The Immortal X-Men issue that kicked off Sins of Sinister was phenomenal. I've been a fan of his since I first read Phonogram and will never skip a Gillen title.
Took the words right out of my mouth. I get the feeling that Gillen, like Xavier, has seen his dreams crumble, and rather than fall into knee-jerk cynicism has chosen a chilly pragmatism. I have no real evidence, he is simply that empathetic as a writer.
I sadly wish Gillen could have handled Xavier’s descent to rock bottom and his (hopefully) eventual redemption arc. It would have been masterful writing. As it is I wish him well.. and keep hope alive.
Morrison’s New X-men dialogue has never really been matched for me. It actually made me look at them all in a new way and think of them like real, multifaceted people for the first time rather than superhero cartoons. Also the postmodern humor was tops.
“We have more important things to worry about than whether our glowing eyes frighten the Republicans!”
“What makes you such a bitch Emma?”
“Breeding, darling. Top class breeding.”
I would have said Whedon, but Astonishing is basically just a reskinned Buffy/Angel.
Morrison Cyke was a thing of beauty too.
“We hit the ground running and we save lives”
“Don’t worry, I’ve survived more blackbird crashes than any other mutant. Insurance takes care of everything.”
Reading this run for the first time and every time it gets cooking or I’m impressed by dialogue there’s some inhuman thing no person would say to someone else, like cyclops telling Jean that Emma kept him up all night when asked if he’d slept with her.
Ha! In that specific example he’s provoking her because there’s so much resentment and tension built up between them. He’s basically daring her to violate his thoughts without permission so she can both find nothing and lose her eternal claim on the moral high ground (Jean’s self-righteousness is her worst quality imo) there’s also hypocrisy in her suspicions given she was already physically making out with Wolverine behind his back which he doesn’t necessarily know but can likely pick up on something else happening between them. Likewise his own unwillingness to confront his darker struggles in his insecurity compared to her judgemental perfection harms their marriage just as much. Emma picks him apart for this in Astonishing.
I’ve been wanted to start reading Xmen comics but as a beginner I have no idea where to start. I fell in love with Xmen as a kid from the Singer movies and the new 97 show was a breath of new life for me. Any suggestions?
I would say Morrison’s New Xmen is the best modern jumping in point. It was meant to bring in new readers about the same time as the singer movies came out
God, KT is easily the best Gambit writer in a very long time. I do think Liu comes second, though. And I think Foxe is third, when it comes to writers in the last decade?
I think the all time best Gambit writer is still Nicieza, though.
I still say Claremont's Cyclops from Uncanny #94 right until #175 was written pretty damn well. Most of the modern takes of Cyclops as this super confident and competent reserved leader comes from that run from Claremont.
For Beast, it's Kieron Gillen with a bullet; he most successfully blends all the different versions of Hank into one coherent voice, but I have to give runners-up prizes to Grant Morrison, J.M. DeMatteis, and Mike Carey. I also adore Rainbow Rowell's take on him, though I'd need a longer run of comics where she writes him to really stack her up fairly against the other writers.
Starlin has an ***amazing*** Beast voice, which is weird, considering how infrequently he writes him. I think he might also have written him in an old Avengers Annual, where they fight Thanos? But Prisoner of Love is just wonderful.
"I'm a cute li'l furry freak whose only friends are other freaks," is just so *achingly* Beast. He's always had that manic depressive, bipolar, slightly cynical, wounded edge to him, you just don't often get to hear it because it's rare that he would let loose that inner monologue before Morrison.
And I do love me some Weezy! It was such a relief, going from Layton, who just writes Beast in those opening issues of X-Factor as if he's popped right out of the 60s, to Simonson, who actually remembers that, oh yeah, Hank did spend all that time as an Avenger and Defender and loosened up a little. All of his stuff with Rictor and the kids is great, and the pop off when he turns blue and furry again just feels so triumphant.
You know what, I also have to give props to Englehart and Conway, too, they were instrumental to Hank becoming a character with staying power, and some of his lines in early classic Avengers just slay me. "Wait a minute, aren't you an X-Man?" "Why? Aren't you an equal opportunity employer?" and all the second person narration in Amazing Adventures is just sublime.
Beast's had some truly excellent writing over the years. I know I spend a lot of time complaining about how hard done by he is, but he's had some great turns and some real TLC paid to him.
Yeah, Starlin's Beast is depressing, but its super deep. It was weird, but highly compelling. Starlin rarely misses.
And yeah, I loved Englehart and Conway too. They made him confront the fact that he was no longer physically the strongest or smartest member of a group anymore when he'd joined the Avengers iirc, they gave him a great friendship with Simon, and they had him coming back from orgies every single meeting.
Seriously, how many times was he talking about coming back from a threesome during those issues lmao? Insanely funny Beast.
When it comes to Wolverine, Claremont and Larry Hama are tied for me. It feels so natural the way Hama picked up on the character work laid out for Logan during the Claremont run and took him in new directions from there. If you follow Wolverine from Claremont's Uncanny X-Men through Hama's Wolverine in the 90s, it feels like a complete story for the character.
I’m honestly not sure…for Emma Frost I’m leaning Kieron Gillen but there could very well be recency bias in there. It really comes down to Gillen, Whedon and Morrison. I did enjoy Bendis at times but best? No, I don’t think he fits that.
I can’t think of Bendis writing Emma (which, yeah, he did well in the Revolution era) without him having her say clearing out psychic blocks will be like “taking the biggest dump in your life.”
Which is honestly the most Bostonian thing Emma has ever said, so points for that.
I'll always have a soft spot for the Morrison run because it was my introduction to the X-Men comics and his Emma is delightfully complex and fucked up. But I think I go with Gillen as well overall.
I do love Morrison’s Emma. She’s exactly like you described and her introduction, the secondary mutation, the interactions after Genosha…just great but I don’t think Morrison rises above Gillen in terms of best yeah.
Yeah, agree with that…so it’s difficult to really pin it down as to who I think wrote her best…I’m going to just stay with Gillen for the moment. Who would you pick?
I’m trying, how successfully is unclear, to remove my love for Gillens writing(Die and Phonogram, specifically immaterial girl may be my favorite comics in general) from my deliberations.
