Bill Jemas is a terrible human being. Just terrible. And yet for a while he was vice president of Marvel Comics, where he stuck his nose wherever it wasn't needed and was generally a jerk to anybody who walked passed his desk. Thankfully he's gone now, but not before he oversaw one of the worst Marve comics the company has ever published in their long, long history. And hey, the fans got to get in on it too! Marvel's U-Decide event was the brainchild of Jemas, apparently born out of a bet between him, editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and writer Peter David. The idea was that Jemas would create and write a book called Marville, Quesada threw his weight behind Ron Zimmerman's Ultimate Adventure, and they would see if they could sell more issues than David's flagging (and underrated) Captain Marvel. It was up to fans to decide by literally voting with their wallets. Both Ultimate Adventures and Jemas's truly heinous superhero parody - except without jokes - Marville ended fairly quickly, while the rebooted Captain Marvel would last 25 more issues. Jemas was meant to take a pie in the face for losing the bet, but that's yet to happen, a decade on. More's the pity.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
