Movies

He's overseen everything from the assassination of Captain America to making it illegal to be a superhero without proper registration. It's all in the line of duty for Joe Quesada, the editor in chief of Marvel comics, and 2008 brings more of the same as Marvel debuts a red Incredible Hulk, a girlfriendless Spider-Man and a digital online comic book library. Mr. Quesada took time to talk about life at Marvel, including the release of the movies Iron Man (this weekend) and The Incredible Hulk (in June).

Are you excited about the two major summer movies Marvel has coming out?

I'm absolutely thrilled. To me, this is the natural progression that Marvel as a company should be taking. For many years, when I wasn't even working here, I often wondered why Marvel wasn't their own movie studio. And now here we are. We're going to be producing our own stuff and it's going to be as close to the source material as possible.

What's your favorite Marvel movie so far?

It's one of two. It's either Spider-Man 2 and ... I think the first Blade movie was dynamite.

With his newfound single status, is Spider-Man the most eligible bachelor in the Marvel universe?

The most eligible bachelor in the Marvel universe is absolutely [Iron Man] Tony Stark.

What's up with the Incredible Hulk being red? Is he really, really angry now?

Hulk Red is a mystery story. Who is Hulk Red? Now there's a new Hulk running around and we're not quite sure who that new Hulk is. Or is it Bruce Banner? And, yes, he's very angry.

Is there any Marvel property right now that you think would make a great movie that might not be on the radar of Hollywood studios?

The easy answer would be Captain America and Thor. I think a character like Killraven, that people don't really know about, is very much an untapped gem that we have. The idea of an Earth in which only a few humans are left behind after a Martian invasion – it's literally Gladiator and Independence Day put together.

The Washington Post