From everybody's favorite guy, Mr. Joe Quesada, over at a Marvel MySpace page, in response to the questions, comments and concerns of his readers:
Joe Quesada on the "reversal of reality" caused by "the 'net":
JQ: A strange occurrence that also happens on the ’net is an almost "reversal of reality." It’s like people switch around the 2-D characters with the 3-D people. I totally understand that there are times when fans aren’t happy with a storyline, or how a character is treated or portrayed. That’s completely cool, and voicing an opinion on that is appreciated and necessary. But what’s always strange to me is when someone comes to the defense of a character as if they are a three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood person; with feelings and family and all the trappings of a real life. These people sometimes speak to or speak of creators and editors as though we are two-dimensional villains on the comics page, twirling our mustaches, plotting some insane demise for a character, all for the express purpose of pissing them off. Which of course doesn’t make any sense to me. Does anyone honestly believe that anyone here at Marvel is trying to destroy characters or the universe? Last I looked, this is how we make our living and feed out families. More than anything, this is the "distortion" the net causes.
Fair enough. Certainly something worth discussing. Of course, they're all doing what they feel is best - by only writing and publishing stories that they think people will want to read. That's an undeniable fact.
But I now post this second quote, which might end up being important, if just for purposes of irony later. Call it a hunch.
12. From Edward
I didn’t really like how the One More Day storyline ended, but I do like Brand New Day. Now Marvel has this massive new storyline called Secret Invasion coming up, so why didn’t you make MJ a Skrull?
This would have ended Peter and MJ’s marriage, because she would have been a Skrull since the marriage. I know this story is similar to what happened Johnny Storm in the FF, but I just find it hard to believe that Mephisto would be interested in Peter and MJ’s love.
JQ: Edward, yeah, for starters it’s exactly the story of how Johnny Storm’s marriage situation was resolved, but even moreso, it meant that for all these years you were reading the story of Peter and the Skrull. It just seemed like a huge cheat to be honest with you, and also once you open up that can of worms, what’s to keep you from doing that with every little problem within the Marvel U? [emphasis Mine]
*takes deep breath*
*exhales loudly*
Sooooooooooo . . . yeah.
While I wholeheartedly agree that rabid fanboyism is neither attractive or sane (says the guy poised to type up an exhaustive bio on Emma Frost), lazy storytelling is also something I really don't much care for. And I hate to break it to you, Mr. Quesada, but "A Deal with the Devil" really isn't that far removed from "Alien Impostor", in terms of pure cheese ex machina.
Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen?
