Well Joe Quesada, the much maligned editor in chief at Marvel is lucky he’s got such a big mouth. That way he never has any trouble sliding his foot in there. When Marvel announce they would be doing a 4 issue mini series entitled Marvel Divas, I was pretty wild about the whole deal I won’t get into that again, you can check out my rant if you want. It was a lot of fun to write so I hope you do. But it seems that when answering some fan questions Joe Q got a little hot when asked about the new mini series. Here are some of the highlights…or low lights…or stupid lights…you can pick what you want to call them.

When answering some fan questions Joe got a little defensive at the suggestion that what we’ve seen of the series so far is a little sexist (my issue with it was how dumb it was, but sexist works too). He had this to say about the possibility that anybody might interpret what they’ve seen of Divas as being sexist.

I’m going to go on a limb here and assume you’re a Marvel reader. It’s an assumption I’m making based upon the fact that you’re responding to this column. If you’re Marvel reader and truly feel we’re sexist, then why are you reading our books? Now, perhaps you’re not a Marvel reader, then if that’s the case, I’m not quite sure what you’re criticizing if you don’t read our books?

That sound you heard was Joe’s bedroom door slamming and him turning Led Zepplin up loud enough to annoy his parents after taking his ball and going home with it. So anybody who dosn’t read Marvel isn’t allowed to weigh in on things they are doing? Better yet anybody who does read Marvel should stop reading their stuff if they don’t like what Marvel has coming up? Thanks Joe, that really helped me understand the situation better.

Quesada didn’t stop there though, oh no that would have been smart. Joe went on to further enlighten us by explaining that comic books (or at least Marvel Divas) are like Pink’s music; strong, and sexy, at the same time. I won’t ruin it for you, Quesada doesn’t need my help to look like a moron. Here in his own words is Joe Q telling a fan, or at least an interested reader why jumping the shark is so important, even in comics.

The cold hard reality of publishing and trying to sell our books to as many people as possible, so here’s an example of what happens more often than you may think here at Marvel. From time to time, we’ll be launching a title that doesn’t focus very heavily on the super heroic. From time to time I’ll get a cover sketch and it doesn’t have a costumed hero or villain on the cover, what we internally refer to as a “quiet cover.” On those occasions, more often than not, I ask my editors to direct their cover artist to give me at least a first issue cover with the characters in costume. Why? Because it will help launch a book that will most likely have trouble latching onto a large audience. We want to give every title the best possible chance to be successful. Marvel Divas is no different and that’s why you’re seeing our strong female leads in their super hero personas. Let me try an example outside of comics. I’m a huge fan of Pink, I really dig her music and love her voice. Love her or hate her, I would say that she’s an amazingly strong and intelligent female performer and song writer in the pop genre. In many of her songs she even criticizes the over sexualized female pop stars of the day and their over the top videos. But when you look at Pink’s CD covers, while she’s looking strong and like she’s looking like she’s having fun, she’s also looking really sexy. The reason is simple, she’s trying to grab people’s attention and sell some albums. Comics are no different and as much a part of the entertainment business as any other medium, and the cold hard truth is that if we were to launch Marvel Divas with a “quiet cover,” I guarantee you the book would be canceled before it hits the shelves. That’s it in a nutshell, I could sugar coat it for you and give you a million other reasons that would sound plausible, but that’s not what I do.

Yeah, that’s what I thought, it’s all because of Pink, it’s her fault that this whole mess has gone down like this. Joe, let me put it in black and white for you. The only people who have noticed this project are comic fans, and people concerned with the objectification of women. I’m not sure how much cross over there would be on the two groups if you did a Venn diagram but for your purposes it dosn’t matter because the stupidity of the project in the first place, and the perpetuation of that stupidity through Marvel’s bonehead execution to this point have been so bad, that you’ve managed to piss off both groups and the only people who are defending you on this are indifferent assholes who like to hear themselves say “Chill dude, if you don’t like it, don’t read the book man”

….mind you I’ve got so much invested at this point come July I pretty much have to buy it now, so who’s the dummy after all? I guess it’s true, bad press is better than no press.