Brian Bendis, Grant Morrison or Geoff Johns?

[Winghead]

Favorite of the 3 and why?

[captainsneverdead]

are we talking strictly their Marvel works or all of their stuff?

[Alan2099]

Morrison bounces back and forth between one of the best and not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.

Bendis is NEVER as clever as he thinks he is.

and Johns sucks more often than not.

With that said, I'd do with Morrison, which for some unknown reason, my fingers keep wanting to type Morriosn and I have to go back and fix the typo ever single time.

[Winghead]

all of their work

[DaeJi]

Each writer has great stuff, and each writer has stuff that will give you cancer. Morrison has been around longer and thus has a larger body of great work, so I give this to him.

[rZi]

Morrison bounces back and forth between one of the best and not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.

Bendis is NEVER as clever as he thinks he is.

and Johns sucks more often than not.

I agree with the first two comments 100% but i think Johns delivers more than Bendis.

[matthewaos]

Me too. That said, it's a touch vote. I voted for Morrison, but latetly I don't think his Batman is so good, but I loved New X-Men or Arkham asylum. About his is exactly what Allan said, there are times he is not as clever as he thinks, and then he becomes annoying.

Bendis on the other hand is not the one to think that he is writing the best story ever told, one that will lead new generations, though I think he IS thinking that he is writing the best super hero stories. He is not as "artistic" as Morrison though, so he doesn't bothers me so much, when he bothers.

Jones is a good writer, though I don't have read much of him, and I can't understand why he is on the list. I think he is a DC writer writing for DC, so for super hero at least, I'm not too interesting.

[Winghead]

I realize Johns has done most of his work for DC but he is really prolific and generally gets good press. Johns, Bendis and Morrison seem to be the 3 most talked about writers right now.

[DrewTheXenocide]

I dunno. Bendis' writing is what really brought me into reading comics in the first place. Granted, I don't read anymore of his stuff, just 'cause I couldn't stand it anymore, but something has to be said about his Ultimate Spidey stuff pulling me in so deep.

That, and his Daredevil was tits.

[howyadoin]

I'm surprised to see all three of them mentioned together. Apples and oranges.

[Michael P]

Morrison in a cakewalk. Bendis, I just can't get into.

[JonniRandom]

I was going to say Bendis, but then remembered Doom Patrol and quickly voted Morrison....boy, that comic book was GOOD!

[Matt Algren]

Morrison's worst is better than the best of Bendis and Johns combined. That's not a knock on the latter two, they just aren't in the same league.

[Paradox]

Morrison - GREAT ideas, often suspect mechanics.

Bendis - Mediocre ideas, good mechanics but too repetitive and stylized.

Johns - Really showed promise early on, and then tried to get "edgy". It's not something he does well.

Out of the three? Morrison.

[J. Robb]

F*** Morrison, marry Bendis, kill Johns.


...wait, what are we talking about again?

[Shellhead]

Bendis doesn't impress me at all. His stories tend to be hideously decompressed, and at a time when comics cost $3.00 each, that alone makes me avoid him like the plague. His dialogue aims for realism but often becomes annoying. He can't write a decent fight scene involving more than a handful of characters. His thought balloons are a dumb joke. He displays an infuriating lack of regard for the personalities of existing characters, which is why he can alternately write Captain America as an indecisive handwringer or a brutal drill sergeant-type. I really and truly believe that Bendis is a lazy and ineffective writer. All that said, I was impressed with some of his work on Daredevil.

Johns is an above average superhero writer, but he will probably never amount to more than that. He does a great job with continuity and the creation of legacy characters, but then he wastes that talent working for DC, a company that keeps retconning away its best stories. He can handle a large cast well, and can definitely write epic fight scenes. His characterization is nice in the occasional downtime issues. However, Johns really messed up Infinite Crisis, and he is starting to show signs of writing decompressed stories.

Morrison is a genius at writing comics, and unlike Johns, he isn't just writing superhero comics. Morrison has an amazing ability to generate lots of interesting ideas, so many ideas that he just doesn't have time to use them all. He has a nice feel for characterization but his dialogue is sometimes too abrupt, as characters spew exciting concepts while hurtling through the action. Morrison is easily one of the best comicbook writers ever, though he will probably never surpass Alan Moore, who is writing on the level of literary classics.

[Ed Cunard]

I think Morrison's mechanics are top-notch. He gets my vote.

I will say, though, that I have found Secret Invasion surprisingly entertaining.

...

I'm ashamed to type that.

Not as ashamed as I would be to like any Johns stuff.

[Agent Helix]

Grant Morrison. No question.

I think he's the best writer the medium has ever seen.

[Black Atom]

Well, crap. Shellhead has already summed up my thoughts just about completely.

[worstblogever]

All three have my $$$ on the counter when they're working on a book (along with Ennis and Ellis)... but picking from the three...

Geoff Johns writes superhero stories that honor continuity, for the most part, and make the heroes look good. It's excellent writing, although out of the three, he's the most predictable. When he works with Morrison, it's a great partnership that helps him a bit...

Bendis... writes some funny dialogue. He writes a superhero like you'd want to emulate yourself in the tights, togs, or in some cases, plainclothes. His villains can get downright eerie, and are so cryptic at times, you're scared just wondering what their deal is... and as it's revealed, it makes you cringe. Still, the focus on the dialogue being funny and clever is often what makes a impossible situation seem more "real". It almost counteracts the spectacle he creates in his writing. If Lord of the Rings featured Gandalf, Gimli, and Aragorn using the word "shtupping", it'd probably screw with the tapestry and the illusion that the story creates in your mind. All too often, Bendis' witticisms snap you out of a great story, as much as you might like them, sometimes they can really f*** up the pacing of what could be epic, and at other times, that's what makes them great.

Morrison... I pick Morrison. Why? His stories can take you anywhere, at anytime. I never know if it turns out there's gods on Earth, aliens, or interdimensional conspiracies. The potential for a mindf*** always lies there, in any of his books. He could make me question my existence if he wrote an Archie comic. He knows when to punch up some funny dialogue, and when to stow it and make something sound downright mythical. I've never once been disappointed in a Morrison book, because my expectations can never truly be set.

[Reptisaurus!]

Morrison - GREAT ideas, often suspect mechanics.


Agreed, although I think he's improved 1000%, craftwise, in the last couple years.

He's also cut back on the great ideas. Not a fair trade-off.

Bendis - Mediocre ideas, good mechanics but too repetitive and stylized.


I'm a fan, but he's become really popular doing the kind of thing he does poorly.

Johns - Really showed promise early on, and then tried to get "edgy". It's not something he does well.


Hmm. I think he's improved a lot, too, actually.

Still, I'd put him on the lower tier of mainstream writers. But I grade pretty highly on originality.

But, yeah, Morrison. That's not even a thing.

[Paradox]

DISCLAIMER: Hard for me to tell about the improvements, Mark. I haven't read any new comics in about two years, so my info is dated.

[Rabid Trekkie]

I've only read JSA so I don't really know a lot of Johns stuff, and the trades I'm collecting are from when Goyer was co-writing so can't really judge.

Haven't read nearly enough of Morrison, but I liked Arkham Asylum and love New X-Men. In fact aside from a problem here or there in the first two trades, the only problem I have with them is that the trade Planet X seems to be out of print. Other than those two stories, and one JLA story, I just haven't read a lot of Morrison.

So far I think Bendis is the writer I have the most work from (though Alan Moore may be equal) and probably the one I'm enjoying the most. Mind you that's only because I'm buying Powers and his run on Daredevil, so I haven't really seen his other work.

[estee]

Grant ftw!

Johns is very old-school. Bendis has great dialogue.

But Grant's style is complex and has really great ideas.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

This is a toughie. Because essentially it comes down to... Johns and Morrison. Bendis has had his good books. But he's had a lot of clunkers and he's showed that he won't follow up on plots he drops. That he'll forget them and move on quick. New Avengers is an example of this...since he dropped key plot points with Spiderwoman being a double-agent and then never followed it up at all. Forgetting the plot he started there.


Johns :

I think he's more than the standerd super hero writer. He usually has big long term goals on books he takes over. He doesn't think 10-12 issues when he does a book. I mean...look at when he took over Booster Gold (a great fun read) in his pitch its said he told DC he had plots for 18 issues already.

His Flash is another example of this long range planning. He started with 164. His entire run was a slow build on the rogues gallery and building to "Rogue War". Now he admitted he could have stayed longer...but didn't.

Johns works best when he doesn;t have to shoe horn events into his books. Or his artist is on the ball. A big knock of his Action Comics run was that his "Last Son" arc could never be completed and was pushed back countless times. Either for art or that Richard Donner was busy. But he did do a very damn good 6 part LSH arc where he brought the old Legion back.

His knocks is that he worships old continuty to a level that makes you wonder if he loves comics too much. The retconning Hal's grey sideburns as a part of "GL : Reborn" was very comical. And got some jokes like... "In such and such issue of panel 6 , in a comic dated 1973 , Johns will explain that this didn't happen !"

Of course Johns could write the greatest super hero book next to ...Dark Knight ..and he'd still never compare to Grant Morrison. His work isn't on Morrison's crazy genuis level. Johns does super heroes pretty much....Morrison does everything and anything....