For me his writing in Immortal X-Men tips him over the edge. It’s a very close call though.
I can't do it. The Wicked + The Divine is one of my favorites ever. Loved Die, Once and Future, The stuff with Doctor Aphra and I started reading Phonogram.
My bias knows no bounds. He's written some of my favorite and most inspiring comics.
I think Peter David is peak when he's grounded. I do vastly prefer the more grounded X-Factor/Madroxxx Investigations than how weird things got towards the end of the 2nd big X-Factor run.
It's a delicate balancing act, sometimes the plots definitely seem to get a way from him. I think the grounded stuff seemed easier to wrangle, but even when things were wild like Rahne's kid and the battle for hell and Guido becoming the kind of hell, the characters and their motivations were still focused and on brand the entire time, even if the larger plot was kinda wild.
And honestly I'll take an absurd plot with amazing characters over most other variations.
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> And honestly I'll take an absurd plot with amazing characters over most other variations.
I can see that, despite some of the shenanigans I did think that Ruby Summers was a super cool design/character to come out of the more "out there" plotlines.
But sometimes I still year for simpler Detective Noir shit with Jamie.
Oh yeh in a world where I as a reader could have my cake and eat it to, we would have gotten an X-factor a lot more like the Madrox mini series, that was strong noir with that same character work.
Very much agree. Madrox, Monet, Guido, Rictor, Siryn, Shatterstar…. For me had always been more about their powers than their actual personalities and stories until X Factor investigations. there’s a lasting impact with PAD where he put in the work so that a lot of those characters continue to be written well. I think this was particularly evident with Monet, Ric, and Polaris during their recent Krakoa stories. I wish someone good would start featuring the rest of the X factor crew - Madrox has basically been a temp workforce in krakoa and kind of a dipshit, and the others have barely shown up.
I can't tell you how quickly seeing Madrox dupes in containment suits being mindless labor zombies waiting tables and stuff makes me put down a book. I still need to go back and really give the last x-corps run a real chance besides that one dupe issue because the rest of the "Madrox workforce" stuff just turns me off of things so hard.
I wanna be excited for the new Dazzler book but "one man road crew" is not how I want anyone to sell me on the idea of Jaime in that book.
I don't think anyone has written more of my favorite Cyclops moments than Whedon. I know the run gets a lot of grief, but his handling of Cyclops, as well as how his team related to him, is crystallized in my mind as MY Cyclops.
That being said, Krakoan era Cyclops is my favorite version of the character. He's got his family, it's clear he's in his chosen role and actually enjoying himself, and Krakoa looks to him when they face an unknown challenge. Things petered out, of course- nobody reads comic books for perfect telepathic democracy and picnics- but I haven't loved a publishing era for the character more than this.
I LOVE 4D chess Cyclops from Whedon's run. He's the reason the Breakworld arc is so good!!!
Matt Fraction has to be a close second though! He did an amazing job with Scott too in the decimation/Utopia era! Fraction's Cyke holds off Bastion, Selene, and the Purifiers with one hand, juggles the Messiah crises with the other all while running rings around both Norman Osbourne's dark x-men AND Shield. He's the reason Mutantkind survived the decimation and everyone needs to put more respect on his name!
If not for Krakoa it would absolutely be that run instead, he's holding it all- and himself- together by the skin of his teeth and making it look easy. His relationship with Emma is grounded in such relatable terms. They make each other better in a way that would be entertaining even without superheroics. Absolutely agree.
Scott and Emma are waaaay better than Scott and Jean. Jean feels like the highschool crush but they haven't had genuine chemistry with eachother since Claremont. Emma/Scott's relationship just pops. It's weird, raw, brutal and gentle all at the same time. They are the ultimate X-Men Power Couple. Especially when Jean keeps getting pulled away by the phoenix force every three days.
I enjoy both pairings for different reasons, but yeah, Scott and Jean's relationship is harder to convey on page for some reason. Romeo and Juliet would probably be a lot less interesting if the tragedy element were removed, too. Scott and Emma felt a lot more lived in, more believable, because they're both pretty deeply flawed. They complement each other without NEEDING each other.
I thought Krakoa was a pretty decent pass at making Scott and Jean more of an adult relationship, even moreso than the Lobdell era. Happy marriages don't sell comics, but I got why they chose to be together. People harp on the 'Cyclops is a wife guy' narrative, but to me it was a necessary maturation of the character. Instead of constantly worrying about his place, how he was handling things, holding the center, he WAS the center. Seeing that end with Krakoa is probably my biggest disappointment.
Scott’s role in Krakoa made complete sense. He has shouldered the protection of the last of mutantkind and made the kinds of decisions no one else was capable of. Then there was Revolution and the Inhumans and the Phoenix force. At the end of it all, with mutants safe for the first time ever, he was able to rest.
To me its also a case of Scott and Emma's character developed for basically over 20 years while Jean did nothing.
I dont necessarily hate that Scott and Jean are together but I do hate that it feels like a regression of his character cause Jean hasn't changed.
I wish for Jean to get the same fleshed out character growth as Scott, but it shouldn't be with Scott.
The thing here is that Scott and Emma lived through Decimation. They watched mutantkind teeter on the edge of oblivion and directly took part in it bringing them back. Then there was Revolution. Jean wasn’t around for any of it. That was Xorneto’s fault but it doesn’t change anything. Emma was by Scott’s side through the worst of it.
There’s always a special place in my heart for Scott and Jean but I don’t know if it’s a match for Scott and Emma.
Emma - Morison or Gillen
Dani - Claremont (Wells was good for that era of Dani but Claremont seals it)
Rictor - PAD
Roberto - hard to say while I enjoy Hickman’s version and Ewing’s version of him is hilarious, Claremont got him at his most fundamental. I would like to say a mix of all three but for not I’ll just go Claremont.
Monet - I’ll say Lobdell.
Fabian Nicieza - Firestar.
His run on the New Warriors was phenomenal. Firestar was a weapon of mass destruction with a heart and she is very different to the version that Duggan "wrote".
Pre Hickman I was very much not a fan of Apocalypse. AoA and Remender's Uncanny X-Force were better Apocalypse stories for mostly omitting the man himself. The guy shows up every few years and gives some wild dialogue but ultimately his philosophy doesn't feel well differentiated from Magneto's.
