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My favorite “team” of writers was Bates, Maggie, Conway, & Pasko from the 70’s. Bates & Maggin were great at defining Superman world and fleshing out his character a bit. Conway & Pasko were great at providing threatening villains. I never thought Superman was overpowered back then because there were always villains who could challenge him.
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I think one of the reasons I enjoyed Marty Pasko's run so much is that--having been a comic book fan and a critic himself--he used everything he had learned from all those other writers and put it into his stories. So, for me, Pasko was the perfect synthesis of all Superman sources.
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[QUOTE=Johnny Thunders!;5239325]I am curious as to what story everyone would put up as their "exhibit A" for best Superman writer.
For example I don't think he has the output to justify the title, but Superman in Supertown would be my nominee for Jack Kirby as best Superman writer. I would have given Kirby the Superman titles when he came to DC.[/QUOTE]
Ironically I think Bates is one of the few people who doesn't possess strong exhibits. His work across so many years was so consistently imaginative that it's hard to point. Maggin and Morrison to name a few seemed to do those sort of stories at least half the time, but no one fills a long box like Bates.
My earliest story was Action 410. Superman 243, 264, 266, 372, Demon with a Cape, and Second Coming of Superman are some of my all time favorites and made huge impressions, but I don't know if those stories convey what other people really want to know about the character. #296-300 definitely would, but Maggin was cowriter.
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[QUOTE=Jim Kelly;5240455]I think one of the reasons I enjoyed Marty Pasko's run so much is that--having been a comic book fan and a critic himself--he used everything he had learned from all those other writers and put it into his stories. So, for me, Pasko was the perfect synthesis of all Superman sources.[/QUOTE]
One of my favorite story “arcs” that Pasko did was the one involving Metallo, Skull, & the Kryptonite pipeline. He’s possibly my favorite Superman writer.
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All you saying Morrison need to read more Superman books.
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[QUOTE=Zero Hunter;5240676]All you saying Morrison need to read more Superman books.[/QUOTE]
Or we've read enough.
Like I read three trades of Byrne comics and they were all bad lol, and I didn't even get to the Barda porno. Pretty confident in my choice:p
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[QUOTE=Kuwagaton;5240493]Ironically I think Bates is one of the few people who doesn't possess strong exhibits. His work across so many years was so consistently imaginative that it's hard to point. Maggin and Morrison to name a few seemed to do those sort of stories at least half the time, but no one fills a long box like Bates.
My earliest story was Action 410. Superman 243, 264, 266, 372, Demon with a Cape, and Second Coming of Superman are some of my all time favorites and made huge impressions, but I don't know if those stories convey what other people really want to know about the character. #296-300 definitely would, but Maggin was cowriter.[/QUOTE]
My favorite run of Superman comics is definitely the era where Bates, Maggin, Conway, and Pasko were on the Superman books. I am surprised how many of those were written by Pasko. My nominee for Bates would be the Immortal Superman from Action Comics 385 or Action Comics 502 The Fall and Rise of the Star Child. Bates also invented Terra Man which might mean he is my favorite comic writer ever. I am a huge Grant Morrison Superman fan and I think you have to include his JLA, All Star Superman, Final Crisis, Multiversity, and his Nu 52 run.
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I don't know the Stern, Ordway, or Jurgens books as well but I feel like I need to catch up. Especially because I have really grown to admire Jurgens as an artist and writer.
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Up to the 2000s these writers tended to be unsung to the extent that it even slips my mind that Bates did #385-387.
Conway and Pasko were great at coming up with challenges and longer plots. I think Action #500 showed how that sort of talent could define the character.
And given that Kirby or Simonson aren't associated with very many projects, I feel comfortable saying that Ordway is my favorite writer artist. Although he's probably easier to recognize for world building than character definition.
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Jerry siegel.Period.I would say grant morrison reintroduced some of the old beats in new ways.So did moore,maggin..etc.
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I like Jerry Siegels Silver Age stuff the best but I think it has more to do with my age! I would put Morrison’s All Star Superman 6 as my favorite Morrison Superman story. I prefer this take on Smallville. You can have it all , the small town kid and the immortal Superman of the future.
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I know this is off topic but Scholly Fisch is a great Superman writer. His back ups on Morrison’s Superman are hidden gems.
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[QUOTE=Zero Hunter;5240676]All you saying Morrison need to read more Superman books.[/QUOTE]
And that's one of the reasons why comic book fandom gets a bad rep, because of snobbish comments like that.
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[QUOTE=Zero Hunter;5240676]All you saying Morrison need to read more Superman books.[/QUOTE]
Tell me who your favorite is and I’ll tell you why you’re wrong :p
In all seriousness I think Byrne is terrible, Jurgens is mediocre, Tomasi was extremely uneven with high highs but low lows, and both Johns and Taylor had a few good ideas but way more toxic ones. Johns has let himself become the nostalgic fanboy he used Prime to mock, and Taylor is the most banal writer I’ve ever seen, his entire schtick is “big wholesome chungas moment for Reddit to cream itself over, followed by someone dying an idiotic death to ‘show the stakes’”. Yet I’m fine with others thinking any of these are the best since preference is subjective.
[QUOTE=Johnny Thunders!;5241684]I know this is off topic but Scholly Fisch is a great Superman writer. His back ups on Morrison’s Superman are hidden gems.[/QUOTE]
I went on Twitter and asked Lee to make sure the backups were included in the upcoming Morrison Omnibus. Fisch should’ve gotten one of the books after Morrison. Instead they gave it to Lobdell. I still would love to see him do a Superman project on his own but that will probably never happen now. Still all of his backups were fantastic and that’s a satisfying legacy in and of itself.
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[QUOTE=Vordan;5242449]Tell me who your favorite is and I’ll tell you why you’re wrong :p
In all seriousness I think Byrne is terrible, Jurgens is mediocre, Tomasi was extremely uneven with high highs but low lows, and both Johns and Taylor had a few good ideas but way more toxic ones. Johns has let himself become the nostalgic fanboy he used Prime to mock, and Taylor is the most banal writer I’ve ever seen, his entire schtick is “big wholesome chungas moment for Reddit to cream itself over, followed by someone dying an idiotic death to ‘show the stakes’”. Yet I’m fine with others thinking any of these are the best since preference is subjective.
I went on Twitter and asked Lee to make sure the backups were included in the upcoming Morrison Omnibus. Fisch should’ve gotten one of the books after Morrison. Instead they gave it to Lobdell. I still would love to see him do a Superman project on his own but that will probably never happen now. Still all of his backups were fantastic and that’s a satisfying legacy in and of itself.[/QUOTE]
I say that Jerry Siegel is the definitive Superman writer.