Joe Quesada is widely hated by fans of Marvel for various decisions like One More Day, Civil War, and House of M. However, if there was one thing that he did right was the acquisition of MarvelMan/MiracleMan from Mick Anglo.
Why is this big news? I've never heard of this guy?
Marvelman really is how Joe Quesada described him, "The J.D Salinger of comics.." Marvelman was a character owned by Eclipse comics that was given to a little known man named Alan Moore. Moore took this typical '50s happy character and made him a violent '80s character. The violence was always the big thing. In one issue, Marvelman rips through someone and smashes two other guys heads into each other causing an explosion of blood. And finally Marvelman simply pushes his finger through someone's chest.
So?
So, this leads into the Gaiman/McFarlane feud. This is a notorious feud over the rights. Long Story short (yes, this is the longest short version of anything you'll read), Gaiman was writing a Marvelman arc for Eclipse at the time whom was supposedly given the character rights from Alan Moore. McFarlane eventually approached Gaiman and, as McFarlane explains it, Neil gave him some of the Marvelman rights. Unbeknownst to Todd, Neil just gave him the rights to the symbol and character's look only--but nothing else. Neil was also unaware that Alan never had the rights and they belonged to Mick Anglo. Latter, Todd put Marvelman in Spawn #150 under the title "Man of Miracles" (alluding to Marvelman's other name) and Todd made a figure of Marvelman. Neil realized this and told Todd that he didn't own the rights. This began a feud and legal battle that still rages today. In the midst of it all, Eclipse cancelled the Marvelman comic and stopped the printing of the trades and comics (making them collector's gold). Also, it was forgotten that Anglo still owned the rights to be sold.
This makes Joe Quesada good how?
Joe Quesada realized that the hardcore were being left out in the dust and saw that Marvelman was still up for grabs. Then, for an undisclosed amount of money (rumors are that somme of the Mouse's money was involved) Joe bought the character. He did this as an appeasement to the dedicated and is likely to covet this and will be very precise where it goes.
And...
And, this ended the McFarlane/Gaiman feud's big gripe, will continue Marvelman publishing, and will promote this as a Icon run (rumor), and will not be censored.
This is very much a saving grace of Marvel and Marvelman
Kimota! I'll see ya on the Throne