Grading DC Comics Current Writers

[Captain Nostalgia]

As the second largest comic book company in the industry, I think fans deserve only the best when it comes to writers at DC comics, so I’m curious how everyone would grade our current writers from A to D
(A+ A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D)

Rules:

1. They have to have written something recently. I like Vendetti, but I haven’t seen anything since Hawkman so he’s off the list

2. Only work at DC Comics please, don’t import your opinion from great stuff they may have done at Marvel.

3. Don’t grade writers you haven’t read enough work by, and please only grade them solely on their writing ability , nothing else.

4. You don’t have to list every small writer, and you can leave some off. I probably listed too many.

Finally, please be respectful of other people’s opinion, don’t expect your favourite writers to be the most popular on here, I’m sure not.

A Letter Grades

Ram V: A I didn’t read his Swamp Thing, and I wasn’t really engaged in Aquaman Adromeda, though I recognized a great writer. I personally though, have been blown away by the quality or his work on Detective Comics.

A Minus

Geoff Johns: A - Historically one of the greatest DC writers of all time in my opinion, but….I’m not totally feeling his new JSA at the moment. (Prefer Helena Bertinelli to Wayne)

Chip Zdarsky A- A little disappointed so far with his Batman run overall, but the other stuff he’s done with DC has been quality. Loved his work when he kicked off Batman Gotham Knights. Wish I could import his Daredevil.

Mark Waid A- Obviously a legend in the game. I really enjoyed the first storyline of World’s Finest, but ultimately it’s not a title that would normally garner my interest, same with the Bruce Wayne/Damian storyline so A-

G. Willow Wilson A- Good little writer here. I love Poison Ivy, but I am not usually drawn to villain books, so she really kept me captivated for a while.

Tom King A- Controversial writer in splitting opinion. I hated his Mr. Miracle, I loved & hated his Batman, Neutral on other stuff….but as an old JLI fan, his work on the Human Target has won me over.

Jeff Lemire A- Liked his Green Arrow & his Question (even if it was a Denny O Neil throwback) He’s writing something for DC right now, I just can’t remember what.

B Letter Grades

B Plus

Phillip Kennedy Johnson B+ I would probably be giving him an A if I was more of a Superman fan, but at least he got me reading Action Comics for a while.

James Tynion B+ I wasn’t a fan of his Batman run, but enjoyed his work on Justice League Dark, and DC vs Vampires, even if the ending kind of stunk.

Joshua Williamson B+ Loved his Flash, Batman not so much, Dark Crisis, so so.

Jeremy Adams B+ Really enjoy his work on the Flash, just haven’t been able to make the switch over back to Wally. Hoping for great stuff on GL

Bruce Campbell B+ Have no idea if he will do any other work for DC, but his SGT Rock was fun.


B Letter Grade

Simon Spurrier B Enjoyed his Hellblazer, his Suicide Squad Blaze was ok.

Ed Brisson B Underrated writer here in my opinion.

Mathew Rosenberg B Ok from what I’ve read by him so far, does a job.

C Letter Grades

C Plus

Mariko Tamaki C+ Can’t say I was overly enthused with her work on Detective Comics, and I felt I was reading a PC version of Lobo, with her Crush & Lobo

Michael Bendis C+ His Event Leviathan stuff was okay, never read his Action comics, but his JLA failed to captivate, and his Legion of Super Heroes stunk!!!

Chuck Brown C+ He’s okay I guess. It was not so much of his writing than it was his decision to have Arthur play the back up role in Aquamen that caused sales to plummet in my opinion.

Stephanie Nicole Phillips C+ She seems to get a lot of flack as a writer, so I read 3, 4 issues of Harley Quinn to make up my own opinion, and though not great, not bad either.

Robbie Thompson C+ His Suicide Squad wasn’t all that great, I ended dropping it at issue 9 or earlier.


C Letter Grade

Meghan Fitzmartin C I’m judging her solely on her writing not the politics of Tim Drake, and….I just don’t think she’s all that good. She has trouble with pacing and closing a story out. I do think she’s good at setting tone & mood, but I almost think she would be better at writing spooky children’s adventure stories than comic books.

