is there any current marvel writer on the level of Alan Moore

[InformationGeek]

I'm not a fan of Moore; kind of find most of his stuff boring (from Watchmen to Tom Strong). However, i see why people like his stuff and honestly, no Marvel writer is like him.

People say Hickman is close, but he lacks the range and personality in his stories. They all read and feel the same, plus most of his characters are rather hollow. Moore knows how to write a little of everything, while Hickman is more about grand, "epic" scale tales and less focused on the human element.

If you're looking for someone similar in skill, you'll probably find someone better in the Japanese writing scene, like Naoki Urasawa, Satoshi Kon, or Daisuke Igarashi.

[Thor-Ul]

The OP said "current" Marvel writer.

[numberthirty]

Not really, but that's largely because Marvel isn't really going to give someone that sort of "Room" on a title. Heck, they are barely giving titles a chance to see if they will sink or swim.

The most recent writer/work I can think of that even felt like it was in the ball park that the initial post mentions was the Ales Kot Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier run.

[The Ray]

This thread is a thing to behold.

Is Nick Spencer a Moore's level writer?

[dzub]

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i'm surprised his name has'nt been mentioned yet

[JKtheMac]

When Moore did return to superheroes he did work for Wildstorm and then Awesome Comics and while good, they were pretty convention stories.

Maybe the more fair question shouldn't be who's doing work as good as Watchmen or From Hell that's coming from Marvel but what's coming from Marvel that's as good as WildCATS or Supreme? I think we might come up with more titles to compare.

We have to remember that Watchmen stood out back then. Apart from science fiction novels there was not a lot to compare it to. Now that just isn’t the case. But it depends how you compare. There hasn’t been another deconstruction of the superhero genre in quite that way because Moore did it back then. Gillen’s Wikdiv is a modern take of the same themes, hugely popular and almost ignored outside of tumblr and more indy focused websites. There is nothing superior about Watchmen when compared to it except that Watchmen was the first. The analysis is probably more pertaining to our age in Wicdiv.

Even in originality Watchmen wasn’t as stand-out as it seemed to many. The core idea of unifying invasion was straight out of Vonnegut and Sturgeon with a sprinkling of James Joyce’s cyclical motif to undercut it and suggest the idea is doomed to fail. The political background was being explored in other media constantly, the innovations were applying it all to superheroes and introducing sexuality, which was pretty much Moore’s signature. The reason we remember it is because it found an audience, which wasn’t guaranteed. Given the number of people that seemed to read it entirely counter to Moore’s intent, seeing Rorsharch as an identifiable protagonist, it is frankly astonishing it was as popular as it was.

None of this is intended to undermine Moore’s achievement, Watchmen is an undeniably great work that is far deeper and richer than anything else in the superhero genre of its day. But we should see it for what it was, a shocking wake-up call to US mainstream comics, but a wake-up call that totally failed because the result was terrible pastiche and poor imitation for much of the next two decades, with only two or three other writers keeping the flame alive until the current flourishing of Moore’s legacy.

Perhaps a measure of this failure is the praise that the current Watchmen reanimation attempt is getting. As if the twitching corpse of Watchmen with new DC clothing is something worth investing in, and not a cynical attempt to hold onto the property by a company devoid of creativity.

Frankly I am astonished Moore doesn’t launch a legal battle because all of his claims that DC were deliberately misleading in contract negotiations seem to have been proven by decades of behaviour.

[ed2962]

He won't go after DC legally probably cause he doesn't have much of a leg to stand on.

[Ra-El]

I don't know about anyone on Marvel right now that is on Moore's level, but there is a lot of work that is at least as good as his. Neil Gaiman's Sandman is the first to come to mind, them we have a lot of things from Vertigo like Lucifer, Y-The Last Man, Transmetropolitam, Preacher, DMZ and Daytripper. Unfortunately Vertigo isn't on that same level anymore, but it is still possible to find a lot work that is that good, Brubaker is one that put some pretty good work like The Fade Out and Kill or Be Killed, beyond that we have comics like The American Way and Invincible that show the superhero genre from angles not much used.

[The Real Hawkeye Kate Bishop]

I think the majority of writers at marvel are better than Alan Moore who I consider to be one of the most over rated writers ever. My main gripe with him is that his books are too wordy. Comics should be concise the less words the better. Ideally you do not need any words in your comic a great writer should be able to make his script with a few words as possible. You don't read comics you absorb them.
That is why Bendis is one of the greats his comics you can absorb them without having to slow down with unnecessary narration or exposition.

