Joe Quesada talks with Howard Stern regarding "One More Day"
All the details from Tuesday's interview!
January 10th - As reported on several comic news sites, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada turned up on the Howard Stern Show on Tuesday answering questions regarding the recent, controversial "One More Day" storyline. As I am a loyal Sirius subscriber and frequent listener of the Stern show, I tuned in and enjoyed the interview. Here's a transcription of the conversation which ran a little over five minutes...
Howard Stern: Remember we were talking yesterday and you brought this up that Spider-Man is now single and the comic book fans are all upset?
Robin Quivers: Yes
Howard Stern: This guy Joey on the phone works for Marvel… I know him… He’s like a big deal at Marvel. Joey, what’s your job at Marvel?
Joe Quesada: Hey Howard… Uh, Editor-In-Chief.
Howard Stern: He’s the editor of Marvel
Robin Quivers: So, you’re the one…
Joe Quesada: I’m the one.
Robin Quivers: …that wiped out Spider-Man’s past
Joe Quesada: I’m one of the guilty party guys
Howard Stern: Explain, ‘cause I think this is bogus too Joey. I’m a big Spider-Man guy, I don’t understand… You made Spider-Man get single. Like his whole relationship with his wife was a dream?
Joe Quesada: No Howard, what happened was we needed to remove the marriage from Spider-Man because ultimately… (sighs)… 20 some odd years ago Marvel made the mistake I believe of marrying Peter Parker off. Peter Parker essentially works better as a single character. I mean every incarnation you see of Peter Parker with the exception of the comics has him as a single person.
Howard Stern: Because then you can have romance for Spider-Man
Joe Quesada: Yea, let’s face it, who amongst us and I’ll talk to everyone… I love you guys there at the show… Who there feels that a story of their life as a married person is much more exciting than the story of them as a single person?
Howard Stern: Yea, but that’s true but why not let her die?
Joe Quesada: Well, because there’s been a lot of damage done to the Spider-Man cast over the years. Way too many characters dying, way to many friends dying…
Howard Stern: But it would seem to me in the reality of a super-hero that with good reason, many… Doc Ock or somebody could kill…
Robin Quivers: Right, that’s a perfect plot twist.
Howard Stern: …his wife
Joe Quesada: The thing is we didn’t want to get rid of any more important cast members. That’s another place where we found ourselves with Spider-Man... Where there are so many cast members that are very important to him were gone. So consequently at the end of the day, and Howard you know this as well as I do, that what’s really important about Spider-Man is Peter Parker, not so much Spider-Man. And it’s the life of Peter Parker that we get engaged in. Then when he puts on the red and blue suit and starts jumping around and doing…
Howard Stern: Hold on, how did you get rid of the wife though? What is the point?
Joe Quesada: Basically, we have this character named Mephisto who is kind of like a devil kind of character and there’s a Faustian pact because Peter’s Aunt May is dying. You just get the typical “what do I do”… Aunt May or do the other good deed. Mephisto comes over to him and says, “You know I got a deal for you. I can save Aunt May, but what I want from you is the true love that you two guys have. I want this marriage.” So basically what happens in our continuity because people are up in arms saying 20 years of my comics are worthless which is a whole other thing altogether which we can talk about if you like… But at the end of the day what Mephisto does is he says “You guys, yea you’ve dated… All of this stuff. What I want is the marriage.” He takes away the marriage so basically…
Howard Stern: Does his wife agree to this?
Joe Quesada: Actually, she’s the one that initially makes the deal. She’s the one that forces Peter into it because she knows that it’s the right thing to do. He’s got to save the person’s life.
Howard Stern: So essentially those two have forgotten that they were ever married.
Joe Quesada: That they were married… Not that they were together. That the marriage… Actually it’s that the marriage just didn’t happen. It was wiped out of existence so basically they’ve gone through their lives and everything has just sort of happened but essentially that sort of union of matrimony did not happen.
Howard Stern: That’s a very complicated plot.
Robin Quivers: But I like it. It’s not wiping it out like it was a dream.
Howard Stern: You like it?
Joe Quesada: But not only that Robin. What’s also important is that it allows… and fans can speculate on this… that there was a wedding day. We’re going to tell you there was a wedding day, but the wedding didn’t happen so it’s a story for us to tell at another time.
