BALTIMORE 06: CUP O JOE

**MattBrady** · 09-10-2006, 08:55 AM

Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada debuted his Cup O Joe panel on Saturday at the Baltimore Comic-Con, fielding questions from fans on a wide range of topics. Quesada was joined by Editor Tom Brevoort for the panel.

Highlights of the panel included:

To break the ice and pre-empt any line of questioning, Quesada repeated his message about Daredevil: Father #6, that is, the issue has been done on his end for months, and is now waiting to be inked by Danny Mikki and colored by Richard Isanove, both of whom have moved on to other projects, and need to find time in their schedules to tackle the final issue of the miniseries. Miki has recently dislocated his shoulder, Quesada noted, which has caused a further delay.

When a fan noted the picture of Captain America by Travis Charest in the convention program (in an ad for next summer’s Heroes Convention in Charlotte) and asked if there was any chance Charest could be doing Marvel work soon, Quesada said that he would love to see the artist at Marvel, and has talked to him about it. However, Quesada added, Charest has commitments to other publishers that he’s currently working on, and those limit his time to work on new material. Once those commitments are done, however, Quesada said, “We’ll see.”

At an earlier panel in the day, it was mentioned that Marvel doesn’t send comp copies of its titles to creators. When asked about it, Quesada said that the decision was out of his hands, and was a chance that was instituted when the company was coming out of bankruptcy, in order to cut costs. Creators on Marvel books are sent five or so copies of their titles, Quesada said, saying that, like everyone else, he gets his five copies of Daredevil: Father issues.

Quesada said that he has recently spoken with writer Damon Lindelof, and he is currently working on the final two issues of Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine, and that the writer’s work on Lost ate up his time, which caused the delay on the miniseries.

Both Quesada and Brevoort then fielded questions about Civil War’s lateness, reiterating many of the same points that both have made here at Newsarama and elsewhere. Quesada said that the series was started with what they felt was enough, or as much lead time as they could give the creative team, but in the end, books are done by human beings, not machines.

Brevoort also stressed that Marvel made the decision to maintain one creative team and voice throughout the entire series which is, in the end he feels, better for the whole project. “It would be very easy to throw bodies at this, and everyone could say, ‘Wow! I have my Civil War #4!,’” Brevoort said. “But then, they look at it and say, ‘But it stinks.’”

In terms of scheduling, Quesada noted that next summer’s major Marvel storyline is already in the planning stages, and is moving forward as quickly as can be expected, but there are several beats to still work out. The EIC again noted that the yet unnamed storyline won’t have as many tie-ins or be on a scale similar to Civil War, but again, will have Marvel looking to maintain a consistent voice and look on the entire project.

Quesada then related a story about his time at Marvel while working with Jimmy Palmiotti on the Marvel Knights imprint, when the two learned that Marvel was on the cusp of slapping the Marvel Knights logo on any book they felt had an edge and would, consequently, have weak sales without the help the logo would give. In a similar manner to what’s currently going on with Civil War, Quesada said that, along with Palmiotti and Dan Buckley (who was working in marketing and sales at that time) he fought to maintain the integrity of the Marvel Knights brand, and not to dilute it by adding titles that weren’t related to it, and that he and Palmiotti weren’t overseeing.

While the three eventually won the battle, and kept Marvel Knights limited to the titles they had, it was those types of decisions they fought against that eventually caused Buckley to leave the company. Quesada noted that, if Marvel had been allowed to brand any title it wanted as a “Marvel Knights” title, the imprint would have failed, and everything the imprint helped to make happen, from strong sales, to Quesada’s ultimate ascendancy to Editor in Chief, would not have happened.

In answering a question about Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray’s new exclusive with DC, both Quesada and Brevoort said that the two will finish their commitment on Heroes For Hire (which Brevoort thinks is eight issues), and then Marvel will find a new creative team for the title. Both Brevoort and Quesada emphasized that Palmiotti and Gray are not just letting work drop because of their new two year deal.

Will Spider-Man be going back to his original costume? Quesada: “Yes.”

Will Dwayne McDuffie be doing more at Marvel after Beyond!? Brevoort said he hopes so. While the editor said he hasn’t spoken specifically with McDuffie about any particular projects, he wants to see him doing more at Marvel, noting that he was a huge fan of McDuffie’s work on the animated Justice League Unlimited series.

