Comic Book Resources

I don’t think anyone forgets what Quesada did for Marvel in the beginning of his tenure. It’s just vastly overshadowed by the work he’s done since to erase that progress.

Except that Quesada is still, you know, making lots of money for Marvel. People seem to keep forgetting that part…

Really? I haven’t seen anyone accusing him of causing financial damage to the company.

And do any fans really care if he’s making the company rich? Their main concern is the product.

“Fans can yell about Joe and Dan, but he turned that company around from a company that was bankrupt to something of value.”

No. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. The Spider-Man movie turned Marvel around. Quesada had nothing to do with the movie.

And this is not an anti-Joe statement by me. Nor is it about the quality of the books done by Marvel. It is simply untrue that Quesada turned around the bankruptcy.

“And do any fans really care if he’s making the company rich? Their main concern is the product.”

But that’s the difference between fans and business. Quesada’s #1 job is to make sure Marvel makes as much money as possible. His #2 job is to make sure his company is putting out quality stories that fans will enjoy.

And if the whole “magic divorce” deal ends up making the Spidey books sell more in the long run (and frankly, it seems like it has so far), then Quesada has done his job. Sure, it makes no sense from a story standpoint and fans can say that they know 150 ways that THEY’VE would’ve done it better, but in the long run its a business decision. Fan goodwill is a good thing and can certainly help sales, but as Mark Waid recently pointed out fans as a whole frequently claim they want a book that is fun and has little to do with company crossovers, yet Brave & the Bold has underperformed.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but…

Didn’t “the turn around” occur during the Bill Jemas era?

In any case, the real credit should go to Avi Arad and Ike Perlmutter. They are the reason Marvel Entertainment Group is financially sound and profitable.

The Publishing arm is making money, sure… but it’s mostly due to increased prices. The way I see it, the market base is still shrinking.

Maybe one of you future MBA’s can set me straight…

When there is a consistent decline in the consumer base , is it still called “negative growth”? …a question mark? …a dog?

Except that Quesada is still, you know, making lots of money for Marvel. People seem to keep forgetting that part

And I’m sure Marvel are deeply grateful for that but why should the fans be? Speaking as fan I will always take books I enjoy over ones which make more money simply because while I am reading the book, I’m not getting the money.

Peope who knock Queseda (and I’m not one for the record) do it because they find the books released under his reign less enjoyable then they could be. How does the fact that he’s making money for a bunch of people they don’t know change that? I think people are confusing criticism of Quesada’s artistic talents (if such a word can be applied to editing) with criticism of his ability to do his job. The fact that he’s effective at making money for his empoyers shouldn’t exempt him from criticism over the quality of the products he releases.

Fan goodwill is a good thing and can certainly help sales, but as Mark Waid recently pointed out fans as a whole frequently claim they want a book that is fun and has little to do with company crossovers, yet Brave & the Bold has underperformed.

So it’s not that he’s writing a book that isn’t as good as it could be?

I haven’t read it, doesn’t sound like my thing – although I do like Mark Waid as a writer – but I’m sick of creators and companies going ‘You all say you want ‘X’ but when we gave you ‘Book Y’ you didn’t like it, so you obviously don’t really want ‘X’.
It’s a stupid argument – for example, Marvel saying there’s no money in books aimed at girls, because ‘Trouble’ didn’t sell… that didn’t prove there was no market for girls, it just proves that Trouble was a piece of shit.

Perhaps it’s because I stayed away from each and every “mainstream” book after slogging through the Clone Saga as a child, but what regime at Marvel has produced BETTER stories than Quesada has as a whole? For all the shit he gets because of One More Day (which I think is totally justified), I think he’s done a superb job compared to basically every other era of Marvel. He’s even showed that he can make major changes when he needs to — for example, most of the books under his tenure did away with thought balloons, presumably to give the books a more mature feel, yet arguably their flagship superhero title — Amazing Spider-Man — is filled with the things, now. I think he’s good at figuring out when to do what, without picking up too many crazy crusades beyond his apparent hatred for Mary Jane and Peter Parker as a couple. Obviously, he can do better, but considering the recent past, he’s really doing a fantastic job.