Writer or cast? What actually makes a book?

[Purplevit]

Art is a whole different thing, For me it is the most important thing, I won't even get to find out if cast or writer is good if the art is bad. I preferred the super artist era in comics,Yeah books got delayed but consistent good art makes shaky stories tolerable. If the art was bad for X of swords people would be destroying the event even more.

Definetely. Completely agree.

[Thievery]

I think that writer, artist and cast are all important.

The example for a good cast being derailed by poor writing for me would be Austen era X-Men. There were some great characters involved in those stories, yet they were still really bad, in my opinion.

I realize that a good writer can turn a bad cast into a good comic, but speaking only for myself, I don't usually care how good a comic is if I don't care about the cast. Hellions is being used as an example of a poor cast being turned into a good comic because of what really is great writing. However, I wouldn't have been nearly as interested in checking out that comic to begin with if Sinister, Kwannon, and Havok were not involved as part of the cast.
Edit: So with out some of the cast of Hellions, I probably would have missed out on what I really do feel is the best current X-comic.

[Amacent]

Didn't vote because I find both the cast and writer/artist impact my reading choices. I'll definitely check out any book that has a focus on one of my three faves (Cyke, Emma, and Moonstar) but I will check out after a couple of issues if the writer is not up to par. On the other hand, I won't bother with any book that has a focus on my least fave characters no matter how much I like the writers work.

[Ra-El]

Art is a whole different thing, For me it is the most important thing, I won't even get to find out if cast or writer is good if the art is bad. I preferred the super artist era in comics,Yeah books got delayed but consistent good art makes shaky stories tolerable. If the art was bad for X of swords people would be destroying the event even more.

Yes, take Aaron's Thor for example, I don't think it would be half as popular if wasn't for Ribic and Dauterman that kept the epic feel to it.

[Jackraow21]

I would’ve said cast years ago... until Mike Carey made me a huge fan of the most oddball X-men team ever with Rogue’s “Supernovas” squad. So I voted writer.

[Whim]

as a kid I'd buy whatever based on who was appearing in the solicit.

but later writers started making more and more of a difference. I'd never buy anything Bendis.

Excalibur is an example of a random cast that was thrown together and doesn't work but it's even worse with bad writing.

weird casts can work like Hellions thanks to good writing.

though even good writing can't make some characters worth reading. I mean Quentin is up there for characters I'm not very interested in but I don't really avoid him.

[lefthanded]

You don't even have to look at team/cast books - if you look at solo books, there are some solid answer right there. Spider-man is the same character, but change the writer, and the quality changes. Keep the writer (Slott), and change the character (Doctor Octopus is now Spider-man), and it is still the same level (cause the writer is the same).

With the Young Avengers books - casts were largely the same, with a few additions/subtractions. But Kieron's run was vastly superior in my opinion.

[Lady Midnight]

There's not a writer in the world who could get me interested in the upcoming Wolverine/Maverick reunion.

[allthingzamasing]

I went with writing, but I’ll go into more detail.

Now if the book had a good cast anddevebg writing, I am ALL over that. If it had a good cast and good sorting, EVEN BETTER!

But if the book had a bad(not really bad but just kind of D and Z listers that I don’t care for)cast and GOOD writing I would probably still read it(like Hellions as so many people have said, I’m currently reading that)...but I would take a good cast and decent writing over it. Although even if you have the best cast in the world, if the writing is BELOW decent or average(so basically if the writing is bad or just makes no sense)...oh heck no! Such as Excalibur, I actually stopped reading that halfway into the second arc...and it has a pretty golden cast(of course it’s not Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine, or Jean...but it had IMHO A, B, and C-listers)but the plot to me is uninteresting(to me personally at least)and the writing I think is decent...I just can’t bear to read it because it’s extremely boring to me even though it has characters like Rogue, Gambit, Apocaypse, and Betsy Braddock, Jubilee too...which to me are A and B listers.

I think part of it is because Excalibur seems so out-of-place in the Dawn of X landscape and even more especially having Rpgye, Gambit, and Jubilee on it...it seems like they would fit more doing something else...of course Besth and Rictor and Apocalypse make sense...but anyways that’s just my personal take on it.

But yes, writers do have a big hand in books, but casts are still something that’s relatively important...and using them well and in a way that makes sense. Not just using them to place them somewhere like in Excalibur. But of course there are other factors to consider, Like is the art trash and or just very wonky and strange(kind of like Cable is RN IMHO...although I still read it because I’m reading everything X-Men and sometimes Fantastic Four)And editorial who have major roles in things that might get cut out and if a writer wants to do an entire plot and editorial is just like no, do something simpler or no, do this or that.

But yeah that’s my take on this.

*EDIT*

And also we all have to remember that the A and B listers there was a time when all of them were either not very popular OR they were new and writers, artists, etc...had to show off WHY they were worth liking and being a fan-favorites and explosively popular. So it’s definetly a The Writer, but it does take a VERY SPECIAL AND CREATIVE writer.

[Devaishwarya]

A good writer, using an interesting cast, illustrated by an awesome artist.

[allthingzamasing]

A good writer, using an interesting cast, illustrated by an awesome artist.

I 100% agree with you.

[ExodusCloak]

I used to feel it was the cast but knew in my head it was the creative team. And for years with many sub par stories I read out of habit and the cast. But Hickman reminded me its the creative team.

[SiegePerilous02]

Creative team. Ideally a creative team + characters I'm attached to, but I can overlook the latter if the writing is good enough. I've never had the slightest interest in the Hulk until Al Ewing. Hellions made me love Nanny of all characters, and this era in general made me love Sinister who I never gave a crap about before.

For characters/IPs I love, I keep tabs on them but will not automatically buy out of habit. I love Superman and Wonder Woman but won't buy their books if the writing doesn't interest me. Hickman can use pretty much whoever in his X-book and I'm on this ride until the end.

[Rev9]

There's not a writer in the world who could get me interested in the upcoming Wolverine/Maverick reunion.

Lol the Logan fatigue setting in

[Malachi]

It flows into each other. We have had periods with a focus on characters. Editors having the creative control. Writers given freedom. Artists being the stars.

The easy answer is none of the above works. It's not opposites on a spectrum. It's all the same and yet apart. The overall bigger problem is the same that plagues the fans as the industry as a whole. A lack of professionalism. A gaze turn inward and cultivating a culture that resists an inclusive evolution. A push towards more different voices in the the company would certainly help but these people have to actually contribute with a different view. Not just be different.

Tini Howard comes with a different background. She should help Excalibur be something that doesn't fall in the same traps as other comics have and does keeps falling into. Yet while she might make a claim that her stories are pushing for something different but her character work if anything reinforces the same stunted development that we all have grew tired of. Yet you get the idea that neither her nor her work is really being pushed by Marvel to be better on those fronts. They are happy with what we get.

Mediocre as long as it sells seems fine for Marvel. With that attitude we are getting the occasional waves on an otherwise frozen lake.