r/graphicnovels • u/0kafaraqgatri0 • Sep 03 '26
News Criminal’ Showrunner Ed Brubaker, Amazon MGM Sued for Hostile Work Environment by Production Assistant
In one alleged incident, Brubaker pointed a working firearm at Noohu’s face and pulled the trigger, according to the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in California state court.
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u/AwesomeTowlie Sep 04 '26
After reading The Knives, it very much read to me that he hated the experience of making the criminal show, so who knows how much is true.
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u/BadDreamInc Sep 04 '26
Shiiiiiiit, I really hope this isn't true or things are being exaggerated in some way... I probably have more Brubaker on my shelf than any other writer. I'd still enjoy his works and I'm 100% looking forward to the show tbh, he's an amazing writer, but it would definitely sour them a little.
I wanna give Ed the benefit of the doubt and hope that some things are being exaggerated or falsified by Noohu because of an unreceived promotion, or maybe some other BS behind the scenes we don't know about but... yeah. Will wait until more comes to light, or if it doesn't we might never know the full story.
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u/bebopeva88 Sep 03 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Given the accusations of, “sexual and racial harassment and assault,” I incorrectly assumed the production assistant was a woman, but the accuser is a man.
The gun thing, if true, is wild.
Also:
“When he asked for a promotion, the lawsuit alleges, Noohu saw his exit date moved up and was later barred from the set in retaliation for challenging the alleged misconduct on set. His employment ended in September 2024, according to the complaint, which notes that he wasn’t credited on the production.”
Could all be legit, could also be sour grapes from a disgruntled worker who wound up not getting a promotion, barred from set, and not credited on the production. One also wonders why it took two years to file the case, but regardless, it’ll be interesting to see how this goes.
I also wonder if the delay in the series’ release is due to Amazon waiting to see how this all shakes out.
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u/Johansenburg Sep 04 '26
One also wonders why it took two years to file the case
As someone who has recently talked to a lawyer to pursue my own lawsuit, these things take a while. Just because the case was just filed doesn't mean that he hadn't been talking to a lawyer for a long time.
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u/zanza19 Sep 04 '26
I have seen exactly the scenario of disgruntled accusing everyone of harassment when they were just a really poor worker claiming they deserved to get a raise. So I'm going to be wait and see here.
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u/fuzzyfoot88 Sep 04 '26
After everything that happened on that Baldwin movie…doing something like that in any capacity is just arrogance to the point of stupidity.
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u/Handsome121duck Sep 03 '26
This is "call the police" stuff and not "sue you" stuff.
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u/TTTGLUNGER Sep 04 '26
That’s a great point if your boss points a gun at you and pulls the trigger once you away from said person you call the police you don’t call a lawyer first. I’m not saying it 100% false but that’s fishy as hell. This isn’t an undocumented worker or way back in the day this is a post me too time.
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u/AvailablePaper Sep 05 '26
Since there wasn't a police report I'm assuming it was a set/stunt weapon, and not him pulling out a real gun and putting it to this head. That in no way excuses it if true, there is just a lack of details on how it went down which would be very important to know.
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Sep 03 '26
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
You might want to reread the article. They said "working" gun not loaded and within the context of what else was said in the reporting it was probably yet another misguided, inappropriate joke.
Still a pretty stupid thing to do but seemingly not something that put Noohu in danger.
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u/mannotron Sep 04 '26
First rule of firearms on set is that nobody but the Armourer touches them until it's time to shoot the scene. Nevermind the fact that every working gun should always be considered a loaded gun.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Sep 04 '26
It was for sure a stupid thing to do and that procedure should have been followed but obviously wasn't.
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u/Handsome121duck Sep 03 '26
And what do you think the police would do? Hand him a lollipop and a plastic sheriff badge? They'd arrest him, he would go to jail, and then have a CRIMINAL trial and not a civil one.
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u/FlubzRevenge read yuichi yokoyama Sep 04 '26
Ah, that's what you were saying, i'm running on a few hrs of sleep myself, apologies.
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Sep 04 '26
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u/connor42 Sep 04 '26
I feel if the alleged incidents were witnessed and as serious as described, Amazon wouldn’t just be holding comment
They’d be getting out ahead of the story and actively cutting ties / shifting blame to Brubaker, especially since it’s at the point of lawsuit being filed
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u/Bobotts123 Sep 04 '26
This is what stood out to me too. It’s almost like most didn’t read past the first couple paragraphs.
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u/AdamSMessinger Sep 04 '26
I thought this too but I know someone who legit had this happen to them. Things were fine at a company they had been at for years, a promotion came up, they applied, and found out they got passed up by a peer. Turns out the peer had been getting under paid and the promotion came with pay for the peer that matched what my friend was making before the promotion. When my friend found out and went to HR, they got fired. (They could have legally fought it but didn’t want a years long drawn out lawsuit). Tbf, this was in the tech sector but shit like that happens at big companies.
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u/BadDreamInc Sep 04 '26
I'm really hoping this is the case, and things are either being falsified or exaggerated.
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u/OrionLinksComic Sep 04 '26
These are very harsh accusations, and it's disturbing to think about what the results of an investigation might be.
But man, that sounds terrible.
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u/nmacaroni Sep 03 '26
Can we all just calm down. Please.
Honestly, I think Hollywood just fucks people up.
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u/jasor_x Sep 03 '26
Pointing a working firearm at somebody and pulling the trigger? Jfc that is insane. Such a great writer but... holy shit that's crazy.
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Sep 03 '26 edited 2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/steroidsandcocaine Sep 04 '26
Do you just automatically believe every accusation?
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Sep 04 '26 edited 2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MLPIsaiah Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
I would agree if there were multiple accusers, that'd up my belief from neutral to probably true. But this is one person making multiple accusations, which keeps me at true neutral.
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u/AppleJacks70 Sep 03 '26
Fuck! I like his comic stories.
I hope this is all just bullshit.
Unlike Neil Gaiman
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 03 '26
Why “unlike Neil Gaiman”? You didn’t hope it was bullshit?
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u/Creepy-Fault-5374 Sep 04 '26
No. He’s saying that Gaiman’s accusations weren’t bullshit, so he’s hoping that unlike Gaimans, this one is.
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 04 '26
Were the allegations shown to be true? I don’t believe any were and in fact NZ police investigated and found them without merit. Am I missing something?
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u/ProfessionalRead2724 Sep 04 '26
Gaiman straight up admitted a bunch of the worst stuff, seemingly thinking it was nothing special or bad.
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 04 '26
Care to elaborate. What specific things did he admit to. I cannot find anything about what he admitted to.
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u/EngineerNo2156 Sep 04 '26
I'd assume they're hoping the allegations here turn out to be bullshit--unlike how the allegations against Neil Gaiman did not end up being bullshit
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 04 '26
Were the allegations shown to be true? I don’t believe any were and in fact NZ police investigated and found them without merit. Am I missing something?
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u/EngineerNo2156 Sep 04 '26
Truly not interested/informed enough to be debating this, just explaining the original posters most likely intent by the wording
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 04 '26
I genuinely haven’t seen anything where he admitted to or was found to have acted badly. Personally I wouldn’t throw around statements like he was found that the allegations were true without being able to point to where that was stated, but that’s the internet for you. 🤷🏻
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u/SneakyCheekyHobbit Sep 04 '26
Personally I wouldn't run around trying to defend weirdo scumbags, but that's being a moral person for you.
OJ wasn't found guilty, but if you believe he's innocent, you should extract yourself from society before you pass on those terrible genes
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 04 '26
I don’t care about the downvotes and insults but man it is easy to see how the witch trials happened. I am not claiming to know what happened. I don’t know and neither do you. There have been lots of people who have done horrible things. The vast majority of times it is true, however there are significant times where it has not and the accusations were false or wildly exaggerated. People here are claiming he was guilty based only on what I can see are accusations and that he admitted to the worst of it (which tellingly they have not outlined what those admissions were), with the primary accusation being investigated and the accuser interviewed by investigators and found to be completely meritless. Again maybe I missed something so was genuinely asking as I am not an expert. However I am perfectly fine with my morals on this issue. Assuming guilt based on accusations alone is problematic. I would hope you never have that experience, there are a lot of troubled people out there. Asking these questions and not simply assuming seems fair. Being in an open marriage and maybe into some S&M is not in itself wrong.
