Exploring The Human Cost Of Marvel Comics’ West Coast Move

So much has already been said about one of the biggest public facing parts of Marvel Comics’ upcoming changes, particularly the end of C.B. Cebulski’s tenure as Editor-In-Chief and the beginning of Steve Wacker’s reign. But there’s a massive part of the changes that people need to consider — the human cost of the relocation.

I’m going to start with my qualifications. My day job is in Human Resources, with extensive experience in benefits, compensation analysis, and more. I’ve done this for nearly twenty years, so I know what I’m looking for.

Now, we’re going to start with a massive caveat. We don’t know what Disney’s location package and services will be. Based on the story in the Hollywood Reporter, I believe many at Marvel don’t know yet. This could range from simply giving the staff access to resources in their relocation, to a full relocation stipend and cost of living increases. This piece is simply laying out that the decision isn’t as simple as “do I want to move?”

But let’s start there. A cross country move is a big deal. To research this, I used North America Van Lines’ website. NAVL is a door-to-door moving company — meaning they move the apartment (I’ll explain that in a moment), load the truck and unload at the destination. They could also provide a service to help you pack at an additional cost and could assist in storage options if needed. They’re just about as full service as a company providing moving services can be. The quote that I created with a representative at NAVL is a hypothetical, but a hypothetical based on as realistic a circumstance that he and I could generate.

To move a one bedroom apartment in Staten Island to a comparable apartment in the Los Angeles area (I used the North Hollywood/Burbank zip code), it would cost just shy of $8,200 (USD), with an additional $1,900 if you have a car that needs to be transported. This cost included boxes and other moving supplies, the moving company packing and wrapping furniture and fragile items (using the most likely furniture, decoration and appliances someone would have in an apartment of that size), and the actual moving out of the old apartment, the cross country move, and unloading at the new apartment. This doesn’t include the cost of restocking fridges and pantries after arrival either.

That cost does not include whatever mode of transportation you would use to get from New York to Los Angeles, which would vary wildly depending on fuel costs or airfare at the time. Currently, a one-way flight for one individual on Delta Airlines from JFK to LAX (using August 24th, 2026 as the departure date) ranges from $259 to $1,102, depending on time of departure. The seat is a basic seat, so upgrading to comfort or first class would be an additional cost. Assuming you’re driving, Staten Island to Burbank is 2785 miles, and optimistically assuming the car being driven gets 20 miles to the gallon, that would require about 140 gallons of gas. At a generous estimate of $4 per gallon (based on gas prices right now), that would be $557 in gasoline, assuming a direct route and all goes well en route.

That all also assumes that the destination apartment is move-in ready. If the destination needed even a few days, there would be a cost for storage and temporary lodging, and the increased cost of eating out rather than grocery shopping.

That means, just to move, you would be looking at somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000, on the optimistic side.

Now, if someone owns a home, this is a completely different story. Beyond the basic costs of a mortgage, there’s the time and effort in selling the home and buying a new one, which isn’t just as simple as putting it on the market with a realtor. There’s property taxes, there’s realtor fees, there’s more appliances and furniture to move. That $10,000 price tag to move jumps significantly.

Now, the other dollar cost that’s easy to quantify is salaries and rent. This research yielded my most pleasant surprise. Though I was unable to fully research cost of living (specifically groceries), I was able to easily research rent and salaries. On Apartments.com, I was able to find that a single bedroom apartment in each city is extremely comparable. Again, using Staten Island and Burbank as our benchmarks, a 500-1,100 square foot Staten Island apartment ran $1600-2000, while a North Hollywood apartment with 600-1200 square feet cost $1800-2200. 

Meanwhile, using a Human Resources Manager position as the baseline for salaries, both localities had a salary range of about $76,000 to $122,000 (found on Glassdoor.com). Glassdoor also listed a senior editor at $96,000 to $167,000 in New York, and $98,000 to $175,000 in Burbank. The site uses user-reported salaries as benchmarks, so this data isn’t perfect, and I don’t have access to Marvel’s compensation data, but it does show salary-wise, there’s parity.

Unfortunately, where that parity fails is in the nature of the two cities. Assuming that all other conditions are the same as far as the cost of living, New York is a city with extensive and well-used public transit. Los Angeles is a commuter city. That means that if the person relocating already owns a car, they will need to spend more in gas, and if they don’t they will also need to purchase a vehicle (even assuming they know how to drive and have a current driver’s license) — an additional monthly cost ranging from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand, depending on multiple factors over the cost of public transit.

That would mean on top of the $10,000 plus for moving expenses, to remain whole the employee would need an estimated salary increase of anywhere from 5% to 12%. And if a relocation package is offered, it’s possible (probably even likely) it would be offered as a reimbursement rather than an upfront stipend, which would add hundreds in interest and finance charges on credit cards and HELOCs (because who has $10,000 lying in their account in 2026?).

And those are just the relatively easy to quantify dollar amounts. There’s so many more factors that are difficult to quantify such as:

• Impact on a spouse’s career, ranging from transfers, to a job search, and including considerations like losing seniority, loss of accrued benefits like Paid Time Off, different pay ranges in a new locality, state licensing and certification costs, and benefit and perk differences
• Increased commute time
• Impact on family and children, such as school tuition, daycare, gym memberships, extracurriculars such as sports, music, art, and so on
• Loss of support systems, such as family, friends, teachers, medical providers, faith-based groups and more

So, at a glance, the question of “move and keep your job or stay and get laid off” might seem simple, but we can see it’s much more complex than you might think. For the Marvel Comics staffers about to face a remarkably tough situation, we offer best wishes as you begin to navigate a remarkably difficult choice.