As someone who dislikes Civil War and Marvel's post-CW direction, you might think I'd say Joe's ruining Marvel, but I don't believe that. By any objective standard he's been great for Marvel; sales are up, interest in the company is up, Marvel is the industry leader.

I like his "Cup 'o Joe" columns, and although he's been accused (often, on this board) of having a condescending attitude toward the fans, I think instead that Joe respects the fans enough to be blunt. He tries not to dodge questions, unless they're questions that would unreasonably spoil upcoming storylines, which of course he can't reveal. He's given honest answers to controversial questions, such as his smoking ban, for example, or the fact that books come out late--disagree with his stance on that if you want (and I do), but he honestly believes it's better to give superstar artists and writers as much as time as they need to do their work. Personally, I'd rather fire them, but hey, whatever.

He's younger than a lot of folks working at top positions in the industry, especially Paul Levitz at DC, and it shows--they completely don't get his sense of humor and see him as a juvenile brat. But I think he tries to be honest and do right by the fans, and of course poke some fun at the internet fans along the way, who, as much as we might bitch about it, I think he has pegged perfectly. I mean, I hated Civil War and think Millar is a hack writer. Guess what? Almost no one agrees with me. Some internet posters do, and our combined opinion is worth bull cookies because CW sells massively. I still believe I'm right about CW, but I don't expect Joe to take Millar's writing assignments away when the guy is the top-selling writer in the industry.

What's Joe done for Marvel? He's ramped up the reprints program, giving us a reasonable assurance that just about everything Marvel puts out will be made available in trade. He's fast-tracked the Masterworks and Essentials. He stayed away from crossovers and events for a solid four years before the state of the industry changed and it seemed like the fans were ready again, and the crossovers he finally gave us were, for all their misfirings in execution, actually really meaningful. He is the most open and communicative EIC Marvel's ever had when it comes to actually giving information to the fans and honestly answering questions. He's brought talent to marvel that never would've ben caiught dead there a decade ago; Morrison, Millar, Bendis, Whedon, JMS, etc. came here because he gave them an environment they liked to work in, and creative freedom. He gave us books like Runaways (still the best thing Marvel publishes, by the way) that were low-sellers, but he took a chance on them and kept them going. He brought on writers like Brian K. Vaughn and Dan Slott. He co-masterminded the Ultimate imprint. He brought in Stephen King, the Dabel Brothers, and Halo to try to reach beyond the traditional limits of comics. He craeted the Icon imprint to give his writers and artists a place they could do creator-owned stuff on favorable financial terms--not easy for a company like Marvel, that doesn't have Warner Brothers backing them up. And I got a new Moon Knight ongoing series. So I'm happy.

Anyway, I like Joe. Yes, I only collect Moon Knight, Runaways, and the occasional reprint from Marvel these days, but I still like Joe.