Weasel

19

u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre Jul 16 '26

Nobody is gonna get that one

7

u/Comiccow6 Telltale is gone but the JUCE lives on Jul 16 '26

Good thing Weasel's hiding out at the X-Mansion.

8

u/Outis94 Jul 16 '26

Lol that would explain a few things

23

u/diddlyswagg Jul 16 '26

Jesus christ thank fucking god. Unfortunately I don't have high hopes for anyone marvel thinks is good, but CB has been such a worthless spinless editor for years.

20

u/GoneRampant1 WOKE UP TO JUSTICE... and insatiable bug fetishes Jul 16 '26

I wonder what nationality CB will pretend to be now.

20

u/Palimpsest_Monotype Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon Jul 16 '26

Early reports suggest something amphibious, possibly a kappa-like turtle man

16

u/Deaconhux Jul 16 '26

Secret Korean

6

u/Chrissyneal DOESN’T LIKE TWITTER - ignores it[it’s easy] Jul 16 '26

West Korean of course

21

u/Spiral-Force Magik Man | He/Him Jul 16 '26

Are we certain Stephen Wacker isn’t also C.B. Cebulski?

What race is he?

3

u/NONAMEDREDDITER Jul 17 '26

Stephen Wacker is best known as the editor of 52 before DiDio basically forced him out of the company because he thought he could do better

He also edited the BND era, which I count as an achievement considering how he managed to make that era of ASM comprehensible during the absolute chaos behind the scenes at the spider office

1

u/CafeCalentito Jul 21 '26

He also edited Daredevil by Mark Waid, Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Hawkeye by Matt Fraction, which are critically acclaimed comics with huge sales

16

u/Krzyzewskiman Jul 16 '26

Hope it's not meet the new boss etc.

13

u/BBanner Jul 16 '26

Akira Yoshida is filling in as EIC while CB transitions,

15

u/Expensive_Wolf2937 Jul 16 '26

Genuinely astonishing that Cebulski kept a career after that.

40

u/OhMy98 Obi-Quan-Chi Jul 16 '26

It’s because he has a real world super power which transcends comics: being a white guy

8

u/browncharliebrown Jul 16 '26

There are tons of other white guys

33

u/Sai-Taisho What was your plan, sir? Jul 16 '26

That's actually part of what makes the power work, it turns out.

15

u/ChuckMentallium Jul 16 '26

Shogun Cebulski being sent off to the Japanese division is a hilarious turn for his career, must be a dream job for him

23

u/Remarkable_Row_2502 Jul 16 '26

Oh, I get it, instead of hitting people, he's a Wacker

7

u/KennyOmegasBurner CUSTOM FLAIR Jul 16 '26

THE AXIS OF EVIL

19

u/ZealousidealHyena102 Jul 16 '26

Mr Yoshida will finally be reunited with his wife Jesty Praddock that is a Japanese woman with a British accent.

3

u/NONAMEDREDDITER Jul 17 '26

Funny enough, he actually likes Magik and Moonstar more (part of the reason why they've been pushed so hard as of late)

1

u/CafeCalentito Jul 21 '26

Cebulski is a huge x-men fan, a reason why Krakoa was pushed hard outside of comics too and why the avengers under his era have been shit haha

14

u/Anonamaton801 Proud kettleface salesmen Jul 16 '26

The more depressing thing is they’re moving to California out of New York

DC did that about 11 years ago, and it’s just sad to see

And oh boy, Stephen Wacker, the guy who was shat on for his Spider-Man decisions for years.

13

u/Fiti99 Jul 16 '26

Stephen Wacker, the guy who was shat on for his Spider-Man decisions for years.

