Joe Quesada stepping down from being EIC of Marvel

[clockworkmonk]

seeing this is news related specifically to comics, and big news at that, I figured this was the place to post it.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011 ... -the-beach

[Belial]

Fucking finally.

[Endless Mike]

Fucking finally.

Yeah, he was so much worse than Bob Harras.

[SecondTalon]

[Jesse]

Can we hold a party?

[Endless Mike]

I don't get the Quesada hate?? Other than One More Day, he's done a pretty good job from what I can see, and has promoted many new creators from both in and outside the business.

[Zohar]

Can we hold a party?

A fucking party?

And Mike, I have no idea. To be honest, I don't pay that much attention to the creators of a comics I read. I remember some specific writers that I like. I seldom remember artists. The only reason I know which company a comics belongs to is because I know which company the character belongs to. When I'm not reading a one-shot, anyway.

[Belial]

I don't get the Quesada hate?? Other than One More Day, he's done a pretty good job from what I can see, and has promoted many new creators from both in and outside the business.

Civil War

[broken_escalator]

2006: Heroes go to battle against one another during the "Civil War" crossover event, leading to the death of Captain America in "Captain America" #25. Cap's death was covered by many mainstream news outlets, and it marks the only time in history that everyone at my graduate school was talking about comics. Given that "Civil War" was also something of a political allegory about national security and personal liberty, killing Cap suggested the message that the climate of the time had sort of "killed" the spirit of America. But when recently revived former sidekick Bucky Barnes took on the shield and wings, it became clear to everyone that the spirit of America had simply been transformed into an ex-Soviet assassin with a bionic arm.

This is what I gleaned from another source as one of the big reasons people disliked him.

Also people seemed somewhat upset about :

What appears to be the entire collective Marvel fanbase flips out as Quesada presides over the decision to retcon Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson in the "One More Day" storyline so that it never happened

[clockworkmonk]

More than just Civil War and One More Day (personally I enjoyed a few of the stories in civil war, excepting the end and Sally Floyd), he was responsible for what seemed like an endless stream of mega-cross-universe events, which get old, and because of his instance of shaking things up, let to some big wall-bangers.

That, and how often female characters were eliminated to make their boyfriend/husbands "more interesting" got kinda terrible.

[SecondTalon]

Civil War*; One More Day; The Decimation which in and of itself is not that terrible of a thing, more of they can't even fucking decide how bad it was and at this point seems to be designed just to make the shitty mutant's lives even shittier. And then there's Storm's whole marriage thing. It's not that she got married, or even who she married, it's the bullshit they pulled in reconning crap and "adjusting" her character as she's been written since her introduction.... and then there's the whole reason they had her and T'Challa get married in the first place. Not because they'd been working with each other, not because we'd seen a romance playing out for the last 10 or even 5 years.. Nope, they're both black. Good enough! Just change some backstory details and print it!


*Now keep in mind, when people say Civil War, they aren't talking about the Civil War itself, or the Registration Act, or how various groups in the Marvel Universe went to various sides or were split because of it. No no. They're talking about the dozens if not hundreds of character derailments that happened "Just so", they talk about the fractionalized Marvel Writers who when writing a Pro or Anti story wrote it.. badly. They're talking about Tony Fucking Stark building Space Prisons. They're talking about Painball. They're talking about a fuckton of shit that went down without comment from anyone. It's not that the Fantastic Four were

Oh, and the Skrull invasions. Don't like what Captain America did in issue #73? Skrulls did it. Something like this could have been handled a bit better than how it was.


For every good connection he's made to the world outside comics (See: The Non-Shitty Movies) he's made poor ones as well (See: The fucking Guiding Light thing. What the fuck, Marvel!?)

[Jesse]

FUCKING FUCK FUCK FUCK SKRULLS!

[Endless Mike]

I dunno, most of that can be more accurately attributed/blamed on Tom Brevoort's office. Sure, he ultimately answers to the EIC, but you have to ask how much of that wouldn't have happened with someone else in the position, and with the somewhat collaborative creative environment that Marvel works in, I bet a lot of it still would have. Barring things that were directly mandated by Quesada (One More Day, no smoking, and maybe Storm's marriage), most everything at Marvel is creator-driven. As for killing female characters, Marvel is certainly guilty, but they're not as bad as DC.

[SecondTalon]

Good ol' "We need to make this character darker and edgier - quick, turn them into a serial rapist!" DC.

[Endless Mike]

The sad thing is that it seems to be working since DC outsold Marvel (in dollar share, marvel had a 2% edge on unit share) in December for the first time in a long time.

[McCaber]

Don't start the party just yet. Quesada's not retiring, he's changing hats. He's now Marvel's Chief Creative Officer.

[Endless Mike]

Yeah, but his job function there is related more to the outside media side of the house like movies and TV shows and such.

[Jesse]

The bits he is, for the most part, good at.