Marvel CEO Retires

[Guest Sassquatch]

From Newsarama:

 

Monday morning, Marvel announced that current president and CEO Peter Cuneo will retire at the end of the year. Allen Lipson, Marvel’s Executive Vice President Business & Legal Affairs will replace Cuneo, effective January 1st, 2003. Cuneo will continue to serve on Marvel’s Board, and will also operate in an advisory capacity with the company.

A Marvel release reads:

 

"Lipson has served as Marvel's since November 1999 and has played an integral role in structuring and negotiating the Company's strategic entertainment and licensing relationships. During the intervening period, Mr. Lipson and Mr. Cuneo will work together to effect an orderly transition of the CEO role. Following this period, Mr. Cuneo will continue to serve Marvel as a Board member and as an advisor.

 

"In his role as EVP Business Affairs, Allen Lipson has substantially influenced Marvel's business and financial strategic decisions. Mr. Lipson has been involved in structuring and negotiating all movie and television agreements for Marvel and every other major transaction since he joined the Company. His strong commercial background has enabled him to bring both a practical business viewpoint and a legal perspective to his responsibilities. As a member of senior management he has developed a strong working relationship with Marvel's key managers and staff including Bill Jemas, COO; Avi Arad, CEO of Marvel Studios, Alan Fine, CEO of Toy Biz, Ken West, CFO and Russ Brown, EVP Worldwide Consumer Products.

 

"Prior to joining Marvel in 1999, Allen Lipson served as Vice President Administration and General Counsel at Remington Products Company, the electric shaver company. At Remington, he was involved in all aspects of the Company's operations and was an integral member of the management team that revived the Remington brand name and business operations prior to its sale in 1996.

 

"Earlier, he was General Counsel of BIC Corporation, the writing instruments and shaver company, where he oversaw the restructuring of their South American operations, Assistant to the Chairman of the Board of Textron, Inc. and Assistant General Counsel of Textron. Mr. Lipson received his law degree from Columbia Law School and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin. He lives in Woodbridge, Connecticut with Cheryl Lipson, his wife of 33 years.

 

"Morton Handel, Chairman of the Board of Directors commented, "Marvel's Board made an excellent decision when it hired Peter Cuneo three years ago. Since that time, an outstanding management team has been assembled and the Company has realized its vision of becoming a premier source of creative content for high impact media and entertainment channels and for worldwide consumer products. Also, the Company's capital structure and operating performance have been improved dramatically.

 

"We understand Peter's desire for more flexibility in his life and are pleased that he will remain involved with Marvel as a director and as an advisor.

 

"Allen Lipson has demonstrated to us all the qualities that we would look for in a CEO. He possesses an intimate knowledge of Marvel, has been instrumental in shaping our business policies and strategies and is well acquainted with the myriad responsibilities of a public company CEO."

 

"Commenting on his decision to step down as CEO, Peter Cuneo said, "For the past twenty years I have enjoyed the challenge of leading organizations that were in need of fundamental change and ultimately placing them on stable ground. With support from a group of superb senior managers and from every employee, this stability has been achieved at Marvel. My decision was motivated by the attainment of this goal and by a desire for some free time to enjoy the family and personal experiences that CEOs often miss, before moving to new challenges.

 

"The best days for Marvel are still to come and I look forward to continuing to help the Company progress into the future."

 

"Allen Lipson commented, "Marvel's true value is just now beginning to be appreciated, and we are eager to accelerate the process to generate improving financial performance. I am excited and looking forward to the opportunity to help guide Marvel as we enter our `Golden Age.'"

 

Early reaction to the news among investors was mixed, but leaning towards the positive, citing that Cuneo was responsoble for turning the company around, and helping it regain stability, while Lipson was responsible for negotiating the details of Marvel's recent movie deals.

 

 

Sass's thoughts: Marvel's annual clean up seems to be taking place. It seems that Marvel and Lipson are very optimistic about the future. The one thing they need to realize is that the comic book industry has passed on from the Golden Age. Comic books and Marvel are now in the Modern Age and they go from there.

 

There will never be another Golden Age because the Golden Age is the birth of the comic book hero/villain genre, which revolutionized comic books. The only term that could be applied to a creative boom like that would be something like the New Age or something like that to describe another boom in comic book creativity.

 

What are all of your opinions on the comic book ages?

