Good and bad transitions in Marvel comics creative teams?

[Kuro no Shinigami]

There are good and bad creative teams in Marvel comics but some of the great creative teams have worthy successors.

Mark Gruenwald had a fairly unremarkable run on Captain America and was succeeded by a much better creative team, Mark Waid and Ron Garney who were succeeded by a much worse creator by the name of Rob Liefeld.

Transition from Todd McFarlane to Erik Larsen is good for Spider-Man book.

When Walt Simonson left the Thor book, he was succeeded by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz produced good and entertaining Thor stories, altthough not as good as Walt's. It was a great transition for Thor.

John Romita is better on Spider-Man than Steve Ditko.

[Electricmastro]

I still feel that Captain America #332 (August, 1987) is still one of the most compelling issues to come from Gruendwald’s run.

[charliehustle415]

I always thought the handover between Morrison and Whedon went really well, it felt like a natural progression of the X-Men story.

Also the hand off between Bendis and Hickman on Avengers for me was God-Tier because you can read both runs as a giant saga.

The ones that were always jarring to me were the Spidey handoffs as well as the Thor ones. JMS unceremoniously left Thor with Gillen taking over and it did not feel natural at all and when Fraction left Thor and Aaron took over it didn't feel like the same character. I know each time a new creator comes on board it is kinda like a soft reboot; but those were really jarring.

I think the majority of the X-Men line all feel like pocket universes especially in the latter part of 2010s

[Steel Inquisitor]

Bendis to Brubaker on Daredevil, as well as Busiek to Nicieza on Thunderbolts are my gold standards for seamless transitions in comics. It's like the original writers didn't leave, they were that good. All the transitions from the Heroes Reborn line to the Heroes Return line were effortless due to the Return's dynamite premiere issues that felt like events. New yet returning to their classic routes.

[charliehustle415]

Bendis to Brubaker on Daredevil, as well as Busiek to Nicieza on Thunderbolts are my gold standards for seamless transitions in comics. It's like the original writers didn't leave, they were that good. All the transitions from the Heroes Reborn line to the Heroes Return line were effortless due to the Return's dynamite premiere issues that felt like events. New yet returning to their classic routes.

I totally forgot about Bendis to Brubaker; you're totally right that was an amazing handover.

[Riv86672]

A bad one for me was Byrne to Mantlo on the original ALPHA FLIGHT series. Didn’t much enjoy that change in direction.

[OOTCS]

Bendis to Brubaker on Daredevil, as well as Busiek to Nicieza on Thunderbolts are my gold standards for seamless transitions in comics. It's like the original writers didn't leave, they were that good. All the transitions from the Heroes Reborn line to the Heroes Return line were effortless due to the Return's dynamite premiere issues that felt like events. New yet returning to their classic routes.

I was going to say Busiek to Nicieza as well. I read the comics in trade without looking too closely at the credits at first, and I was shocked when I found out that the writer had switched a few issues back. But I'm sure they planned it together extensively, because everything from the beginning of the book got wrapped up by the time it was over.

Bendis to Brubaker is a good one, but there are a few differences, mostly in the female supporting cast. Natasha disappears from the book when Brubaker takes it over (funnily enough, he introduces her as a main supporting character in Captain America around the same time), Milla gets written out, and Dakota and Becky come in. But it's really only something you would notice looking back, not as you're reading it.

[ChrisIII]

Bruce Jones to Greg Pak on Hulk (although PAD and Daniel Way wrote some fill-in issues before Pak took over full time), or later, Greg Pak to Al Ewing.

[Ying Ko]

There are so many subpar runs following a great run I don't even know where to start.

Oh wait, I do! Scott Lobdell following Chris Claremont as the main writer on the X-Men franchise. That was so bad it turned me off comics for more than a decade.

[Zero Hunter]

Mark Gruenwald had a fairly unremarkable run on Captain America and was succeeded by a much better creative team, Mark Waid and Ron Garney who were succeeded by a much worse creator by the name of Rob Liefeld.

Anyone who says that about Gruenwald's run on Cap has obviously never read the Gruenwald run. Plus Grienwald did almost 140 issue of Cap while Waid barely cranked out 30. To me Waid was the start of the "Steve has no life outside of being Cap" era. Plus Gru actaully brought new things to the Cap mythos like the Serpent Society, Crossbones, US Agent, and many others while Waid really just did a greatest hits version of Cap. Know your history kids.

[K7P5V]

I still feel that Captain America #332 (August, 1987) is still one of the most compelling issues to come from Gruendwald’s run.

Totally agree, Electricmastro. Gruenwald's ending to this saga was very memorable, as well:

[capandkirby]

Totally agree, Electricmastro. Gruenwald's ending to this saga was very memorable, as well:

Third this. Gruenwald’s Cap run was amazing.

Granted I love Waid, too. And Gruenwald had a couple of misses (that drug story arc *facepalm*) but he wrote the character for TEN YEARS, the occasional lackluster arc was more than compensated for by Gruenwald’s overall awesomeness. Cap #332 is one of the greatest Cap issues of all-time imho.