How do you feel about DC's talent pool?

[Will.S]

I find myself slowly but surely weening myself off of DC, not because I dislike the company but because a lot of these books don't really have the talent to attract me to them again.

Books like Teen Titans/Titans are not picking up any steam and don't really feel as if they have any importance at all. Sean McKeever in particular can be a good writer, I've really enjoyed his Mystique, Gravity, and Inhumans work and I can see why they picked him for Teen Titans because he can write kids very well but for some strange reason his Teen Titans work just isn't working for me and the art work by Eddy Barrows/Rod Reis looks rather bland. It almost seems as if he fits better as a Marvel writer than a DC one since I haven't read anything all that good from him during his tenure at DC.

Judd Winick on Titans interests me even less, especially when they pair him with artists who aren't appealing whatsoever and botch up designs and his announcement on Batman didn't enthuse me at all.

I think DC needs a bigger influx of new talent and a better organization of their current talent to fit the books better. They seem to be relying too much on Rucka, Morrison, and Johns without really branching out hotter talent or just better creative teams on their other books with the exceptions of Gail Simone on Secret Six and Peter Tomasi on Outsiders which had already gone through far too many retoolings. DC also lost Dale Eaglesham, Adam Kubert (with Andy probably not trailing far behind), Sean Chen who I thought was going to DC, and were squandering others like Pete Woods who should have been given better assignments like having been kept on Superman or a JLA style book where his style can be best used.

It has also come to my attention that Jim Lee and a bunch of really talented Wildstorm folks like Carlos D'Anda are being used mostly for an online DC RPG which is rather annoying. What do you guys think of DC's use of their talent so far?

[Ilash]

I'm inclined to agree with you here except when you look at their writer pool, they have some really solid names. Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Simone, Busiek, Dini, Tomasi, Sturges and, in theory, Robinson. They could perhaps do with more writers but those are some good writers right there.

And yet, I'm still not all that wild about what DC are doing lately. A large part of that is that a lot of the editorial decisions just don't interest me very much. The Batman stuff after Battle for the Cowel looks interesting but Superman has gone off in a direction that holds absolutely no interest for me, their teen characters, who were once so cool, by and large suck, JLA has been completely uninteresting for years and the fate of the Flash franchise is very much up in the air right now.

[Cayman]

It's very shallow. They should be recruiting more from the indies or scouting for more new talent.

[Lupek]

I think DC's writing pool is stagnant and could use a big shake up.

At this point I avoid anything with Winick, Rucka and Simone who seem to be Didio's mainstays.

I didn't find Dini's Detective to be anything special. Robinson's Superman isn't really thrilling me either. I'm not a McDuffie fan based on his Fantastic Four run over at Marvel and the two issues of JLA that I've sampled.

I like Johns, Palmiotti and Gray, JMS and Busiek. But we haven't gotten a JMS book yet and I did not care for Busiek's Trinity or his Aquaman. I like Morrison's mainstream stuff like his Batman and All Star Superman runs. I am enjoying Tomasi's GLC book. And i'll check out Giffens Doom Patrol. But overall I've really cut back on DC comics and don't see much in DC's announced plans that is going to change that for me. .

[Will.S]

I'm inclined to agree with you here except when you look at their writer pool, they have some really solid names. Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Simone, Busiek, Dini, Tomasi, Sturges and, in theory, Robinson. They could perhaps do with more writers but those are some good writers right there.
I think Busiek puts out quality work on average but his efforts seem to be almost in vein given what DC wants to do with their characters such as Superman and Aquaman. I mean don't get me wrong, a good Superman/Aquaman story is a good Superman/Aquaman story but I think DC could have used him better and supported his runs better. I also think that the whole Trinity thing should have been saved for a Busiek/Bagley JLA run or just have them both doing JLA.

I haven't read a whole lot of Sturges' stuff outside of Salvation Run, was his Blue Beetle as good as John Rogers's stuff? Robinson is just okay so far, nothing really great from him so far although he does seem to have cool ideas.

And yet, I'm still not all that wild about what DC are doing lately. A large part of that is that a lot of the editorial decisions just don't interest me very much. The Batman stuff after Battle for the Cowel looks interesting but Superman has gone off in a direction that holds absolutely no interest for me, their teen characters, who were once so cool, by and large suck, JLA has been completely uninteresting for years and the fate of the Flash franchise is very much up in the air right now.
Very much agreed.

It's very shallow. They should be recruiting more from the indies or scouting for more new talent.
Ditto.

[Name Already Taken]

It seems fairly stagnant. Some writers are given way too much control over certain characters and franchises, and the DCU has been affected in various ways from the fall out of certain writers having too much leeway. Look at Morrison for example. He uses some very creative themes in what he writes. The far reaching impacts have a tendency to screw everything up as other writers are more or less told to tailor their ideas to meet his after he gets done with whatever arc or series.

If DC is willing to hand the creative keys to a guy who believes in dragons and talking with otherkin so much something is definetly wrong

[carabas]

At this point I avoid anything with Winick, Rucka and Simone who seem to be Didio's mainstays.Winick has his extremely outspoken anti-fans. Rucka is IMO brilliant, but has never really connected with the mainstream. But what has Gail Simone ever done to deserve your ire? What has Geoff Johns, DiDio's primary mainstain done to escape notice here?

Of course, anybody recruited from indy books who manages to pull in number will soon find himself one of DiDio's 'mainstays' anyway.

[Will.S]

It seems fairly stagnant. Some writers are given way too much control over certain characters and franchises, and the DCU has been affected in various ways from the fall out of certain writers having too much leeway. Look at Morrison for example. He uses some very creative themes in what he writes. The far reaching impacts have a tendency to screw everything up as other writers are more or less told to tailor their ideas to meet his after he gets done with whatever arc or series.

If DC is willing to hand the creative keys to a guy who believes in dragons and talking with otherkin so much something is definetly wrong
Morrison seems to have a habit of running away with things without letting editorial know until the last minute although they did botch the whole build up to his Final Crisis book. But he won't be doing much else outside of Batman so it's not like he's comandeering a large ship but I do have that problem with Geoff Johns right now.

Also Marvel is taking in some good indy talent like Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction, and Jason Aaron which has paid off for them in spades. DC needs more of that and some writers who can think outside the box and be able to move characters forward without having to keep going back to the whole "iconic" thinking that doesn't really help create a more progressive universe or even an illusion of one.

[diablo7]

i think the art side of dc is much worse than the writers side...there's books i would like to get that the art is not that great..jla is one of them..as a rule i stay away from benes, churchill and as for writers i stay away from winnick and simone...

[paulski]

I think DC needs a bigger influx of new talent and a better organization of their current talent to fit the books better.

I certainly agree with this part, and Teen Titans is a perfect example. Sean is finally starting to find his feet on the book, even allowing for a different character being pulled off the team for various editorial reasons every second month, but the artwork's been a revolving door since McKone left around #22. Tony Daniel had a gorgoeous little run for a while but then he was moved on to Batman. Jamal Igle did an issue or two. I think Carlos D'Anda did one? Ryan Benjamin rings a bell for another issue. Then they got a keeper like Eddy Barrows whose art works beautifully with Ruy Jose inking... and now he's been shunted to Action? And it looks like Joe Bennett might be the new artist? (I'm not sure because I haven't heard any announcement...)

In short, DC nearly has enough decent tools in the drawer but needs to learn how to use them much better and much smarter. Shuffling them between various books doesn't help to generate loyal and long-lasting readership on its middle to low-range titles. Marvel's not much better, but it is still a bit more organised when it comes to this kind of thing.

[Lupek]

Winick has his extremely outspoken anti-fans. Rucka is IMO brilliant, but has never really connected with the mainstream. But what has Gail Simone ever done to deserve your ire?

I never said anything that implied anger. Dislike is a better word. I dislike her Wonder Woman. I didn't care for her Action Comics stories or her Spirit story or Villains United. I think that is enough of a sampling of someones work to say I dislike their writing.

[paulski]

And yet, I'm still not all that wild about what DC are doing lately. A large part of that is that a lot of the editorial decisions just don't interest me very much. The Batman stuff after Battle for the Cowl looks interesting but Superman has gone off in a direction that holds absolutely no interest for me, their teen characters, who were once so cool, by and large suck, JLA has been completely uninteresting for years and the fate of the Flash franchise is very much up in the air right now.

Sadly, I agree with you to some extent. The future of Batman looks very interesting, but they've dropped the ball with Superman. You simply can't take him out of his title and Action and expect them to continue to sell. I'm just not interesting in Mon-El, Guardian, 'Nightwing' and Flamebird. I don't care who's writing and drawing the books. I won't even be looking past the covers.

JLA... I want to keep supporting this title and the artwork's remained pretty solid throughout, but yeah, it's complete rubbish right now. I don't know who's behind the push to replace the core members with uninteresting minority characters (Firestorm? Dr Light? Icon?? I don't care about any of them!) but it's made the book the Justice Lightweights of America. Black Canary and Hawkgirl? Cool. Tornado? Fun while he lasted but now he's gone too? And Black Lightning's off to the Outsiders now? Jeez, Meltzer actually made me like the guy too.

I think a lot of JLA's problems have to do with McDuffie - I thought for a sec there he'd found his feet on the book, but then we had the god-awful Anansi storyline, followed by the god-awfuller Shadow Cabinet thing that's going round and round in circles and getting nowhere.

And Flash? I've never been a huge fan of the character, but I'll certainly check out the Rebirth mini. But where it goes from there and what happens to the characters that have been around for the past couple decades? Sheesh, who knows, huh?

[Wind-Breaker]

They have the talent but sometimes they are not managed well. McDuffie can't get an arc up and running in JLA without being interrupted with an event tie-in. The fact that Fabian wasn't given a Bat-book after BFTC is a shame (hopefully after Trinity they'll give him and Kurt Busiek some ongoing books). It's a miracle that Johns isn't overworked with all the books he has to write. DC's talent pool is deep, they just need to spread the workload better IMO.

[Joe Franklin]

i think the art side of dc is much worse than the writers side...there's books i would like to get that the art is not that great..jla is one of them..as a rule i stay away from benes, churchill and as for writers i stay away from winnick and simone...

I agree.

DC has about 5 great artists, and the rest are hot garbage for the most part.:frown:

[FanboyStranger]

Overall, I think DC has a wealth of great writers and artists working for them, but they have been mismanaged for the most part. In my opinion, the best creators working for DC at the moment are Matt Wagner and Grant Morrison. Wagner has been working on the excellent Madame Xanadu title from Vertigo, but has been absent from the mainstream DCU since "Batman: Year1.5": Monster Men and Mad Monk. Obviously, Wagner is more interested in doing his own thing (and more Grendel is always welcome), but in the past, he has expressed interest in working with some of DC's more classic characters, especially the JSA. Why not offer him a major mainstream title? (Of course, this has become more unlikely since Bob Schreck has been let go by DC.)

Morrison is an interesting case. Lately, I've felt that he's let his theories on pop culture have gotten the best of his writing abiltity, at least since SS:1. These 'ADD' comics seem to miss the entire point of why people continue to read comics-- we don't want 'channel surfing', we get enough of that from television (and besides, I only channel surf when I dissatisfied with actually on at any given moment, be it a commercial, a timeout, or a show I'm not really interested in. Although, I guess you argue that you may have to flip between two or more games you might want to watch, but that seems specific to the medium of television to me, and again, that discrepancy is exactly why I look to comics for my entertainment in the first place.) Now, if there's been any creator in the past twenty years who has been able to recreate himself after periods of relative 'inactivity', it's been Morrison, and I suspect after Seaguy II and his various other Vertigo projects, he will return to the mainstream DCU with lessons learned from his recent DC 'mediocre' projects (because I just can't help it-- a Morrison project shows ambition beyond 99% of other writers' projects, and even when they miss-- which RIP certainly did and Final Crisis did to a lesser extent-- they are still interesting works in their own right to require a close look) and do incredible work. But now is the time for an editor to rein him in.

There are many other great writers working for DC, but their work has been underwhelming. Kurt Busiek is an excellent writer, but Trinity is a so-so book, its weekly status making it a real disappointment. James Robinson is stuck in the Superman 'ghetto', where is talents don't really get a chance to shine, although I have to admit I'm looking forward to his Justice League series that should appear soon. Jim Starlin is basically revisiting his greatest hits in the various 'cosmic' series he's been writing since Infinite Crisis ended. Which leaves Geoff Johns, who has been doing an admirable job on Green Lantern, a book I could never get into over the years, but actually eagerly anticipate these days, and the team of Gray and Palmiotti, who are, in my opinion, the most consistant 'writer' in the DCU these days.

Now, it has occured to me that another of the best 'writers' currently working in comics is working for Wildstorm-- DnA. DC should be courting them to return to work in their main universe. Same with Jeff Parker.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

I'm reading more of their books than ever before, so I'm pretty happy with them.

Unfortunately, there isn't really an option for me in that poll.

[Censor]

In my opinion DC's best writers and artists all work for the Vertigo imprint (with the exception of Brian Vaughan, whose current series is published by Wildstorm, but Ex Machina is a Vertigo title in all but name anyway), and their books are levels above anything else produced by either DC or Marvel right now.

If DC are looking for ways to improve the quality of their titles they should scrap all events, crossovers, tie-ins and spin-offs bloating their universe and establish one series per character, and then give these series to their best writers and artists (Brian Bolland, Jon Muth, Pia Guerra and Tim Sale on the artists' side, among others, and writers like Brian Vaughan, Garth Ennis, Mike Carey and Bill Willingham). Or maybe erase the last twenty years of "plot development" from history and put Batman, Superman and the rest of the JSA/JLA characters on a solid soul-cleansing hiatus until their readers forget all about the ridiculous "reinvention" malarkey and the hordes of badly written secondary characters (yes Batman family, I am looking at you) from the last decade or so. Then bring them back under Christopher Nolan/Frank Miller's marketing supervision or something.

On the other hand, if they are looking to boost their sales they should simply hire a few new artists, create a cohesive and lucid concept for the future of their universe (in which no one important actually dies) and tell their writers to stick to it at all costs. And maybe get another non-Superman film or two out.

[/flaming fundamentalism]

[Karl O'Neill]

Geoff johns

Grant Morrison

Greg Rucka

Gail Simone

Kurt Busiek

FaBien Niecesa

Paul Dini

Neil Gaimen

Kevin smith

James Robinson

I think the talent pool is just fine and dandy.

[Batman was taken]

If DC are looking for ways to improve the quality of their titles they should scrap all events, crossovers, tie-ins and spin-offs bloating their universe and establish one series per character, and then give these series to their best writers and artists (Brian Bolland, Jon Muth, Pia Guerra and Tim Sale on the artists' side, among others, and writers like Brian Vaughan, Garth Ennis, Mike Carey and Bill Willingham). Or maybe erase the last twenty years of "plot development" from history and put Batman, Superman and the rest of the JSA/JLA characters on a solid soul-cleansing hiatus until their readers forget all about the ridiculous "reinvention" malarkey and the hordes of badly written secondary characters (yes Batman family, I am looking at you) from the last decade or so. Then bring them back under Christopher Nolan/Frank Miller's marketing supervision or something.

Wow, I don't think I could disagree with that any more.

On the other hand, if they are looking to boost their sales they should simply hire a few new artists, create a cohesive and lucid concept for the future of their universe (in which no one important actually dies) and tell their writers to stick to it at all costs. And maybe get another non-Superman film or two out.


Now that I can agree with. You don't need to scrap 20 years of stories and characters to tell good stories, just tell good stories with what you have.

Now, on topic, I think the writing pool is generally pretty solid, they just need to organize their talent a little more, and use their good creators more (save Johns:tongue: )

[Sizzle]

I think for the most part the writers are fine, too much interference from editorial though (*cough* Didio).

Now artists, very inconsistent. There are some talented guys here, but DC seems to tolerate lateness too much. A perfect example are the Kuberts, wasted potential on DC's part in my opinion.

[Will.S]

Geoff johns

Grant Morrison

Greg Rucka

Gail Simone

Kurt Busiek

FaBien Niecesa

Paul Dini

Neil Gaimen

Kevin smith

James Robinson

I think the talent pool is just fine and dandy.
Like I said, they're relying a bit too much on Rucka and Johns. Neil Gaimen and Kevin Smith don't really count given how small their output has been and Kevin Smith's Batman isn't exactly great. Robinson is just okay but I would prefer to see more writers/artists than these.

[paulski]

And that's the top end, too. Considering how many books the Big 2 put out each month (and don't get me started on Marvel's output these days...), it's not enough to even go around the top-to-mid-range titles.

And you can discount Kevin Smith for a couple of reasons (the non-controversial one being his very limited output :wink: ).

Edit: As Will.S says, Gaiman falls into the same category.

[Babylon23]

I have no real complaints about DC's writing pool. I'm a fan of Johns, Simone, Morrison, Rucka, Willingham, Dini, Robinson, Wagner, Busiek and Nicieza.

On the artistic side of things, it's a shame to see Eaglesham go. The Kuberts have produced very little for DC so I don't really care about their departure.

