Best Editorial Decisions

[Mister Mets]

On another thread about the current attitude to editors, Matt14teg asked an interesting question: What were the worst editorial decisions?

Lets say you had to bundle all the of the worst editorial decisions/things as a fast list, what would those things be?

So it might be useful to consider the reverse: What were the best editorial decisions?

One small thing that comes to mind is James Owsley (now known as Christopher Priest) hiring Peter David despite internal bias because he worked in the sales department.

Within a year, we got the Death of Jean Dewolff and the classic Commuter issue.

In terms of scheduling, swapping out the satellite books for more issues of Amazing Spider-Man was the right call for Marvel.

And honestly it seems keeping Amazing Spider-Man twice-monthly but bringing (adjectiveless) Spider-man is a good long-term setup.

[clonegeek]

On another thread about the current attitude to editors, Matt14teg asked an interesting question: What were the worst editorial decisions?



So it might be useful to consider the reverse: What were the best editorial decisions?

One small thing that comes to mind is James Owsley (now known as Christopher Priest) hiring Peter David despite internal bias because he worked in the sales department.

Within a year, we got the Death of Jean Dewolff and the classic Commuter issue.

In terms of scheduling, swapping out the satellite books for more issues of Amazing Spider-Man was the right call for Marvel.

And honestly it seems keeping Amazing Spider-Man twice-monthly but bringing (adjectiveless) Spider-man is a good long-term setup.

I don't really think its a good idea to make Amazing twice-monthly

[Mister Mets]

I don't really think its a good idea to make Amazing twice-monthly

Should it come more often or do you prefer multiple monthly titles?

[blank]

The marriage
Somehow managing to synchronise the marriage in the comics and the newspaper strip(the live event sounds a little cringey)
Letting Spencer at least undo Sins Past
Ultimate Spider-Man(Peter and Miles) excluding the rapey Wolverine body switch story(that Lowe apparently wanted, its the same type of rapey as Slott's Superior Spider-Man, no wonder he's so beloved by the editorial, but worse because MJ is underage in Ultimate)
Allowing Miles to be created

[Garlador]

As much as editorial says they hated it, re-reading the Marriage era and it has some of the freshest, most engaging characterization in Spider-Man history. Mary Jane is an incredible POV character for the readers, and a constant confidant for Peter to vent and talk to, letting them both shine in ways they never did before or when they’re apart.

Undoing Sins Past was nice.

Giving Mayday her own spin-off book and believing in it even when it was in cancellation numbers was commendable.

Miles replacing Ultimate Peter has paid off in dividends.

[godisawesome]

I think the one with the greatest impact was ultimately the series of decisions that allowed The Night Gwen Stacy Died to be printed; including the part where Gerry Conway was simply allowed to write it largely himself, with editorial supporting it.

Stan Lee’s decision to print the issues featuring Harry’s drug problem without the Comics Code Authority stamp made a point about quality writing being able to be topical and still “appropriate”.

The entire decision to allow a major supporting character *and* villain to be killed off, and to introduce a level of emotional and psychological complexity into the hero’s love life with Mary Jane closing the door to stay with Peter, basically kicked off the Bronze Age for ALL of comics; as someone who regards that as a major quality improvement for the entire industry that most of the modern successful films can be attached to to, I kind of see that as the moment that Spider-Man “elevated” an industry.

[IamnotJudasTraveller]

- Not using Mephisto to wrap up the Clone Saga ("...BUT THE FUTURE REFUSED TO CHANGE.")
- Making Kraven's Last Hunt run through all titles to emphasize this isn't a story you could simply ignore (I'd personally not do it if I was in a position of power, but if it was going to be made, doing it that way was absolutely the right call)
- Walking back the emphasis on the whole totem stuff somewhat fast
- Allowing DeFalco to keep seeding the Baby May plot (regardless of the fact Harras never intended to let him resolve it properly on 616, it did lead us to Spider-Girl)

[Vegan]

Should it come more often or do you prefer multiple monthly titles?

While I’ll certainly cop to the idea that it’s smarter for sales to do multiple issues of ASM I think it’s better creatively to have two (or more I suppose) Spider-Man titles so you have more options if you don’t care for the main title

[clonegeek]

Should it come more often or do you prefer multiple monthly titles?

I'm more a multiple monthly guy

[Venomsaurus]

That one editor who told Todd McFarlane MJ isn't supposed to mope around about Peter when he started writing adjectiveless Spidey. Good on that one editor.

[WebLurker]

Greenlighting the Spider-Girl added a cool new branch to the franchise and opened up stories that wouldn't be told in the main comics.

Ultimate Spider-Man was really good and has been extremely influential across the franchise as a whole.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

The irony is that if it wasn't for OMD/OMIT and Sins Past, Quesada would have gone down as one of the best Spider-Man EIC's. 2000-2007 was a peak era.

[Daibhidh]

In terms of scheduling, swapping out the satellite books for more issues of Amazing Spider-Man was the right call for Marvel.

And honestly it seems keeping Amazing Spider-Man twice-monthly but bringing (adjectiveless) Spider-man is a good long-term setup.

It seems really tough for the writers and artists to keep up a twice-monthly schedule and maintain consistent quality. Three monthly comics seems to be easier on the writers.
I absolutely agree that hiring Peter David was the right thing to do: I think if anything he's an underappreciated writer. He was doing Buffy-style emotion with self-aware humour before Buffy: in fact I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Whedon as an X-Men fan read David's X-Factor at the very least. On the other hand, I think the rules against employing sales people as writers or writers as sales people were there for a reason: not every writer would treat the conflict of interest as responsibly as David did.

The irony is that if it wasn't for OMD/OMIT and Sins Past, Quesada would have gone down as one of the best Spider-Man EIC's. 2000-2007 was a peak era.

I don't think the first Civil War was an unqualified artistic success. The Back in Black stories are pretty good, and I feel there may have been more they could have done with that status quo; but the actual Civil War stuff was bad for all major characters concerned except Luke Cage and maybe Steve Rogers.

Anyway, enough nitpicking from me. This is supposed to be a positive thread.
I'm another marriage fan.
Who was responsible for the original alien costume? It wouldn't have happened if not for Secret Wars.

[marhawkman]

i liked how spiderman 2099 was spider-Man in name only. It made-sense in universe.

[Daibhidh]

There is of course hiring Ditko to write and draw an ongoing Spider-man comic, followed by Romita. Also, if Lee was the one who pushed for Norman Osborn to be the Green Goblin, making Norman Osborn the Green Goblin.