Who is the Best Batman writer

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: Thread first started in November 2020 by Lightning63.

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With 108 people having voted,

* Grant Morrison = 41 votes
* Dennis O'Neil = 15 votes
* Chuck Dixon = 12 votes
* "other" = 12 votes
* Paul Dini = 9 votes

All other options currently still have less than five votes each.
"Bob Kane/Bill Finger"; "Ed Brubaker"; "Peter Tomasi"; and "Scott Snyder" all currently have three votes each.

[exile001]

I swear I am utterly baffled at all the votes for Grant Morrison. As the BEST Batman writer ever? Really? Like, I get Morrison's a big name and has their fans but... I just don't get it.

Ugh, maybe I'm just salty that they and Dini's era up to R.I.P. (and including the final straw, Bats SHOOTING Darkseid in Final Crisis) had me leave reading Batman 'til the New 52. I have gone back and read everything since but I still think it's mostly okay (with some absolute crap). It reads like a vanity project to me, like what Morrison personally envisions a concept-based Batman epic to be but without really getting Batman (or his world) as a character. Batman & Robin is really, really good for the most part, though it still had the Red Hood arc.

Come at me for liking King's work, I do understand and acknowledge some of the complaints even if I disagree, but at least that felt like Batman.

[SiegePerilous02]

For me anyway, Morrison gets my vote because they wrote Bruce as badass and cool without going too far into making him the massive douchebag the post-Crisis Batman turned into in the late 90s/early 2000s.

It's the only run in recent memory (besides Dini's stuff from around that time) where Batman actually felt like Batman.

[RobinGA]

I don't think we can get too invested in these polls, they are intended for fun.
I mean one of the greatest DC Comic Book writers of all time -- Gardner Fox-- has no votes.
That doesn't lessen his legacy, just where we are in terms of modern awareness.

I voted for O'Neil. He was the definitive Batman writer of my admittedly decrepit generation.
If people want to vote for Morrison, well go ahead, it doesn't bother me.
The truth is that the DC fandom umbrella takes in a lot of different perspectives.
What strikes us as important will be a matter of personal taste.

[Jim Kelly]

I like the writers who were strong on plots--so guys like Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, David V. Reed, John Broome, Frank Robbins, Mike W. Barr. To some degree Denny O'Neil, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Alan Grant and Doug Moench--although their comics could become soap operas. That's because I like the procedural aspect of Batman best. I want a good detective story with some plot twists. The occasional yarn about the family is okay, but it shouldn't be a steady diet.

I suppose that Chuck Dixon deserves to be in that group, too. But I never liked his writing style.

[JBatmanFan05]

For me anyway, Morrison gets my vote because they wrote Bruce as badass and cool without going too far into making him the massive douchebag the post-Crisis Batman turned into in the late 90s/early 2000s.

It's the only run in recent memory (besides Dini's stuff from around that time) where Batman actually felt like Batman.

Such a great point about not making him into "the massive douchebag," lol as you well put it. That's a big thing I like about Matt Wagner's Batman in the 00s.

Denny O'Neil too I don't think ever really wrote such a douchebag Batman (of course he allowed as editor other writers to go there if they wanted).

And Alan Grant and Dixon and Moench really didn't write an paranoid ******* Batman either. Their Batman could be gritty, but not a jerk.

[InfamousBG]

I love Denny O'Neil. He wins in my book.

[TheBatman]

I swear I am utterly baffled at all the votes for Grant Morrison. As the BEST Batman writer ever? Really? Like, I get Morrison's a big name and has their fans but... I just don't get it.

Ugh, maybe I'm just salty that they and Dini's era up to R.I.P. (and including the final straw, Bats SHOOTING Darkseid in Final Crisis) had me leave reading Batman 'til the New 52. I have gone back and read everything since but I still think it's mostly okay (with some absolute crap). It reads like a vanity project to me, like what Morrison personally envisions a concept-based Batman epic to be but without really getting Batman (or his world) as a character. Batman & Robin is really, really good for the most part, though it still had the Red Hood arc.

Come at me for liking King's work, I do understand and acknowledge some of the complaints even if I disagree, but at least that felt like Batman.

A vanity project, IMO, would be writing 85 issues largely consisting of a version of the Bat/Cat relationship that feels like it was written by an obsessive shipper rather than a professional writer. Morrison's Batman felt more like Batman than Tom King's, but to each their own.

[Cyberstrike]

IMHO Jim Starlin is the best writer/artist in comics. He would be one of the few creators to get me to read a Batman comic longer than a year.

[MajorHoy]

IMHO Jim Starlin is the best writer/artist in comics. He would be one of the few creators to get me to read a Batman comic longer than a year.

See: Batman #414-430 (which includes "A Death in the Family") for Starlin writing the main Bat-title.

[Catlady in training]

My favorite is Morrison. I started reading Batman during their run and it is still my favorite period of Batman comics, especially when Dick was Batman.

[SiegePerilous02]

Such a great point about not making him into "the massive douchebag," lol as you well put it. That's a big thing I like about Matt Wagner's Batman in the 00s.

Denny O'Neil too I don't think ever really wrote such a douchebag Batman (of course he allowed as editor other writers to go there if they wanted).

And Alan Grant and Dixon and Moench really didn't write an paranoid ******* Batman either. Their Batman could be gritty, but not a jerk.

Grant and Moench never did, at least nothing that stands out. Dixon though could write Batman as an *******. I read the first chapter of Nightwing Year One and never read the rest of it because Bruce was written to be such a tool.

A vanity project, IMO, would be writing 85 issues largely consisting of a version of the Bat/Cat relationship that feels like it was written by an obsessive shipper rather than a professional writer. Morrison's Batman felt more like Batman than Tom King's, but to each their own.

And Morrison wrote a better Bat/Cat team up in two issues than King managed in 85.

[Timothy Hunter]

Bob Haney wrote the best Batman interacting with the wider DC Universe.

Chuck Dixon wrote the best solo adventures for the Bat family

Grant Morrison wrote the best Globe-trotting Batman

Steve Engelhart wrote the best Batman romance.

Frank Miller wrote the best Batman origin and ending.

Mike Barr wrote the perfect blend of modern and classic Batman.

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: Thread first started in November 2020 by Lightning63.

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With 123 people having voted,

* Grant Morrison = 43 votes
* Dennis O'Neil = 21 votes
* "other" = 14 votes
* Chuck Dixon = 13 votes
* Paul Dini = 11 votes

All other options currently still have less than five votes each.

"Bob Kane/Bill Finger"; "Ed Brubaker"; "Peter Tomasi"; "Scott Snyder"; and now "Jim Starlin" all currently have three votes each.

"Frank Miller" ("Frank Millar" on the poll); "Gerry Conway"; and "Jeph Leob" each are at 2 votes.

[marhawkman]

Aww... Mark Verheiden isn't an option? I liked how he wrote Batman in Superman/Batman.