Best and Worst Writter for your favorite characther

[PsychoEFrost]

IvX was by Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire, not Aaron.

Really? How horribly she was done there, I could have sworn Aaron was behind the pen.

[Izanami]

Wolverine

Best: Larry Hama, Chris Claremont, Eric Larsen, Jo Duffy, Ann Nocenti, Kathryn Immonen, Charlie Huston, Barry Windsor-Smith, Frank Tieri, Mark Millar, and Greg Rucka.

Worst: Jason Aaron, Daniel Way, Tom Taylor, and Paul Cornell.

Cable

Best: Fabian Nicieza, James Robinson, Joe Casey, Jeph Loeb, and Robert Wienberg.

Worst: James Robinson. I know, I put him in the best, and he wrote a good Cable in the 90's. The reason I put him was he wrote last year a bad one. Funny that I only have one bad writer with Cable, lol.

Love the choices for best writer. You have my respect. That is an amazing list.

[TheCape]

Really? How horribly she was done there, I could have sworn Aaron was behind the pen.

Aaron left the X-Books around 2014. Thank god.

[macjr33]

Sorry wrong thread

[butterflykyss]

Storm:

Best-Lord Claremont

Worst-hard to tell(there have been so many bad Storm writers), but Guggenheim, Bendis, Fraction, and Aaron are all close though.

as a storm fan I will have to agree with this.

My personal best writers:

1. Claremont: He is the blue-print that every writer should adhere to when writing her. His storm embodied so many contradictory traits yet he made her work. there were things I wish he would have done more to establish in terms of her power, but overall he is the reason storm is as well-known and popular as she is today.

2. Coates: This writer gave me an Ororo I have always wanted to read about. He writes her as a believable character to me as I would see a black heroine in the real world. It boggles my mind that for an African American character who has existed since the 70s that there are probably a handful or two of stories that show her embracing her blackness, and exploring her culture as it relates to being an Kenyan/Egyptian, as well as African American. Coates writes her unapologetically black and this is I believe one of the best things that could have been done for this character as it is well over due. I couldn't imagine a character like her existing in real life and not attempting to addresss issues that plague the black communities around he world. I also like that he canonized her being an actual goddess.

3. Yost/Wood: I think these two did a pretty good job when then wrote her. I like some of things Yost explored when it related to her power (I believe he was the one to give us one of her first internal attacks) and Wood seem to capture the voice of Ororo that can be stern and somewhat cold. I think if you were able to mix these two together they would generate a pretty impressive storm.


My absolute worst writers:

As yoga said there are far more many bad writers of storm than good. I will limit this to my top 3 as well:

1. Bendis: The absolute worst Storm writer. He trolled this character it seemed everytime he had the chance to write her. Him having her as an Avenger was trash drooling all over the ground, her being written as a mother hen during her head mistress time, and even wrote her with blank speech panels saying absolutely nothing. Trash.

2. Aaron: He gets number two because his vision for her post her annulled marriage set the path for her to end up where did during IvX. He wrote her after returning to the Xmen post being a queen as logans side piece. He would be the vehicle that steered the way for much of her development particularly when he died she seemed to go bat sh!t crazy not trusting her better judgment and being ineffective against a cloud. Let's not forget he also believes she needs "weather" for her powers to work, even though this is probably one of the most inaccurate things writers get wrong about her. He was absolutely, absolutely one of the worst things to happen to her.

3. Guggenheim: I actually had the pleasure of meeting him in person and had a detailed discussion about Storm. I may have even made him a little higher on list prior to this discussion. The funny thing about Guggenheim is that he knows his storm history and loves the character. We see evidence of this at times in Gold (such as the XSE badge, his fascination with Stormcaster). However, his execution is tremendously flawed. He acknowledged that giving her stormcaster now with her powers is like putting a hat on top of hat, he also claimed that Claremont explanation of her using her powers via energy sight was a retcon, and he admittedly mentioned that he finds her hard to write particularly powerwise beyond just wind and lightning. His heart is there and gold 25 (the collar moment) is evident there is potential there but he honestly should never have been tasked or given the permission to write Storm.

[Purplevit]

Gambit

Best: Fabian Nicieza, Howard Mackie, Chris Claremont, James Asmus, Marjorie Liu.

Worst: Mike Carey, John Layman, Charles Soule, Steve McNiven (lame AvX vs 2), G Willow Wilson (one of the wrost Gambit`s cameos ever).

[The_Phenom2893]

Love the choices for best writer. You have my respect. That is an amazing list.

Thanks! :-D

Although, I did forget to put Simon Spurrier on the list in Cable (in the best). I loved his X-Force run.

[Gray Lensman]

For Cyclops.

Best: Simonsen, Whedon, Jeff Parker (Writer for X-Men: First Class)

Honorable mentions - Claremont during ANAD era, Rucka, writers for X-Men: Evolution

Worst: Brubaker, Soule, Lemire

Dishonorable mentions: Claremont post X-Factor, writers for Wolverine and the X-Men animated series.

[Wind Rider]

Storm

Best:

Claremont
Kim
Pak
Yost/Wood (varying degrees)
Gray
W.Wilson

Worst:

Fraction
Gillen
Lemire
Bendis
Guggenheim
Bunn

[ChronoRogue]

ROGUE

^BEST^

CHRIS CLAREMONT
Her creator and pretty much the all around basis for much of the X-Men's foundation. Chris gave her most of her defining development, from the origin, to the conflict in controlling her powers, nailing down her personality, being willing to experiment and put her in different roles (leader, powerless, etc...). Claremont knew what he wanted to do with the character and it's very clear. It wasn't until Forever where he started spinning his wheels a bit and seemed to hit a wall with her creatively (switching the darkholme siblings powers), but otherwise he's the gold standard for characterization and development.