Howard Stern: So Mephisto changes reality
Joe Quesada: Yes
Howard Stern: Alright. Got it Joey. Thank you.
Joe Quesada: You got it Howard.
Howard Stern: There is Joey for all comic book fans…
Robin Quivers: Yea, now it makes a little more sense to me.
Howard Stern: Well…
Robin Quivers: It was a plot of some evil character…
Howard Stern: I would have killed her…
Robin Quivers: …and they get to keep the Mary Jane character around, but how’s he going to date if he’s still in love with Mary Jane?
Joe Quesada: He doesn’t remember.
Howard Stern: He doesn’t remember that he’s in love with her.
Joe Quesada: There has been a breakup somewhere down the road. They did break up and that’s, again, another story that we’re going to tell on down the road.
Robin Quivers: I see.
Joe Quesada: Our readers do have to stick around to see what actually did happen.
Robin Quivers: All right. So Peter Parker’s single.
Joe Quesada: Peter Parker’s single.
Howard Stern: Thank you and Robin is not. Thank you very much Joey.
Robin Quivers: What’s not single about me?
Howard Stern: Joey’s a good guy. I’ve known him a couple years now.
Joe Quesada: Thanks Howard.
Howard Stern: He’s really dedicated to these comic books.
Robin Quivers: I can hear in his voice that this matters to him.
Howard Stern: How old are you now Joey?
Robin Quivers: Are you getting a backlash from the fans?
Joe Quesada: Yea, but you know we get a backlash for everything we do at Marvel because we are the number one comics company and our fans are passionate about this stuff. If I got no backlash I’d really worry because it would mean no one is reading this stuff. But it’s part and parcel for what we do for the business you know and everybody whose had this job as Editor-In-Chief has gotten backlash so…
Howard Stern: Yes Jason what is it…
Jason Kaplan: I want to tell Joey, you know next time just kill Aunt May. She’s a useless character. You could have kept the story going. You could have kept the hot chick and we wouldn’t have to deal with any of this.
Joe Quesada: Yea, but you know what it is. Aunt May is also part of that important mix and those of you who have been reading Spider-Man forever and ever know that it’s that quintessential scene of “Hey, I’ve got to get Aunt May her medicine because she’s going to die”
Robin Quivers: How old is Peter Parker?
Howard Stern: I want to know how old Joey is that he’s still doing this?
Joe Quesada: Howard I’m 25 man.
Robin Quivers: Oh, are you. That’s okay then.
Howard Stern: Alright thanks Joey.
Robin Quivers: But really, how old is Peter Parker? Isn’t he 50 something?
Howard Stern: Yea, Peter Parker is no teenager… Thank you Joey…
Joe Quesada: Thanks Howard
Robin Quivers: Maybe they should be dead.
Howard Stern: don’t want to spend too long on comics because I start getting backlash from my fans. They’re like, we don’t care about Spider-Man.
Artie Lange: I was starting to zone. I like comics to a certain extent but that explanation was getting a little… I was like “what the #$%#@ was going on?”
Howard Stern: You should see his e-mails. He e-mails me all the time about comic book stuff and you go to the link and it’s so boring. He’s one of these guys that doesn’t know how to e-mail. Joey sends me three of every e-mail.
Robin Quivers: Really
Howard Stern: Yea, it’s like it’s in triplicate and each one is like comic book… like special drawings…
Artie Lange: That being said, you do need a guy like that for that job.
Howard Stern: You do. He takes it very serious.
Artie Lange: He’s passionate about it.
Howard Stern: He’s a great guy.
Gary Dell’Abate (Baba Booey): It’s funny because I didn’t know who he was. I e-mailed you yesterday. So, Steve our intern who is like a comic book nut… I was talking to his girlfriend at the bar mitzvah and she bought him just comic books. He couldn’t believe that we had that guy on the air. He’s like a star to him.
Howard Stern: Yea, Joey… I’ve known him a bunch of years.
Gary Dell’Abate (Baba Booey): Yea, he’s the big comic book dude.
Howard Stern: Yes he is. Bright guy to.
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