Grant Morrison:

Morrison is the everything writer. His shelf has classics like Doom Patrol , Animal Man , and WE3 now . He can sit down and plot a book/direction that goes beyond modern heroes. Look at hios New X-Men work for example.

He did a very modern , sci-fi version of Chris Claremont's stories in a sense. And the stories were so new age for the X-Men. You'd walk away and be amazed...why hadn't a writer done that for them ? Because...they aren't Grant Morrison.

Its true... Morrison could write Archie and pretty much do a side of Archie that we all hadn't seen if given a chance. We'd all look and be amazed and end up picking up Archie comics if he wrote it. Thats how good a writer he is.

His latest work in Batman and All-Star Superman...while some hasn't knocked me out ...its been very , very good. He explores different new aspects of the heroes. In All-Star Superman he is doing a very awesome golden-age/modern read for us . And it rocks... it kicks ass on levels we never knew Superman could do !

My only knocks against how great Grant Morrison is.... his end of runs on books like X-Men and JLA. They are too much a rush and confusing. Which is sad....because his runs become so built up and good. You just hate to read his ends on those 2 books. Being honest.

Morrison is on another level than Johns. I enjoy both for what they do. But Grant Morrison is just too good to write standerd heroes.

[Wesley Dodds]

That's an odd group... why those three?

Well, Morrison. For Doom Patrol, Seven Soldiers, and Aztek.

I don't like Bendis. He's David Mamet: good dialogue, mean streak.

Johns is -- I don't know, a bit generic?

[Alan2099]

That's an odd group... why those three?
Why not those three?

[Corrina]

All three have my $$$ on the counter when they're working on a book (along with Ennis and Ellis)... but picking from the three...

Geoff Johns writes superhero stories that honor continuity, for the most part, and make the heroes look good.

No, he just honors the continuity that he likes. The rest can get tossed out the window. Like with Deathstroke. Or with Impulse. Even Superboy.

He will move mountains to honor the characters that he adores but he's just as guilty at tossing aside characters that he doesn't find interesting as is as other writers.

[Gilda Dent]

Easy one for me. Morrison, Bendis, Johns, in that order.

[Ryan K]

Morrison's a genius.

Bendis' crime books are solid. His superhero work is lackluster.

Johns writes mediocre, corporate published fan fiction.

[Paradox]

SUPERECWFAN1 makes me wonder:

Johns :

I think he's more than the standerd super hero writer. He usually has big long term goals on books he takes over. He doesn't think 10-12 issues when he does a book. I mean...look at when he took over Booster Gold (a great fun read) in his pitch its said he told DC he had plots for 18 issues already.

Not that it's not a good thing, but isn't that industry SOP for a pitch? I remember when Marvel was taking unsolicited pitches and seem to remember that kind of advanced plotting was on the requirement list.

[Ryan K]

Besides, anymore 18 issues basically amounts to 3 stories.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

Morrison, I suppose, though I don't rush out to get everything he does (not bothering with Final Crisis-- at least while the series is coming out-- and I don't think I have any interest in The Invisibles).

Bendis has never really gotten my attention outside some of his crime work, and-- while once quite a rabid fan, actually-- I find myself losing interest in Johns's constant need to tinker & 'fix' (among other things).

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Not that it's not a good thing, but isn't that industry SOP for a pitch? I remember when Marvel was taking unsolicited pitches and seem to remember that kind of advanced plotting was on the requirement list.

Doesn't seem like that anymore. I mean when the new Wonder Woman series was pitched....Heinberg only stayed on it 5 issues. His Young Avengers was 12 issues. Its a lost art when a creator will come on and have 18+ issues in his plans to stay.

I think he's a Mr.Steady. His Flash and Booster Gold work where he can plan long term and he doesn't have delays is his best super hero work. No events tossed in ect ect. I hope DC doesn't have FINAL CRISIS crossover in Booster Gold.

[Paradox]

SUPERECWFAN1 should back it up:

Doesn't seem like that anymore. I mean when the new Wonder Woman series was pitched....Heinberg only stayed on it 5 issues. His Young Avengers was 12 issues.

Did you see these pitches, or are you basing it on how long they stay? Not the same thing at all.

[Kid Omega]

Did you see these pitches, or are you basing it on how long they stay? Not the same thing at all.

Pitches smitches. He's talking about Actual Published Works.

If we were discussing the intentions of these guys, they'd all have stacks of revered and beloved back catalogue.

[Paradox]

Actually, we WERE talking about pitches. Having things planned out to a certain point. In particular, whether or not it was standard to have things planned out a year and a half in advance. There'd be many reasons someone would leave or be taken off a book long before fruition.