Joe Quesada Promoted: Chief Creative Officer...

[Previsionary]

New York, NY – June 2, 2010 – Marvel Entertainment, LLC announced today that it has promoted Joe Quesada to Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. In this new role, Mr. Quesada will work alongside Alan Fine, Executive Vice President, Office of the President and Chairman of Marvel Studios’ Creative Committee, to ensure that all portrayals of Marvel’s characters and storytelling remain true to the essence of Marvel’s rich history. Additionally, Mr. Quesada will provide creative oversight of all areas of Marvel’s business including theatrical, television, publishing, animation and games, while also actively participating in all story and script development for Marvel’s films and animation. Prior to this promotion, Mr. Quesada held the role of Chief Creative Officer & Editor-In-Chief, Marvel Animation & Publishing and oversaw the creative aspects of Marvel Comics and Marvel Animation. The announcement was made today by Mr. Fine, to whom Mr. Quesada will report.

Mr. Fine stated, “I am excited to have Joe join me as Marvel Entertainment enters the next chapter in our history. Joe has already played an instrumental role as Editor-in-Chief in changing the face of the comic book industry with bold new ventures and an unprecedented penetration of the mainstream consciousness. His love and passion for Marvel, along with his experience guiding publishing for the last decade, will be invaluable as we bring our characters to life in new media.”

“I am honored to take this new position at Marvel Entertainment and work with Alan to bring the rich history of Marvel to a brand new audience” said Mr. Quesada. “Together with the incredible talent here at Marvel, in all our divisions, I look forward to making Marvel an even bigger part of the entertainment industry and showing why we’ve been an industry leader for over 70 years.”

Mr. Quesada will also continue to serve as Editor-In-Chief, Marvel Publishing, where over the past decade he has helped usher in bold new imprints such as Marvel Knights, the Ultimate Universe and Marvel MAX. During his tenure, Marvel received acclaim for its Heroes special to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001; the groundbreaking Death of Captain America storyline; and President Obama’s historic team up with Spider-Man. Mr. Quesada is also one of the industry’s most popular artists, providing cover and interior art to blockbusters such as Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Invincible Iron Man and more.

Emphasis mine. How do we feel about this? Good thinking or a misstep? Will he garner more fan hate now? Will MJ slowly fall out of mainstream media as Gwen takes the throne as Pete's go to girl for the new gen.? What does it all mean!

[marhawkman]

there's not much I dislike about him, other than his disdain of characters in stable relationships.

[murs47]

It's hard to say at this point. But if he's over-seeing other mediums of Marvel's IPs being used, I can't say that's a bad thing.

[BlueBard]

My take is that Joe Q has not been terribly bothered in the past with ensuring "that all portrayals of Marvel?s characters and storytelling remain true to the essence of Marvel?s rich history."

Look at the horrible re-characterizations of many mainline Marvel characters that have been allowed during his watch over the past few years.  It hasn't been all bad, but it hasn't been all good either.

And now he has oversight over Marvel Studios as well.  I would imagine that he won't be able to do too much damage to the Avengers movie, but I'm afraid for anything that gets developed from here on out.  Just wait till we get Bendis as head screenwriter and Liefield overseeing CGI...

[Xenolith]

I agree with BlueBard.

[Blkcasanova247]

I don't agree. I personally like what happening "IN GENERAL" with Marvel Comics and it's characters. I won't say I love everything...but the "core" of the storytelling I'm on board with. That has a lot to do with Joe Q and I think he'll do a bang up job as CCO. Now what they really need to do is overhaul their direct to DVD Animation line...DC is spanking them in overall quality.

[marhawkman]

Liefeld as animator.   I'm almost tempted to say I'd like to see it just out of curiousity.

[Podmark]

Good for him. I generally like the way Joe Q runs Marvel. Yes he pushes some questionable directions (OMD) but he gives most of his creators a fair bit of freedom and keeps some titles going despite low sales like Spider-Girl and Runaways.

[BlueBard]

Let's see now...

Under Joe Q...

...Peter Parker sold his marriage to the devil,

...Tony Stark betrayed pretty much everybody in Civil War,

...We got Sentry ('Nuff said),

...The Ultimate-verse failed to live up to its' potential,

...Marvel Zombies turned my heroes into repulsive cannibals,

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  I could go on and on, but I don't have that kind of time.

[BentonGrey]

*Shrug* I figure it can't really get much worse.

[Xenolith]

Oh, you little ray of sunshine, you.   

[murs47]

Don't forget he took Marvel from nearly filing for bankruptcy to a net worth of 400 million dollars.

While he's made some decisions I don't agree with, he's also made a bunch I do.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Ugh.

