> > > Priest made Joe Quesada's career when things where bad for Joe Quesada. Then in return Joe Quesada dumps Priest and picks Reginald Hudlin to destroy the Black Panther's name
> >
> > That's completely unfair -- Quesada kept Priest's Black Panther on the shelf for years despite its borderline sales figures, and he even pressed to keep Priest on the book after #49 when Priest himself suggested that he might not be the right guy for the new direction.
> >
> > We can quibble about whether Marvel pushed the book enough while Priest was on board, but you can't say that Quesada dumped Priest, or that he didn't give the book a more than fair shot during Priest's tenure.
> >
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> Yeah, but Quesada still dumped Priest and then he picked Hudlin over Priest to write Black Panther. Imagine if the roles where reversed and Priest decided to dump Quesada efter Quesada made several blunders(Which he has.) as editor-in-chief for years and picks Hudlin over Quesada to take over Quesada's job. Just about everyone would be outraged at Priest for doing this and angry for picking Hudlin over Quesada. A similar thing like this to happened to Priest, except Priest was not to blame for Black Panther's sale numbers which overall where not bad for a new comic book series.

Even considering factors completely out of Priest's control (such as publicity), he was ultimately a significant factor in why BP wasn't a blockbuster book. Many people, it seems, couldn't get into the complicated plotting and storylines and off-kilter narrative techniques (the actual narration and time distortion, among other things); he was given lots of leeway to continue on the book despite bad numbers for so long, which showed the people at Marvel really believed that he was doing what was best with the character at the time and that he should not be punished for it (despite having a small audience). But eventually (and understandably, considering Marvel's usual practices) they wouldn't take the financial burden of supporting such a low-selling book anymore, so they cut it off.

It makes perfect sense that when they eventually brought it back, they felt the need to go in a different direction in order to try and capture an audience the Priest was unable to (but that the character himself might still be capable of). There is no ill-will towards Priest in this particular case, only sound business sense.

As to whether Mr. Hudlin was the ideal candidate for the gig or whether this particular direction was the exact right way to go, that's open for debate (I would say no to both, probably). But they're just trying to do everything they can (publicity, more crossovers, a "Hollywood" writer, etc) to ensure that this attempt at a BP book attracts and keeps more readers than the last. You can't fault Quesada for trying. Fault him for how he did it, if anything

Check it out: Shu and I (and FLCL) teamed up!