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Cheers to Joe Quesada!

By | January 5th, 2011
Posted in Columns | % Comments

While congratulations are in order for Axel Alonso as he takes the reigns as Marvel’s new Editor in Chief I want to make sure a certain man isn’t forgotten. That man is Joe Quesada. While some may love him and some may hate him I absolutely fall into the love category. This is a man who helped to right the good ship Marvel when things looked the bleakest. Now Quesada leaves his EIC position after a decade of excellence. So I invite you to join me as I reminisce and sing praise on Quesada’s tenure.

One of my favorite things to come out of the Quesada era is an obvious one and is one of the first things he helped to establish, the Ultimate line of comics. I mean who can talk about Quesada’s epic run as EIC for Marvel and not start with this brand. Not only were these comics brilliant, they also brought to Marvel some of the industries best and brightest. Some of which you may have heard of.

These creators to this day are still unleashing hit after hit on the comic universe. Creators like Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, Adam Kubert and Mark Bagley backed the titles of the Ultimate line. Bendis and Millar especially have been raining down hits for Marvel since their involvement with this line. You could almost make an argument for these two creators as staples of the company as Bendis really helps to dictate the movement of the Marvel universe and Millar dominates the Icon line. It’s this kind of high caliber talent that Quesada helped to bring in that made this line successful.

Overall, the Ultimate line is where I think the success started but not even close to where it ended. Outside of the Ultimate universe and stepping into the 616 proper Quesada was hitting the high marks as well. He was bringing in great creators and allowing them the ability to be creative. Throwing things at the wall and seeing what worked and didn’t. He allowed the freedom that is required for success. Runs like JMS’ Amazing Spider-Man, Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly’s New X-Men and, a personal favorite of mine, Peter Milligan and Mike Allred’s X-Force/X-Statix were all met with initial fanpeep upheaval that eventually subsided and resulted in some excellent comics.

Now one of the greatest parts of Quesada’s run is not even his editing or his creative role in books or Marvel itself. It was actually the way in which he interacted with fans. To this day he is still a one man PR firm for Marvel. DC doesn’t even come close to touching Quesada’s ability to reach out to fans and come across as one of the guys. From having weekly columns on Newsarama, MySpace and eventually Comic Book Resources he made himself accessible even when fans only used this accessibility to rage against the man for doing things to their beloved characters that they would never dream of doing in their fan fiction.

Quesada was in my opinion the first EIC to embrace and understand the importance of the digital age of comics. He came onboard at a time when the internet as a comic tool and resource was really hitting its stride and he embraced it and took it to new heights. What other comic big wig took time out of their busy schedules to do weekly columns to answer fan questions? Some are doing it now but none have ever done it as well or as consistently over the course of time as Quesada.

An aspect of Quesada’s openness with fans that I most enjoyed was the way he brought back the friendly rivalry between Marvel and its Distinguished Competition. Often throwing stones there way just to get a rise out of them and a chuckle for fans. Sometimes it would get that rise out of the competition and sometimes it wouldn’t. It always put a smile on my face though I can tell you that much. It made the comic book business seem fun again and made you want to be part of that business. Dc may not want to admit it but the shots and the back and forth were good for the comic book business as a whole.

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There are a myriad of other things I could list here, as reasons for Quesada’s tenure being the best since Stan Lee himself but those things are my favorites. Other aspects I enjoyed include but are not exclusive to things such as the constant influx offresh talent like Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathon Hickman and Jason Aaron as well as the dominance of event comics. Event fatigue my ass! Bring em on!

So I guess what I’m trying to say is congratulations to Axel Alonso but lets not forget the importance of Joe Quesada’s EIC tenure on not only Marvel Comics but also the industry as whole. It will be remembered in comic’s history as one of the best and most important.

Now, I’d also like to ask one question. Remember when DC said there was no chance in hell of a DC and Marvel crossover while a certain somebody was EIC? Well he isn’t there anymore so when are we going to get that Batman and Daredevil crossover by Bendis? No excuses left now guys!


Brandon Burpee

Burpee loves Superheroes, Alaskan IPA, 90's X-Men and is often one more beer away from a quotable.

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