Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Axel Alonso has just made Marvel Editor In Chief...

And I'm not sure if that means Joe's been removed, or they decided to share him some grief and split the job into two parts (he's still Chief Creative Officer whatever the hell that is).... I'm sort of confused, but rather satisfied. Axel does a great job.

If anyone can find any other stories (not from Marvel.com 'cause obviously theirs is gonna be a bit bias) about the innerworkings and explanations of this, it could help us put together what's going on!?


[Edited on 4/1/11 by Ult_Sm86]
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Blob55 »

Ult_Sm86 wrote:Axel Alonso has just made Marvel Editor In Chief...

And I'm not sure if that means Joe's been removed, or they decided to share him some grief and split the job into two parts (he's still Chief Creative Officer whatever the hell that is).... I'm sort of confused, but rather satisfied. Axel does a great job.

If anyone can find any other stories (not from Marvel.com 'cause obviously theirs is gonna be a bit bias) about the innerworkings and explanations of this, it could help us put together what's going on!?


[Edited on 4/1/11 by Ult_Sm86]
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Esynthia »

he isn't leaving Marvel, just not going to be in charge of the comics portion. Since he'll stay on to work with film, animation, and games.
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Yeah, sounds like Marvel is trying to drop him as far away from the comics as possible.

Nice!
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Esynthia »

Not really... Axel has said somewhere that he basically agrees with everything that Joey Q has done... So I doubt much will change...
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Hopefully he's just saying that for the record.

I'm trying to find links now, but the spoken-word on the literal streets (right outside my comic book store), is Joe has started to produce a skunk-like funk, and Marvel Comics is trying to distance themselves from him and keep him as a happy face for movies.

He's basically getting the Stan Lee treatment.
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Blue_Collar_Nerd »

Ult_Sm86 wrote:Hopefully he's just saying that for the record.

I'm trying to find links now, but the spoken-word on the literal streets (right outside my comic book store), is Joe has started to produce a skunk-like funk, and Marvel Comics is trying to distance themselves from him and keep him as a happy face for movies.

He's basically getting the Stan Lee treatment.
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Wahnsinn »

Quesada isn't out of the publishing department at all. He's still a Grand Overseer of sorts to make sure the character portrayals remain as they should (*cough*) but is no longer directly involved in story development. He's only directly involved in story and script development for animation and films.
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Like I said, he's head of the "Creative Structure", but he's not Editor In Chief of comics or has any control over that anymore.

And as I said after that; he's being pulled away from the main-artery of the comics to appeal to their readers. He's got bad ju-ju on him, 'dat boi!
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Wahnsinn »

Ult_Sm86 wrote:Like I said, he's head of the "Creative Structure", but he's not Editor In Chief of comics or has any control over that anymore.

And as I said after that; he's being pulled away from the main-artery of the comics to appeal to their readers. He's got bad ju-ju on him, 'dat boi!
I think you misunderstand. He still has the final say on the direction of each and every character in every venue, including the comics. If he thinks a character doesn't "stay true" to Marvel's history and whatnot within a given story, he can tell Alonso to kill the story. Effectively, he's Alonso's boss. His appointment to CCO was a promotion, and he only stayed on as EIC long enough for his replacement to be selected and prepared to take over those duties.

Obviously, this also means that someone had to be promoted into Alonso's old position as X-editor. Nick Lowe has been promoted into that position, and Jordan White will be filling Lowe's vacated editor position.
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

That's not how I interpreted his position at all from the Marvel announcement. It seems like he's been put in the same position Michael Eisner was put in when they took the ears off of him and removed his Mic. Still "in-Charge" but with someone as a better face.

Is CCO a previous position? I didn't hear anyone complaining about this position and everyone chose to blame Joe, now we're saying Joe's at fault? still?
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Wahnsinn »

Here's the text with the basic job description from the official press release from when Joe was promoted to CCO of Marvel Entertainment (emphasis mine):
New York, NY – June 2, 2010 – Marvel Entertainment, LLC announced today that it has promoted Joe Quesada to Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. In this new role, Mr. Quesada will work alongside Alan Fine, Executive Vice President, Office of the President and Chairman of Marvel Studios’ Creative Committee, to ensure that all portrayals of Marvel’s characters and storytelling remain true to the essence of Marvel’s rich history. Additionally, Mr. Quesada will provide creative oversight of all areas of Marvel’s business including theatrical, television, publishing, animation and games, while also actively participating in all story and script development for Marvel’s films and animation. Prior to this promotion, Mr. Quesada held the role of Chief Creative Officer & Editor-In-Chief, Marvel Animation & Publishing and oversaw the creative aspects of Marvel Comics and Marvel Animation. The announcement was made today by Mr. Fine, to whom Mr. Quesada will report.
The CCO of Animation and Publishing job has been rolled into the much bigger CCO of Marvel Entertainment position, splitting it from the role of EIC of Publishing.

He won't be directly involved in story development in the Publishing department any longer, but he still has the power to kill a story. Alonso can't allow any story to see print that Quesada sees as depicting characters in a way that would be harmful to the company.

Think of it this way: Quesada's the guy who makes sure Alonso doesn't diverge too far from the Basic Marvel Recipe when baking a Comic Pie.
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

Well that all makes sense, but I'm still going to refrain from blaming Joe now when something goes entirely wrong. LOL!

I had no idea how many other people above Joe there are who are so involved in the direction of comics. I know Joe always had is objectives (reveal Spider-Man, bring back old fans by garbaging the relationship, bring the X-Men to a precipice [why does that word never look right? LOL] as a team and see what happens when you break them apart) but I don't know how angry I can be at him for a lot of his "executive decisions" now that I'm aware of these other positions.

I'm sure Alonso is walking in with some goals in mind too, but it's really a much more stupidly complicated a job than I had originally thought. This is like "Office Space". Being talked to by 8 bosses about the same thing.

Isn't DC's system sort of the reverse of this?

[Edited on 22/1/11 by Ult_Sm86]
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Axel Alonso makes Marvel E.I.C.

Post by Wahnsinn »

There are certain things for which Quesada could legitimately be blamed (the famous "genies" being obvious examples), but I'm not saying he should be blamed for everything. There are others in the works who can muck up an idea just as effectively as the guy at the top of the food chain. He's just the top underling of the entire Creative Committee now, rather than the top underling of just Publishing and Animation.

For instance, the rumor is that sticking vampires into the first arc of the newest X-title came from the marketing and sales department. There's plenty of blame to go around when it comes to story concepts being foisted on the writers, but the CCO is functionally meant to be the last line of defense against stupid ideas. Of course, that also means that the CCO has the power to push forward stupid ideas. It's a double-edged sword. :smirk

Alonso reports to Quesada who reports to Fine, so there's not really all that many in the Publishing chain above him. Alonso has to keep track of a freaking pile of editors, beginning with the group editors. Under Lowe on the X-titles alone, there are multiple editors, assistant editors, and associate editors. On any given X-title, you'll usually see 3-5 editorial credits. Take the upcoming issue of UXM (before Alonso's promotion):
EIC - Quesada
Exec. Editor - Alonso
Editor - Lowe
Associate Editor - Ketchum
Assistant Editor - Thomas

That's five editors for one issue. This is the point where we all realize that the title of "Editor" doesn't simply entail correcting all kinds of mistakes (text, art, continuity, etc.) and steering writers away from the bad kind of crazy.

As far as DC goes, I have no idea how they function. They've been doing a bit of reorganizing over the last year or so, and that's about the extent of my knowledge of their inner workings. :P
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