Marvel Editor-In-Chief Japanese Pseudonym Controversy

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Overview

Marvel Editor-In-Chief Japanese Pseudonym Controversy refers to the discussion around the news that Marvel's recently-hired editor-in-chief, C.B. Cebulski, had written for a year under the Japanese pseudonym Akira Yoshida in an effort to move from editing to writing at Marvel.

Background

Rumors of Yoshida being a pen name had swirled in the comic world since as early as 2005, when his work began appearing with Marvel, as it seemed strange that an artist nobody had heard of had been given high-profile comics,^[3] including twelve issues of Thor: Son of Asgard and many X-Men series.^[2] Cebulski even gave interviews as Yoshida around that time.^[6] Bleeding Cool writer Rich Johnston^[1] writes that he had been tracking the story since 2006, and had asked Cebulski then if rumors that he was writing as Yoshida were true. Cebulski denied the claims. Marvel executives also corroborated Cebulski's story. Marvel editor Mike Martz told Brian Cronin that he had dined with Yoshida, who showed off his ''immense Godzilla memorabilia collection.''^[3] According to Johnston, Cebulski adopted the pseudonym this because as an editor, it would be seen as corrupt if he were allowed to write for other editors. The story laid dormant for several years until, on July 4th, 2017, ex-Marvel editor Gregg Sheigel released a short-story on a podcast^[4] in which he related the tale with different names, with C.B. Cebulski becoming "C.J. Cregg." On November 26th, 2017, Twitter user @hermanos^[5] posted a tweet asking why no one had looked into why the new Marvel editor-in-chief "chose to use the pen name Akira Yoshida in the early 2000s to write a bunch of 'Japanese-y' books for them."

Developments

Cebulski's Response

On November 28th, 2017, the first day of Cebulski's tenure as Marvel's editor in chief, Johnston^[1] published a statement from Cebulski in which he admitted that he had written as Akira Yoshida in the mid-2000s.

"I stopped writing under the pseudonym Akira Yoshida after about a year. It wasn’t transparent, but it taught me a lot about writing, communication and pressure. I was young and naïve and had a lot to learn back then. But this is all old news that has been dealt with, and now as Marvel’s new Editor-in-Chief, I’m turning a new page and am excited to start sharing all my Marvel experiences with up and coming talent around the globe."

According to Johnston's understanding of the events, Cebulski claims he was planning to quit Marvel in the mid-2000s, and invented the pseudonym so he could write on Dreamwave and Darksiders comics. However, his work as Yoshida on those comics caught the attention of Marvel, who then hired Yoshida for some of their stories. Eventually, Cebulski "killed off" Yoshida, resigned from Marvel, and was rehired as a Talent Manager with a clause in his contract that allowed him to write freelance under his own name. Johnston writes that when the Sheigel podcast was released, Cebulski had owned up to his past to Marvel executives, who agreed to hire him anyway.

Apology

On December 17th, 2017, a second response from Cebulski released a statement to The Atlantic,^[12] apologizing for the pseudonym. He writes:

"I’m truly sorry for the pain, anger, and disappointment I caused over my poor choice of pseudonym. That was never my intention. Throughout my career in anime, manga, and comics, I’ve made it a point to listen and learn from my mistakes, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do with this misstep. Building honest relationships with creators has always been important to me, and I’ve continued to do that in my new position. I’ve spoken with talent close to this issue, and have had candid and productive conversations about how we can improve the industry and build better stories, while being mindful of the voices behind them. My passion has always been about bringing the best talent from across the world to work on the best stories in the world, and I’m hopeful that fans and creators alike will join us in that continued mission."

CBS Interview

On June 2nd, 2018, CBS News^[13] interviewed Cebulski, who commented on the controversy. He said, "I’ve always wanted to write and tell stories and it was a different time in cultural politics. And I made some very bad choices at that time, ones that I regret and that I’ve since made amends for and have been working to, you know, really kind of put behind me."

Additionally, Cebulski commented on Marvel's "commitment to diversity." He said, "Going back to the 60s when Marvel were created it was created by a number of white men here in New York City who were working in our studio… But now, we do not have any artists that work in Marvel. All our writers and artists work -- are freelancers that live around the world so our talent base has diversified."

Online, people reacted negatively to Cebulski's comments. Twitter^[14] user @Nick_Hanover tweeted, "It would be awesome if media would stop framing what Cebulski did as merely using a pen name. He defrauded his employer and convinced an industry that Akira Yoshida was a real person, not a pseudonym. He even had his coworkers say they had met Akira in real life!" The post (shown below, left) received more than 250 retweets and 350 likes in two days.

Twitter^[15] user @spacetwinks tweeted (shown below, center),^[15] "you know what really blows about cebulski's shitty apology for his yellowface shit though the fact that it's still a million steps above alonso's 'fuck anybody who criticizes me ever' standard response."

Online Reaction

Once the Bleeding Cool story broke, it was picked up by several other publications, including io9^[7] and The Guardian.^[8] Online, the news was met with jokes and disappointment. Internet comedy personality Seanbaby tweeted a joke about the simplicity of Cebulski's pseudonym, gaining over 1,400 retweets and 3,800 likes^[9] (shown below, left). io9 writer Charles Pulliam^[10] tweeted amazement as a person of color that a white person would pretend to be another race for months at their job (shown below, right). A thread on Reddit's /r/comicbooks^[11] about the news gained over 230 upvotes.