This week: More on Wolverine: Origins, Planet Hulk, and Civil War, we continue to pester Joe about Thor, and a brief look ahead to 2006...

Newsarama: All right Joe, let’s start out this week expanding upon your tease from last week…

Joe Quesada: Okay, but first I want to wish everyone an incredible New Year and hopefully you all made it through 2005 healthy and happy.

NRAMA: Indeed… So, Daniel Way and Steve Dillon’s new ongoing series, Wolverine: Origins... First of all, can you explain the decision to tell this story in the pages of a whole new series, rather than in the monthly Wolverine proper?

JQ: It comes out of the need of trying to serve two masters and tell two different types of stories. The new wrinkle added to Wolverine of having his memories restored to him has added a new dimension and one that offers up tons of story possibilities. But you have to couple that with the fact that he is an integral part of the Marvel Universe that does get involved in adventures as an X-Man, a mutant, and now an Avenger.

The idea for the second book isn’t a new one, we thought about it several years ago right after Origin but we felt the market wasn’t strong enough to maintain two titles. So, flash forward to today, a healthier comics’ market and a Wolverine character that has a lot more going on in his life now. So, we felt the best way to balance his Marvel hero adventures from his quest was to dedicate a title solely to the quest.

The original monthly Origin idea was something akin to the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones … that’s the way we would have handled it back then. Today, Logan’s life’s landscape is very different and instead of having to tell that story in flashback, we can now do it with Wolvie on the road to discovery and discovering it along with the reader.

So, with respect to the current ongoing Wolverine title, this is the book in which you’ll see Logan get involved in things like X-business or even Civil War. There will be a very clear line as to what kinds of stories each title will be telling. Also, if you’re a fan of the brown and tan costume as I am, then that’s what you’ll be getting in Origins.

NRAMA: And speaking which, can you tell us about the future of the current ongoing series? Who will be the next regular creative team on the current monthly and what will be its day-to-day focus, now that Wolverine’s past now seems to be the sole domain of Origins?

JQ: You’ll hear about the team in due time but lets just say that Civil War will enlist Wolverine to hunt down someone quite instrumental in the story. So you’ll have both - an “Origin” adventure and the monthly Wolverine title dealing with a story arc involving an aspect of Civil War. More details soon.

NRAMA: How about generally and in the future, when there isn’t a big Marvel Universe event to play off of? Is that still to be determined?

JQ: There are plenty of stories to tell, not just the "event" ones, but readers will have to be patient.

[Update 1: Newsarama has confirmed that writer Stuart Moore (Firestorm) will write a double-sized Wolverine #41 in April, penciled by CP Smith (New Invaders). A “regular” Wolverine creative team has not yet been named.]

NRAMA: No disrespect meant to Daniel Way, but clearly Paul Jenkins has a link to this story due to his work on the original Origin limited series. Can you tell readers how this story would up in Way’s hands as opposed to Jenkins?

JQ: Well, I know that Daniel has done tons of research and is really sifting through the bones of continuity to have this all make sense. Daniel’s also been open to any feedback that our Wolverine-centric writers may have.

For this current run, Daniel seems to have a great grasp of where we want to go with Wolvie. This doesn’t cut off or prohibit Paul from doing something about Logan’s past somewhere down the road. As a matter of fact we still have the bare bones of a pretty cool sequel to Origin that we can dig up someday when the time is right.

NRAMA: The return of the brown & tan costume has been mentioned prominently in regards to this series, including by you a few moments ago. In your mind is that simply a nod to reader’s requests and a cosmetic change? Or is there some story-specific reason or symbolism involved in its return?

JQ: It’s both. First there are story specific reasons that Daniel I believe will address, but it’s also because it’s the coolest costume.

NRAMA: You (meaning Marvel) has already responded to the “over-exposure” issue by announcing Wolverine will no longer be featured in ”Adjectiveless” X-Men or Uncanny (but will remain in Astonishing when it returns). First off, may we assume he’ll also continue to appear in New Avengers?

JQ: Yes, but slowly we’ve been making a concerted effort to limit his appearances. I think that within a few months fans will notice the difference. Let’s face it, he’s always going to be a mainstay, lets not kid ourselves, but with this second title, I think it’s very important to limit where he’s used and how.

