Joe Quesada, Bill Jemas and Peter David all weigh in on the ‘U-Decide’ event Peter David’s always up for a good brawl -- but he might’ve bitten off more than he could chew when he challenged two of the most powerful men in comics. Over the years, David has feuded with the likes of Todd McFarlane and John Byrne, but in April, he may have stoked his biggest challenge when he publicly took Marvel to task.

Check out Marvel's product here!

In an open letter, David chastised Marvel for not consulting him on the price increase, leveled charges that they had opened the door for public criticism by issuing open challenges to other creators over the last year, insisted Marvel was guilty of canceling books too quickly and stated the company had already stamped his book with “the scarlet ‘C’ of cancellation on it.”

“To get more people to read a book, you don’t raise the price,” said David. “That’s ludicrous. Marvel was making a bad editorial decision and a bad business decision. It seems to me they’re trying to cancel the book without actually doing it. A 25-cent price increase doesn’t improve sales—it hurts them. If the book is so bad, why didn’t they get someone else to write it ages ago?”

David’s public insubordination didn’t sit well with Quesada.

“I was a bit surprised by David’s initial e-mail but it completely pissed me off,” said the E-I-C, who last year publicly challenged Spawn creator Todd McFarlane to return to drawing mainstream comics with Spider-Man. “Without this price increase, this book would have been gone—kaput, canceled. Peter David isn’t entitled to a book or an audience. Perhaps one of the reasons Captain Marvel is failing is because of Peter David.”

Quesada continued to trade jabs with David, who blamed the low sales on poor marketing by Marvel and the fact that retailers have to order books months in advance of ever seeing them. Quesada, on the other hand, pointed out titles such as WildStorm’s Authority, which received little marketing support but still caught on because of “word of mouth,” something he claimed Captain Marvel was lacking.

Absent from all of the arguments and debates was the usually verbose and highly involved Jemas, who couldn’t stay quiet for long. The Marvel President offered a compromise—he would keep Captain Marvel at its current price of $2.50 and even relaunch the book with a new #1 in September. There was one condition though: David’s Captain Marvel would have to outsell a new title written by Jemas himself, Marville. After six issues, the loser’s book would be tanked. Jemas quickly backed off the cancellation claim when fan reaction turned hostile.

“Peter is a talented writer maybe two or three issues of the year, but the rest is just inside jokes for fans who have been reading his stuff for 20 years,” said Jemas. “He’s just feeding off his old work. I feel that he needs to make his stories accessible to new readers or it’s doomed. My challenge to Peter is to write his books and pull out every stop he can. Write the best he is capable of, and we’ll let the readers decide.”

However, Jemas also hit a nerve with Quesada when some of his statements called into question the E-I-C’s experience as an editor.

“I’ve been Bill’s biggest advocate for a long time, but he has pissed me off beyond all rhyme and reason,” revealed Quesada. “I’m not sure how much more I even want to say about it. The thing that really turned me against Bill was when he questioned my ability to recognize good stories and good comics. Bill’s a fine businessman but that’s where his expertise stops.”

With the rhetoric between Jemas, David and Quesada all reaching a fevered pitch, some fans have begun wondering if maybe what started as a serious spat between creator and company had turned into a sales gimmick cooked up by Marvel. According to Quesada, that’s not the case.

“I won’t even comment on it,” said the Marvel Knights co-founder.

With Jemas prepping his title, and David in line to begin a Captain Marvel relaunch, Quesada entered the fray with a title Jemas specifically asked not to come from the House of Ideas.

“I received what I and many of my editors thought was a brilliant pitch for a new mini-series created and written by Ron Zimmerman,” explained Quesada. “We immediately green-lighted it. Well, that’s until Bill got a look at the project and completely trashed and canceled it. So I plan to story edit the title as well as work on the original character designs. Now we’ll see whether Captain Marvel, Marville or Ultimate Adventures is the better book.”

According to Quesada, the new series, Ultimate Adventures, is a new “Ultimate” title that introduces the first original “Ultimate” hero, Hawk-Owl, and tells the story of his young sidekick Hank Kipple who will narrate the book.

Jemas said it might be Quesada who needs some backup though when it comes to competing with Marville—even if Quesada’s book does carry the “Ultimate” logo.
“I’m not really worried about either title,” commented Jemas. “This was Joe’s call; I don’t agree. Captain Marvel will go back to the drawing board approach and try to attract a new audience. I wish them all the best, I don’t think they can do it. And I wish Ron Zimmerman the best of luck with his book. At the end of the day, I’m the boss though, and the boss is usually right.”

