Favorite Avengers Writer

[rogerio]

Thomas, Stern and Busiek.

and Brubaker, someday.

[Will.S]

Unfortunately it looks like Bendis has caught up to Busiek. I expected him to rank high though as many new readers don't know the Avengers any other way... which is just sad.

Everyone who voted Bendis, do yourself a favour and check out Busiek's run at the very least. Far, far superior stuff.

It is... but it's to be expected. There are a lot of people that don't know any Avengers but Bendis's. I weep for those people.

I'm not sure why that's sad, if people were introduced to the Avengers with Bendis's run and they enjoy it then that's perfectly okay, they shouldn't feel ashamed for voting for him if they liked his run.

That being said, I would certainly agree with you in recommending the older runs for people to familiarize themselves with the more seminal material that gets mentioned so much around here.

I personally tend to categorize Brian's run differently from the other Avengers writers since he ushered an era that has a mix of everything and his style of writing the Avengers is for the most part, drastically different from what came before which can be both good and bad. But I certainly wouldn't disqualify him on a list of Avengers writers as I think he's definitely done his share of quality work with them.

[Brother Justin Crowe]

Sometimes I think our comic book tastes are eerily similar.

Sometimes when we touch, the honesty's too much.

[Tom Foolery]

I reread the Simonson written run (291-300) last night. It's as good as I remembered, and I feel it's under-rated. It suffers only because of following Roger Stern, if you overlook the Nebula inconsistencies for the later reasons given, but it's really solid, and has a strong Inferno 3 part connection.

I'm onto John Byrne's all too short run that followed. If I recall, he was closer to the tone of what Stern did with the team.

[passer-by]

Stern, with Busiek a close second. Bendis is nowhere to be seen in my personal Avengers writers list (great on USM and very good on DD though).

When I see that Marvel releases trades of the Clone Saga and before that Onslaught while there are still no Roger Stern Visionaries of his runs on Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man, I weep more than strathcona does for the people who only know Bendis' Avengers.

[theXfactor]

I know his West Coast Avengers run was brief, but I voted for John Byrne.

His brief run is still my all time favorite Avengers run. Even though there isn't 100's of issues of stories to draw from. Wish there would have been though.

The little I read of his West Coast run was pretty good. I think it was the search for Vision. How many issues did his run last?

[passer-by]

The little I read of his West Coast run was pretty good. I think it was the search for Vision. How many issues did his run last?

Sixteen. #42-57.

[theXfactor]

Sixteen. #42-57.

Thanks ;)

[Darrell D.]

Started reading in the 70's, but Ziggy can continue to call me stupid or whatever if it makes him happy.
Bendis is my favorite. Followed by Stern and Shooter. To be fair, I like them all for different reasons, but Bendis is the more interesting writer, to me.

I understand a lot of old time fans are upset or whatever, just as a lot of old time fans (as myself) LIKE the change, like the new direction and they like the fact that Marvel is moving forward. I think guys like me are less vocal about it.
My advice is to buy and read what you like.
Works for me.

[paulski]

Including Bendis, from what I've read! lol

I know that was supposed to be humour, but it's disappointing (to me) how actually true it is.

[OldSchoolfan]

I am not telling you that my opinion is right, you may appreciate what he is doing and that's fine. Just be prepared for me to explain why I don't like it.

This is the reason I am here, so please feel free to tell me why...agreeing all the time is for the Brownies on Fairly Odd Parents. (Sorry if you don't get the reference...they are all in business suits, speak in monotone and have no color.)

As for Siege, I only read the crossover issues of books I already read, A:I, MA, New Mutants and the one-shots for characters I like, YA, Captain America and Secret Warriors. From what I read it was OK... but I am not going to read anymore Bendis penned books, no matter how good I hear they are, I have been burned too many times with junk.

Where you are at with Bendis is EXACTLY where I am at with Geoff Johns. The consolation for you is that Bendis didn't get put in charge of all of Marvel. Even if he had, he still has more credentials to do it but to be honest they both pale in comparison with some of the names of other writers in this survey, Stern and Busiek for example.

I always have to keep reminding myself that a great writer doesn't always make a good editor. Roy Thomas is my example, not that he did a bad job editing, I just think he liked writing the books more.

[OldSchoolfan]

Started reading in the 70's, but Ziggy can continue to call me stupid or whatever if it makes him happy.
Bendis is my favorite. Followed by Stern and Shooter. To be fair, I like them all for different reasons, but Bendis is the more interesting writer, to me.

I understand a lot of old time fans are upset or whatever, just as a lot of old time fans (as myself) LIKE the change, like the new direction and they like the fact that Marvel is moving forward. I think guys like me are less vocal about it.
My advice is to buy and read what you like.
Works for me.

I like your advice. I just wanted to chime in and say I am an old time fan (first issue was #80.) and while I haven't liked everything Bendis has done, his run has been entertaining to me. I am really enjoying the two stories he has currently going on now in New Avengers and Avengers.

[OldSchoolfan]

I reread the Simonson written run (291-300) last night. It's as good as I remembered, and I feel it's under-rated. It suffers only because of following Roger Stern, if you overlook the Nebula inconsistencies for the later reasons given, but it's really solid, and has a strong Inferno 3 part connection.

The thing I really enjoyed about that run: Namor actually got some sympathy from me. Most of the time I think hes pretty arrogant. But in this story, I really felt for him. I thought that was good writing on the part of Simonson.

I agree with you that the Inferno crossover issue was well handled. You didn't really need to read all of Inferno to understand this particular part of it, and Reed and Sue were involved in the most practical of ways.

But, I have to side with the folks that say they should have never been Avengers....the FF is a pretty well defined team and wouldn't be right without them.

I'm onto John Byrne's all too short run that followed. If I recall, he was closer to the tone of what Stern did with the team.

The Byrne run, and most of his work for that matter, had some great psuedo scientific explanations. The whole reality flux thing was a lot of fun and....Spiderman is an Avenger. So I don't know why people gave Bendis such a hard time for including him in the team again. It works okay for me...but I don't know if I need him around all the time...like say Cap, Iron Man or Thor. Any way, I am curious to hear your reaction to these books when you get done.

[Babylon23]

I understand a lot of old time fans are upset or whatever, just as a lot of old time fans (as myself) LIKE the change, like the new direction and they like the fact that Marvel is moving forward. I think guys like me are less vocal about it.

Not all old time fans are upset because of the changes made or the new direction. I'm an old time fan and i've experienced plenty of changes in Avengers over the years. I'm used to it. Hell, you have to be if you're going to be a comic book fan.

I don't like Bendis' work because I find it badly written, terribly paced, poorly researched and generally devoid of most of the elements that I consider good storytelling. I expect better from the writer of USM, DD, Powers and Jinx.

[strathcona]

Not all old time fans are upset because of the changes made or the new direction. I'm an old time fan and i've experienced plenty of changes in Avengers over the years. I'm used to it. Hell, you have to be if you're going to be a comic book fan.

I don't like Bendis' work because I find it badly written, terribly paced, poorly researched and generally devoid of most of the elements that I consider good storytelling. I expect better from the writer of USM, DD, Powers and Jinx.

I would like to co-sign this. Well... I hadn't read any Bendis work before Avengers... but I just did not like what I did see. The man isn't a good comic writer IMO.

As for change, I love change, as long as it makes sense and doesn't come out of nowhere, with no explanation... we've seen too much of that from Marvel in recent years... usually from big name, popular writers.