NRAMA: We’ll get to that issue in more detail in a sec, but just to complete the circle, in what costume in Astonishing and New Avengers? Will the gold/blue remain or will Wolverine be going all brown & tan?

JQ: As of this moment, he’ll be in blue & gold for team adventures and brown & tan for solo.

NRAMA: But getting back to the larger issue of perceived "over-exposure", that’s still two ongoing series in which he’ll star and two ongoing series in which he’s prominently featured. Is this simply a case while some vocal online readers may think there’s too much Wolverine out there, retailer and readers dollar votes are telling you otherwise? Another rational entirely?

JQ: Folks, he’s one of the stars of the Marvel Universe. A star character means that folks want to see them in books, a star character means they move units. I just don’t understand this argument? There are characters that are literally in twelve or more titles yet this seems to be an argument that people seem to only apply to Wolverine. I have a feeling that the reason so many fans are hard on the character with respect to this is because his appearing in a book really does affect the units it sells. He’s magnetic when others aren’t quite so. So, from that perspective I can see why so much anger.

In the mind of the fan getting angry about a Wolvie appearance in a title, to them Marvel is forcing them to buy a title they don’t want because they love Wolverine and must have every appearance. I mean really looking at it, what else could be the case. I’m sure someone can chime on here and say, “no, not true, I don’t habitually buy a book just because Wolverine is in it.” Okay, I get that, but it does ask that the question be asked:

Then why the hell do you care how many books he appears in?

If you aren’t feeling forced to buy it, if you aren’t reading every Wolverine appearance, then why do you care? Do you complain just to complain? It’s almost like there’s this jealousy towards the character that gets people wound up. But here’s the simple thing, no matter what your reason for complaining, you’ll be seeing less of Logan in the pages of Marvel Comics for some time.

NRAMA: Okay, moving onto another event getting a lot of your attention - Planet Hulk - you guys let out some new information this past week, and revealed that though connected, the Hulk will pretty much be off Earth during the entire Civil War event.

Chicken and egg question – did Civil War necessitate the Hulk be out of the picture and Planet Hulk was born? Or did Planet Hulk come first and mean he wouldn’t be around for Civil War and Bendis and Millar had to write around that?

JQ: Read the New Avengers: The Illuminati special, I promise all the pieces will come together.

NRAMA: You mentioned there will be a power vacuum with the absence of the Hulk, which will somehow be a factor in Civil War and the oft-mentioned Illuminati special. Although while powerful, the Hulk has always been more his own power base, rather on one side of any collective "power" equation.

Can you expand on your power "vacuum" comment and the Hulk’s role or lack thereof in Civil War?

JQ: Lets just say that as that monkey wrench or the x-factor that can be used in the war to turn the tide in one direction or another, the Hulk won’t be available to be that. He is arguably like an atomic bomb for whatever side managed to cage him in for the moment.

[just for fun, Marvel has also provided a short .avi clip created by the Planet Hulk artist to get a feel for the Hulk's movement. You can view or download it by clicking or right-clicking here].

NRAMA: And a couple of last Wolverine/Civil War questions … We now know Mike Turner is the alternative cover artist for at least Wolverine: Origins #1. Any chance the alternative cover artist for Civil War (which you teased readers with a couple weeks ago) is one-in-the-same?

JQ: Can't comment on that yet.

NRAMA: We talked about Paul Jenkins a few minutes back … a week ago in his new Newsarama column Flogging a Dead Horse Jenkins wrote:

“Lots of mad goings on at the moment: the Very Secret Marvel project seems to be picking up steam in development. I guess by now you all know it is the Civil War thing. I would have told you myself but someone would have killed me.”

Civil War is written by Mark Millar last we heard. Any insight as to what Jenkins’ involvement in the event is? Will he be writing a prominent tie-in project?

JQ: Many of those books are still be formulated and assigned, so again, it’s too early to speak about those kinds of projects. That said, Paul has a lot of great stuff coming up in 2006 with Marvel.

NRAMA: A month or so back we asked about the J. Michael Straczynski project Bullet Points, and you deferred to offer any specific info for another time. Bullet Points now has its own listing on Amazon, though sans any specific information. Can you talk about that project in any detail now?

JQ: Actually this project is going to be mind blowing. Joe has written all the scripts, he was so excited about it. An artist has been assigned and is currently moving ahead on it. That said, the book isn’t on our schedule yet and Amazon will need to pull it.

