The Four Color Media Monitor

In an interview on CBR last week, J. Michael Straczynski defended Joe Quesada, but it all seems just tired by now:

[interviewer]We hit the high points, now why don’t we talk about the low points.

[JMS]When I’m left to my own devices, I can do what I feel is a competent job. When I start to get mandates and edicts written into my ear and am suddenly being pulled into events and crossovers and being yanked one way or the other, I don’t do my best work because I can feel the hand on my shoulder. Cases like those are the low point moments.

Problem is, he went along with those very edicts just a wee bit too much, as Sins Past should tell.

To credit Marvel and [Editor-in-Chief] Joe [Quesada] and [Publisher] Dan [Buckley], every so often, everyone runs into a bump with those above in the creative food chain. As executive producer I would have to step in with writers working below me and tell them something had to be done a certain way, and we would argue, but in the end I had the pointy hat and I won. At Marvel, I have to respect that, at the end of the day, they have the pointy hat. When we disagree, it is because we care passionately about what we are working on. No one cares more about Spider-Man than Joe Quesada. He has strong ideas, I have strong ideas, and sometimes they run into each other. But anyone who says anything negative about Joe Quesada has to go through me first. I say that sincerely. I’m sure the writers under me said that when we argued and they were overridden were their low points. Ultimately, it comes down to the person at the top of the ladder making the tough decisions. Fans can yell about Joe and Dan, but he turned that company around from a company that was bankrupt to something of value. People tend to forget that.

And Straczynski probably forgets that it was Bill Jemas who's been credited with turning round Marvel's fortunes, though he ruined many people's ability to fully appreciate that when he started butting into storytelling business, launching ridiculous "competitions" between a stupid series he may have written called "Marville" and Peter David's erstwhile take on Captain Marvel, among other ludicrious acts. And what got Jemas booted out in the end was his attempt to fire Mark Waid from Fantastic Four. Yet it seems now that he was just part of the problem, and Quesada was the other.

And JMS just isn't impressing me with his defenses. All this time, he could've resigned in protest if he really had a problem with what they did to Spider-Man, but he hasn't, and so I remain unconvinced of his sincerity.

Labels: bad editors, marvel comics, Spider-Man