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u/SneakyCheekyHobbit Sep 04 '26
So, what you're saying is that despite the overwhelming evidence, you'd absolutely let Casey Anthony watch your kids completely alone, bc she wasn't found guilty and convicted?
That despite all common sense and again, tons of evidence, bc the jury let her off, you firmly believe that she's innocent and completely harmless? That's your stance??
OR maybe, just maybe, sometimes the jury gets it wrong, sometimes the prosecution isn't the best, sometimes "innocent" doesn't actually mean they didn't do it?
Nah, that's just not possible right? Courts and juries are completely infallible, right?
Hope the women in your life know that evidence doesn't matter if the accused has enough money to get off lol
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
I don’t firmly believe anything. Like you I am outside and will never know. Your claims of tons/overwhelming evidence, especially with what you are discussing is dubious. I have not heard of tons of evidence and that is why I was asking (look back at my comments, they are genuine inquiries) nor have I seen Gaiman admit to horrible acts as others have claimed. And yes courts get things wrong, but that goes both ways right? If even to ask these questions and even to ask leads to being accused of being complicit with abuse, we have problems.
Again in the vast, VAST, majority of cases accusations like this turn out to be true and I think starting from a place of belief and support is needed, however if the investigation raises serious questions about the validity of the accusations, that cannot be discounted. In Gaiman’s case the NZ police investigated and found the claims meritless. Sure they could be wrong, but who knows and that is why I was asking if further evidence came to light or if Gaiman admitted to anything.
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u/jc1of2 Sep 04 '26
Did I miss something? Neil never admitted any abuse and he's never been found liable in court.
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u/ProfessionalRead2724 Sep 04 '26
He just straight up admitted a bunch of the worst stuff he's accused of. He's never been found not liable in court. Courts have been dodging him on grounds of jurisdiction.
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u/Slow_Cinema Sep 04 '26
Well the reason he wasn’t prosecuted jn NZ is because the police did an investigation there and found the accusations meritless so there is that.
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u/jc1of2 Sep 04 '26
Jurisdiction is a real thing. If the crimes occurred in another country they should be tried there.
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u/culturefan Sep 04 '26
It doesn't sound good regardless. I hope the show does get made and available. I've never worked in Hollywood, but I would imagine it's pretty hard to always monitor one's words or actions. Maybe some of the allegations were just misrepresented in some way. I never though Brubaker was gay, so it seems to me that Noohu just either took it wrongly or added that onto the suit to make the incident look bad. Tho if Brubaker did pull a gun that's not good at all, he should have been smarter than that, loaded or not.
https://www.comicsbeat.com/ed-brubaker-lawsuit/
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u/belerion6969 Sep 03 '26
Sigh. Here we go. Seems another good writer down.
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u/jc1of2 Sep 04 '26
Or we could just let it go and revisit it if and when a court of law says he did it.
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u/SneakyCheekyHobbit Sep 04 '26
Hey, what did the court of law say about OJ and Casey Anthony? You gonna let her babysit your kids? She's innocent right?
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u/jc1of2 Sep 04 '26
Evidence was presented in a court of law. It was defended and refuted by both sides. Right now all you have is accusations.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Sep 04 '26
Definitely looks pretty unsavory, a lot of racially / sexually charged "humor" in the workplace is a pretty bad look.
While the gun thing is also extremely unprofessional, people coming to the conclusion here that the gun was loaded just because the article said it was "working" are perhaps reading way too much into that. Most likely another misguided, inappropriate attempt at a joke that absolutely shouldn't of happened but not the violent act some here are assuming it was.
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Sep 04 '26
It really depends on whether anyone believed the gun was loaded.
On one extreme is the possibility that it was harmless and everyone was playing around but using the 'disgruntled employee' theory, dude is recalling it knowing the phrasing could make it seem much more sinister than it was. On the opposite side, he was under the impression that it was loaded and being pointed at him... The effect of which goes without saying.
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u/FlubzRevenge read yuichi yokoyama Sep 04 '26
It's a gun, don't point it at anyone whether it's loaded or not, as you say about the implications in the last sentence.
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Sep 04 '26
If me and my buddy have a gun, we both know it's not loaded and we are fooling around with it, there's no malice or risk. It's a very casual occurrence, discussions of the wisdoms of doing so aside.
If I pull and point a gun at him and he doesn't know whether it's loaded, we have a much more serious scenario.
There's tons of missing context within this claim that could make it either much worse or highly exaggerated, which is why speculation doesn't help.
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u/TheDaneOf5683 Cross Game + Duncan The Wonder Dog Sep 04 '26
Alec Baldwin and everyone on set thought Baldwin was handling a Not Loaded gun on the set of Rust and when it went off, he was investigated and then charged with involuntary manslaughter, even though other people handled the weapon and he was relying on their having handed him what he believed was an unloaded weapon. That indicates that, at least where legal interest is concerned, pointing a gun at someone is, regardless of intent, actually a pretty big deal.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Sep 04 '26
That's a very good point, I can see the error in my original thinking in terms of it being potentially violent regardless of intent.
Having spent a bit of time around guns, enough to find it unimaginable to hold a gun without immediately checking the safety and the ammo, I think I kind of just jumped straight to that assumption.
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Sep 04 '26
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Of course but how many jobs have weapons around in the first place, especially treated as props?
Regardless of the context around the choice, the action was stupid. But intent and circumstances mean a lot and could frame this as anything from a misguided, severely inappropriate joke to a violent threat and there's a huge ocean of misconduct between those things.
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Sep 04 '26
I'm not talking about a boss, I'm talking about an exchange between any two people. I don't know what their relationship was and what the nature of this particular scenario was. Hence why I said the context is missing.
If we must though, I've had bosses I've been on friendly terms with and if we subbed them into the harmless scenario I described in the first instance, who they were would make no difference.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Sep 04 '26
Very true, and speculating in any direction isn't very prudent. I should have avoided saying anything about what was 'most likely' as I nor anyone else uninvolved has any idea if that's the case.
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u/mundaneheaven Sep 04 '26
I didn't know Ed was such an Alec Baldwin fan.
Jokes aside, if what is alleged is true then that's beyond unprofessional.
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u/Timmah_1984 Sep 03 '26
He’s still an amazing writer. Alan Moore has been a weirdo for decades, I probably couldn’t stand him in real life but it doesn’t stop me from enjoying his graphic novels.
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u/SlowJoeyRidesAgain Sep 04 '26
Being a weirdo and threatening someone’s life are two different things.
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u/joeycraw5 Sep 04 '26
Threatening someone's life with a gun is way too pedestrian for Moore, he'd probably just put a curse on them.
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u/Fvtvrewave87 Sep 04 '26
I picture Moore wearing a wizard cloak sitting in a room with candles like Harry Potter
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u/LooksLikeAWookie Sep 04 '26
For those hoping the allegations are false, the same pattern that played out with Jonathan Majors: Now that a major incident is brought to light, others are coming forward saying there have been known issues with Brubaker for a while (mainly others in the comic industry who are on bluesky).
I really love the Reckless and Criminal books. This sucks.
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u/NeoNoireWerewolf Sep 04 '26
Link to some of the posts on Bluesky? I’m not on there but tried searching with Google. Only comic industry people I found with comments were Gail Simone, who just said “Oh, goddammit” when sharing the article, and Gerry Duggan, who posted that he doesn’t believe any of it.
Not being dismissive, legitimately curious to see what is being said and by whom.
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u/capn--j Sep 05 '26
others are coming forward saying there have been known issues with Brubaker for a while
Like who? It's interesting that you haven't expanded on this...
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u/Blammo32 Sep 04 '26
Brubaker is genius writer and, for some reason, I always got the impression that he was pretty normal.
Guess I can add him to the pile of douchebag comic book writers now.
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u/andy__amadeus Sep 04 '26
Person, demanding a promotion doesn't get it and makes a highly unlikely story which if true would have Amazon throwing Bubaker under the bus faster than you could say union busting.
I would take accusations in the entertainment industry with a grain of salt.
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u/rogerworkman623 Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Sep 04 '26
damnit. I just finished Chuck Dixon’s run on Batman, which was great but he’s an asshole. Now I just started on Ed Brubaker’s run on Catwoman!
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u/Sugar_Crash_Brigade Sep 03 '26
Oh no.
I like Brubaker. I really hope this isn’t true.