Joe is working on a lot of stuff that’s going to really blow open some concepts old and new in the Marvel Universe, and Bullet Points is just one of several projects. So, give us some time, and we’ll make sure you hear more about it with art included.

NRAMA: Marvel Universe concepts "old and new"..? Gotta ask, anything [cough, new Thor, cough] you can talk about?

JQ: Not any more than what I’ve said to date. There will be more Thor news in the future.

Okay, okay, Thor and Speedball are one and the same.

NRAMA: Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Okay, moving on…

This past week in Variety, writer Stephen Zeitchik suggested Marvel may have a tough time in the future exploiting their properties in Hollywood, basing his speculation largely upon the performance of Fantastic Four, especially weak merchandising sales, a corner of Marvel’s recovery the first half of this decade?

We realize Hollywood is not your area, but as Chief Creative Officer, any opinions on Zeitchik’s conclusions?

JQ: Yes, since 1998 when I started here at Marvel with Marvel Knights continuing all the way to today, I have dealt with and been subjected to expert after expert telling me or some major periodical how the death of comics, the franchises, the movies is right at our doorstep. I’m sick of defending it as we all should be.

Ask retailers what’s happening out there. Comic’s may not be selling in the millions but sales are stronger than they ever have, while the FF wasn’t our biggest movie it did make a lot of money, kids are wearing the costumes. The visibility of comics from Batman shirts to Spider-Man sneakers is greater than it has ever been.

I don’t understand people’s preoccupation with the doom of our industry? Who hates us so badly that we need to always be on the defense?

I will go to my grave telling people that there is no greater industry, nowhere will you find more devoted, creative minds than in comics. What we have is special, and ‘eff’ anyone who wants to say other wise.

Will the movies someday have a time when they sputter a bit, sure, it’s all part of a cycle, but then all you need is a great Superman or Spider-Man movie to come along and start the whole thing over again. The big difference today and the reason I believe comic movies are here to stay is because of our diversity and we are now so woven into the fabric of American culture and today’s modern filmmaker that we’re going to be one of the go to genres in Hollywood just like horror or sci-fi.

NRAMA: Finally, being that it’s our first Q&A of 2006, give readers a primer for the year ahead? What will be the major issues the industry as a whole will be facing, and what are the main challenges Marvel will be facing over the next 12 months?

JQ: I see continued growth and an ever-improving product. Comics are just going to get better and better.

I believe we’ll see more comics shops open up in 2006 (for a change)

I believe we’ll see a new comic company or two spring up.

I sense a convention season that will be more about upcoming books and storylines than who has signed the next big exclusive. While there will be some of that, I think this is going to be a year in which you see how individual universes grow and pan out of their respective events.

I sense that alternate covers will be losing their fizz.

NRAMA: How about Marvel-specific?

JQ: It’s going to be a year of Civil War, there’s just no two ways about it.

Early indications are that a lot of mainstream press is interested in Civil War because it’s a huge event that seems accessible by its very nature. You won’t need a road map of the Marvel Universe in order to understand what’s happening and that seems to me to be a very positive sign. Of course time will tell but I really believe in this story.

Sure, there might be characters that some people may not know, but they’ll instantly be able to relate to what’s going on. Also, if the timing works out, year’s end will bring about the most controversial story of my tenure as Editor-in-Chief as the biggest genie ever goes back into the bottle.

Also, the Marvel Universe for a very long time was a universe in which, though superheroes teamed up from time to time, there was always a certain level of mistrust, if not outright, certainly under the surface. The same could be said about the human populace of the Marvel Universe … Spider-Man use to get shot at quite often. Over the last how many years, a certain familiarity has grown in the Marvel Universe …heck even J.J. Jameson is kind of okay with Spidey. I predict a Marvel Universe that is headed towards what it was in the beginning. Things are happening, slowly brewing under the surface, but it’ll be out in the open pretty soon.

2006 may turn out to be the most exciting year for me since becoming E-I-C, I hope it translates to our fans. I think it will.

[Update 2: What, you didn’t think we forgot you readers, did you?

While it may be a few hours late, Joe Quesada still wanted to hear from and talk back to readers this week, so working through some schedule issues, here they are, better late than never.]

