Highly respected Marvel vp Steve Wacker has left Marvel’s digital content division to become editor-in-chief of  Three Worlds, Three Moons, Jonathan Hickman‘s Substack publishing venture.

Hickman announced the move in his newsletter:

So it is with great excitement that 3W3M is announcing we’ve hired Stephen Wacker to be our Editor-In-Chief.

If you’ve been reading comics for the past 20 years, you probably know who Steve is, or at least have seen his name in the credits of hundreds of books. He began his editorial career at DC working on comics like JLA, JSA, Legion of Super-Heroes, Jonah Hex, Villains United, and the weekly 52 event, before moving over to Marvel where he was the long-time editor of Amazing Spider-Man as well as spearheading historic runs on Hawkeye, Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, Venom and Captain Marvel. All while running a super-sharp office with some of Marvel’s top-editorial talent.

Steve left comics in 2014 when he was pulled over to work with Marvel’s growing TV and animation division, and for the last couple of years has been Head of Content for their strong digital media division. He has, however, always kept one foot in the comic book industry and regularly attended the Marvel editorial retreats where his insight and savvy were always appreciated and counted on.

This morning, he announced that he was leaving Marvel after a long and successful run.

And starting Monday, Steve will be joining us.

Wacker was most recently VP, Head of Content, Digital Media at Marvel, a high level job but only the most recent VP level title he held, following a highly respected editing career at Marvel and previously DC, where he was instrumental in the whole “52” thing and much more.

Hickman’s 3W3M comics line at Substack has already become the most prolific (and possibly most subscribed to!) Substack project, with an interconnected line of titles by various creators such as Al Ewing and Tini Howard. Hence the need for an editor in chief. 

Still the move is a bit of a shocker – I’d always been told that Wacker was very highly regarded in the Marvel/Disney c-suite, so leaving for what is (on the one hand) a tech startup and (on the other) a self-published comic book line, is sure to get people talking…in fact according to my DMs they already are.

Wacker announced his departure from Marvel in a series of tweets earlier today:

Morning! For those that know me and like me, I’ve got a bit of good news. For those that can’t stand me, I’ve got some REALLY good news!

After an Incredible, Amazing, & Fantastic decade and a half (that’s 15 years for any Mets fans who might be having trouble with the math), I am leaving Marvel for a new opportunity.

I’ll talk about where I am going later today, but I wanted to sincerely thank Dan Buckley, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort, and David Bogart for giving me this gig in the first place. (And Jeph Loeb and Pete Tomasi for helping convince me to take it!)

From Comics to Animation to TV to Digital Media, I’ve had more fun in this joint than seems fair and have been surrounded and supported by some breathtakingly creative people every step of the way. Thanks to all of you.

Special thanks to Ellie Pyle, Tom Brennan and Sana Amanat who were my partners-in-crime longer than anyone.

And my hats off to the entire Digital Media Content and Creative team for making me feel at home these past couple of years and helping spread Marvel’s imagination and spirit into all sorts of different media.

Hey…so at this point I’ve been asked by Marvel PR (‘sup, Haley!) to mention that Amazing Spider-Man #88 is on sale this week! Featuring the debut of Goblin Queen (or maybe it’s Queen Goblin. I forget which.)

Amazing Spider-man #88 is by Zeb Wells (Meh) and Michael Dowling (okay that’s cool)! On Sale Now! Wherever Amazing Spider-Man comics are sold! Also, Zeb is available for parties. (Seriously. He’s pretty easy to book.)

As I was saying… Marvel is in stronger shape than ever due to stories told by the best storytellers and creators in all of recorded history (well aside from Aesop, I guess). All of which were shepherded by someone smart on the inside who knew enough to recognize talent.

And over the past 15 years, I’ve been lucky to have a front row seat for the rise of a real Marvel Age that fans like me (and you) used to just dream about. But now I’ve got seats in a new section … and the view is gonna be even better.

Ummm…Also available now is the “Wastelanders: Black Widow” original podcast series. And next month we debut a new documentary called “History of Marvel Comics: Black Panther.” Available wherever podcasts are…Podded? Both are well worth your time. Promise!

Anyway…that’s it. I’m still working today with some actual content presentations happening within the larger corporation (wish me luck!), but I just wanted folks who might care to know about this bit of news.

Monday’s a Brand New Day for me… but for today I’m still Making Marvel Mine! And you should too! (It’s “Queen Goblin.” I just checked.)

More to come as we like to say!