D Letter Grades

Becky Cloonan & Michael Conrad D I’m sorry, I know they have their fans, but I find these two absolutely dreadful, and if you put any trust into the ICv2 sales, than they’ve taken every major title they’ve been on and buried them into the ground. I really like Cassandra Cain, but I found the series unreadable. Not a big Wonder Woman fan, but I read a few issues to see if they were just as bad, and in my opinion, they were. They belong in the indies.

Vita Ayala D Bar none the worst writer I’ve encountered in a very long time. I found her Batman Gotham Knights horrendous! I’m sure she’ s a great and kind person, but she shouldn’t be writing for DC comics. Kindergarten story book writer, send her off to the indies.

Ungraded: Haven’t read their work. Tom Taylor, Tini Howard, John Ridley, Marc Silvestri, Tim Sheridan Christopher Priest, Kami Gari, Josh Trujillo, and any others.

[Vordan]

A-Letter Grade

Phillip Kennedy Johnson - His Action Comics run is the most exciting Superman has been in ages. He rehabilitated Mongul after the guy spent years being a jobber and now he’s doing the same for Metallo. Action feels epic in a way the Superman books have sorely needed to feel for ages, every issue leaves me excited to get my hands on the next one. I love his dark fantasy book with Federeci, The Last God, as well. Super excited to see what he does with John Stewart coming up (and Hulk my favorite Marvel character).

Ram V - Everything the guy does turns out to be gold. Love his Swamp Thing, took a bit for his Tec to click with me, but once it did I was hooked. Happy to have him creating some cool original Indian heroes for the DCU too with the Vigil.

Tom King - Look with King there’s no in between, you either love him or hate him. I’ve mostly been in the “love” category barring a few exceptions, Human Target, Gotham City: Year One, and Danger Street are all excellent books, and I’m extremely excited for his upcoming books like WW, Brave & Bold, and Penguin. King on a book always ensures that I will at least check whatever he is on out.

KSD - Historia is the best Wonder Woman related book out now. It’s an angry feminist epic about women and divinity and trying to assert your worth in a world that looks upon you as lesser. I pray we get the other 6 issues of her planned Historia epic, but if we don’t what we got is still amazing work.

Mark Russel - Loved Space Age, loved Wonder Twins, Flintstones, and One Star Squadron. I don’t know if he could ever succeed on a traditional ongoing, but I find his dark comedy to be both funny and poignant.

Dan Watters - Look they NEED to give Watters a big book. His Lucifer and Arkham City were excellent, and people raved about his Azrael too. Put him on Aquaman or something because Marvel is courting him already with Loki and I’d hate to lose him. He’s taking over the Tec backup from Spurrier, but he deserves something bigger.

James Tynion - Not writing capeshit anymore, nor is he likely to any time soon, but his Sandman and The Nice House on the Lake books are still some of the best in DC’s lineup. I hope DC can keep getting him to do side books like these for a while because he’s definitely managed to establish himself as being more than Snyder’s sidekick at this point.

B-Letter Grade

Waid - Against all odds Waid actually managed to live up to the hype of his big return to DC with World’s Finest. Book is great and has been consistently one of my favorite reads since it came out. But Batman vs. Robin was pointless and boring, and Lazarus Planet was just setup for other series. It wasn’t awful like Dark Crisis ended up being but it wasn’t great either. Still I’m looking forward to Shazam, his Superman BL book with Hitch, and whatever secret project he’s still got cooking.

Williamson - Look Dark Crisis was awful there’s no denying that, and his Deathstroke Inc book was pretty terrible too. But Robin ruled, he still has the best Barry Flash run for as much as that’s worth, and the first issue of his Superman was excellent also, one of the best single issues I’ve read in a long time. If he can maintain that quality with his upcoming Green Arrow book, and not bungle his second attempt at an event with Knight Terrors, I may put him back up in A tier. He’s good when he doesn’t try to do huge cosmic tier stories and instead focuses on character.

Spurrier - Love Hellblazer and the Dreaming, not a fan of his attempts at more mainline superhero work. We’ll see how he does with Flash.

Zdarsky - His Batman is solid if fairly unambitious in how it mostly replays the hits from Morrison.

Priest - Like Williamson the first issue of his Superman book was excellent, probably the best JL we’ve gotten since Johns left the title. If only Priest had gotten a longer run I think he could have given us something special. In any event I can’t wait to read the next issue of Lost, only reason he’s a B is that his Black Adam feels unfocused. When it’s following Adam himself it’s great, but I have no clue what the hell Priest is doing with Malik. Sometimes I like Malik and other times he feels like a zoomer caricature as written by a boomer who has never interacted with those damn kids.

Lanzig & Kelly - Most enjoyable writing duo since DnA. Their Aquaman & Flash: Voidsong book was the best Aquaman book of the last year, and their Batman Beyond was pretty solid I hear. Adored their Clayface issue for OBD, I think it was one of the strongest issues in the whole lineup. Succeeded at making me sympathize with and be repulsed by Clayface, so they’re one of the few teams that actually did succeed at doing with their villain what Moore did with Joker. I hope they get another shot at a big DC book someday.

Reginald Hudlin - Loved S1 of Icon & Rocket, waiting for the current crossover to finish before I read it. I hope there’s a S2 of Icon & Rocket.

Josh Trujillo - Finally gives us the Blue Beetle book we should have gotten for Rebirth. I hope it’s a success and DC lets him do more, or that he gets another book because I think he shows great potential.

Josie Campbell - Her Mary mini with Shaner was solid, I would love to see her do Supergirl next.

Rosenberg - I like WildC.A.T.S; Joker: TMWSL, and Task Force Z. Not the greatest writer in DC’s roster but entertaining enough. I hope he gets to keep building up the Wildstorm side of the DCU.

Greg Pak - His Action Comics run was constantly getting screwed by editorial, but when they weren’t breathing down his neck it was great! I’m happy to have him back at DC and I look forward to his upcoming City Boy mini, I liked the little prologue he did for Lazarus Planet.

Gene Yang - His Superman Smashes The Klan is one of the best Superman stories ever, Kenan Kong is the best addition to the Superfamily and Kenan is the one I wish they went with as Clark’s designated successor, greatly enjoyed his Batman/Superman run, and I loved his recent Devil Nezha backups for LP. Just need to find time to read his main Monkey Prince mini, I think Yang’s missteps like Pak come down to editorial screwing with him above all else. I would love to see him do more DC work, but he makes a ton of money with his indie books aimed at kids so Yang isn’t under any pressure to take books he’s not interested in.

C-Letter Grade

Adams - Heresy I know but while I thought he had a great handle on Wally as a character, he never hooked me back in with his Flash run. Never left me feeling like I needed to read the next issue, Adams has to get better at injecting tension into the book. Apparently he recently upped the stakes with One Minute War, which hopefully means he can apply what he’s learned on Flash to GL. I am eager to see what he does with Hal so if that is good I will up him to B-tier.

Johns - Stargirl is great but JSA sucks. This is my first JSA book and not even Johns seems to care about them anymore, he’s more interested in Helena Wayne than the titular team. He also can’t seem to keep a book coming out on time, no clue if that’s his fault or the artist, but it’s annoying. He’s teasing Legion again and he better fucking deliver this time, I’m so sick of Johns sticking his fingers into the Superman side of things and screwing with the status quo there only to bail before writing his plot lines to completion.

Cloonrad - They’re the definition of “ok”. Started strong with their first WW arc, but since then their WW has been a bore. Seems they’re splitting up again so we’ll see if Conrad is a stronger writer solo than he was paired with Cloonan.

Kenny Porter - Enjoyed his Stan Lee GL issue and his DC Mech book was decent if not exactly on the same level as other Elseworlds. Hoping for the best with his upcoming Conner Kent/Superboy book, at least the pitch sounds exciting and exactly what Conner needs.

Jurgens - I actually enjoyed his Lois & Clark mini from New 52 and a few of his Action Comics Rebirth stories, but otherwise he’s like Cloonrad, rarely terrible but never great either. Despite being Jon’s creator he’s probably his second worst writer behind Taylor, his Jon sounds exactly like what you’d expect an old man writing a kid to sound like.

John Ridley - Loved The Other History of the DCU and Penguin: OBD, but he totally botched his Jace Fox Batman book.

D-Letter Grade

Tom Taylor - Only thing I enjoy is his Nightwing and that’s 90% because of the art. Terrible writer who needs to stop trying to “leave his mark” on Superman, he can take his garbage OCs and get lost. I dread the day he manages to take over one of the Superman ongoings, hopefully he just sticks to his Elseworlds and the Batman corner of the DCU where I can ignore him. He makes books that only exist to get memed on social media.

Brandon Thomas - Loved FS Aquaman and his Superman: Man of Tomorrow issue but otherwise he has been a bust. Didn’t really enjoy his Aqua books and Hardware was the weakest of the Milestone reboot.

Dennis Culver - Oddly enough I am super excited for his upcoming Doom Patrol but everything prior he’s done has been bad. FS Gotham sucked, his JLI with Williamson sucked, only story of his I’ve enjoyed recently was that Doom Patrol prologue he did for Lazarus Planet. I think DP might be the book where he turns his reputation around and I’m rooting for him to do so, his prologue issue was VERY good. Perhaps he’s learned from his mistakes and has improved, I’m giving him a chance to show me that with Unstoppable DP at least.

F-Letter Grade

Megan Fitzmartin - Awful Tumblr tier writing for LGBT Twitter and fujos. Glad she seems to have killed Tim’s chances of mattering, with any luck DC will bench Tim for the foreseeable future and go back to pushing Damian. Least she didn’t fuck up Conner, Cassie, and Bart too badly.

[The Invincible Beawulf]

Megan Fitzmartin - Awful Tumblr tier writing for LGBT Twitter and fujos. Glad she seems to have killed Tim’s chances of mattering, with any luck DC will bench Tim for the foreseeable future and go back to pushing Damian. Least she didn’t fuck up Conner, Cassie, and Bart too badly.

What's the problem with writing for fujos? I sorta get the Tumblr and Twitter part (i.e., her writing is amateurish, etc etc), but what's the problem with specifically fujos/fudanshis as a target audience? It's an honest question, I'm a big BL lover and just trying to understand your point here.

[Vordan]

What's the problem with writing for fujos? I sorta get the Tumblr and Twitter part (i.e., her writing is amateurish, etc etc), but what's the problem with specifically fujos/fudanshis as a target audience? It's an honest question, I'm a big BL lover and just trying to understand your point here.

Not my thing, and this is purely a grading of writers according to personal preference, so feel free to rate her work according to your own taste.

[The Invincible Beawulf]

Not my thing, and this is purely a grading of writers according to personal preference, so feel free to rate her work according to your own taste.

Uhm, okay, thanks for your answer. Personally, I don't find her writing that appealing, so I can perfectly see why you rated her F.

[Restingvoice]

A
Waid - Very funny - Lore doesn't seem to matter much or at least every writer seems to go off on their own so might as well enjoy things the Silver Age way
Zdarsky - Idk if some of the things I dislike about his Jason came from him or editorial so I'll just give him the benefit of doubt
Travis Moore - He only writes one time for a really cute piece for Tim Drake's Pride but that one piece does its job

B
Williamson - Lore on the messier side by canonizing everything in the most complicated way possible but the writing itself is enjoyable - I agree that his Robin is better than his event, but I still hesitate giving him higher for a little something something I don't personally like - His use of character is like, one character is one step forward, one character is one step back, for me personally
Tamaki - Writes a really good Bruce Wayne character piece but not good at juggling Bat Family
Nadia Shammas - She writes a Talia that's closer than she's ever been to her older portrayal while retaining the current fierceness... but since it's been so long, especially in relation to Damian and how she acts in the main story written by Williamson it comes off really jarring, like she's plucked from a different timeline
CRC Payne - WFA is what it is, a fun relaxing, cute, family adventure - The only problem I have is when it's too cute I was like, okay, I know this isn't main canon and it's sort of a fix fic, but while I can accept smiling and hugging Bruce because it's within his silver age capacity, Bruce doesn't kiss his kid, so that's immersion breaking

C
Taylor - Feels very pop corn - surface level entertainment - fun and cute but lacks intensity - I like cute interactions but I kinda want more since it's the main series
Tynion - Seems to follow Snyder's school of getting bigger and bigger each time and like Snyder means it gets tiring - I stand by my first impression that he's way better at shorter horror story than epic

D
Fitzmartin - Biggest screw up is not realizing she's lumping a fandom that likes her alongside her haters through Dark Crisis Young Justice - Started out good and subtle with Urban Legends then HUGE drop with Young Justice

Bendis I refuse to read out of principle after seeing what he did pre-Infinite Frontier - Though I'm not clear how much of it is him and how much is editorial

[Johnrevenge]

GRADE A

-Geoff Johns. So far I'm still liking his work at DC, despite the release dates issues.

-Ram V. He did a good job with Swamp Thing, and I'm excited for the Vigil, but he doesn't get A+ for how he portrayed Zatanna when he wrote the JLD bac up stories.

-G. Willow Wilson. She is definitely killing it with Poison Ivy and I hope to see more work of her in DC.

-Mark Waid. So far his World's Finest has been good and I liked Lazarus Planet.

-Jeremy Adams. His Flash run has been stellar and has brought back Wally to the place he deserves.

-Mark Rusel. Loved his Wonder Twins and One-Star Squadron. I really love his take on Lex Luthor.

GRADE B+

-Becky Cloonan. I liked her work so far and I'm probably one of the few people that liked Trials of the Amazons.

-Chip Zdarsky. I haven't read his Batman run, but all his other work at DC and Marvel have been really good.

-James Tynion. His work has been able to maintain a good level of quality.

-Philip Kennedy Johnson. I liked his work in Action Comics.

-Tom King. I liked some of his works, but sometimes he takes the characterization of his characters too far to fit the plot.

-Tom Taylor. He had done great with Nightwing and I can't wait to see what he has in plans for the Titans. His AU work is not that great in my opinion.

-Simon Spurrier. I like some of his works, but he tends to get extremely weird when exploring the meta. Wonder how weird he will get with Flash.

GRADE B

-Mariko Tamaki. I liked how she portrayed Huntress in Detective Comics.

-Christopher Priest. I liked his work in Deathstroke, but his approach towards the story of Black Adam has been kinda messy.

-Matthew Rosenberg. I liked his Marvel work like Secret Warriors and Kingpin, but some of his DC work has been messy (I liked Task Force Z).

-Vita Ayala. Really enjoyed her work with Static.

-Geoffrey Thorne. A good writer, he follows contiuinity and really liked his work with Blood Syndicate and Vixen.

GRADE C+

-Michael Bendis. I really liked his work in Naomi, but he had the same issues he had at Marvel with team books.

-Robbie Thompson. I liked some of his work in Suicide Squad, although it became a mess with the crossover.

-Stephanie Phillips. Some of her work has been ok, at least she didn't turn Harley into a cheap knock off of Deadpool.

GRADE C

-Joshua Williamson. His work hasn't been great. It was a lot of empty hype, also in my opinion he turned Barry into the worst Flash.

-Ed Brisson. Just like with his work at Marvel, I found his work at DC pretty boring and mediocre.

-John Ridley. Not so fond of how he destroyed some characters like Lucius Fox, to make others shine.

-Tini Howard. I'm seeing some of the issues she had at Marvel in her work, at least she isn't making any team books where those issues were more obvious.

GRADE D-

-Megan Fitzmartin. The living proof that not everybody can be a writer. She defecates in continuinity and past characterizations to fit the characters into her fanfic plots and the way her plots are solved came out of nowhere and lack any logic.

[Alex_Of_X]

Michael Bendis

Cursed!
10 char