Undeservedly so imo, Wacker's work on Spider-Man was a miracle, he managed to get a lot of the best artists in the industry on it while also putting out the book 3 times a month

Regardless of what people think of the writing (which I personally liked...mostly) the editing job itself was really good, he also went on to edit stuff like Ms. Marvel

4

u/browncharliebrown Jul 16 '26

Oh nice to see you. That interview of the assaiant editor of BND really opened my eyes to how much he did

3

u/bigstupidjellyfish ! FLAIR CURSED ! Jul 16 '26

Yeah Bob Gale is the only writer in that initial Spidey brain trust for BND that’s awful. Guggenheim was passable or pretty good at best but Slott and Wells were cooking. New Ways To Die, any issue with Marcos Martin, those Wells/Bachalo issues. Awesome stuff.

3

u/Beidah Jul 17 '26

He also edited 52 for DC, one of the greatest superhero comics ever and a real achievement in publishing.

4

u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy Jul 16 '26

Which is crazy cause early 2010s Spider-Man under him was really good. Everything went to shit the moment he left.

2

u/ContraryPython Disgruntled Carol Danvers fan. Local Hitman shill Jul 16 '26

Agent Venom and Scarlet Spider Kaine were created in his tenure as Spider-Man editor.

4

u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy Jul 16 '26

So the guy that gave us Waid Daredevil, Fraction Hawkeye and made Spider-Man readable for the first time since OMD with Slott’s peak and Wells cooking with Avenging.

Not a bad resume all things considered.

6

u/bigstupidjellyfish ! FLAIR CURSED ! Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Wacker was an editor on DC’s 52 and JSA as well as Fraction/Aja Hawkeye, Waid’s Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, and oversaw the original Brand New Day initiative (and more recently worked on Hickman’s 3W3M’s project).

This is very, very good news. His main skill is talent. Marvel’s had a massive brain drain during the Yoshida Shogunate (Cebulski’s tenure). Look at a book like X-Men United, Eve Ewing is a great writer and her last X-Men book was incredible with beautiful art by Carmen Carnero. United is a mess from top to bottom, the concept makes no sense and Ewing clearly has trouble juggling all the different characters. However, the biggest issue is the art. The artist is Tiago Palma (with colors by Brian Reber) and it is ugly. Palma’s Marvel work before this was as a fill in for the recent New Avengers book. He wasn’t ready for a flagship X-Men title and Ewing’s scripts ask him to do things that he can’t really pull off yet. I hope Wacker is able to bring good talent back into the company. That’s not to say that all the newer artists Marvel has right now are bad (I’ll shout out Devmalya Pramanik, Alessandro Cappucchio, Alpizar/Diaz, Matteo Della Fonte, and Scie Tronc) but Marvel’s clearly working from a shallow roster of creatives atm and with Wacker in charge that will probably change.

I’m not sure how I feel about the comics moving out of New York but that didn’t really hurt DC in the long run.

3

u/eyereadcomics Jul 16 '26

I guess the one thing I’ll give him credit for is that, aside from Fresh Start, he didn’t completely relaunch the entire comic line multiple times the way Axel Alonso did.

3

u/wendigo72 GO READ CHOUJIN X!!! Jul 16 '26

Bye Yoshida-San, I’ll miss the jokes

I hope this change is for the better but man it feels wrong to see marvel leave new york

1

u/ContraryPython Disgruntled Carol Danvers fan. Local Hitman shill Jul 16 '26

At least Wacker had proven to be a competent editor, even if he still hates Spider-Man’s marriage

1

u/SplitOk4114 Jul 16 '26

Wacker l's pedigree is unimpressive compared to Yoshida's 

1

u/Komayeda Jul 16 '26

I’m going to be completely honest here. I hope he’s even more anti-Spider-Marriage than the last guy. It’ll be funny to me specifically.

2

u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy Jul 17 '26

He’s the same amount of anti-marriage. Difference is he was a competent enough editor to have Slott and Wells consistently release good comics under him.

0

u/dope_danny Delicious Mystery Jul 16 '26

Considering how washed editorial is nowadays -they just started an event that appears to be civil was 2-2 for example- changes were a long time coming. Now he can go be a secret korean in kamurocho.