[Charlie_1981]

I think the majority of writers at marvel are better than Alan Moore who I consider to be one of the most over rated writers ever. My main gripe with him is that his books are too wordy. Comics should be concise the less words the better. Ideally you do not need any words in your comic a great writer should be able to make his script with a few words as possible. You don't read comics you absorb them.
That is why Bendis is one of the greats his comics you can absorb them without having to slow down with unnecessary narration or exposition.

Are you talking seriously?

For me, none of the current writers at Marvel, not even those of DC, reaches that level, some try, they are correct but it is a difficult level to reach, maybe Frank Miller could approach in his best times, besides, Moore has done many more works in DC of those who he did with Marvel so if you had to make a valuation, you would have to go to the other publisher to comment as a whole.

The only Marvel writer I really like is Al Ewing but I see him more at a point like Dan Slott, Busiek, Gillen, Brubaker, Hickman, Remender or Waid, the rest I do not like at all.

[BruceWayneJr.]

Bendis?

LOL! Thanks for the laugh, gang.

[CentralPower]

They're brilliant, period, and the industry will always be reaching for the goal posts that Moore set.

The industry has surpassed those goals. Competent breakdowns are now expected. Moore deserves credit for creating that expectation with "Watchmen". But, it is not expected, and generally done pretty well.

Polemicomics, such as "V for Vendetta" are common, and just as poncy as polemicomics were in the 80s. .

Totally agree; he was merely one of the first (along with Miller) to bring superheroism to the dark, depressing pit that writers are still trying to pull themselves out of.

It was not just the tone of Moore's writing that set him apart (albeit decades ago). It was his technical skill as a writer.

It took the industry as a whole 15+ years to do it consistently. But, Moore was one of the first to write comics without the derpy-arse OCD narration boxes that were common through the bronze age.

Moore's breakdowns were unusual at the time for making comics easier to look at, rather than the ugly messes that Silver and Bronze age comic pages were. (It helped that even his more talky panels were competently lettered and arranged.)

I've read Watchmen and the Killing Joke and neither compelled me to think "I've got to find some more Alan Moore stuff"

When did you read it? How long had you been reading comics before? And, what had you read? Moore's signature work (such as the examples you cite) was impressive because of when it came out. If you started reading comics during or after the 90s, the things that set Moore above are not going to be obvious because you simply assume they are going to be there.

Take Grant Morrison a guy that's often mentioned in the same breath as Moore...his Marvel work in super solid and I'd have no problem recommending his X-Men or Marvel Boy to anyone. But do you think modern Marvel would him do something like The Invisibles? Then follow it up with stuff like We3, Sea Guy, and The Filth?

This amuses me given how much Morrison and Moore are known to dislike each other.

The OP said "current" Marvel writer.

[rimshot]

[soundsci]

I don't that I would consider them Moore-level (his Swamp Thing is top of the pack for me), but marvel has a solid group of writers in Ahmed, Cates, Tom Taylor, and Jason Aaron who I'll follow in most that they do.

Edit: I agree though that it's hard to compare when Moore was trying to mature comics and marvel has been influenced by that but is going for something else entirely at the moment, which is maybe just fun adventures from most of the comics I follow.

[FUBAR007]

is there any current marvel writer on the level of Alan Moore

On the level of Moore at his peak? No.

To be fair, though, contemporary Marvel corporate/editorial would never give a writer the latitude and creative control necessary for them to write at that level. They publish mainstream, commercial superhero comics--franchisable and merchandisable IP. Moreover, part of Marvel's current brand is that they're the fun comics company while DC is the one that goes for serious and artsy.

On the level of Moore's early work and/or mid-grade stuff? Sure.

[Kevinroc]

I'm not a fan of Moore; kind of find most of his stuff boring (from Watchmen to Tom Strong). However, i see why people like his stuff and honestly, no Marvel writer is like him.

People say Hickman is close, but he lacks the range and personality in his stories. They all read and feel the same, plus most of his characters are rather hollow. Moore knows how to write a little of everything, while Hickman is more about grand, "epic" scale tales and less focused on the human element.

If you're looking for someone similar in skill, you'll probably find someone better in the Japanese writing scene, like Naoki Urasawa, Satoshi Kon, or Daisuke Igarashi.

Even though he didn't work for Marvel, it's a real shame that Kon's last project ("Yume Miru Kikai" or "Dreaming Machine") will really never be finished. It was supposed to be very different, with the focus was on it being for younger audiences than his other projects.