Examples of writers being replaced mid-storyline.

[Kevinroc]

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=3792953&postcount=1109

In this post, Tom Brevoort confirms that Dwayne McDuffie will be taking over Fantastic Four while FF is still in the middle of a CW tie-in arc.

I'm curious as to other examples of writers taking the reigns while a comic was in mid-storyline. Especially if it was during a crossover tie-in.

* I'm not asking about a fill-in team. I mean the writer is actually changing to the new guy taking over such as the McDuffie example.

[Babylon23]

John Byrne was halfway through his "Darker Than Scarlet" storyline in West Coast Avengers when he quit. Roy thomas finished up the storyline. While it wasn't a crossover or tie-in, it was a huge story in the title, one that had been building for about a year before.

[Brian Cronin]

Yeah, that's a big one.

Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald took over in the middle of the Eternals Saga in Thor.

Tom DeFalco had the baton passed to him during Roger Stern's Hobgoblin storyline.

-Brian

[Expletive Deleted]

I don't know about mid-storyline, but doesn't Byrne's FF run end in a cliffhanger that someone else ended up resolving?

I think Joe Casey took over from James Robinson on CABLE in the middle of the "Hellfire Hunt" storyline.

And I could be wrong, but I don't think Ralph and the Grue took over Roy's Eternals Saga until the very end. They did two issues of Wagner adaptation, an issue of Celestial action, and then moved on to their own stuff.

[Gingold]

Chris Claremont was replaced by Fabian Nicieza halfway through the "Muir Island Saga".

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Chuck Austen replaced John Ney Reiber on not one but TWO arcs of Capt America.

Reiber had apparently handed in the first two issues scripts for two different sotry arcs (apparently how he sometimes works), and then left/was replaced on the book by Austen, who finished both arcs off.

Yet some still claim he wasn't a hack.

[Gordon Smith]

Roger Stern was replaced by Tom DeFalco (and eventually, I believe, by Peter David) before he could reveal the identity of the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man. These other writers took the mystery of Hobgoblin's identity in a direction Stern had not intended.

[StrikeForce Albert]

Austen getting replaced by "J. D. Fynn" or whatever they called "him" on action Comics

[Reptisaurus!]

Roger Stern was replaced by Tom DeFalco (and eventually, I believe, by Peter David) before he could reveal the identity of the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man. These other writers took the mystery of Hobgoblin's identity in a direction Stern had not intended.

And Roger Stern... and Steven Grant... and a couple others "replaced" (By which I mean fucked up beyond all recognition, trampled into the ground, and ruined) Gerber & Skrenes on Omega the Unknown.

[Babylon23]

When he was replaced on Avengers, Roger Stern had plotted 2-3 issues of the 5-part Heavey Metal storyline. Ralph Macchio finished up the story, before Walt Simonson came onboard with 291.

Due to his illness, Chris Claremont was recently replaced on the First Foursaken story in Uncanny.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Roger Stern was replaced by Tom DeFalco (and eventually, I believe, by Peter David) before he could reveal the identity of the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man. These other writers took the mystery of Hobgoblin's identity in a direction Stern had not intended.

Not only a different direction, but one that made no sense.

Ned Leeds!
Ridiculous and a waste of good support character.

[Gordon Smith]

And Roger Stern... and Steven Grant... and a couple others "replaced" (By which I mean fucked up beyond all recognition, trampled into the ground, and ruined) Gerber & Skrenes on Omega the Unknown.

Ironic, ain't it? Maybe a bit of poetic justice in there as well.

[Michael P]

Roger Stern was replaced by Tom DeFalco (and eventually, I believe, by Peter David) before he could reveal the identity of the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man. These other writers took the mystery of Hobgoblin's identity in a direction Stern had not intended.
As I heard it, it was Jim Owsley who came up with the Leeds thing.

[Gordon Smith]

Not only a different direction, but one that made no sense.

Ned Leeds!
Ridiculous and a waste of good support character.

Yeah, I liked Leeds myself. There was no need to destroy the character like that.

[Gordon Smith]

As I heard it, it was Jim Owsley who came up with the Leeds thing.

Hmmm. I had forgotten about Owsley/Priest's contribution to that debacle.

[brundlefly]

The Stern/Defalco/Owsley (and I think PAD was involved in that mess, too) musical chairs number on the Hobgoblin storyline was my first introduction as a young comics reader to the potential horror of a writer being replaced mid-story. After reading ASM #289 and not enjoying the conclusion to the Hobgoblin storyline, I backtracked through my old Spidey titles, noting the writer credits for each Hobby appearance since his unmasking/final appearance seemed so anticlimactic and out-of-whack to what had come before it. I noticed Stern was the author of Hobby's origin and initial appearances and that he was not the writer of his big reveal. It wasn't until the advent of the internet that my suspicions that the story had deviated from the original author's intent were verified. To this day, it's still my first go-to example for this thread's topic.

[Babylon23]

Didn't a couple of the Spidey writers leave/get replaced in the middle of the Clone Saga mess?

[jaguarshark]

Jerry Ordway was replaced by Karl Kesel on 'Adventures of Superman' just as the Reign of the Supermen was beginning. But I'm counting that as an example of a writer being replaced mid-storyline, because the whole Death/Funeral/Return event was really one story.

I always thought the 'Return' issues were easily the best part of that crossover, and I think the replacement of Ordway with Kesel was a HUGE part of that. No offence to Ordway, whose art I love, but Kesel was perfectly suited to writing about a super-clone created by mad Kirby scientists, and created fun, adventurous and creative comics out of what had been a cynical marketing extravaganza.

Tying in to the more recent example, I think Kesel could have worked the exact same kind of magic had he replaced JMS on Fantastic Four, but McDuffie's certainly a more than solid choice too.

[dancj]

IIRC, Steven Grant was replaced for the final issue of his famous (though I can't see why) Punisher miniseries, though I think the new writer was working from Steven's plots

[Reptisaurus!]

Jerry Ordway was replaced by Karl Kesel on 'Adventures of Superman' just as the Reign of the Supermen was beginning. But I'm counting that as an example of a writer being replaced mid-storyline, because the whole Death/Funeral/Return event was really one story.

I always thought the 'Return' issues were easily the best part of that crossover, and I think the replacement of Ordway with Kesel was a HUGE part of that. No offence to Ordway, whose art I love, but Kesel was perfectly suited to writing about a super-clone created by mad Kirby scientists, and created fun, adventurous and creative comics out of what had been a cynical marketing extravaganza.


VERY good call. I can't imagine a mid-storyline replacement has ever worked better.

[Sean Walsh]

Didn't a couple of the Spidey writers leave/get replaced in the middle of the Clone Saga mess?

Only one I can remember being replaced was Dan Jurgens (replaced by newcomer at the time Todd Dezago). Though I think Dan may've left on his own accord.......wouldn't blame him...

The editorial end of the Clone Saga was more of a mess, I think.

[dancj]

VERY good call. I can't imagine a mid-storyline replacement has ever worked better.

The Reign of the Supermen was great, but really that shole story was written by a committee of four writers, one of whom was replaced so I don't know if it really counts

[Loren]

Owsley was replaced on Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn after one issue, with Giffen and Gerard Jones taking over the writing duties for the remainder of the mini.

And I'll toss out the recent Doc Samson mini, which had its first two issues written by Paul Di Filippo, Jay Faerber on #3, Zeb Wells on #4, and Wells and Di Filippo on #5. I'm not sure if that counts.

[stealthwise]

Only one I can remember being replaced was Dan Jurgens (replaced by newcomer at the time Todd Dezago). Though I think Dan may've left on his own accord.......wouldn't blame him...

The editorial end of the Clone Saga was more of a mess, I think.

Yeah, Jurgens left because he wanted to write about the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker, who, at that time, was not in the plans to return. Ironically, they ended up doing just that something like a year later. The Life of Reilly site explains it much better than I can, but be warned, sitting there and reading the whole thing back to back will make you feel like you've lived through it all over again.

http://www.newcomicreviews.com/GHM/specials/LifeOfReilly/

[jaguarshark]

The Reign of the Supermen was great, but really that shole story was written by a committee of four writers, one of whom was replaced so I don't know if it really counts
Sort of, but if you read back over 'Reign', each book does their own thing to a much greater degree than 'Death' and 'Funeral'. Until you get to the big Coast City showdown, obviously.
Besides, 'AOS' was pretty terrible during 'Death' and 'Funeral', and picked up considerably once Kesel came onboard.

[Reptisaurus!]

The Reign of the Supermen was great, but really that shole story was written by a committee of four writers, one of whom was replaced so I don't know if it really counts

As I recall the four writers mostly wrote one of the four Supermen. Which is WHY (IMO) it worked better than most crossovers.

[Brian Cronin]

Jerry Ordway was replaced by Karl Kesel on 'Adventures of Superman' just as the Reign of the Supermen was beginning. But I'm counting that as an example of a writer being replaced mid-storyline, because the whole Death/Funeral/Return event was really one story.

I always thought the 'Return' issues were easily the best part of that crossover, and I think the replacement of Ordway with Kesel was a HUGE part of that. No offence to Ordway, whose art I love, but Kesel was perfectly suited to writing about a super-clone created by mad Kirby scientists, and created fun, adventurous and creative comics out of what had been a cynical marketing extravaganza.

Tying in to the more recent example, I think Kesel could have worked the exact same kind of magic had he replaced JMS on Fantastic Four, but McDuffie's certainly a more than solid choice too.

I dunno about Kesel really replacing Ordway "mid-storyline," as the Superboy storyline was ALL Kesel, in that Ordway had nothing to do with it. All Ordway did was write and draw one last issue before he left (and, I imagine, got a nice chunk of royalty change, which I presume was DC's intent in having him do that one last issue before he left - as a sort of thank you present for his many years of service to the Superman titles).

-Brian

[howyadoin]

Didn't a couple of the Spidey writers leave/get replaced in the middle of the Clone Saga mess?Probably ritual suicide.

[dancj]

As I recall the four writers mostly wrote one of the four Supermen. Which is WHY (IMO) it worked better than most crossovers.
I agree. It's the same reason that the first half of Knightfall and No Man's Land worked better than most.

Dan

[jaguarshark]

I dunno about Kesel really replacing Ordway "mid-storyline," as the Superboy storyline was ALL Kesel, in that Ordway had nothing to do with it. All Ordway did was write and draw one last issue before he left (and, I imagine, got a nice chunk of royalty change, which I presume was DC's intent in having him do that one last issue before he left - as a sort of thank you present for his many years of service to the Superman titles).

-Brian
Yeah, for sure, but I did say that I see the whole Death/Funeral/Return thing as one big storyline, while others might not.
I figure the Cadmus/Superboy stuff was a pretty major part of 'Funeral for a Friend' (the only bright spots of that whole thing, if I remember correctly), which is a small part of why I consider the three stories to really be one story.
Besides, if Dwayne McDuffie counts as a mid-storyline replacement because he has to deal with Civil War stuff for a few issues, then Kesel being thrown headfirst into 'The Death and Return of Superman' totally counts.