I agree with Blue Bard, I have issues with everything JoeQ has done and especially the way he has treated and allowed Marvel characters to be treated since he's been in charge.

I don't see this as a positive move forward for the company, it's been wallowing in muck thanks to Joe for years now.  Disney's buy-out of Marvel may be the company's only saving grace.

Dana

[BlueBard]

Marvel didn't get into the black based entirely on its' print media output.  The three things Marvel always does right are protecting its' trademarks, licensing its' properties, and generating hype.

I can respect that, but it doesn't mean they're putting out better stories than they used to.

[Blkcasanova247]

Well let's see
Marvel Zombies...another continuity...don't like it...didn't buy it. Got nothin to do with Marvel proper.

Sentry was not created by Joe Q and the original story was cool. Paul Jenkins wrote a good story. Sentry is not the only silly Superman rip off Marvel has...Hyperion and Gladiator come to mind. Oh...and he's dead.

Yeah...I don't like the fall out from "One More Day" much myself...but JMS wrote a great story...and Spider Man stories since have been really good. Besides as all things in comics nothing is set in stone.

Ultimate U wasn't great from jump...the best book that that line had and still has going for it is Ultimate Spider Man (A great book writen by the ever hated Brian Bendis...not by me though). Everything else wasn't worth it to me...even Ultimates which was great but took delayed release date to a whole new level.

Tony Stark...not the first time...Armor Wars...he shoots Cap in the back and lets not forget The Crossing where he murders two people and betrays everyone. Joe Q not EIC for those two jems.

[steamteck]

*Shrug* I figure it can't really get much worse.

You're such an optometrist. If he gets much creative control over marvel studios. the golden age of Marvel movies may be on the way out. The Movies at least left out most of the drek and cherry picked the best or used iconic versions of the characters

[steamteck]

W
Sentry was not created by Joe Q and the original story was cool. Paul Jenkins wrote a good story. Sentry is not the only silly Superman rip off Marvel has...Hyperion and Gladiator come to mind. Oh...and he's dead.

Please please stay dead and forgotten

[Podmark]

*Shrug* I figure it can't really get much worse.

You're such an optometrist. If he gets much creative control over marvel studios. the golden age of Marvel movies may be on the way out. The Movies at least left out most of the drek and cherry picked the best or used iconic versions of the characters

You realize he's been involved in the movies since Marvel Studios was formed right?
I doubt his movie role will increase significantly.

[BentonGrey]

Honestly, as long as Marvel keeps making good movies, I'm happy enough, 'cause it isn't like I'm reading their books anyway.

[John Jr.]

Ugh.

I agree with Blue Bard, I have issues with everything JoeQ has done and especially the way he has treated and allowed Marvel characters to be treated since he's been in charge.

I don't see this as a positive move forward for the company, it's been wallowing in muck thanks to Joe for years now.  Disney's buy-out of Marvel may be the company's only saving grace.

Dana

May I just agree with Dana? "Ugh" is very good definition...

[pr1983]

he put fraction in charge of cyclops, and for that the man will forever by disliked by me.

not sure whether the promotion is good or not, though.

[BlueBard]

*Shrug* I figure it can't really get much worse.

You're such an optometrist. If he gets much creative control over marvel studios. the golden age of Marvel movies may be on the way out. The Movies at least left out most of the drek and cherry picked the best or used iconic versions of the characters

You realize he's been involved in the movies since Marvel Studios was formed right?
I doubt his movie role will increase significantly.

It would be naive to think that he has had no input at all.

Not being privvy to Marvel's org structure either before or after Disney, I couldn't tell you just how involved he was or will be.

The point is, there is a legitimate reason that Quesada is disliked by some Marvel fans.  And to consider him as the great protector of Marvel's rich history and defender of character portrayal is at best somewhat ignorant, given some of the monkey business we know he has been around for if not directly involved in.  That's the part I am reacting to.

[lugaru]

You can like or dislike Quesada as an artist/writer but as an editor he did help bring Marvel out of bankrupcy by making the universe more tonaly cohesive. A few of his "Marvel Knight" titles where flops (angel punisher) but overall he really helped bring Marvel into the here and now, which entertains me to no end and anoys golden/silver age lovers.

So yeah, I loved Marvel Zombies. Civil War was flawed but thrilling. Most peripheral titles born out of the various status quo changes have been great (see Guardians of the Galaxy, The Initiative, Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, Mighty Avengers) and all of them are married to whatever is going on.

So I'm optimistic, he is no Jeff Jons (who is not my favorite writer but I am amazed at how prolific he is) he has done the company good and should continue to do so.

[steamteck]

You realize he's been involved in the movies since Marvel Studios was formed right?
I doubt his movie role will increase significantly.

I realize that but any increase in his input is a bad thing to me. if the Marvel movie people still get to do their thing and produce stories as superior to the comics as they have been. I'll be happy.

[Podmark]

It would be naive to think that he has had no input at all.

Not being privvy to Marvel's org structure either before or after Disney, I couldn't tell you just how involved he was or will be.

The point is, there is a legitimate reason that Quesada is disliked by some Marvel fans.  And to consider him as the great protector of Marvel's rich history and defender of character portrayal is at best somewhat ignorant, given some of the monkey business we know he has been around for if not directly involved in.  That's the part I am reacting to.

My point is simply that he has already been involved in the movies to some degree, I don't know how much but some. So it's entirely possible that he's actually responsible for aspects of those movies that you liked (if you liked them). He may also be responsible for the parts you didn't like, or had little impact at all. He doesn't necessarily bring the same goals and opinions from his comics work to his movie work - they are two very different mediums with very different needs.

Quesada is just one cog in the machine. Yes he's the cog that is in charge but with the exception of certain things (OMD, the Decimation, books he actually writes etc) it's the writers who more shape the current stories. Avengers is what it is because of Bendis for example. Yes Quesada has input but if Dan Slott had taken over Avengers during Dissassembled it would be a very different book - and we'd have a very different universe right now. Similarly, had Ed Brubaker wrote Civil War instead of Mark Miller the effect would have been different again.

And then there's the consumers. Quesada makes decisions based on what sales and demand. Marvel Zombies is the best example of this. It only exists because some people wanted it and continue to buy it. Should Quesada have said no (assuming he had similar problems to cannibal heroes like you do BlueBard) when customers wanted it and he had writers and artists interested in making it?

Ultimately Quesada is only as good or bad as the writers, artists, and editors he employs - and the fans that buy Marvel books. Yes he is the figurehead, so if you dislike Marvel or parts of Marvel right now he is good target to hate, but he may or may not be the source of the specific problem.

[BlueBard]

I can't really blame the writers.  Sure they are able to write pure dreck if they want, but their stories have to get greenlighted, don't they?  Or perhaps they have far more control at Marvel than I realize.

I would think that the editorial staff is the go/no-go with the power to tell the writers and artists to change something.  And if Joe Quesada was/is Editor-in-Chief, then he is ultimately responsible for the direction EVERY title takes.

So if I don't like something (and there's a lot of it), then yes, he's the guy I point a finger at.  Now that he is Chief Creative Officer over EVERY Marvel division, I have even more reason to hold him responsible for what happens (creatively) at Marvel.

Don't get me wrong, though.  I don't hate him.  I don't even know the man.  I'll give him credit for tirelessly promoting Marvel, even if I don't like everything he's promoted.

[Podmark]

Or perhaps they have far more control at Marvel than I realize.

I think they do. Well a handful that at least includes Brian Bendis, Jeph Loeb, and Mark Miller.

At the very least consider that Quesada has to publish something (a lot of somethings actually) so he takes the best of what is pitched at him. Consider that the above are among the top creators in comics today in terms of sales. If Marvel doesn't want their stories then they'll just go to DC or Image or TV etc. Then Marvel is left with the tier 2 (sales wise) creators, which will negatively impact sales and ultimately cost Quesada his job. Not that I think it's like this, these guys are Quesada's buddies - but it illustrates how much power they have at Marvel.

Also consider that the Bendis', Loebs, and Millers are at every creative summit, so those guys have their hands on all the major storylines - and the major storylines feed lower tier books and new books. Thus everything they do affects everything else.

So really when you blame Quesada it should be a package deal.


Keep in mind that X-Books are ran differently and everything I've seen seems to imply Quesada is less involved in that area. That main guys there would be Axel Alonso, Nick Lowe, and writers Matt Fraction and (until the end of next month) Chris Yost and Craig Kyle.


Also I honestly believe the next EIC of Marvel will be either Brian Bendis or Jeph Loeb.

[Previsionary]

Lord help us if that's true. Those two creators in general show disdain for criticism and openly show they don't care much for continuity. Also, I can only imagine them forcing overly long stories on us that don't make sense until 4 years down the line. . I can also imagine the swear cap going up and the symbols gradually fading away. It's a horrible thought. On the plus, the Avengers and Hulk would be bolstered up to Marvel's premier characters.

[Podmark]

I never said I liked it, but unless theres a regime change I definitely think it will be one of them.

On the plus, the Avengers and Hulk would be bolstered up to Marvel's premier characters.

More so than now???

[Talavar]

What's happening to Chris Yost & Craig Kyle at the end of next month?