 

(I.E. the Golden Age [1935-1956], Silver Age [1956-1970], Bronze Age [1970-1989], Speculators Age [1989-1994], and the Modern Age [1995 - current])

[Guest pochorenella]

Could you pinpoint exactly the specific comics and/or events that signaled the Speculators Age and the Modern Age? I've never heard about them before. I've mostly heard about the "Dark Age" with the advent of all those ultra-violent characters like Punisher, Wolverine, etc., you know, when the "grim and gritty" term was overly used.

 

Most recently I heard about a new era being proposed (but damned if I remember its name): Now Marvel is re-telling stories about their most famous characters (the "Ultimate" line), somewhat rediscovering them and/or bringing them back to their former acclaim and glory, so some people are considering this as a new Comics Era.

 

I read somewhere that the Bronze age started with Conan #1 from Marvel Comics, is this accurate?

 

I think this is a great subject. Let's discuss it!

[Guest gthureson]

(I.E. the Golden Age [1935-1956], Silver Age [1956-1970], Bronze Age [1970-1989], Speculators Age [1989-1994], and the Modern Age [1995 - current])

Golden Age: I will freely admit I have only scattered knowledge of the Golden Age of comics. I've read Superman and Batman stories in collections, and they were enjoyable, Batman more than Superman. I'd have to say the hallmark of the Golden Age was the diversity of companies making comics and the subject matter they covered. Probably because the medium went underneath the radar of most of society, superheroes, horror, romance, detective and every genre under the sun seems to represented, as well as familiar characters under unfamiliar bannerheads until the industry more or less started to consolidate a bit.

 

Silver Age: Early would be the consolidation of alot of character under the DC Bannerhead, as they got ahold of properties that existed previously under independant companies. But the 'Marvel Age' probably what people do, and should, remember about 1963 through 1970. DC's big properties seemed to be on cruise control, and putting questionable material, while Marvel was spinning out new characters with a different style of writing that was hitting a chord. Spiderman, X-Men, Avengers, Hulk, Daredevil. While not all became cultural icons, they have been long-lasting properties.

 

Bronze Age: I started collecting midway through this period, and think you might be able to call this the 'Comics Code Era'. While it existed long before 1970, this might be the era when it actually started to chafe on writers for the big companies. The industry had matured a bit, and writers wanted to push the envelope a little here and there. But despite it having the name of 'The Bronze Age', I would have to say that some of the best stuff started coming out, as people started trying to write 'mature' stories in a superhero/comic medium. By mature, I don't just mean graphic sex/violence. I'm talking about stuff like Watchmen, DKR. As the age goes on, I think a bit more credit started being given to the crews involved on the book. Leading to a few more calls for ownership of characters and artwork, and giving credit for creation rather than 'The company owns your creations for all eternity. Deal with it, pencil-monkey.' Of course, the company/creator battles led into the abomination known as the Speculator's Age.

 

Speculator's Age: Much like all the other hippy/boomer hobbies, comics from the Golden and Silver Age started fetching high prices at auctions, and a bit of interest in a hobby can be a dangerous thing. New titles were churned out at an alarming rate, quality not seeming to matter nearly as much as just having something else out there with a #1, foil cover in a bag. This is the Age that drove me out of comics for about five years, as so much crap was being out. Good titles were doomed to get cancelled because everyone wanted X-Men or Spider-man sales numbers, and moving 75000 issues a month was seen as a failure. That, and there just weren't enough good writers and artists to go around. Image did far more damage to the industry than can be accounted for...the sizzle being sold far more than the steak. Breast sizes grew exponentially on every female character in the universe, and every hero started to look like they were doing six-week cycles of anabolic steriods. Remember when Cyclops was called Slim? Or when Rogue had very small breasts? No longer! The much vaunted Marvel Universe was splintered so the X-Universe could tell whatever piece of crap story they had up their sleeve without worrying about continuity. Of course, the rapid expansion caused by people buying books merely to leave them in their plastic bag for a few months than turn a profit died down once everyone realized that a book everyone bought.....isn't worth much more than cover price.