MIKE CAREY
Probably the writer who has given Rogue the most attention and development post CC. He reestablished her prominence post-trainwreck runs of Milligan and Austen, gave her a new purpose, finally gave her control, and like CC wasn't afraid to take her into unfamiliar territory. His writing of her wasn't perfect especially in regards to romance, but overall I think he was a good writer for Rogue. I'll always appreciate him for basically turning adjectivesless into a stealth 50 issue Rogue solo. Ah that was a nice time to be a Rogue fan. <3

GERRY DUGGAN
If Carey saved us in the mid 00s from a terrible Rogue, Duggan gave us some relief after RR turned Rogue into a heel for Wanda. His Rogue was confident, fun, and made it seem like her being an Avenger wasn't being put into exile away from the other X-Men, but getting to play in another toolbox with new situations. Again, the romance hot button issue got pushed and I'm not really gonna defend his treatment of Gambit's bait-n-switch, but in terms of Rogue's development and how he wrote the character she was good.

Honorable Mentions: Kelly Thompson (good so far but need to see more), Scott Lodbell

vWORSTv

PETER MILLIGAN
When I think of all the worst qualities in Rogue that I never want to see again, I look to Milligan's Adjectiveless 00 run. Rogue getting wrapped up in her relationship and not getting any individual development? Check. Rogue being overbearing and angsting about her inability to touch her boyfriend? Check. Being stagnant and not moving forwards or exploring new aspects of the character? Check. All these things have been done by other writers before, but either their time with the character was short enough to be brushed off or felt like isn't drama manufactured for the sake of not having any better ideas; Milligan did not express any passion or interest in writing the characters to me through his plot-lines. maybe i'm wrong, but it really didn't seem like it

CHUCK AUSTEN
Felt like the prologue for Milligan's mess, it had most of the same problems, but it didn't feel like it was anything specific to Rogue. He just seemed to struggle in general with his writing at this time. His run also felt a bit shorter than Milligan (might be?), so it's doesn't sting as bad looking back. Still not a run I'd recommend for any quality Rogue content.

RICK REMEMBER
Unlike the two before, Remember's Rogue did genuinely have some nice moments for the character. It's also apparent he at least had a specific goal in mind for her, even if it wasn't one that felt organic or gave us decent payoff. The easiest complaint to see with his Rogue is with his use of her as a foil for another character; Wanda. Lots of writers have character that play off each other and that's fine, problem is the debates and perspectives they had didn't feel equal or fair. It was too easy to see which character the writer favored and it wasn't Rogue. Second, he killed her off... for two thirds of his volume. Rogue missed a lot of panel-time being 'dead' and it also had the potentially (un)intended consequence of pulling her from a book where she was being written better at the time, which is a big negative for me. Over all, a misuse of the character with some highlights here and there.

Dishonorable Mentions: Paul Jenkins (way to casually ignore something which is a very big deal to one character to attempt to make a recton character seem more relevant)

[butterflykyss]

Storm

Best:

Claremont
Kim
Pak
Yost/Wood (varying degrees)
Gray
W.Wilson

Worst:

Fraction
Gillen
Lemire
Bendis
Guggenheim
Bunn

Kim and Gray? what stories did they write?

[Anduinel]

Kim and Gray? what stories did they write?

I think Kim did the Storm & Gambit one-shot in Curse of the Mutants. It really was a good story; I was sorry he didn't get more work with the X-Men after.

[Purplevit]

I think Kim did the Storm & Gambit one-shot in Curse of the Mutants. It really was a good story; I was sorry he didn't get more work with the X-Men after.

It was a good one-shot.

[Anduinel]

Northstar:

Best:

1. Byrne - He set up a really strong foundation and motivation for the character. Extra credit for being loud as hell about JP's sexuality at a time where there was only so much to be done to put it in print story-wise.

2. Claremont - I will always give Claremont mad props for JP's characterization in X-Men/Alpha Flight: The Gift.

3. Liu - Probably the most significant storyline Northstar's had since his coming-out issue, and a better story on top of it.

Honorable mention to Mike Carey for cleaning up Mark Millar's nonsense, and Weir and DeFillipis for giving at least a few nods to his time as one of the squad mentors.

Worst:

1. Austen - Austen's sins are many. Chief among them was ignoring Northstar's actual backstory in service of saddling him with the cliche of an abusive dad (just like damn near every other character Austen got hold of during his Uncanny run).

2. Millar - Not just for turning Northstar into an angry, gay zombie, but for giving so few fucks that he left it as a dangling plotline for other writers to clean up.

3. Fraction - Another case of crappy research, plus he literally put the words "I have no desire to be your queer mascot" into Northstar's mouth before reducing him to wallpaper/the team's queer mascot.

Dishonorable mention to Scottie Young for sacrificing Northstar and Anole's teacher-mentor relationship on the alter of angst at a time when the X-Books were already overflowing with it.

[butterflykyss]

I think Kim did the Storm & Gambit one-shot in Curse of the Mutants. It really was a good story; I was sorry he didn't get more work with the X-Men after.

oh yes thank you. I do remember that issue. it was very well written.