NRAMA: From "freedom fry" - "Last week you mentioned that you had a timeline that fit all of the major Marvel Universe events in order, but that it was not handy. Do you have that now?

"How does Nick Fury's timeline fit into all this? In Wolverine he is in the hospital, in Secret War/New Avengers he is in hiding, and in Captain America he is up and running the show. Is there an answer to all of this, or is it just a case of suspension of disbelief?"

Joe, in a larger sense, we got a number of question from readers are interested in how Secret War, Decimation, House of M, and The Other all fit together, along with titles like New Avengers and Astonishing X-Men, as well as other continuity issues like the many status quos of Nick Fury.

Can you address? Is there an editorial timeline you can share with readers?

JQ: Dang, Freedom, thanks for reminding me. First lets clear this up, it was the current problems with the Nick Fury timeline that we were discussing, not the entire Marvel Universe. I’ll leave that for greater, more patient minds than mine.

But that said, I just received these readers questions and I’m not in the office to gather up the info. Next week is tough too since many of us will be out of the offices for a series of creative summits. Please remind me in two weeks to get this info. Thanks for your patience

By the way, much of this will also be explained in Bendis’ Illuminati special.

NRAMA: Joe, in a sort of related question, assuming The Other takes place post-House of M, another reader "Clyde" wants to know why Peter remembering a life that never existed and the trauma that caused (as addressed in New Avengers) has not been reflected at all in the Spider-Man titles, in the same way a "Origins and Endings" in Wolverine directly played off of the ramifications of House of M?

JQ: “The Other” was such a complicated thing for us to coordinate because we don’t usually do tie ins like this, that we felt there were enough complications that had to be dealt with in this particular crossover. What we did was that we took the opportunity to use Son of M as the place that reflected much of Peter’s feelings and goings on.

NRAMA: "Gokitalo" - "I think Annihilation's a great way to bring the cosmic characters to the forefront again. But for a while now, Marvel's lacked the presence of another genre of characters: its horror characters (Ghost Rider excluded, since he's just had his own mini-series). Will Marvel be bringing back its horror characters in a big way in the near future?"

JQ: Gokitalo, nothing planned currently for these characters except for Howling Commandoes.

NRAMA: "President Kang" - "Video diaries, BTS production features, and the like on websites are all the rage now. Any chance we can see something like that come from Marvel? (I really dug the BTS How a Marvel comic is made on the Kevin Smith Daredevil DVD thingie). Maybe something a little beyond the Joe Fridays and interviews and the like? The lone podcast was cool and all, but we need more BTS action (or cowbell.)"

JQ: As Bruce Dickerson is famous for saying, “I’m just like everyone else, I put on my pants one leg at a time. Except that after that I make gold records.” Yes, and he likes more cowbell.

Kang, slowly we’re managing our way through this tech revolution so be patient with us. What I can say is that there are more podcasts on the way, and the more we do, the better we’ll get at them. Stay tuned, I’d love to hear what you think.

NRAMA: "VinnyPic" - "Northstar, when will we know what's up with him, and where should we look?

"Also, as a caveat to that, and this is meant as a compliment to you Joe - do you think that Ultimate Northstar being shown in a relationship months after his debut as opposed to “616” Northstar never being shown in one after all these years shows the open-mindedness of the current Marvel editorial crew as compared to years gone by?"

JQ: VinnyPic, you’ll have to wait and see on Northstar. As for Ultimates and this current regime vs. old, I don’t think it has anything to do with that. To be honest, and admittedly not being a comic’s historian, I had no idea that Northstar was never in a relationship before Ultimates. That’s complete news to me.

To be honest, one could pose and argument that in today’s post “nipple-gate” culture, it’s actually become harder for entertainment companies to approach certain subject matter. So, I guess the bottom line is that I really don’t have an answer for you one way or another.

NRAMA: "amaraswen" - "Will Marvel ever publish Peter Bagge's Incorrigible Hulk?"

JQ: amaraswen, there are no plans currently.

NRAMA: "hamgravy" - "Are there two Marvel audiences? Older readers who prefer the Slott/Kirkman/Whedon school and younger readers who read every other X-book?

"More specifically, can you give us a sense as to what the demographic breakdown of Marvel's readership is and how it relates to different titles?"

