Mark Gruenwald and The Avenger's Panel at ComicCon
posted 8.5.10 at 12:00 am
I've always been a Marvel fan. That was more or less by default: One of their top editors from the late 80s through the mid 90s was Mark Gruenwald, who happened to be my cousin.
I didn't really understand the gravity of this fact until I was in college, as a kid all I knew was Mark was a great guy with an uncanny sense of humor, and that each year for Christmas we all got comic bo0ks and original art (Mark, in addition to being a super talented writer and editor, was a great comic penciller. In the end he chose to pursue the writing, as that's where his passions were).
When my family took a trip to New York in the mid 80s, we went up to Marvel and got to mingle around the Bullpen and even sat and yabbered with Stan Lee. Even then Mark was a bigshot in the industry; he wrote for almost all of the Marvel lines, most notably Captain America and Squadron Supreme. Mark also created the official Marvel Universe Handbook, a long overdue reference to all the characters in the Marvel universe and how they interacted with each other, a reference that today is the bible of the Marvel universe.
As many comic fans know, Mark died unexpectedly in 1996 of a heart attack at age 43, brought on by an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.
Mark's legacy has definitely endured, as I've learned first hand since I've been living in NY. I've met many of his fans now and even some co-workers from Marvel (and now DC) who always stop and smile when they hear his name. Indeed, Mark was universally loved in the industry and his memory is alive and well.
Which brings me to this post...
I saw this footage from ComicCon this year (I was there, but didn't make this panel) of the Marvel/Avenger's panel. Mark was one of the ones who helped breath new life into many of the Marvel properties so many year ago (many of these characters inparticular), so much so that I'm confident anyone in the know in the industry would agree that the upcoming Avengers movie may indeed have only been a pipe dream at this point.
And I think that's pretty durn cool.
just for fun, out about
3 comments so far...
too fun to read about Mark. Growing up, I knew he was some big shot or other at Marvel but to me he was the cousin who we would beg to draw us at holiday parties and who introduced us all to the game of SPOONS,a holiday classic. And he played that stupid game to win no matter how old the cousins were!
Posted by Jennifer S on August 5 at 10:45 PM
Mark Gruenwald was my uncle and an amazingly talented man. I wish that his heart attack wasn't so fatal. As the woman who gave him CPR as a 13 year old child, I live my life with the what ifs... Mark named a character after me placed in the comics Quasar, Starblast and Avengers. I am blessed to have known him and to have been loved by him. When fans approach me I continue to share his legacy to people who should have known the great man that I knewK.
Posted by Kayla O'Connell on August 6 at 3:05 AM
Thanks Jen and Kayla!
Posted by Ed on August 6 at 8:41 AM
Post a Comment: