I’m kind of surprised seeing people sharing that Guardians of the Galaxy credits still as evidence of a good thing on Marvel’s part. Given that the creators actually listed as, you know, character creators in the credits are (a) two creators who threatened legal action–or, in Gerber’s case, actually went to court–to try and wrest control of their creations back and (b) a creator who has been the subject of a massive social media campaign to shame Marvel into appropriately crediting him and renumerating him for his work (and associated artists who worked with said creators), it really doesn’t seem like something to boast about.
Also, the effect of crediting Jim Starlin, Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen, Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik with “created by"s and only giving Englehart, Kirby, et al "special credit” is to create a weird caste system. Why don’t the creators of the movie’s lead character get credited with “created by”? Aren’t they important enough?