JQ: That’s a great question, hamgravy. One of the things that is sorely lacking in the comics biz is empirical demographic research. This stems from a couple of things. There are no national chains to help with the matter, most stores being privately owned, and that makes doing extensive research expensive and time consuming.

Now at Marvel we have done consumer questionnaires and I have been to many focus groups, so we have gathered up information over time. That said, I wouldn’t be able to publicly discuss those findings anymore than I publicly discuss people’s salaries or how many units certain books sell.

NRAMA: "riamuriamu "- "First of all I'm Australian and know very little about North American fauna, but a question has been nagging me about Wolverine. The answer may be obvious to those who live in the US of A and Canada, but it isn't to me.

"Why is it that, whenever he goes native or is drawn in the wild surrounded by wild animals, he's always hanging around with wolves? Why not wolverines? Has he ever been drawn with wolverines?"

JQ: riamuriamu , because wolves are so much cooler. Wolverines are small little nasty buggers. If I was given a chance to pose with a wolf or a wolverine in a photo, give me the wolf, any day.

Also, in Origin, Wolvie began running with the wolf packs and hunting at night, do Wolverines hunt in packs? I’m not sure? Although they’re mean, a wild pack of Wolverines?

NRAMA: "drpainfree" - "In the last 1-2 years, there has been a steady decline in the quality of comic book paper and cover material on which the titles are being published on. Specifically, there seems to be an increased frequency of spine damage, ripped pages, corner chips, etc...

Initially it was only the Ultimate books that were affected since the material of the covers was changed. But now it is including the regular books. At the same time, Marvel had increased the cover price to $2.50 from $2.25. Does Marvel (as well as DC and the other comic publishers) plan to do anything to correct the situation? Will we ever see the type of paper material that was used when comics were $1.95 in the late 90's?"

JQ: drpainfree , I know that our manufacturing department is always aware of problems like these. I’m pretty far removed from that end of the business, but I know that they’re constantly experimenting to make sure these things don’t happen. In many cases what was discovered was that it had less to do with the paper but more with how the books were bundled and shipped.

Regardless, at Marvel we’re always doing our best to make sure that our retailers, fans and creators get their comics printed on the best paper we can possibly provide.

NRAMA: "beta-ray" - "Was glad to see Gene Ha's cover on the Fantastic Four Wedding Special. Also noticed he had a couple pages in the recent Young Avengers Special... I really love his work. Any chance we could get him to do more at Marvel? Please?!"

JQ: We’d love to, beta-ray , but Gene is very busy on many other projects that eat up the majority of his time.

NRAMA: "josephmartinez" - "Any chance of a possible new Inhumans series in the near future?"

JQ: Joseph, not at the moment.

NRAMA: "orlandoT" - "Joe, just heard the wonderful news of Marvel putting the original Spider-Man series in nationwide newspapers. This is not a complaint, as my collection of Essential paperbacks will attest, but why did Marvel decide to re-print Spider-Man's earlier stuff, instead of something more recent? Again, not a complaint, since I love the old stuff, I'm just curious in the reasoning behind it."

JQ: I believe that that is what they asked for. If I had my druthers I would have used current material but I believe they wanted to push the nostalgia button and that was going to work better for their purposes.

NRAMA: "Bevbos" - "Any chance we're gonna see more Santerians? 'Love to see them in their own mini. Or in more Daredevil. Or, even better, in some other non-Daredevil books..."

JQ: Oh, cool, thanks for asking, Bevdos. No plans currently but at this point that would be up to other writers.

NRAMA: "Flint Reloaded” asked - "The loose talk of a Champions and West Coast old school Avengers type book...same entity or two different things all together?"

JQ: Flint, you’re a slick devil, but I’m slicker, you’re gonna have to wait and see.

NRAMA: Then "KryptonSite" asked - "There were some rumblings about a return of the Champions. What more could you tell us?"

JQ: KryptonSite, meet Flint, Flint meet KryptonSite.

NRAMA: "sixsh0t" - "Can you tell us when the loose end of Hawkeye's resurrection will be tied up and where?"

JQ: Sorry, sixsh0t, this must remain firmly up my sleeve for now.

Oh, and by the way, it’s shameless plug time. My good friend, Clifford Meth has a new collection of illustrated stories coming out called Metho.d. It’s in the January Previews and I highly recommend it!