Winter Soldier Co-Creator Ed Brubaker Initially Felt 'F****d Over' By Falcon And The Winter Soldier

Earlier this year, writer Ed Brubaker's name came up as one of several superhero comic creators who were not sharing in the multi-billion-dollar success of characters they created for Marvel and DC, back before those characters became cash cows on the big and small screen for Disney and Warner Bros. Brubaker created the Winter Soldier while doing work-for-hire for Marvel Comics in the mid-2000s, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was ever a thing.

This year, the Winter Soldier co-headlined his own Disney+ series, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," so it was a natural talking point when Brubaker appeared on Kevin Smith's podcast, "Fatman Beyond." At the time, Brubaker said that he had earned more from residuals as a cameo actor in the movie "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" than he did as the Winter Soldier's co-creator in the pages of Marvel.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Brubaker emphasized that he went public with his comments more because people kept asking him about it and because he hadn't had much luck contacting Marvel. He explained:

"I'd been trying to get in touch with them behind the scenes before I said anything in public. The only reason I said anything in public was because I was getting inundated with people wanting my opinion about this or how do I feel. I just started to feel, 'Man, I guess I should just be honest about how I feel about it,' which is, 'I feel kind of like I got f***ed over.' (Laughs.) Because they didn't own a movie studio when I wrote that story."

Brubaker elaborated further on how the story took on a life of its own this year, even after he stopped speaking out, thanks in part to "Black Widow" star Scarlett Johansson's now-settled lawsuit against Disney. He said:

"When I was on Kevin's podcast, I didn't intend to talk about it as much as I did. If you listen to the way I'm talking about it [in the podcast], I'm not yelling or upset. I know what the situation is and I'm just explaining the situation. But I sound very aggrieved in some of the articles where they are quoting me. I'm like, 'Well, I was actually laughing when I said that.' It keeps coming up again and again.

"Over the last two months, I've had people emailing me, 'Why do you keep talking about this?' I say, 'I haven't said a word about it since the Kevin Smith thing.' But the Scarlett Johansson [lawsuit] happens and more people talk about it. Until just now I haven't talked about it to anybody outside of a couple of people inside Marvel. I'm hoping that there will be some kind of happy ending to it at this point, because I feel like they definitely got the message."

It sounds like Brubaker is still negotiating for his slice of the billion-dollar pie. Last month, we also heard that the estates of legendary comic creators like Steve Ditko and Gene Colan had become embroiled in a copyright battle with Marvel over the movie and TV rights to some of its characters.

It would be nice to see Marvel do the right thing and share a more legitimate cut of the profits or work out some other deal with all parties so that this story can indeed have a happy ending.