Do You Want It Now, Or Do You Want It With David Aja?

Here's your hypothetical for the day: Say you could go back and be in charge of Marvel in late 2007, early 2008. David Aja lets you know he's not going to be able to draw his parts of the concluding issues of "The Tournament of the Heavens" arc in Immortal Iron Fist. His wife just had a baby, and he's going to be a little busy with the child rearing and all.

Would you have gone with Marvel's plan, to find some good artists to take Aja's place until his schedule opened up (he drew #16, the final issue before Swierczynski and Travel Foreman took over), or would you have waited, so the book would have a constant look throughout, and really be a Brubaker/Fraction/Aja run? If you prefer, use a different example. J.G. Jones on Final Crisis, Quietly on New X-Men, whatever works best for you.

At the time, when Aja wasn't available for Immortal Iron Fist, I wanted the book to stay on schedule. I'd been annoyed when it skipped some months early in the run (though I think that was because there were things in those issues that would spoil developments in Civil War), and I didn't want any more delays. I wanted to see how the arc ended. Once the book was there, it didn't feel quite right. Tonci Zonjic (and some others, Clay Mann, maybe?) gave it their best shot, but I'd have loved to seen it with David Aja the whole way. So the me of today given those sorts of mythical powers back then, I'd have waited. These days I already wait a month to get comics most times, what's a little more waiting to get the best product possible?

Of course, I have no idea if that makes good financial sense from Marvel's perspective. If we wait, that's months where there's no dollars coming in from sales of Immortal Iron Fist issues that could be released with guest pencilers. At the same time, the delays certain books (Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man) faced while waiting for Steve McNiven to get caught up on Civil War didn't seem to hurt their sales once those delayed issues actually shipped. Civil War itself apparently still sells well in collections. I don't know whether Marvel waiting and letting Steve McNiven draw the whole thing is part of that or not. If so, then it would make sense to wait, let David Aja draw the parts he was originally going to draw, and then here's this lovely trade or hardcover, and new editions can be published whenever from now until the cows come home. Does that even out, financially?