And as the first month of competition came to a close with orders for Marville, Ultimate Adventures and Captain Marvel all in, it turns out Jemas is right. At least for now.

According to Diamond Comics Distribution Jemas’ Marville #1 raked in $176,277 in orders, David’s Captain Marvel #1 came in second with $132,424 and Zimmerman’s Ultimate Adventures finished last with $87,685. Jemas immediately claimed victory over Quesada, David, Zimmerman…and pretty much the world in-between before thanking his art team and taking his usual digs at DC Comics.

“Mark Bright, Greg Horn and UDON Studios all did super covers for Marville #1,” said Jemas. “You can credit the great results to the great work done by those artists. Beyond that, it seems like people like the concept for Marville #1, ‘Just imagine if Bill Jemas created the DC Universe.’ Just imagine reading a DC comic without all the ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZs!”

But Quesada and Captain Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort aren’t giving up just yet—in fact, the two aren’t even sure Jemas can claim victory in the first round, much less victory in the entire six-month competition.

Looking to Diamond's September Top 100 sales chart, Quesada and Brevoort point out that both Captain Marvel #1—the month’s #26 seller—and Ultimate Adventures #1—the month’s #46 seller—both outranked Marville #1, which captured both the #79 spot and the #85 spot. Due to the different price points, Diamond separated the orders for Marville into two rankings.

“It seems to me that the number 26 sits higher on the charts than 46, 79 or 85. But what do I know?" said Brevoort. “In any event, I’m going to wait until the books actually come out before we declare victory. Six months is a long time.”

“Actually, if you’re splitting hairs like Jemas is, you could make the claim that Ultimate Adventures #1 sold the most,” added Quesada. “After all, if you disregard all of the orders for those goofy variant covers—and look just at initial orders for the first issue—then you’ll see that orders for Ultimate Adventures #1 top the other two.”

But no matter who won the first round, according to Quesada, there’s a long time to go before anyone’s declared the winner of this competition.

“You can’t judge an entire fight by just the first round, you have to see who’s left standing when the final bell rings six months from now,” continued Quesada. “Right now, retailers are ordering on flash and foil, but in a few months, we’ll see the sales results as they vote on content and story! Like Ali vs. Foreman, I’m just doing my ‘rope-a-dope!’ Won’t be long before Mr. J is winded and weary as I lay down the knock-out punch!”

But when it comes right down to it, who should win this competition? Jemas? Quesada? David? Well, hell—that’s for U to decide, right?

Mike Cotton is a staff writer for Wizard: The Comics Magazine. For more on all of Hollywood’s comic book deals and all the comic book news fit to print, check out Wizard on sale every month at comic book specialty shops and newsstands everywhere.

The Cotton Club Archive

August 7 , 2003 - HOLLYWOOD RUN DOWN July 31, 2003 - SPIDER-MAN 2 July 24, 2003 - BAG MAN July 17, 2003 - Moore or Less July 10, 2003 - Ink Test July 2, 2003 - HURRICANE WARNING June 25, 2003 - BANNER BANTER June 10, 2003 - PETER DAVID June 3 , 2003 - PAUL JENKINS May 28 , 2003 - GEOFF JOHNS May 21 , 2003 - BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS May 14 , 2003 - PHIL JIMENEZ May 9 , 2003 - Don't F[l]inch April 29 , 2003 - The X-Factors April 17 , 2003 - X2 Reviewed January 13, 2003 - Game Boy - WizKid’s HeroClix January 3, 2003- 2003 Bigger than 2002? December 20 , 2002 - Ring Bearer - A two-bit tour for ‘Two Towers’ novices December 13 , 2002 - ‘Sine of the Times December 6 , 2002 - Killer Read November 30, 2002 - Lex's World November 23, 2002 - Truth and Consequences November 15, 2002 - Triple X November 8 , 2002 - Giving the Devil his Due October 31, 2002 - Superhero DVD Preview October 25, 2002 - Mad Cow October 18 , 2002 - 80's a Go-GO October 11 , 2002 - Best Bets on Bats October 4, 2002 - Hunters & Pray September 27 , 2002 - The War Within September 19 , 2002 - Lee-Der of the pack. September 13 , 2002 - The Next Generation. September 6 , 2002 - Marvel Melee. August 30, 2002 - Breaking In. Joe Quesada reveals the ins and outs of getting work at Marvel. August 23, 2002 - Painted Into a Corner. An Interview with Greg Hildebrandt. August 16, 2002 - X-citing News on X-Men 2!