Manhattan Superheroes No More: Marvel Comics is Abandoning the City!
Marvel Comics is abandoning the city which it has called home since its founding in 1939 and moving to the West Coast by next July.
| 19 Jul 2026 | 02:16
Spider Man, long identified with the streets of New York, is heading to California, as Marvel’s comic book division joins the Marvel Studios in Burbank, CA., where parent company Walt Disney is based. (
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Cover of Marvel Comics #1, the publisher’s first issue in 1939, fearing the android Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. It was written by Al Anderson, Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Paul Gustavson, and Ben Thompson. (
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The 96th issue, The Amazing Spider-Man, published May 1971. Manhattan streets and NYPD are vividly on the cover, with Spirder-Man climbing buildings throughout NYC. (
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Walt Disney Studios, located in Burbank, California. Marvel Comics will be joining its parents company by July 2027 with a relocation to the Left Coast. The move will impact about 100 employees in its New York comic book unit in Hell’s Kitchen. (
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Bang! Pow! You’re outta here! Marvel Comics, the publisher which gave birth to Spider-Man, and other iconic comic book superheroes, plans to abandon Manhattan—and New York City altogether—and head to the West Coast where it will join its movie studio arm. The move is especially shattering given that one of Marvel’s most revered artists, Jack Kirby, recently had a street co-named for him on the Lower East Side.
Throughout its 87-years, the publisher responsible for Wolverine, the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, has relied on Manhattan as the inspiration and background of so many formidable stories perhaps none more so than Spider Man.
But the lease at its current home at 135 W. 50th St., is expiring next year. Walt Disney, the parent company since 2009 has decided to move the publishing arm to Burbank, CA where Marvel Studios and Disney are based.
News of the stunning shake-up in comic book land was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter, which said the company’s 100 employees heard it at a town hall meeting on July 16. Marvel’s head of television, animation, comics and franchise Brad Winderbaum, and David Abdo, newly installed as general manager, comics and franchise development and Kevin Feige, who is president of Marvel Studios and chief creative officer for Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Comics, Marvel Television, and Marvel Animation broke the news at the town hall meeting.
As part of the shakeup, employees learned that a new editor-in-chief will be heading up the comic brands for the Disney-owned publisher. Last year, for the first time in years, DC Comics, led by the Batman and Absolute franchises, outsold Marvel Comics.
Stephen Wacker, a veteran comics editor for the company, has been elevated to be the new editor-in-chief, replacing C.B. Cebulski, who held the position since 2017. Cebulski will be moving to Japan in order to expand the company’s involvement with manga and other popular Asian comics styles as Editor, Asia originals, the company said.
Marvel Comics’ departure will leave NYC without a major comic publisher; its arch rival, DC Comics, which has Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in its super hero stable, relocated to Burbank back in 2015.
The question remains: how will the LA atmosphere change the characters and stories that are so quintessentially New York? The company was claiming that exiting the city that is so central to many of its characters will not change the DNA of the company.
In a company letter obtained by the THR, Winderbaum and Abdo, wrote, “While our network of writers and artists is now an international operation, New York is still woven into our DNA and that will never change. Our colleagues in New York have helped shape generations of stories and characters, and their contributions to Marvel’s legacy cannot be overstated.”
Marvel Comics was founded in 1939 as Timely Comics, in a small office in the old McGraw-Hill Building on West 42nd Street. The company was later renamed Atlas Comics in 1951. The company’s Marvel focus started in 1961 with the kick off of The Fantastic Four, created by Stan Lee, who initially started as a lowly “gofer” fresh out of high school, and Jack Kirby.
While it moved often over the ensuing decades, it always stayed somewhere in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.
As Marvel Comics makes its way toward the Walk of Fame, fans can only hope that the move will not eradicate the Big Apple’s spirit from the comics and movies.
In the memo, Winderbaum and Aldo said the move will not take effect until July 2027 and said the company will be conducting orientation sessions for its New York employees and their families next week. “We sincerely hope they choose to continue that journey with us in California,” wrote Winderbaum and Abdo. “We are committed to supporting every affected employee throughout this transition, which will take place over the next 12 months.”