Marvel Comics is preparing for one of the most significant changes in the publisher’s nearly 90-year history. The company has announced that its Comics and Franchise division will relocate from New York City to Burbank, California, where it will join Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company’s broader creative operations.
The move, revealed to employees during a company town hall on Thursday, will affect more than 100 staff members, who are being asked to relocate by July 2027. According to Marvel leadership, the goal is to place comics alongside the company’s film, television, and animation teams to encourage greater collaboration.
“This move will position the team beside our broader creative organization and create opportunities for collaboration across both Marvel and Disney,” Marvel executives Brad Winderbaum and David Abdo wrote in a company-wide memo. “Our goal is simple: to continue to make the best comic books in the business.”
The announcement also confirmed a major leadership change. Stephen Wacker has been named Marvel Comics’ new editor-in-chief, replacing C.B. Cebulski, who has held the position since 2017. Wacker is known for editing comics such as 52, The Amazing Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil, and Captain Marvel.
Stephen Wacker
Wacker is no stranger to Marvel readers. During his previous tenure with the publisher, he edited acclaimed runs on Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Hawkeye, while also helping introduce Kamala Khan, better known as Ms. Marvel. More recently, he worked outside Marvel on Jonathan Hickman’s 3W3M initiative before co-founding the entertainment studio Stone Kite.
Cebulski will remain with Marvel in a newly created role based in Japan, where he will oversee Asia Originals and APAC-focused graphic fiction and manga initiatives. His move builds on years of work developing Marvel’s relationships with Japanese creators and publishers, including collaborations that produced titles such as Deadpool Samurai and Spider-Man: Octo-Girl.
Marvel says the relocation has been under consideration for months. With the lease on its current Manhattan office set to expire next year, company leadership evaluated whether consolidating its creative divisions into one location would better serve the publisher’s future. Executives also cited the increasingly global nature of comics creators, noting that many U.S.-based writers and artists now reside in California rather than New York.
Despite the move, Marvel emphasized that New York remains central to the company’s identity.
“New York has played a huge part in who Marvel is as a company, and in the pages of our comics,” 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.”
The relocation marks the end of an era for the American comics industry. Marvel’s predecessors, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, helped establish New York as the center of superhero publishing, and legendary creators including Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko built the Marvel Universe there. Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and countless other iconic heroes have long called New York home.
The move also means New York will no longer house one of the industry’s major publishers, following DC’s relocation to Burbank in 2015.
Marvel plans to begin relocation orientation sessions for affected employees and their families next week, with the transition unfolding over the next 12 months. Stephen Wacker will officially assume his new role later this month, while C.B. Cebulski joins Marvel’s global leadership team as he begins overseeing the company’s expanding manga and Asia Originals publishing efforts.
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