Best and Worst

[Brian B]

LOL....yes she was

Please note, I thought better of that portion of what I wrote and edited that out, LoL! You’re right — she’s that bad, LOL!

But the rest, I stand by it. I mean, Wolverine the creator of Nuke? WTH is that?!

[AppleJ]

I hated Rosenberg's run but editorial definitely was a major contributor to that. His goal was to destroy the X-men to make way for Hickman's run and if you take the context of all of what followed, his run holds up better. It served its purpose and ages better in hindsight than it did as it was being released. He's definitely not the worst writer as he did some great stuff with Astonishing X-men, New Mutants and even that Multiple Man mini. He had some interesting ideas but bc he came in at a transitional point in the X-line, he wasnt able to properly execute on the stuff he had set up. I cant fault him for that

I completely agree. Astonishing, New Mutants, & Multiple Man were actually great. Even the begging of his UXM with Scott and Wolverine was pretty interesting and then it went totally off the rails. It was a crappy place to have been put into though, knowing you're just a placeholder.

[Anthony Shaw]

My best:

Stan & Jack, Roy & Neal, Wein & Cockrum, Claremont & Cockrum/Byrne/Jim Lee, Scott & Fabian with various artists (on X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, & Generation X), Louise & Walt on X-Factor, Larry Hama on Wolverine (he made me a fan of Logan), Loeb & Churchill on Cable, Joss Whedon and John Cassaday

I have enjoyed more creators, but these are the ones that just stick out to me. I enjoyed the Utopia era, for the most part, but not like the runs above.

My worst:

Grant, Chuck, Milligan, Ellis on Generation X, and anyone associated with the franchise AvX & beyond

I have not read the Hickman stuff. I just keep by reading this board. I am not a fan of Hickman, but the current era is very interesting.

[Purplevit]

Best: Claremont, Nicieza, David.

Worst: Milligan, Tini Howard, Bendis, Rosenberg.

[ericng]

Best writers: in descending order
1. Chris Claremont (for his Dark Phoenix and other epic sagas)
2. Roy Thomas (His story was unique and Neal Adams art was classic)
3. Hickmans (Current story of giving grade B and C mutants to shine)


Worst writers: (no particular order)
1. Ed Brisson (New Mutants run)
2. Chuck Austen (for creating Azazel as Nightcrawler's dad)
3. Morrison (Sorry guys but I didn't like his run and awful art)
4. many more....after Claremont left, the series got boring with so many mediocre writers until Hickman came in.

[ericng]

I completely agree. Astonishing, New Mutants, & Multiple Man were actually great. Even the begging of his UXM with Scott and Wolverine was pretty interesting and then it went totally off the rails. It was a crappy place to have been put into though, knowing you're just a placeholder.

I liked Rosenberg's New Mutants / X-Men team-up which has never occurred in history. He did quite a good job on the various relationship between the New Mutants members but the plot was messy because he needed to abort before Hickman comes in.

[Cyke]

Not the worst, but the Lobdell era, in hindsight of this thread, kinda strikes me as having little character compared to most other eras. Sure, Austin was bad and Bendis meandered a lot, but you can still see their styles distinctively. I personally like Morrison, Whedon, Carey, and Hickman (though I agree it's too soon to judge), but they're still pretty different from each other.

I get that Lobdell and Harras were trying to maintain as much in Claremont's departure and the Image exodus but everything just seems to blur together. Even Claremont had separate eras in his 17 years.

[Riv86672]

Best - Claremont.
Everyone who’s come after has stood on his shoulders.

Worst - Hickman.
He turned the X-Men into villains.

[Master of Sound]

Best: Claremont, Jim Lee, Mike Carey, Gerry Dugan, Jonathan Hickman and Kyle&Yost
Worst: Austin, Bendis, Marc Guggenheim and Matthew Rosenberg

[zvrk]

Nobody remembers Fraption era? Lemire? Or ppl are lukewarm on them?

Best: Claremont
.
.
.
.
100000th etc spots Carey, Morrison, Gillen (he took the crossover blows like a champ and made magic out of them), Asmus

Worst: Guggenheim, Whedon (total regression, when he should've went progression), X-Men disassembled writing team

[Uncanny X-Man]

Nobody remembers Fraption era? Lemire? Or ppl are lukewarm on them?

