I know we've had many the disagreement in the past Joe but I really can't believe you wrote that bullshit about Hitch - your post above shows a complete lack of perspective when it comes to the real world.

edited to remove harsh language, was a little taken aback by the tone of the post in question. 

Joe, I wouldn't work for anyone who looked to keep me in the office while my other half was undergoing pregnancy problems like Brian's girl was.

edited to add : Could you imagine the impact on company morale if Joe Quesada had come out and fired Bryan Hitch because he'd fallen behind for the reasons he did ?  Just looking at it in a cold, business matter, you'd be doing huge damage to your company name as well as its reputation amongst freelancers.

Replacing Hitch would piss off both Bryan and Mark Millar, two big cash cows working at Marvel.  Both of whom are heavily involved in the upcoming animated Avengers movie too.

I'll wait three months for Bryan to come back if it means not waking up next Monday morning to find out that Hitch & Millar are doing a Superman book for the competition.

I also think the audience for the Ultimates would be quite happy to wait too, if the order numbers for the series are anything to go by!

Joe Zhang wrote: It would be as devastating to company attitude as letting his good friend Kevin Smith turn in a script two years late.

I disagree, with that statement and your one about fatherhood. 

It seems quite obvious that they weren't capable of turning those first series issues in on time for a monthly schedule, hence the longer lead time for the second series.

I'd be in the blame-the-editors camp myself - you don't hire certain artists for monthly series unless you know for sure you're going to be able to give them the lead time required.