[Bamf25]

DC does have potentially the best Artist of this generation in Jim Lee on their staff. With that said he puts out maybe 3 books a year at this point. Most of their artists are solid, but just do not stand out to me. I rarely say wow the art in this DC books stinks, but at the same time Marvel is more likely to ikmpress me, but they faulter more also. Marvel just seems to let people run with their art more, and try out more new people. I am not sure why artists page layout, story telling etc seem more consrvative at DC, am I just not reading the right books, is it a DC style guid, or is it an editorial edict?

[diablo7]

i don't think dc has a style guide, they just don't have as many good artist as marvel got..marvel has cho, hitch, yu, pacheco, immonen, maleev, garney, epting, and they might be getting jones back(that's just naming a few off the top of my head), while dc has lee, quitely, mahnke, gleason, that's the only ones i can really think of..oh yeah they have a guy that tries to draw like bryan hitch, but doesn't do it well...for some reason it seems dc picks artist that can meet deadlines and that's about it...they're not flashy, have no real impact on someone new picking up a book, and don't draw that well...

[fb1990]

DC is not hiring new talent in as clever a way as Marvel.
E.g. Jon Hickman is an ideas man, often to the detriment of characterisations. I think Tim Callahan and Chad Nevett said something very similar but historically Marvel is the character-company and DC is the ideas-company. It would've made perfect sense for DC to hire Hickman to write a series like "Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century" or a Green Lantern title because those are books where big ideas work. I don't think DC editorial has the guts or the ability to overcome politics in a way that would allow them to give a new writer to DC such high-profile jobs. Instead, Hickman got paired with Bendis on the super-high-profile "Secret Warriors" and gets to follow up Millar/Hitch on "Fantastic Four".
The same argument applies to someone like Paul Cornell who (I've read) is more familiar with DC. If they had gotten in contact with him to write something like "Teen Titans" it might've been enough to pull it out of its current rut. I don't think he's signed an exclusive so if I was Didio I'd jump at getting him to write anything DC.

[diablo7]

even bringing in some veterans would be a change of pace from what dc has now...like alan davis. his jla the nail and another nail were great..travis charest would be a good pick..although he'd have to do a mini series or you'd have to rotate him with someone else on a book..now if they really wanted something different i'd bring in canete or ba to work on something..

[Samy]

I'm not really satisfied with their talent pool either on the writer or artist side.

Johns and Simone -- these are good and well in place.
Busiek and Nicieza -- these can be good, but I have as yet no information that they are to be utilized post-May
The rest -- mostly bore me

DC's too comfortable in sticking with the people they have. I get the impression of inertia. That they'd rather keep working with decent talent they've formed a comfortable working relationship with, than search out *great* talent that would take extra effort to build a relationship with. It's like they don't have a lot of ambition, and are comfortable just sitting on the talent pool they have now rather than pushing things to a higher level.

[hondobrode]

Perhaps they need more editorial guidance.

I'm not including mini-series and reprints, but regular ongoing titles that I think are exceptional.

Some of DC's top talent right now includes Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (Jonah Hex), Peter Tomasi (Outsiders, GL Corps), Greg Rucka (Action Comics), Dan Jurgens (Booster Gold), Pat Gleason (GL Corps), Tony Bedard (R.E.B.E.L.S.), Andy Clarke (R.E.B.E.L.S.), Rags Morales (Superman / Batman), Shane Davis (Justice League of America), and James Robinson (Superman).There's a lot of really great talent I didn't include that has recently done work for DC and is currently doing a limited series.

Here's a list of some professionals who went to Marvel after getting their start with one of the Big Two at DC.

Phil Jiminez
Jeph Loeb
Mark Millar
Mike Carey
Scot Eaton
Ed McGuinness
Olivier Coipel
Ed Brubaker
Stuart Immonen
Leonard Kirk
Jamal Igle
Jason Aaron
Karl Kesel
Michael Lark
Daniel Acuna
Howard Chaykin
Andy Diggle

Marvel helps to propel them to bigger popularity because of their number one position in the industry. That's the top of the heap. You can't get any higher profile than working for Marvel.

The creators I've listed here are all doing work for the DCU imprint. I could've listed many more if I including Wildstorm, and especially Vertigo, which has the best stable of writers and artists in the business IMO.
I think the bigger issue is not fully utilizing some of the talent DC has, and sometimes not quite having the most refined game plan or staying with it.

[Winghead]

I like it fine. I just hope they put Busiek on more titles.