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  1. #16
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    Sales-wise the top writer is Donny Cates, his books are Marvel best selling books. Hickman and Ewing follows, one for the X-Men relaunch, the other for Immortal Hulk, but that’s more on the quality / hype side than sales, it sells well but still way less than Cates’ and Hickman’s books. Artists is hard, there are so many talented artists nowadays that’s impossible to single out one. It’s not like when there were 4-5 top artists and a lot of average ones. And styles now are very diverse compared to the past, so it doesn’t make sense to make a rank. I think this is thanks to Alonso, that created an environment where there is no mandatory house style like in DC but a lot of different styles and creative freedom.

  2. #17
    Death of Time Cronus's Avatar
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    Donnie Cates for writer and Ed McGuinness for artist are probably good choices.
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    "One of the maddening but beautiful things about comics is that you have to give characters a sense of change without changing them so much that they violate the essence of who they are." ~ Ann Nocenti, Chris Claremont's X-Men.

  3. #18
    Mighty Member scouse mouse's Avatar
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    Hickman or Cates for writer, maybe with Hickman having a slight edge seeing as he is sort curating the whole X-Line. Larraz for artist.

  4. #19
    Spectacular Member Celtic1967's Avatar
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    For writer, it certainly seems like Marvel wanted Jason Aaron to take the #1 spot (which is why the handed him the Avengers book), but circumstances have taken them in a different direction.

    Early sales seemed to justify it, with his early standard price issues selling decently (standard price, non-even issue #11 shipped 52,820 units). It seems, however, that both fan interest (if this forum is any indication) and sales have slacked off since then. The last pre-pandemic numbers have Aaron's Avengers selling below the two previous volumes, both by Mark Waid. Waid's run was broken into two volumes and didn't reach the same issue numbers as Aaron, so I tried to find the best non-event connected issues to compare. Avengers #30 by Aaron (pre-pandemic) shipped 38,485 according to Diamond last February. Comparatively, Waid's Avengers #8 shipped 45,386 in 2017, while All New All Different Avengers #10 shipped 44,965 in 2016. This isn't a like-for-like comparison between Waid's and Aaron's runs, since numbers tend to drop as a volume goes on, but it was the best comparison of non-event connected books in Waid's run that I could find. It is worth noting that Waid had a relaunch in the middle of his run, messing up the consecutive numbering. Avengers #8 is (if I did my math correctly) the 23rd issue of his run (Aaron's #23 shipped 50,701).

    I didn't bother comparing #1 sales, since those are always absurdly inflated. I was also going to compare Hickman's X-sales to Aaron, but looking at the pre-pandemic numbers, X-Men shipping hadn't stabilized yet, dropping by 5,000 or so from issue to issue. Ewing's Immortal Hulk #32, on the other hand, shipped 43,181 and Cates' Venom #24 shipped 43,899 in March, 2020, before direct sales hit the COVID wall.

    Near as I can figure, Aaron's run started out optimistically enough, but got bogged down in mediocrity and was surpassed by Venom, Immortal Hulk, and X-Men. Marvel probably had Aaron as the heir apparent for the #1 writer spot, but he seems to have fallen behind Ewing and Cates, who are both made their names writing lesser properties. Hulk and Venom, respectively, shouldn't be as popular as the Avengers, yet their books have surpassed Aaron's Avengers in sales.


    TL;DR: Aaron seems to have been the presumed #1 writer going into 2018, but he's since fallen behind Ewing and Cates, whose main books both outsold his Avengers by approximately 5,000 units each in the last pre-pandemic Diamond shipping numbers. An argument could be made for Nick Spencer being the #1 writer, but the tarnish from the whole Secret Empire debacle hasn't really worn off yet, IMHO. My opinion is that the current #1 writer Cates, since he is orchestrating one of Marvel's biggest line-wide events of the year, King in Black, in addition to his ongoing books.

    Additionally, looking up all these sales numbers seems to be a big waste of time in retrospect.
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  5. #20
    Incredible Member Toonstrack's Avatar
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    Larraz and Ribic are my favorite artists currently doing interiors. Asrar is up there too.

  6. #21
    see beauty in all things. charliehustle415's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toonstrack View Post
    Larraz and Ribic are my favorite artists currently doing interiors. Asrar is up there too.
    Ohh yeahh, I totally forgot about Asrar; he's amazing his X-Men, Conan, and Avengers were so good

  7. #22
    Incredible Member Toonstrack's Avatar
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    Ya know what, I forgot to add Olivier Coipel, by some strange occurrence. Can't believe it happened because he is definitely my #1 pick right now. He's incredible

  8. #23
    X-Men fan since '92 Odd Rödney's Avatar
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    Jonathan Hickman and Russell Dauterman get my vote.
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  9. #24
    see beauty in all things. charliehustle415's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toonstrack View Post
    Ya know what, I forgot to add Olivier Coipel, by some strange occurrence. Can't believe it happened because he is definitely my #1 pick right now. He's incredible
    He's doing current interior work?

  10. #25
    Fantastic Member Marvel Wars's Avatar
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    He did a story in the Batman Black and White #3 this week.

  11. #26
    Incredible Member Toonstrack's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marvel Wars View Post
    He did a story in the Batman Black and White #3 this week.

    He also put out a story during the joker war tie in, and a 3 page Miles bit in Voices this week.

    He does a lot of smaller scale stuff these days but if you can pin him for interiors he still brings it

  12. #27
    see beauty in all things. charliehustle415's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marvel Wars View Post
    He did a story in the Batman Black and White #3 this week.
    Quote Originally Posted by Toonstrack View Post
    He also put out a story during the joker war tie in, and a 3 page Miles bit in Voices this week.

    He does a lot of smaller scale stuff these days but if you can pin him for interiors he still brings it
    Yeah I saw that, but I have only seen his covers on Cates Thor in regards to Marvel works.

    But I love Coipel, his run with JMS to me is legendary as well as his work on the Avengers are amazing.

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