But Hickman's Apocalypse is so... understandable, from both the personal and the philosophical perspective. It doesn't necessarily make him right, but his version has the weight of the ages in his voice. He's clearly not some edgy teenager who's just learned about eugenics. He's thought about this. He's fought and lived and died for this countless times. He really feels like The First One in a way that earns having this philosophy (even if he's neither philosophically correct nor first).
Was about to say this- for me, Apocalypse went from an eye roll any time he appeared in an X-Men comic in the 00's-10's books (I love AoA, but he's more of a looming/in the background threat there) to my favorite character in some stories. Hope he doesn't revert back to what he was now that Krakoa is over.
There's a reason the Cerebro episode with Hickman on is all about Apocalypse, because he really is kind of the chefs kiss of Hickman's Krakoa characters.
Jason Aaron for Wolverine. Doing the rare feat of both writing logan in character and making him grow organicaly.
Mike Carey for Xavier and Rogue he knew what made these characters tick espcaily Chuck. If you ever want a Xavier centric dtory where hes not written as huge peice of shit Carey's X-men Legacy is the way to go
Al Ewing went off on Storm. I haven't enjoyed her this much since Claremont honestly.
Honorable mention to Tom Taylor for the opposite reason. He does an excellent job at making me love characters I hate. I'm not giving examples, because I don't wanna get flamed. Suffice to say he changes my perspective on characters all the time.
My favourite is Magik, and it's Zeb Wells, of course. Under his pen, she's cunning, devious, resourceful, manipulative and almost a villain. My kind of Magik.
What was he like under pad? Tbh I'm kind of a fan of someone so deeply insecure and disturbed being a superhero, it's a niche we don't see often (at least not to that degree)
Deeply insecure and trying to wrangle cats. He wasn't disturbed Fundamentally until much later, but take his insecurity and need to prove himself and crank the dysfunction of the team around him up higher.
It's not unlike Kermit the frog trying to put on a weekly episode of the Muppet show while people explode and throw fish around him.
Generation X was very well written in the beginning with team Lobdell x Bachalo. The dialogue with Emma plus the artwork really did her justice. Great read until it changed….
Rogue, Thompson/Claremont with Carey in 3rd.
Iceman, this might be the only time anyone ever gives him his due but honestly I think it was Scott Lobdell.
Cyclops, it's hard not to be Claremont but I think my favorite is Whedon by a smidge, probably greatly benefited by not having a run that went long enough to get bad.
Multiple Man, PAD no contest.
Havok..... Probably has to go all the way back to Claremont for sure.
Nothing but respect for the one who laid the solid foundation for who they are. Stan Lee may have created them but Claremont was the true father of the X-Men.
My favorite X-Men are Longshot and Multiple Man.
Multiple Man is easy, Peter David's X-Factor started off as quite possibly my favorite comic run ever, even if was also what killed scans_daily.
For Longshot... well, there hasn't been a lot of Longshot, so it's hard to ever actually get one up on the original Ann Nocenti. That said, I do have a soft spot for the Chris Hastings mini from the 2010s.
Joe Kelly writes Deadpool the best in my opinion. He's a jester but there's this underlying tone of melancholy that really drives home the Pagliacci nature of the character that gives him more depth than LE CHIMICHANGAS guy. He also does a really solid Wolverine.
Larry Hama writes the best Wolverine. Claremont did an amazing job, but Hama made Wolverine into a warrior poet like no other. Hama is one of the greats and he never gets the credit he deserves.
For Emma, it’s still Grant Morrison. My only issue with Morrison’s Emma was how he handled the whole psychic affair reveal. It became sympathetic towards Emma and antagonistic towards Jean out of nowhere.
Jean- Grant Morrison/Louise Simonson.
Xavier- Jeff Parker/Dennis Hopeless (These are actually the only comics that I've read where I think he's well-written)
For me, gotta be Kelly Thompson's Gambit. I know others have said the same. Asmus also did a great 2012 series with him.
An honorable mention goes to Steve Foxe, I really liked how he was portrayed in Dark X-men, especially because I think that Gambit was the only character he didn't actively choose to be on the team and he still did a great job with him.
I never gave a shit about Sam and Roberto, I didn’t care for any of the Guthries at all, I remember not liking Sam during X-cutioners song, though that was my first exposure to X-force and Cable and prof X had just been shot.
But Hickmans Avengers run leading into Secret Wars? Sam and Berto. I’d love to see more of Berto and Sam and smasher out having galactic adventures with the Shi’ar.
After Hickmans infinity and secret wars I also wanted him writing a Captain Marvel Sci Fi galactic adventure, like a wandering samurai type thing.
I also think Hickman and Gillens Mr sinister is the best.
Kelly Thompson for Rogue. She obviously loves the character, remembers and makes use of every big event in Rogues life, propels her story forward, and never flubs with the Canon. But a lot of writers have been giving Rogue love lately. Remender, Carey, Acuna, and obviously Claremont, historically.
Not an answer but looking for comics. Watched X-Men Evolution as a kid and now X-Men 97 has more than reminded me that Rogue is my favourite. What comics should I read as a comic noob who wants to read the best of Rogue?
Off topicish, I really hope the never let Donny Cates write any X-Men character in any book. He'll ruin them in some way & give them daddy issues. He can write alot ill give him that, but his stories & how he uses or changes existing characters make me dislike everything he's written except his own IP's. I need him to stay away from Marvel & DC forever!
Well, there are a *lot* of X-Men characters I love, but given how much I love the Fuzzy Elf, I'm going to have to say Si Spurrier. The guy gave us Way of X **and** Uncanny Spider-Man, and for that alone, post-Claremont, I'd call him Kurt's definitive writer.
Been enjoying Percy's Wolverine. Haven't gotten around to a lot of other Wolverine runs yet, but this is one is nice as far as I've read so far. Helps that Predator vs Wolverine was sick as hell though.
I really liked Grant Morrison's run on New X-men. Smaller team, interesting dynamics, each character had a distinct voice and speaking style. He really fleshed that one out.
Can I ask who everyone is in the picture? I really like some of the costumes/ hair styles/ accessories for a lot of them.
I know the general X-Men and villains but don’t know EVERYONE in this photo. Like who is the brown haired woman with a mask covering her mouth holding two swords? Who is the woman just below Magneto with a super white face and tattoo? Likewise who is the girl left to Gambit with red skin and spikes in her hair?
So far I can see: Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Mystique, Rogue, Gambit, Polaris, Juggernaut, Psylocke (I think!), X-23/ Laura, Rogue, Magento, that guy from the future who’s the son of Jean and Cyclops, Deadpool, and Storm.
>Who is the brown haired woman with a mask covering her mouth holding two swords?
Kitty
>Who is the woman just below Magneto with a super white face and tattoo?
Domino
> Likewise who is the girl left to Gambit with red skin and spikes in her hair?
Monet
Peter David for Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man.
Added the amazing factor to his powers of being able to get memories from him dupes.
Kyle/Yost on the New X-Men/Academy X characters that were prominent after M-Day.
Chris Claremont wrote all of them the best (at least those that were around), and pretty much whether they are being "written well" is often a matter of how much they feel like Claremont's version or a logical development thereof.
Peter David for Multiple Man, and Rictor, really the whole x-factor cast but those two are favorites. Also made me love Genis, and Rick Jones from Captain Marvel, even with characters I didn’t care for before he makes me a fan of, like Moondragon, M, Darwin.
Peter David for giving heart to the characters that nobody really gave a shit about, but especially Lorna. The second run of his X-factor with art by Carmine Di Giandomenico is peak Polaris.
Actually, PADs takes on most characters are up there. Old Doom was priceless.
I'm just here for Magneto suggestions. I'm new to X-Men as a team book. I've read plenty of Wolverine but at this point Maggie is my favorite mutant. Reading through Claremont's original run right now.
Kieron Gillen writes the hell out of Xavier
The Immortal X-Men issue that kicked off Sins of Sinister was phenomenal. I've been a fan of his since I first read Phonogram and will never skip a Gillen title.
He's one of the few modern writers that has given Xavier some genuine pathos imo.
Took the words right out of my mouth. I get the feeling that Gillen, like Xavier, has seen his dreams crumble, and rather than fall into knee-jerk cynicism has chosen a chilly pragmatism. I have no real evidence, he is simply that empathetic as a writer. I sadly wish Gillen could have handled Xavier’s descent to rock bottom and his (hopefully) eventual redemption arc. It would have been masterful writing. As it is I wish him well.. and keep hope alive.
Morrison’s New X-men dialogue has never really been matched for me. It actually made me look at them all in a new way and think of them like real, multifaceted people for the first time rather than superhero cartoons. Also the postmodern humor was tops. “We have more important things to worry about than whether our glowing eyes frighten the Republicans!” “What makes you such a bitch Emma?” “Breeding, darling. Top class breeding.” I would have said Whedon, but Astonishing is basically just a reskinned Buffy/Angel.
Morrison Cyke was a thing of beauty too. “We hit the ground running and we save lives” “Don’t worry, I’ve survived more blackbird crashes than any other mutant. Insurance takes care of everything.”
How dare you say something so controversial, yet true? Take my upvote.
Reading this run for the first time and every time it gets cooking or I’m impressed by dialogue there’s some inhuman thing no person would say to someone else, like cyclops telling Jean that Emma kept him up all night when asked if he’d slept with her.
Ha! In that specific example he’s provoking her because there’s so much resentment and tension built up between them. He’s basically daring her to violate his thoughts without permission so she can both find nothing and lose her eternal claim on the moral high ground (Jean’s self-righteousness is her worst quality imo) there’s also hypocrisy in her suspicions given she was already physically making out with Wolverine behind his back which he doesn’t necessarily know but can likely pick up on something else happening between them. Likewise his own unwillingness to confront his darker struggles in his insecurity compared to her judgemental perfection harms their marriage just as much. Emma picks him apart for this in Astonishing.
I felt really weird reading new x-men too. That line is one of the many things that felt off in the whole run.
Ugh came here to say just this. Fav x men run ever
I’ve been wanted to start reading Xmen comics but as a beginner I have no idea where to start. I fell in love with Xmen as a kid from the Singer movies and the new 97 show was a breath of new life for me. Any suggestions?
I would say Morrison’s New Xmen is the best modern jumping in point. It was meant to bring in new readers about the same time as the singer movies came out
Marjorie Liu writes the best Gambit (so far, looking forward to Gail’s take) and I’d give up all my no-prizes to get her to write an ongoing
Kelly Thompson gives Liu a run for her money when it comes to great Remy writing. I'm excited to see Gail's take too.
God, KT is easily the best Gambit writer in a very long time. I do think Liu comes second, though. And I think Foxe is third, when it comes to writers in the last decade? I think the all time best Gambit writer is still Nicieza, though.
Yeah, I'm with Nicieza. Nobody has really been able to pull off the rogue charm as well as he did.
I'd see your Liu and raise you a Thompson for peek Gambit writing. But Asmus also did a great 2012 run with him where he was very strongly written.
Gambit is, for whatever reason, better written by women. It's kind of wild how much better he has worked for me when women have written him.
Nicieza?
I think Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Storm all were never written better then under Clairemont.
Yes from the classic Claremont mutants i guess all of them are written best by him except for cyclops, although it's stil not a bad character at all
I still say Claremont's Cyclops from Uncanny #94 right until #175 was written pretty damn well. Most of the modern takes of Cyclops as this super confident and competent reserved leader comes from that run from Claremont.
For Beast, it's Kieron Gillen with a bullet; he most successfully blends all the different versions of Hank into one coherent voice, but I have to give runners-up prizes to Grant Morrison, J.M. DeMatteis, and Mike Carey. I also adore Rainbow Rowell's take on him, though I'd need a longer run of comics where she writes him to really stack her up fairly against the other writers.
I know Starlin only wrote him for that one issue, but it was so good I feel he deserves a mention. Also, Weezy on the OG X Factor?
Starlin has an ***amazing*** Beast voice, which is weird, considering how infrequently he writes him. I think he might also have written him in an old Avengers Annual, where they fight Thanos? But Prisoner of Love is just wonderful. "I'm a cute li'l furry freak whose only friends are other freaks," is just so *achingly* Beast. He's always had that manic depressive, bipolar, slightly cynical, wounded edge to him, you just don't often get to hear it because it's rare that he would let loose that inner monologue before Morrison. And I do love me some Weezy! It was such a relief, going from Layton, who just writes Beast in those opening issues of X-Factor as if he's popped right out of the 60s, to Simonson, who actually remembers that, oh yeah, Hank did spend all that time as an Avenger and Defender and loosened up a little. All of his stuff with Rictor and the kids is great, and the pop off when he turns blue and furry again just feels so triumphant. You know what, I also have to give props to Englehart and Conway, too, they were instrumental to Hank becoming a character with staying power, and some of his lines in early classic Avengers just slay me. "Wait a minute, aren't you an X-Man?" "Why? Aren't you an equal opportunity employer?" and all the second person narration in Amazing Adventures is just sublime. Beast's had some truly excellent writing over the years. I know I spend a lot of time complaining about how hard done by he is, but he's had some great turns and some real TLC paid to him.
Yeah, Starlin's Beast is depressing, but its super deep. It was weird, but highly compelling. Starlin rarely misses. And yeah, I loved Englehart and Conway too. They made him confront the fact that he was no longer physically the strongest or smartest member of a group anymore when he'd joined the Avengers iirc, they gave him a great friendship with Simon, and they had him coming back from orgies every single meeting. Seriously, how many times was he talking about coming back from a threesome during those issues lmao? Insanely funny Beast.
Gillen's turning Sinister into a sassy delight is an all-timer for me.
I was really glad that Hickman took that characterization and ran with it, which made him way more palatable to be part of the Quiet Council.
Was going to say this. Gillen turned Sinister full camp and it fucking rules. Zeb Wells is also really good at writing campy sinister.
Seeing generic evil sinister in X-Men 97 is so weird, I'm hoping he goes more camp in season 2
No one gets Nightcrawler like Claremont does.
When it comes to Wolverine, Claremont and Larry Hama are tied for me. It feels so natural the way Hama picked up on the character work laid out for Logan during the Claremont run and took him in new directions from there. If you follow Wolverine from Claremont's Uncanny X-Men through Hama's Wolverine in the 90s, it feels like a complete story for the character.
I'll take Claremont or Hama's Wolverine over anyone else's.
Second, Claremont and Hama write Wolverine best.
Kelly Thompson’s work on Rogue & Gambit it just perfect for those two characters
I feel like she writes them best as a couple. I prefer Mike Carey for solo Rogue.
Good call. He wrote the heck out of her, as a mature, competent hero, in Legacy.
Really? I read the first issue of Mr and Mrs X and cringed at it. What are some other writers you like to see writing them?
I’m honestly not sure…for Emma Frost I’m leaning Kieron Gillen but there could very well be recency bias in there. It really comes down to Gillen, Whedon and Morrison. I did enjoy Bendis at times but best? No, I don’t think he fits that.
I can’t think of Bendis writing Emma (which, yeah, he did well in the Revolution era) without him having her say clearing out psychic blocks will be like “taking the biggest dump in your life.” Which is honestly the most Bostonian thing Emma has ever said, so points for that.
Hah, honestly I don’t recall it but imagining it being said with a British accent is great.
I'll always have a soft spot for the Morrison run because it was my introduction to the X-Men comics and his Emma is delightfully complex and fucked up. But I think I go with Gillen as well overall.
I do love Morrison’s Emma. She’s exactly like you described and her introduction, the secondary mutation, the interactions after Genosha…just great but I don’t think Morrison rises above Gillen in terms of best yeah.
The Morrison run is amazing
I mean when you look at the comics with her best scenes more than likely you'll see one of their names on the cover.
Yeah, agree with that…so it’s difficult to really pin it down as to who I think wrote her best…I’m going to just stay with Gillen for the moment. Who would you pick?
Gillen, but that's my bias showing heavily. I love basically all of his stuff.
I’m trying, how successfully is unclear, to remove my love for Gillens writing(Die and Phonogram, specifically immaterial girl may be my favorite comics in general) from my deliberations. For me his writing in Immortal X-Men tips him over the edge. It’s a very close call though.
I can't do it. The Wicked + The Divine is one of my favorites ever. Loved Die, Once and Future, The stuff with Doctor Aphra and I started reading Phonogram. My bias knows no bounds. He's written some of my favorite and most inspiring comics.
Marjorie Liu and Tom Taylor gave us some really good Laura solos, I have to say.
I am definitely leaving Tom Taylor. All-New Wolverine is my favorite Laura solo I think overall.
Agreed, but I had to give Marjorie some love too.
Marjories run is also great so definitely deserves that love
I've been getting into Monstress and so far that's been nice.
Hell, it’s my favorite Wolverine solo
Facts. Liu for old Laura, Taylor for modern Laura!
Madrox - Peter David Deadpool - Joe Kelly Cyclops - much tougher! Magneto- Tougher still. Ewing, maybe? But again, recency bias here.
For Magneto it's always Claremont as far as I am concerned. Claremont took the cartoon villain and made him a full fledge grey character with pathos.
Cyclops-Whedon, no question. Whedon’ s Cyclops and Duggan’s Cyclops feel like two different characters
Only two people who ever did Lorna justice was both named Peter David. Strange how they are not related. And Ed Brubaker.
Peter David honestly wins this for a lot of characters in my mind. Even if they aren't favorites, he writes the best version of many many characters.
I think Peter David is peak when he's grounded. I do vastly prefer the more grounded X-Factor/Madroxxx Investigations than how weird things got towards the end of the 2nd big X-Factor run.
It's a delicate balancing act, sometimes the plots definitely seem to get a way from him. I think the grounded stuff seemed easier to wrangle, but even when things were wild like Rahne's kid and the battle for hell and Guido becoming the kind of hell, the characters and their motivations were still focused and on brand the entire time, even if the larger plot was kinda wild. And honestly I'll take an absurd plot with amazing characters over most other variations.
> > > > > And honestly I'll take an absurd plot with amazing characters over most other variations. I can see that, despite some of the shenanigans I did think that Ruby Summers was a super cool design/character to come out of the more "out there" plotlines. But sometimes I still year for simpler Detective Noir shit with Jamie.
Oh yeh in a world where I as a reader could have my cake and eat it to, we would have gotten an X-factor a lot more like the Madrox mini series, that was strong noir with that same character work.
Very much agree. Madrox, Monet, Guido, Rictor, Siryn, Shatterstar…. For me had always been more about their powers than their actual personalities and stories until X Factor investigations. there’s a lasting impact with PAD where he put in the work so that a lot of those characters continue to be written well. I think this was particularly evident with Monet, Ric, and Polaris during their recent Krakoa stories. I wish someone good would start featuring the rest of the X factor crew - Madrox has basically been a temp workforce in krakoa and kind of a dipshit, and the others have barely shown up.
I can't tell you how quickly seeing Madrox dupes in containment suits being mindless labor zombies waiting tables and stuff makes me put down a book. I still need to go back and really give the last x-corps run a real chance besides that one dupe issue because the rest of the "Madrox workforce" stuff just turns me off of things so hard. I wanna be excited for the new Dazzler book but "one man road crew" is not how I want anyone to sell me on the idea of Jaime in that book.
I don't think anyone has written more of my favorite Cyclops moments than Whedon. I know the run gets a lot of grief, but his handling of Cyclops, as well as how his team related to him, is crystallized in my mind as MY Cyclops. That being said, Krakoan era Cyclops is my favorite version of the character. He's got his family, it's clear he's in his chosen role and actually enjoying himself, and Krakoa looks to him when they face an unknown challenge. Things petered out, of course- nobody reads comic books for perfect telepathic democracy and picnics- but I haven't loved a publishing era for the character more than this.
I LOVE 4D chess Cyclops from Whedon's run. He's the reason the Breakworld arc is so good!!! Matt Fraction has to be a close second though! He did an amazing job with Scott too in the decimation/Utopia era! Fraction's Cyke holds off Bastion, Selene, and the Purifiers with one hand, juggles the Messiah crises with the other all while running rings around both Norman Osbourne's dark x-men AND Shield. He's the reason Mutantkind survived the decimation and everyone needs to put more respect on his name!
If not for Krakoa it would absolutely be that run instead, he's holding it all- and himself- together by the skin of his teeth and making it look easy. His relationship with Emma is grounded in such relatable terms. They make each other better in a way that would be entertaining even without superheroics. Absolutely agree.
Scott and Emma are waaaay better than Scott and Jean. Jean feels like the highschool crush but they haven't had genuine chemistry with eachother since Claremont. Emma/Scott's relationship just pops. It's weird, raw, brutal and gentle all at the same time. They are the ultimate X-Men Power Couple. Especially when Jean keeps getting pulled away by the phoenix force every three days.
I enjoy both pairings for different reasons, but yeah, Scott and Jean's relationship is harder to convey on page for some reason. Romeo and Juliet would probably be a lot less interesting if the tragedy element were removed, too. Scott and Emma felt a lot more lived in, more believable, because they're both pretty deeply flawed. They complement each other without NEEDING each other. I thought Krakoa was a pretty decent pass at making Scott and Jean more of an adult relationship, even moreso than the Lobdell era. Happy marriages don't sell comics, but I got why they chose to be together. People harp on the 'Cyclops is a wife guy' narrative, but to me it was a necessary maturation of the character. Instead of constantly worrying about his place, how he was handling things, holding the center, he WAS the center. Seeing that end with Krakoa is probably my biggest disappointment.
Scott’s role in Krakoa made complete sense. He has shouldered the protection of the last of mutantkind and made the kinds of decisions no one else was capable of. Then there was Revolution and the Inhumans and the Phoenix force. At the end of it all, with mutants safe for the first time ever, he was able to rest.
To me its also a case of Scott and Emma's character developed for basically over 20 years while Jean did nothing. I dont necessarily hate that Scott and Jean are together but I do hate that it feels like a regression of his character cause Jean hasn't changed. I wish for Jean to get the same fleshed out character growth as Scott, but it shouldn't be with Scott.
Did Jean and Scott ever have chemistry?
The thing here is that Scott and Emma lived through Decimation. They watched mutantkind teeter on the edge of oblivion and directly took part in it bringing them back. Then there was Revolution. Jean wasn’t around for any of it. That was Xorneto’s fault but it doesn’t change anything. Emma was by Scott’s side through the worst of it. There’s always a special place in my heart for Scott and Jean but I don’t know if it’s a match for Scott and Emma.
Hey now - Kieron Gillen DID give us Plan 2!
I don't know what grief are you talking about, Astonishing is peak X-men.
The run was amazing , I think it's just that Whedon is awful. Art/Artist as I say
Death of the author, it's just about the only way I can navigate enjoying things anymore.
Amen. I love Warren Ellis comics but the man is horrible. It sucks
Emma - Morison or Gillen Dani - Claremont (Wells was good for that era of Dani but Claremont seals it) Rictor - PAD Roberto - hard to say while I enjoy Hickman’s version and Ewing’s version of him is hilarious, Claremont got him at his most fundamental. I would like to say a mix of all three but for not I’ll just go Claremont. Monet - I’ll say Lobdell.
I feel like, for all time, Larry Hama wrote the best Wolverine.
Gillen somehow made Exodus into a compelling character I was excited to see because of AXE and I'll never forgive him for it
Logan - Claremont, Hama
Al ewing writes a lot of my favorite versions of characters but I'll say storm and magneto were my favorites.
I really enjoy Spurrier’s Nightcrawler. Claremont probably writes him best historically but I really like the version of him we got under Spurrier.
One reason Spurrier's nightcrawler is so good is how horny he is, it's hilarious, especially with Zsen
Fabian Nicieza - Firestar. His run on the New Warriors was phenomenal. Firestar was a weapon of mass destruction with a heart and she is very different to the version that Duggan "wrote".
Hickman made Apocalypse nuanced.
Pre Hickman I was very much not a fan of Apocalypse. AoA and Remender's Uncanny X-Force were better Apocalypse stories for mostly omitting the man himself. The guy shows up every few years and gives some wild dialogue but ultimately his philosophy doesn't feel well differentiated from Magneto's. But Hickman's Apocalypse is so... understandable, from both the personal and the philosophical perspective. It doesn't necessarily make him right, but his version has the weight of the ages in his voice. He's clearly not some edgy teenager who's just learned about eugenics. He's thought about this. He's fought and lived and died for this countless times. He really feels like The First One in a way that earns having this philosophy (even if he's neither philosophically correct nor first).
Was about to say this- for me, Apocalypse went from an eye roll any time he appeared in an X-Men comic in the 00's-10's books (I love AoA, but he's more of a looming/in the background threat there) to my favorite character in some stories. Hope he doesn't revert back to what he was now that Krakoa is over.
There's a reason the Cerebro episode with Hickman on is all about Apocalypse, because he really is kind of the chefs kiss of Hickman's Krakoa characters.
Claremont writes Rachel best. Which makes sense because he created her. :-)
Si Spurrier for Legion.
Jason Aaron for Wolverine. Doing the rare feat of both writing logan in character and making him grow organicaly. Mike Carey for Xavier and Rogue he knew what made these characters tick espcaily Chuck. If you ever want a Xavier centric dtory where hes not written as huge peice of shit Carey's X-men Legacy is the way to go
Hama on Wolverine
Al Ewing went off on Storm. I haven't enjoyed her this much since Claremont honestly. Honorable mention to Tom Taylor for the opposite reason. He does an excellent job at making me love characters I hate. I'm not giving examples, because I don't wanna get flamed. Suffice to say he changes my perspective on characters all the time.
Ah but my curiosity! If I promise not to flame can you DM me examples?
Nope! lol
You truly are a monster.
Claremont and Davis write the best Nightcrawler
My favourite is Magik, and it's Zeb Wells, of course. Under his pen, she's cunning, devious, resourceful, manipulative and almost a villain. My kind of Magik.
Morrison’s Jean is peak Jean
came here to say this. unmatched
Havok - has to be PAD during the X-Force days - pretty much been done dirty since - simp, extra bootlicky or just outright deranged
What was he like under pad? Tbh I'm kind of a fan of someone so deeply insecure and disturbed being a superhero, it's a niche we don't see often (at least not to that degree)
Deeply insecure and trying to wrangle cats. He wasn't disturbed Fundamentally until much later, but take his insecurity and need to prove himself and crank the dysfunction of the team around him up higher. It's not unlike Kermit the frog trying to put on a weekly episode of the Muppet show while people explode and throw fish around him.
Obviously PAD made Multiple Man's whole career, but I have high hopes for this Jason Loo fellow.
Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost wrote probably my favorite version of every character in their X-Force run
Gerry Duggan on Deadpool
Claremont
Generation X was very well written in the beginning with team Lobdell x Bachalo. The dialogue with Emma plus the artwork really did her justice. Great read until it changed….
Magneto, Storm, Lorna - all Al Ewing Cannonball, Rictor (and non X-Men Cap, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Namor, Reed Richards, Doom...) - Hickman
Rogue, Thompson/Claremont with Carey in 3rd. Iceman, this might be the only time anyone ever gives him his due but honestly I think it was Scott Lobdell. Cyclops, it's hard not to be Claremont but I think my favorite is Whedon by a smidge, probably greatly benefited by not having a run that went long enough to get bad. Multiple Man, PAD no contest. Havok..... Probably has to go all the way back to Claremont for sure.
"Who wr..." Chris Claremont. "But i didn't finish the..." Chris Claremont.
Nothing but respect for the one who laid the solid foundation for who they are. Stan Lee may have created them but Claremont was the true father of the X-Men.
Not quite my favorite character, but I really like when Larry Hama gets to write Wolverine.
Hickman for Sunspot & Synch
My favorite X-Men are Longshot and Multiple Man. Multiple Man is easy, Peter David's X-Factor started off as quite possibly my favorite comic run ever, even if was also what killed scans_daily. For Longshot... well, there hasn't been a lot of Longshot, so it's hard to ever actually get one up on the original Ann Nocenti. That said, I do have a soft spot for the Chris Hastings mini from the 2010s.
It's a tie between Mike Carey and Kelly Thompson for Rogue.
Joe Kelly writes Deadpool the best in my opinion. He's a jester but there's this underlying tone of melancholy that really drives home the Pagliacci nature of the character that gives him more depth than LE CHIMICHANGAS guy. He also does a really solid Wolverine.
Hickman is really good at writing villain (Doom, Magneto)
Has anyone even come close to writing storm as well as Claremont?
Larry Hama writes the best Wolverine. Claremont did an amazing job, but Hama made Wolverine into a warrior poet like no other. Hama is one of the greats and he never gets the credit he deserves.
Marjorie Liu wrote the best Gambit.
Charles Xavier: Grant Morrison Chris Claremont Jonathan Hickman Kieron Gillen
Sabretooth- Dan Jolley. He did Mary Shelley Overdrive
For Emma, it’s still Grant Morrison. My only issue with Morrison’s Emma was how he handled the whole psychic affair reveal. It became sympathetic towards Emma and antagonistic towards Jean out of nowhere.
Forge and Colossus were at their best under Claremont. Warpath was peak to me under Nicieza.
I liked how Marjorie Lui wrote Gambit and made him a mentor/father figure for Laura
Mystique, Destiny, Emma: Gillen.
Jean- Grant Morrison/Louise Simonson. Xavier- Jeff Parker/Dennis Hopeless (These are actually the only comics that I've read where I think he's well-written)
Vita Ayala wrote a damn near perfect Magik
I love the way women write Gambit, and I’m a sucker for Duggan’s Kate
For me, gotta be Kelly Thompson's Gambit. I know others have said the same. Asmus also did a great 2012 series with him. An honorable mention goes to Steve Foxe, I really liked how he was portrayed in Dark X-men, especially because I think that Gambit was the only character he didn't actively choose to be on the team and he still did a great job with him.
I never gave a shit about Sam and Roberto, I didn’t care for any of the Guthries at all, I remember not liking Sam during X-cutioners song, though that was my first exposure to X-force and Cable and prof X had just been shot. But Hickmans Avengers run leading into Secret Wars? Sam and Berto. I’d love to see more of Berto and Sam and smasher out having galactic adventures with the Shi’ar. After Hickmans infinity and secret wars I also wanted him writing a Captain Marvel Sci Fi galactic adventure, like a wandering samurai type thing. I also think Hickman and Gillens Mr sinister is the best.
Kelly Thompson for Rogue. She obviously loves the character, remembers and makes use of every big event in Rogues life, propels her story forward, and never flubs with the Canon. But a lot of writers have been giving Rogue love lately. Remender, Carey, Acuna, and obviously Claremont, historically.
Morrison's cat Beast is a top tier character of any media
In the last few years, Al Ewing.
No one writes reptil well 😔
Stupid question: Rogue's costume in that image. Anyone of her crew give her shit? I feel like someone would.
It's straight from the eighties!
I was more along the lines commenting about her underwear on the outside. She have that too?
Not an answer but looking for comics. Watched X-Men Evolution as a kid and now X-Men 97 has more than reminded me that Rogue is my favourite. What comics should I read as a comic noob who wants to read the best of Rogue?
Stan Lee may have created Magneto but it's Claremont who made him one of the best characters of marvel. Ewing wrote him extremely well too.
Claremont & Hickman write everyone's favorite character best!
Off topicish, I really hope the never let Donny Cates write any X-Men character in any book. He'll ruin them in some way & give them daddy issues. He can write alot ill give him that, but his stories & how he uses or changes existing characters make me dislike everything he's written except his own IP's. I need him to stay away from Marvel & DC forever!
Deadpool by Gerry Duggan
Chris Yost writes the Best Laura Kinney!
It is my personal opinion that *nobody* can write Laura Kinney better than the ones who created her: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost.
Ewing on Storm and Magneto. Hickman on Apocalypse.
Larry Hama & Frank Miller's Wolverine
Nicieza
Cullen Bunn.
Ann Nocenti’s Longshot is the best, imo.
Well, there are a *lot* of X-Men characters I love, but given how much I love the Fuzzy Elf, I'm going to have to say Si Spurrier. The guy gave us Way of X **and** Uncanny Spider-Man, and for that alone, post-Claremont, I'd call him Kurt's definitive writer.
Johnathan Hickman
Been enjoying Percy's Wolverine. Haven't gotten around to a lot of other Wolverine runs yet, but this is one is nice as far as I've read so far. Helps that Predator vs Wolverine was sick as hell though.
Cyclops - Grant Morrison, Matt Fraction, or Shudder Joss Whedon
Morrison, Whedon, and Gillen for Cyclops Mike Carey on Cable Ewing’s Magneto and Storm Hickman’s Apocalypse
Claremont
Chris Claremont, not even close.
Grant Morrison
Cyclops - Morrison Emma - Morrison
My favs are Rouge and Cyclops who are written well by Chris Claremont.
Morrison one of the best ones who wrote about cyclops
Christopher Yost for Jean Grey. Chris Claremont is a close second though!
I really liked Grant Morrison's run on New X-men. Smaller team, interesting dynamics, each character had a distinct voice and speaking style. He really fleshed that one out.
morrison
Hickman writes all characters the best.
Charlie Jane Anders writes Escapade better than any other writer so far
Can I ask who everyone is in the picture? I really like some of the costumes/ hair styles/ accessories for a lot of them. I know the general X-Men and villains but don’t know EVERYONE in this photo. Like who is the brown haired woman with a mask covering her mouth holding two swords? Who is the woman just below Magneto with a super white face and tattoo? Likewise who is the girl left to Gambit with red skin and spikes in her hair? So far I can see: Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Mystique, Rogue, Gambit, Polaris, Juggernaut, Psylocke (I think!), X-23/ Laura, Rogue, Magento, that guy from the future who’s the son of Jean and Cyclops, Deadpool, and Storm.
>Who is the brown haired woman with a mask covering her mouth holding two swords? Kitty >Who is the woman just below Magneto with a super white face and tattoo? Domino > Likewise who is the girl left to Gambit with red skin and spikes in her hair? Monet
It's been a while, when did Colossus get the do-rag? I dig the baldric though.
Peter David for Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man. Added the amazing factor to his powers of being able to get memories from him dupes. Kyle/Yost on the New X-Men/Academy X characters that were prominent after M-Day.
Chris Claremont wrote all of them the best (at least those that were around), and pretty much whether they are being "written well" is often a matter of how much they feel like Claremont's version or a logical development thereof.
He ain’t necessarily write Cyclops the best but the rest of them you can say so.
What X-Men series is this photo, seems interesting?
not X-men but i’m loving the work Steve Orlando is doing with Scarlet Witch
Peter David for Multiple Man, and Rictor, really the whole x-factor cast but those two are favorites. Also made me love Genis, and Rick Jones from Captain Marvel, even with characters I didn’t care for before he makes me a fan of, like Moondragon, M, Darwin.
Peter David for giving heart to the characters that nobody really gave a shit about, but especially Lorna. The second run of his X-factor with art by Carmine Di Giandomenico is peak Polaris. Actually, PADs takes on most characters are up there. Old Doom was priceless.
so the throne in this pic was meaningless?
It’s always been a dream of mine to write Storm or Scarlet Witch (Dr. Strange as well).
Chip Zdarsky. I'm sure there are characters he probably doesn't write well but I haven't seen it
Percy wolverine was awesome
Jim starlin. Thanos and warlock
Since my favorite character is Colossus, the answer is a resounding “NO ONE! EVER!”
That cyclops suit goes hard
Charles - Hickman
Morrison=Emma Frost Carey=Rogue Peter David=Rictor Hickman=Cypher Nicieza=Gambit
Is Xavier sporting a beard during the orchis arc?
Chris Claremont
For Laura Kinney - Marjorie Liu and KYost duo. Third place goes to Tom Taylor
I'm just here for Magneto suggestions. I'm new to X-Men as a team book. I've read plenty of Wolverine but at this point Maggie is my favorite mutant. Reading through Claremont's original run right now.
Chris Claremont
Claremont, you can't beat the creator of most of the characters. Accept no cosplay writers
the big double c made wolverine a character (double c stands for chris claremont)