Marvel Backs Out of Northrop Grumman Partnership

Marvel Entertainment has pulled out from their supposed partnership with Northrop Grumman after fan backlash for collaborating with an arms manufacturing company. On Friday morning, the comic book publishing company made a huge announcement regarding their plan to join forces with Northrop Grumman. And while specifics of the said collaboration have not yet been disclosed, fans were quickly turned off by the mere fact that they would even consider working together with a group that goes against what their brand stands for.


Northrop Grumman is an American global aerospace and defense technology company. One of the largest defense contractors in the world, it generates over 20 billion dollars in revenue a year. It’s similar to Stark Industries before Tony had an epiphany and shut down its arms’ manufacturing branch and, just like how the “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist” walked away from the main division of his family business after seeing how badly it affects other people, Marvel also pulls out from the planned collaboration before it even comes to fruition.

Following the intense backlash from fans, Marvel has announced that it will no longer push through with its planned partnership with Northrop Grumman. The company explains their decision via an official press statement which also gives fans an idea of what the collaboration would have been about:

“The activation with Northrop Grumman at New York Comic Con was meant to focus on aerospace technology and exploration in a positive way. However, as the spirit of that intent has not come across, we will not be proceeding with this partnership including this weekend’s event programming. Marvel and Northrop Grumman continue to be committed to elevating, and introducing, STEM to a broad audience.”

On top of scrapping the upcoming projects with the group, Marvel has also taken down Avengers, Featuring N.G.E.N.S. from their official site which was also created in partnership with Northrop Grumman. Written by Fabian Nicieza with art by Sean Chen, the comic book features Earth’s Mightiest Heroes teaming-up with Northrup Grumman’s Elite Nexus – a team of four who specializes in “cutting edge, hi-tech adventures.” It was still accessible to fans on Friday online with physical copies supposedly going this weekend at New York Comic Con until it was removed from Marvel’s website.


Fans were quite impressed when Marvel Entertainment chose not to host a The Punisher panel in NYCC in light of the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada which killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds more. This one, however, is clearly a misstep for them as they have obviously failed to correctly presume how the readership will react to them collaborating with a huge arms dealing group.