Welcome to the latest edition of CUP O' JOE, the online home of Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, exclusively on CBR. In his inaugural entry, Quesada opined on the promotion of Marvel's latest Captain America projects, the increasing popularity of Deadpool, the renumbering trend and fan concerns about comic book price hikes. Joe followed up with an in-depth discussion of "Captain America: Reborn." Of course, Quesada got his start in the business as a popular illustrator, and shared a step-by-step guide to his creation of a Spider-Man cover. Later, Joe gave us a peak behind the scenes of the Hollywood operations of Marvel, specifically with respect to Jon Favreau's "Iron Man 2" and Kenneth Branagh's "Thor."
- Joe Quedasa on Captain America promotions, Deadpool, renumbering and price increases
- Joe Quesada on "Captain America: Reborn"
- Joe Quesada on the making of an "Amazing Spider-Man" cover
- Joe Quesada on Jon Favreau's "Iron Man 2" and Kenneth Branagh's "Thor"
In this edition of CUP O' JOE, Quesada speaks with CBR's Jonah Weiland and Kiel Phegley about the unfortunate cancelations of "Captain Britain & MI13" and "Spider-Girl," Marvel's slightly unusual summer event plans, and, of course, Event Fatigue.NOTE: Be sure to come back on Friday at 2:00PM PST for the first fan question-and-answer session of CUP O' JOE at CBR!Jonah Weiland: As we close out our first week of CUP O' JOE questions, let's get to a subject that's very dear to a lot of fans: the cancelation of Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk's "Captain Britain and MI13". How do you account for this development, where its sales were going down over time despite the huge amount of buzz generated by this title?Joe Quesada: I love "Captain Britain." I really do love it. Unfortunately, there weren't enough people buying the book to keep us printing it. But this has always been the case. The lower circulating books, once they get close to that point of cancellation, the outcry from fans makes you feel like the book is doing "X-Men" numbers.
Joe Quesada: This is all part of a plan. We listen to our readership and hear the things that they're looking for and some of the things that they want or that they're tired of. We're very turnkey at Marvel, there is no spoon and now we're shifting gears, and I think you can expect a bigger shift in gears come next year. We've already started planning next year and the year after that, and I think you're going to see an interesting marketing campaign from us where even the tone of Marvel Comics will be changing in a big sense. What you're seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg of where we're headed, but it's all very much within the realm of the plans. Here's the thing. The easy button to push, the very easy button to push is the button that says "Big time summer event. Everyone in the pool. Everyone ties-in." But you can only do that for so long, it becomes the laugh of diminishing returns. Sometimes you need to pull back a breath. And sometimes that little restraint helps you for later on when you decide you want to do it again. So for us, I think you're going to see some interesting new approaches and ideas, especially next year. That doesn't mean we don't have big stories coming out. We have several different big stories coming out within different lines and different books and character families, I wish I could say more about it, but it's way too soon. Either way, it's going to be pretty amazing ride for all our fans.Jonah Weiland: So this a reaction to cries of "event fatigue?"Joe Quesada: It's more than just the cries of fans of event fatigue. We're fatigued. [laughs] Internally and creatively, while events are fun and yes they drive a lot of revenue, they take a toll. They take a toll on the editorial level. People begin to snap at each other. Trust me, Tom Brevoort is a bear. And it takes a toll on our creators. It gets difficult to do for an extended period when everything has to tie-in to everything else, and sometimes it does hamstring you from telling a particular story you want to tell in a particular kind of way. And it's exhausting. It's keeping plates spinning for a very long time. Sometimes you need to step away, refresh your batteries and let fans refresh their batteries and show them what's special about the individual titles and character families. Be sure to come back on Friday at 2:00PM PST for the first fan question-and-answer session of CUP O' JOE at CBR!