Anybody who knows me, knows that I've always liked Guido, aka Strong Guy and Jamie Madrox, aka the Multiple Man for Marvel Comics.
When Joe Quesada became Marvel EIC (Editor in Chief, or EEK as he likes to put it), I'm sure LOTS of people sent in proposals, because they felt more comfortable chatting with him. I have on a number of occasions been able to chat with him both in real life and online. He has always respected my opinions, by replying in short bursts, and even allowing me to email or IM him. Of course, he wouldn't remember me from Adam, but he at least makes it known that he reads my emails, and replies in kind. For that, I have the utmost respect...so the title here may be a bit misleading.
When he took over at Marvel, I sent a proposal to him, since two of my favorite characters were not being used, and that really upset me. The proposal was for Guido to get back from bodyguarding for Lila Cheney and her intergalactic band, to find that Jamie Madrox had hit rock bottom without his best friend, and was truly about as bad as someone could get before contemplating suicide...of course, problem with being a guy that when pain is inflicted, you multiply yourself, it means suicide is really tough.
Anyway, when Guido gets into town and finds Madrox strung out, he wants to help, so he gets a place, and both of them are trying to get different kinds of jobs. One scene specifically was of Jamie working a checkout lane at the local grocery store, only to have a woman say, "Thanks for the advice last week..." Only to have Jamie look at her and go, "Sorry ma'am, I don't believe that was me...maybe it was one of these guys..." and point back to have all of the different Madrox dupes looking and waving and saying hi, to which the woman passes out.
The next scene would be right out of Kindergarden Cop, where Guido is a kindergarden teacher and as a parent is picking up their kid, Guido is seen with three on his back, picking one off and then the parent storming off.
I won't get into all of it, but it got to the point where they just decided that it was time for them to go into business for themselves so they open a bar, called SECRET BARS...its a Super-Hero Only bar. Guido will work the door, and Madrox works the rest...scenes would include Quicksilver, former member of X-Factor coming up and biting his finger nails because he can't stand to be stuck in one place at one time...he needs to constantly be moving. He finally gets up to the front and Guido says, "Sorry Pietro, you are the son of Magneto...and he is a bad guy." Only to have Pietro say something like, "But this is my Avengers Membership card..." And Guido telling him its expired.
Anyway, I sent the proposal to Joe Q, and this is when these characters were NOT IN ANY BOOK, but X-Factor had only ended about a year prior. I got a response from him, letting me know he sent it to Mike Marts, former Editor of the X-Men line, but then he ended the message with something like this...
"I have to be honest, Rob, these characters just aren't popular enough to garner their own book."
These characters HAD BOTH been brought back from the dead because of rabid fan response, and yet, they weren't popular enough.
Shortly after that, Peter David announced that he would be writing a Madrox Mini-series where he opens up his own Private Investigation firm...starring both Madrox and Guido...to be followed up by you guessed it...X-Factor making a return after House of M...
This is not a slight on Joe. I understand that he basically meant, "These characters are not popular enough to have a NO NAME writer working on the title," because then to put it out with Peter David in charge, it had the name recognition. I just wish the idea had been given a little more consideration, since it was such a fun idea, and it could have ran as a backup somewhere, just to keep people abreast of where the characters were in a humorous kind of way.
I still have some art I drew to show with it, too...maybe I'll find it and post it...
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