RICHARD: Has there been a witch hunt that you're aware of at Marvel? FELICIA: Yes, but it's only at the higher ups. You see, they really don't trust anyone below a certain level. There are a lot of micro managers over there that I'm sure are being questioned as suspects. What they'll do now is create a couple of false rumors and try to find where the leak is. So I have to watch out for those. Last year, they tried this number on someone else who was leaking, and made up a few fake rumors about X-Men characters that were dead coming back and reincarnating as other characters. Then there was this completely, blatantly fake one about Mary Jane having been an evil villain or something to that extent.

RICHARD: And I never even got those. My web-fu is weak. Is it too late for Marvel to shut the stable doors over this? There are calls for boycotts, threads that have sprung up everywhere at great length... honestly, I don't think a lot of people realised Mark Waid had such a fanbase - least of all Marvel. Do you think damage has been done to the company?
FELICIA: Yeah, you know what. When Joe got online to counter argue yesterday, I knew something magnificent had happened that I hadn't see before and I so had to laugh.

As everyone got online to complain and to publicly kick Joe and Bill in the nuts, I realized as it was happening that Joe and Bill would definitely have to rethink some or a lot of the plan they'd laid out, post the firing of Waid. So then Joe gets on and drops that pathetic announcement denouncing "rumors" and that Bill isn't taking over. It was all just the fan "proverbially slitting their wrists". jumping the gun. Sorta like "You fans are crazy... we just fired Mark Waid, but you guys are the crazy ones."

Then when I heard Bill actually blinked about writing the book, I smiled and was so proud about what the fans had done that day. I wish they would band together more often like that. Marvel really doesn't respect what their fans think, and instead throw numbers and demographics at us that are supposed to tell us what we like and don't like. I think we know what we like.

As far as damage to the company, well... they lost Waid. I think that's pretty damaging, but the most damage they are doing right now is happening within. The way they treat their employees and the disrespect that they have for a lot of good editors. That is what will do them in if they continue. Most likely they won't admit to it until it's too late, and by then many of the fans will be voting with their wallets after there are no more good editors to stop bad decisions.

 

FANTASTIC FOUR #60 – SIGNED VERSION

RICHARD: Of course, it's not just all about Waid. You seemed to back the comments Stormwatch writer Micah Wright made about pitching for Epic, the attitude the company is taking to submissions and the incompetence under impossible odds there. And Joe Quesada tried to knock those back as well. But again, I'm now hearing the same from a number of respected professionals. You've really pulled your finger out of the dyke on this one, haven't you?
FELICIA: Oh god. (PAUSE) Allow me to say something in favor of that whole Epic thing before I once again bash it. There are a lot of people over there with good hearts and intentions working on this. I almost hate to say what I say about it when I think about them. These people working under Joe and Bill pretty much have to function the way the rest of editorial does: mindless robots who carry out orders by Bill. Bill is sort of enjoying his playground, and if you don't play by his rules, you're out. Basically, Mark Waid had the balls to tell them to back off.

Anyway, I still stand by what I said about Epic. Though, with all the anger on the internet, and the fact that people are now suspecting something is up, I wouldn't be surprised if Bill and Joe really get a real "no name" to put out one of the Epic books in a sort of flipping me the bird.

Oh, and that stuff about what Micah said about the current editors on the Epic line not knowing certain things about comics that they should know. it's so true. You can expect things to come out of some of these editor's mouths like: "Who's Darkhawk? Or, there two different colored Hulks?"

RICHARD: Who's Darkhawk? Sorry, go on.
FELICIA: (LAUGHS) So Micah is really hitting it on the nose with what he said, people just tend not to like the way he says things, so they feel better about disagreeing. By now they know who these characters are, but they basically took a crash course at comics 101 while they started their jobs as editors. So that kind of stinks.

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Continued Here...