I mentioned Lemire in my post, I thought Extraordinary was as bad as X-Men writing can get and generally speaking that was such a low point in terms of treatment of mutants from Marvel, it's no wonder poor Jeff performed the way he did.

I also wasn't a fan of Fraction's run when it came out, as at the time it seemed to me he was running the Scott & Emma show with everyone else being wallpaper. Upon reading it again though more recently, it did have a number of good stories. Far from my favourite run but not amongst the worst IMO.

[mikeydiaz81]

Gotta hand it to Claremont. His run is amazing. Carey's entire run never let me down. Hickman's stuff is pretty good, but it's also a bit complicated, but I get what he's trying to do. Kelly/Seagle had great ideas that they never got a chance to flesh out. I enjoyed their run a whole lot. I really enjoyed Lobdell's run. And Peter David is just an awesome writer, and his X-Factor run is amazing. Wells and Liu are great, too.

Austen was pretty bad, but it introduced the Juggernaut as a hero. But, the rest was bad. Who wrote the new X-Men Gold title? That was just plain horrible and made no sense. Ellis and Loeb both ruined X-Force, and the art didn't help. And Morrison's run, for me, was too much. I didn't enjoy it at all.

[Celestialbodies]

Best: Claremont, Morrison, Whedon, Carey


Worse: Fraction, Way, Rosenberg


I didn't read Austen's run, and many of the other I such as Lemire and I just found boring or uninspired.

Nobody remembers Fraption era? Lemire? Or ppl are lukewarm on them?

Best: Claremont
.
.
.
.
100000th etc spots Carey, Morrison, Gillen (he took the crossover blows like a champ and made magic out of them), Asmus

Worst: Guggenheim, Whedon (total regression, when he should've went progression), X-Men disassembled writing team

Single-handily responsible for dudebro Cyclops and an entire era of his fans thinking the X-men's narrative revolved around him. And even revisiting his stories it is so disappointing how superficial and generic everything he did. Sure he had a few good ideas like the science club, but he reeked imo of that Bendis style of writing where he threw a bunch of things at the wall hoping something would stick then didn't follow up on any of it in meaningful ways. The fact that he had all the world's remaining mutants under his watch and the stories still only centered on maybe 5 characters was equally atrocities, and good lord Greg Land was at his absolute worst on this book!

[Lockheed]

Best - Claremont is I assume a given. But let me also name some others. I think the real test of a great comic writer are the ones where you feel compelled to re-read their work. To that end, my favorite X-Men writers would have to be Carey, Morrison, and 90s guy like Nicieza and Lobdell. I also love Gillen's short stint and the beginning (and really just that pre-AvX stuff) of Aaron's run. If I throw in some non-X-Men stuff, I'd have to point out Remender's X-Force, Lobdell's Generation X, and David's X-Factor.

Worst - If the best are those writers that call me back to re-read them, the worst would be those where I would rather never read them again or even have them in my collection. I'd say Guggenheim's X-Men Gold (And Young X-Men) are the absolute most boring comics I have read. They felt like a chore. At least Austen had some very bizarre swing for the fences moments. I'd also say Milligan (as much as I adore X-Statix) and Casey.

Comments on others - I think Bendis was uneven but had some great moments. Rosenberg was entertaining and made perfect sense in hindsight of the Hickman era.

Time will tell what the Hickman era's legacy will be. While interesting, few of the characters feel like themselves, and they seem to lean towards being unlikable and even villainous. The spin-offs are a mixed bag with Hellions seeming like the one bastion of good characterization and care for continuity. Excalibur is a blight on the legacy of every character involved and the work of Claremont, Davis, and Moore who so lovingly created the characters and settings Howard is mutilating. I'm sure she's a lovely person though.

[MYCMTSC]

Best: Claremont, Morrison, Hickman, Carey, Lobdell, Kelly/Seagle
Worst: Fraction, Rosenberg, Guggenheim, Austen (it being hilariously bad is actually a positive), Alan Davis