Joss Whedon will be sticking around at Marvel after Astonishing X-Men, Quesada said, noting that there will be some announcements coming soon that will mention this.

Asked point blank by a fan if things in the Marvel Universe will ever go back to normal after being “screwed up” by House of M and Civil War, Quesada said, “These toys are meant to be broken. If we just told stories that kept the status quo, nobody would be in this room, and I’d be out of a job. They’re mean to be thrown against a wall, smashed together, and built back up again.”

Asked about Thunderbolts post Civil War, Brevoort didn’t reveal any specific details, other than saying it will be a “big deal book” at Marvel and feature “enough” of the same characters.

“It might just be a little meaner,” Quesada added.

Quesada said that he’s seen Joe Madureria’s first issue of Ultimates 3, and both 3 and 4 are being worked on, currently.

When asked about a fans concerns over the future Spider-Man storyline shown in Amazing Spider-Man where a differently costumed Peter Parker gets gunned down in a cemetery as perhaps coming true and ruining the character and having him go away and end, both Quesada and Brevoort spoke about how there has never been a Spider-Man writer who has been fully embraced by fans while they were writing Spider-Man. Even Stan Lee got letters from fans saying he was destroying the character when he had Peter Parker graduate high school, Brevoort said.

Brevoort said that fans can always be worried about bad Spider-Man stories (as they can be worried about bad stories with any character), however, as the editor said, Spider-Man, as a character, is virtually indestructible, and will always be around.

Asked if the Hulk will be coming back from space, Quesada related it back to his ealier answer about keeping characters in status quo, pointing out that, for the Hulk, what once was seen as a massive change for the characters (going into space) is now his status quo.

“Hulk is pretty happy where he is,” Quesada said. “It’s not like we would ever pull that away from him would we? A happy “Hulk leads to no smashing and him sitting there and staring at his great big, green navel and saying, ‘Hmmm.’ 22 pages of that – yeah!”

Has a new Ultimate Spider-Man artist been named yet?

Quesada, “Can’t say yet.”

Quesada also said that he can’t say too much about the upcoming
Omega Flight series because it would give away specific points about the ending of Civil War.

There is a plan in place for the new team on Runaways, Quesada said, noting that writer Brian K. Vaughan brokered the deal for the new writer himself and picked his successor on the title.

Will Sue Storm join Captain America’s side?

Quesada: Read Civil War #4

And Ben Grimm?

Brevoort: He’s in Civil War #4 as well, but has decided to leave the US, which will take place in the next issue of Fantastic Four.

Quesada noted that announcements of new initiatives that will have a large mainstream outreach component will be coming soon – projects, Quesada said, that will advance the industry in a very positive way, and not just feature superheroes.

Will we see Taskmaster after his appearance in Moon Knight, perhaps in a miniseries?

Quesada: “No miniseries, but you’ll see him…around.”

Asked by a young girl if there will be a second season of Stan Lee’s Who Wants to be a Superhero series on SciFi, Quesada said that the program was something that Lee did through his POW Entertainment brand, and suggested that she write Lee a latter and tell him that she liked it, and he’ll bet back to her.

The girl followed up with, “What do you think, would happen if Spider-Man found out that you were the guys destroying his life?” Which was met by thunderous applause form the room, and stumped Quesada.

“He’d probably write Stan a letter too,” Quesada said.

Asked what writers not currently working in comics he’d like to see at Marvel, Quesada said that he’s a huge William Gibson fan, and have approached him, but couldn’t get past his agent, who dismissed Marvel as “just comics.” Quesada said that they have also approached Neal Stephenson and Stephen Hunter, both of whom are very busy writers.

In that vein, commenting on the schedule for the Dark Tower miniseries, adapting and expanding on the Stephen King novel series, Brevoort said that the release of #1 is still scheduled for the first quarter of 2007, and the team is currently working very far ahead on it. Artist Jae Lee, Brevoort said, is well into the 5th issue, and moving toward #6 right now.

Asked if he felt there was too much continuity in the Ultimate Universe, and thus, the premise it was launched under and the concept as a whole was a failed experiment, Quesada said that he didn’t see it as failed at all, given that anyone can pick up an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man at the beginning of an arc and know completely what’s going on without having to worry about 40 years of history. Quesada said that some of that approach, still holding continuity as important, but not being as self-referential as in years past, has been adopted by the mainline Marvel Universe as well.

