Crisis on Infinite Authors

[coveredinbees]

Time marches ever forward. What was once considered a seminal moment becomes a blip in history. As Donald Trump has replaced George W. Bush in our hearts, Austen was too replaced and forgotten after Fraction who in turn fell to Bendis.
I ask you, dear X-Fans, to correctly recall those dreary days of yore and name for me the most offensively poor X-Men run.





1. Marc Guggenheim (This run was remarkable in that I couldn’t choose a worst moment.)
2. Brian Michael Bendis (This was bad. Bad!? Full bad. Oh my god.)
3. Joss Whedon (I might phase into a space bullet, myself, after that!)
4. Rick Remender (I think we all remember how well this went over.)
5. Chuck Austen (Two of everything!)
6. Matt Fraction (AKA I come to bury Fraction, not to praise him.)
7. Warren Ellis (I don’t even remember this one.)
8. Matthew Rosenberg (More blood thirsty than Kyle and Yost)
9. Brian Wood (He didn’t have the mandate to write this poorly.)
10. Other (Please let me know who I've forgotten!)



The choice is yours, X-Fans. Ready? Okay!

[coveredinbees]

Austen


Remender


Guggenheim

[coveredinbees]

Fraction


Bendis


Wood

[Devaishwarya]

I purposely skipped a whole lot from Fraction to Rosenberg.
And of what I've read prior, those are too egregious to even recollect, far less acknowledge by name and must forever go unmentioned.

[Bad Penny]

all of them except Austen and Rosenberg who were the only good ones in this list.
Austen because he had great Juggy/Xavier moments, Lorna finally did something interesting and he made Northstar an X-Man (while making it even more obvious Bobby was gay)
Rosenberg because he killed a bunch of characters that should have been killed or shot in the eye ages ago

[W1bowo]

Marc Guggenheim

[coveredinbees]

It has been requested I include this iconic image from Brian Wood's pioneering X-Men run. I hope this late addition will not unduly influence the voting!

[Personamanx]

Guggenheim from the list. Couldn't speak to the quality of his run, I had no interest in what he was selling in Gold, and I didn't care for his Young X-Men series. Didn't read past issue one of Rosenberg's Uncanny, but I didn't hate it.

The other listed runs are more or less enjoyable. Not perfect, but interesting or entertaining enough to be worth reading as their own things.

[Maestroneto]

Ranked from worst to best

Guggenheim
Remender
Fraction
Wood
Rosenberg
Austen
Ellis
Whedon
Bendis

[Captain Nash]

Rosenburg's main crime was that he was heavy on the deaths and crazy ways to send people packing. Knowing it wasn't all going to stick anyways, I wonder if Hickman was not coming along and his run WAS going to stick, how it would have played out. Crazy and bloodthirsty yes, offensive no.

BMB's main crime was his usual style of writing, great beginnings, long drawn out middles and lackluster endings, and storylines that ultimately add nothing to the history of the X-Men (TW&ToCX, I'm looking at you.) Boring HELL. YES. Offensive, no. EDIT: I forgot, he did have Jean force out Iceman to himself. I am not complaining about the end result just how it was done and her involvement in it. Rather awkward and slightly offensive.

Guggenheim's main crimes were misuse of cast (he had 6of the 8 second most classic lineup, or versions of them anyways) and keeping most of them generic, variations of retreads of stories that have been done over and over, and his main crime of course, his unhealthy obsession with Kitty Pryde and Colossus. Boring again yes, and somewhat offensive with the whole Kitty and Colossus stalkerish storyline.

But Austen. Oh my.Austen's writing was flat out BAD. And offensive. Hyper sexualized, gay stereotypes as well as Northstar being stalkerish with Iceman. Heavy handed religious contexts up to and including the whole demons as mutants and Draco being Kurts father (that last is not so much offensive as just written terribly), Angel and Husk having sex in the air in front on her mother. Polaris and Nurse Annie being stalkerish with Havok, with Iceman, the whole "mutants can't get aids", NEED I GO ON. The entire run felt like a soap opera and not a superhero comic - not to say I don't like non superheroics in my books, and definitely want characterization but it was ridiculous. He had one good story ("Hope" which I think was his first arc) and three other good issues - the one with Northstar trying to fly the exploding kid back to Xavier's, and the last two books of his run, taking place in Genosha, and the second of which may very ironically be my favorite issue of Uncanny ever. So I know he can be a good writer, he just chooses not to be most of the time. Which is all the more frustrating for how bad most of his run was.

Also, Whedon belongs nowhere near this list.

All of this of course, is just my opinion.

[PsychoEFrost]

Worst to best:
Austen
Guggenheim
Rosenberg
Wood
Ellis
Remender
Whedon
Bendis

Austen was just acid fueled insanity without admitting it.
Guggenheim is just... bad. Nothing horrible beyond words. But it started bad, stayed bad, and ended bad.
Rosenberg was setup to fail, but nothing is remotely decent about the BS Chamber, Blindfold and especially Wolfsbane deaths.

[Captain Nash]

Worst to best:
Austen
Guggenheim
Rosenberg
Wood
Ellis
Remender
Whedon
Bendis

Austen was just acid fueled insanity without admitting it.
Guggenheim is just... bad. Nothing horrible beyond words. But it started bad, stayed bad, and ended bad.
Rosenberg was setup to fail, but nothing is remotely decent about the BS Chamber, Blindfold and especially Wolfsbane deaths.

I'm so glad someone else understands this.

[Jalysia]

The way Paige looked when she flat out said mutants can't get AIDS(what about other STDs, dear?), coupled with how "totes" serious she sounded made me lol. That's was some writing, right there.

[Hizashi]

Worst to best:
Austen
Guggenheim
Rosenberg
Wood
Ellis
Remender
Whedon
Bendis

Austen was just acid fueled insanity without admitting it.
Guggenheim is just... bad. Nothing horrible beyond words. But it started bad, stayed bad, and ended bad.
Rosenberg was setup to fail, but nothing is remotely decent about the BS Chamber, Blindfold and especially Wolfsbane deaths.

You rank Bendis above Whedon? Huh.

[coveredinbees]

Another classic moment from Chuck Austen: