Writer or cast? What actually makes a book?

[Killerbee911]

Is there really such a thing as a "bad character" in comics? Character voices change so often that I think everyone has a chance under the right writer. Sure characters like Glob and Beak are probably never going to be the center-piece of huge events, but that doesn't mean that they can't be written well and have an endearing supporting role.

Yes imo, they are good character designs and bad character designs, Good character setups, and bad character setups. It is the effort to make something work is what a writer actually determines good or bad "character". Some character designs aren't worth the effort to fix them. If you have to change the look, the personality, do retcons fix the story to throw away baggage, etc. You might be better off just using a new character which is the effort of all that fixing instead, I think you can fix any bad characters but also think the end result is often a new character. For me, as I see it the Immortal Hulk is a brand new character the beauty of fiction that any character can be repaired like that but on the other hand I think we are missing out on the potential next big character in putting good ideas into old things.

[AppleJ]

Writer makes ALL the difference. A great writer can make me care about characters that hold no interest for me. I've experienced this. A poor writer can absolutely ruin an amazing character cast, make me dislike my favorite characters, and make me quit a book I was super invested in and tried very hard to like.

[ChronoRogue]

The cast matters to me, but a writer actually decides if something is readable or not.

Thus why Excalibur despite having my favorite cast, is the most disappointing X-Men book in HoX.

[Thundershot]

An A list writer can take a D list cast and make them awesome. But a D list writer can take an A list cast and make them suck. So definitely the writer.

[Dante Milton]

A bit of both if I'm being honest. Yes, a writer can make an otherwise dull character interesting, but there are some characters that I will never care enough about to bother reading, regardless of the quality of the writing. They could put one of my favorite creative teams on a Glob solo and I still wouldn't read it.

Art is also important to me. The reason Fallen Angels was dreadful rather than merely boring was due in large part to the horrendous art.

[thechronic92]

Writer obviously. They have been plenty of books with a good cast on paper but they failed to deliver

[crimsontt]

A bit of both if I'm being honest. Yes, a writer can make an otherwise dull character interesting, but there are some characters that I will never care enough about to bother reading, regardless of the quality of the writing. They could put one of my favorite creative teams on a Glob solo and I still wouldn't read it.

Art is also important to me. The reason Fallen Angels was dreadful rather than merely boring was due in large part to the horrendous art.

Excalibur is frustrating. Fallen angels was cringey...

[Steroid]

Have to say Hellions is the best example as why the writer is more important than the cast.

[Sandmans_Raven]

Before Excalibur, I may have said cast, but definitely writer. Hellions has cemented that for me. Although, I think it's also important for the writer to care about the cast they are writing.

[justanotherclassic]

I think both are important, but the Writer edges it out to me. A writer can make certain cast members interesting, but they can also waste an otherwise good cast. I love, love, love a good portion of the Excalibur cast, but the writing is godawful that I am not enjoying it.

[Purplevit]

Before Excalibur, I may have said cast, but definitely writer. Hellions has cemented that for me. Although, I think it's also important for the writer to care about the cast they are writing.

Life will never be the same after Excalibur bad writing.

[Rnap22]

Writer for sure. And the writer has to actually care about writing them. Claremont built up a great cast of characters during his run. For me it’s the Outback era of characters that I attached myself to because that’s when I started collecting. Excalibur has a lot of my favorite characters, but the writing is so bad that I’m just frustrated that none of them are actually doing anything. X-men Gold turned me off of Kitty because she was just an awful, bitchy know everything, while Storm was a chump. Really? No, that’s bad writing. Hellions is a great book because of the writing and how these characters interact which many have never interacted before. Fallen Angels was awful and made me so not interested in Kwannon, while Hellions has made me interested to see how she develops into her own character.

Art is also important (clearly it’s a visual medium), but the writing is the thing that needs to be spot on.

[Sandmans_Raven]

Life will never be the same after Excalibur bad writing.

For sure. I tried to give it a chance, but it's just burned me too many times

[Riv86672]

This thread has really made me curious as to Hellions.
Is it really that good?

[AdamFTF]

Probably writers. But I usually end up following characters anyway, because I'm in and out of comics so much that I can never really keep track of writers as new ones enter the business all the time but the characters are mostly the same. For example, I just found out who this Hickman dude is last year.