Asked if he was satisfied with Marvel films such as Fantastic Four, Elektra and X-Men 3, Quesada asked back, “Completely satisfied? Nah,” and then added that by the same token, he’s not completely satisfied with every comic book tjhat comes out of Marvel at the end of the day. That said, Quesada added, “I went to those movies though, and still had a lot of fun. Were there problems? Sure. It’s the same as in comics - nobody bats 1000.”

David Lapham is currently working on a Spider-Man project for early next year, and has a story with David Aja in the upcoming Giant Size Wolverine.

If his EiC run ended tomorrow, what would Quesada consider his defining moment?

“Heroes that we did five years ago. That was the single greatest accomplishment in my tenure, and something I hope we will never have to do again.”

Who’s the most underutilized character in the Marvel Universe? Quesada: Deathlok, Captain Marvel.

When asked, Brevoort said that four more Golden Age Marvel Masterworks are on the way, with one of them featuring Atlas era material.

Asked the perennial question about a possible return of Rom, Brevoort said that it’s a rights issue that prevents Marvel from using the character. Marvel has tried a few times over the years to get the rights, but the issue hasn’t been cleared up.

Will Eddie Brock return to being Venom and Cletus Cassidy return as Carnage soon?

“Wait and see. That answer affects a lot of things.”

Asked if there are writers that Marvel can approach and land now that they couldn’t ten or fifteen years ago, Quesada said that there absolutely are, noting that it was Kevin Smith on Daredevil who pushed that door open in many ways. As Quesada said, once other writers from film and television saw what Smith was doing and that comics were a viable way to tell stories and reach an audience, the surge began and hasn’t let up.”

Quesada also noted that many creators today in film and television were weaned on classic Marvel era comics, and have taken that spark form their early days as Marvel fans, and have applied that to their own work. Now, he added, they see that they can come back to comics as well.

Tom Daylight · 09-10-2006, 09:17 AM

http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.613

"But this is NOT the end of the Runaways…let the speculation begin now…who will be the new creative team on Runaways! The answer will be revealed to retailers at the Baltimore Summit in one week. "

So... um... when are we going to find out who the new team is?

Howard · 09-10-2006, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fetsur

http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.613

"But this is NOT the end of the Runaways…let the speculation begin now…who will be the new creative team on Runaways! The answer will be revealed to retailers at the Baltimore Summit in one week. "

So... um... when are we going to find out who the new team is?

The Diamond Retailer summits runs from today through Tuesday.

Tom Daylight · 09-10-2006, 10:00 AM

Oh, okay. .

lordlad · 09-10-2006, 10:06 AM

Joss Whedon will be sticking around at Marvel after Astonishing X-Men, Quesada said, noting that there will be some announcements coming soon that will mention this.

Joss Wheldon on Runaways ???!!!!????

Burnt Frog · 09-10-2006, 10:07 AM

Joe Fridays was delayed due to Quesada working on a new project, but the word is out that on Joe Monday the new Runaways team will be revealed.

Not to raise anyone's hopes, but could it be Whedon?

Anyway, seriously hoping Thunderbolts gets a dynamite creative team. And make damn sure Billy Tucci stays with Marvel in some way!

LucasSiegel · 09-10-2006, 10:14 AM

Yeah, that announcement will be made tomorrow and brought to us here at Newsarama in a special "New Joe Mondays" as a replacement for the missing "Fridays" two days ago.

LucasSiegel · 09-10-2006, 10:15 AM

Wow, that was fast posting, guys... Anyway, who thinks Taskmaster is gonna be on Thunderbolts? OO OO, ME ME ME!!!

crunch-o-matic · 09-10-2006, 10:22 AM

I wonder if the share holders are getting uppity or care if the book had fill-ins?

Marvel Enterprises Q2 2006: "revenues increased 21% in the publishing segment, primarily due to higher sales of the Civil War special comic book series"

An interesting tid-bit here:

Robert Routh, Jefferies & Co

Yes, good morning guys, a couple of quick questions. First, I was wondering if you could remind us a little bit about the Hasbro toy deal. I think the way I remembered it was $100 million upfront, $70 million with Spiderman 3, and then $35 million with Spiderman 4.

Soap · 09-10-2006, 10:28 AM

If Whedon is the new writter for Runaways I will shat myself. I see him working on an Ultimate Project.

Amoebas · 09-10-2006, 10:41 AM

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