Other writers whose work I enjoyed include Frank Miller, Dave Sim and Neil Gaiman. These guys are great, but they either don't do comics anymore (Sim) or they are somewhat infrequent with their output (Gaiman and Miller). I'll usually give them a chance, but the first list of writers are definitely my first choices. I should mention here that a lot of the work that these three creators have done is among my all-time favorite works.
There are some other writers who've done work I've enjoyed, but I can't bring myself to be a totally committed fan of their work because my reaction to their work is unpredicatable at best. Sometimes I like it...sometimes I don't.
The list of dislikes would include Brian Michael Bendis, Greg Rucka, J. Michael Straczynski and Brad Meltzer. I like some of their work, but a lot of it leaves me cold. I am not a fan of revamping or "modernizing" all the classic characters. In my mind, there was nothing wrong with them that couldn't have been fixed without renumbering a series or killing a secondary character.
Recent runs that didn't grab me:
- Ultimate Spider-Man. I felt the actual history was fine as it was. In general, I do wish all Spider-Man writers would do more with that great supporting cast.
I really liked BMB's Daredevil run! But I didn't like his handling of Richard Fisk...I thought the character deserved better - he was the Schemer and the Rose after all. And another "Matt Murdock is Daredevil"? That was done before wasn't it? It was handled pretty well though. Oh yeah, Powers was pretty good as well.
- The end of Rucka's run on Wonder Woman - especially the Max Lord murder. Then, after painting the character into a corner....a new number 1 issue! Must have been the plan all along.
For my tastes, I liked Mr. Rucka's excellent Detective run, and WW before the "Sacrifice" storyline. On the strength of his Detective Comics issues, I'll usually give his works a chance.
- Straczynski gets a lot of rolled eyes from me, but it should be noted that I am a long time Spider-Man fan, and I tend to judge Spidey story arcs mercilessly.
The worst transgression was the recent "Gwen Stacy's kids" story arc. I think this may be my least favorite idea ever presented in Spider-Man. And that's saying something, as Spidey also "boasts" the Clone Saga. I also thought the Morlun story was a bit irritating. Why do writers seem to like the idea of totally overmatching Spider-Man and then having somebody who'd never been seen before whale the tar out of him? This reminded me of Bane and Doomsday.
- Identity Crisis
Just didn't like it. The death was senseless (I agree with Alex Ross, who complained about this series in an issue of Wizard) and the story unnecessary. So the heroes are just as bad as the villains. Thanks for putting that on the table. I just felt that the events that "led" up to the events of IC were inconsistent with the characters involved. I don't really know all that much about Meltzer's later work, as IC has, thus far, prevented me from being interested in checking it out. Very insular of me, I know, but IC just really rubbed me the wrong way.
No comments:
Post a Comment