 

Modern Age: Doesn't seem too bad, so far. The comics code has, by and large, been abandoned, for both good and ill. The complete elimination of it has lead to some crap being put out by people who seem to think blood + tits = good story. The classics have gotten stronger, in my opinion, with both Superman and Batman attracting strong writers. X-Men, which I abanadoned due to the increasing stupidity of the stories around #226 has started to straighten itself out from what I've heard. The market is still contracted, but seems to be fairly solvent at this time. And after the financial woes of Marvel, thats a good thing. Of course, the upshot after the creator wars has lead to writers and artists being given far too much leeway in having stuff done on time. To me, thats been the hallmark of the Modern Age....late comics. Hopefully, soon a nice balance between work ethic and creativity will be reached, and we will enter the 'Shipping on Time Age'.

 

Thats my two bit opinions, not being so much a historian of comics as much as merely being a fan and reader.

[Guest Ozymandias]

You think THIS regime will realize that the only fucking way they are going to ever go anywhere is to pull their heads out of their asses and get comic books back in almost every convenience store and market in America?

[Guest BA_Baracus]

Hmmm...this doesn't really affect me much since I rarely, if ever, buy Marvel comics.

 

Can't really comment on the ages either, since I wasn't even alive for the Golden or Silver ages.

 

I will say I enjoyed comics the most during 90 - 94 during the "speculator's age"...whatever that is.

[Guest Sassquatch]

"Could you pinpoint exactly the specific comics and/or events that signaled the Speculators Age and the Modern Age?"

 

- poch

 

 

The Batman movie hit theaters in the summer of 1989 and a comic book boom followed it. Comics were selling like hot cakes and the market was soon be overexposed with tons of useless books that no one was buying. Bad investments from both Marvel and DC in the card collecting business also hurt the industry and more importantly Marvel. It all went to shit in 1994 when the market fell apart due to the reasons listed above.

 

"I've never heard about them before. I've mostly heard about the "Dark Age" with the advent of all those ultra-violent characters like Punisher, Wolverine, etc., you know, when the "grim and gritty" term was overly used."

 

- poch

 

 

Wolverine and Punisher were two of the main characters that were at the forefront of the Speculator's Age and both suffered from the age. Wolverine was on cruise control in terms of stories and was plastered all over Marvel. The Punisher was the real victim out of the Speculator’s Age due to his over exposure and being in 10 different places all at the same time. The fans just got tired of his act and his sales went into the crapper thanks to overexposure and shitty stories as well. The Punisher was looked at as THE character that could never be brought back and be accepted by the fans again.

 

"Most recently I heard about a new era being proposed (but damned if I remember its name): Now Marvel is re-telling stories about their most famous characters (the "Ultimate" line), somewhat rediscovering them and/or bringing them back to their former acclaim and glory, so some people are considering this as a new Comics Era."

 

- poch

 

 

These people are idiots. The name that I have heard referred to in regards to the Ultimate line is the Ultimate Age. It is a buzzword that some comic book fanboy critics like to use when jacking off to the new issue of Ultimate Spidey or the Ultimates. We are in the Modern Age and unless the Ultimization of Marvel does indeed take place, then we are in a set age of comic books.

 

"I read somewhere that the Bronze Age started with Conan #1 from Marvel Comics, is this accurate?"

 

- poch

 

 

The Bronze Age either started with Conan #1 or Green Lantern #76 when Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams took over the writing/art duties on GL and teamed up GL with Green Arrow and helped churn out some of comic's most social conscious stories ever told which still hold up today. However, most of the comic book critics I have spoken to and read have stated that the Bronze Age began with GL #70 which ushered in the "social awareness" age that some comic book's followed throughout the '70's. Conan on the other hand was a breakaway from the hero-in-tights genre that ruled the market and the sales Conan did when he first came out matched some of Marvel's highest selling books back then.

 

Either book is acceptable as the starting point for the Bronze Age.

[Guest Sassquatch]

"You think THIS regime will realize that the only fucking way they are going to ever go anywhere is to pull their heads out of their asses and get comic books back in almost every convenience store and market in America?"

 

The current Marvel regime is a two headed Hydra.

 

On one hand, the company is ran by two greedy bastards who will step on anything and anyone just so they can make an extra couple bucks and in the process alienate long time fans while insulting their intelligence with BS driven interviews that only BJ Marvel.

 

On the other hand you have a company that has some of the best writers/artists on the payroll that deliver creative goodness monthly which is something that Marvel had been lacking in over a decade. But at the same time, Marvel is just rehashing elements from the past and putting a "modern spin" on them which is not being creative at all and is in fact devolution for the respective series.

 

Either way, Quesada and Jemas can't have it both ways and at some point something is going to have to give in the future.