DC NEW 52: Opinions on Writers

[doordoor123]

I know that I have formed new opinions of certain writers since the start of the New 52. I don't feel like I have ever really had writers I clearly liked or didn't like until the New 52. Have you formed any new opinions on some writers? Which do you love now and which do you despise?

[Hulk_Is]

I've formed the opinion that I'm deathly afraid of Rob Liefeld's writing. Like, I'm just outright cringing about reading his first upcoming issue of Savage Hawkman. He's even going to have a co-scripter, but I have doubts even that Mark Poulton's hand will effectively temper Liefeld's enthusiasm.

Youngblood!

[Flash Gordon]

I read the same creators I read before any relaunch.

Though I do really enjoy Captain Atom, and I thought J.T. Krul was a hack beforehand. I mean it's not anything Earth-shaking, but it is a solid read with great great great art. I think he can do some cool stuff with it if it's allowed to continue.

[WhitOro]

I always thought Gail Simone's writing was just meh, just uninteresting or even boring for the most part. Now I know she can do worst.

[Xarcon]

My opinions of writers have largely remained the same as they were before the relaunch. Of course, I wasn't that heavily involved with DC before the relaunch (I was only getting five books), so I wasn't introduced to most of the writers until the New 52.

One writer in particular who has redeemed himself for me is Winick. He got a lot of hate on here, so I wasn't expecting much when I read Catwoman #1 (the first thing of his I had read) and "not much" is exactly what I got. I even gave it a second issue, but I think it just got worse. I figured everyone was right about him.

That is, until about two or three months ago when I decided to give Batwing a shot. I picked up the first few issues and was amazed at how much it didn't suck. It's actually pretty good and it got Winick off my list of writers to avoid.

[vampiric_cannibal]

I've lost most of my respect for Tomasi, Lobdell is variable between ugh and 'why isn't this guy on Superman?'

[The Red Deluge]

Lobdell's Superboy is dreadful and his Teen Titans is bearable, it's shocking that Red Hood is so good compared to those two titles.

George Perez bored the boobs off of me in his Superman #1-6 run.

Snyder has kind of gone off the boil (he hasn't taken Batman to the next level since #5) but him and Morrison are leading the way at the moment. Batwing is a decent title but I wonder how long it will go on for.

[wiski]

I'd never read anything from Scott Lobdell prior, but after reading Teen Titans and Red Hood, I'm seeing him as someone who can write a fun comic and make his characters distinct.

[DaronK]

I think it's funny how varied the reaction has bee to Lobdell (as well as how varied his writing has been on his books). It seems no matter who comments on him they say they like 1 of his books, think 1 is okay, and the last is terrible. What's interesting is how the titles fall into these 3 categories. I personally like his Superboy, think his Titans is bearable (barely) and absolutely can't stand Red Hood.

[Volkditty]

I've gone from not knowing Jeff Lemire to picking up anything with Jeff Lemire's name on it. I got my first real introduction to Grant Morrison and decided I don't care for it. And going off Earth 2 #1 and the Shade miniseries, I'm glad to see Robinson got his mojo back.

[FHIZ]

I've turned around my feelings on James Robinson, a lot of that really has to do with how often he's on the Comicvine podcast, listening to him talk about comics is pretty fun. Nevertheless, while I'm not reading the Shade, I did read the first 3 issues and thought they were pretty good, Earth 2 was awesome, and I'm planning on picking up the Vandal Savage DCU Presents arc.

Never read Lobdell before, but I love Red Hood, and find Teen Titans to be fun.

The New 52 is where I started to read Jeff Lemire's work, and I have yet to be disappointed.

And against all odds, I liked Adam Glass' Suicide Squad, after thinking his Flashpoint mini was garbage.

[Hatut Zeraze]

I had to really think to try to come up with something that came off as a surprise.

I guess the Peter Milligan comics count. I had high expectations for JLDark and Red Lanterns. I found them both to be utterly boring. Stretching out their respective initial stories into trade-size didn't work for either of these titles.

[SteveGus]

I've formed the opinion that I'm deathly afraid of Rob Liefeld's writing.

Liefeld can be an entertaining writer, but only if he's writing characters that say Thee and Thou a lot.

I have a slightly higher regard for Geoff Johns than I used to have. His Aquaman has been surprisingly entertaining.

Brian Azzarello is an enemy of all that is good and pure and beautiful in the world. His name on anything will be an automatic no-sale.

[El Sombrero]

In no particular order, pretty much everyone whose work I've read:

I think Johns has improved with the relaunch. His books feel more fun and have a better sense of humor, and he's gotten a lot better at writing action scenes. His action scenes used to be pretty generic (just characters blasting or punching things) but he's done a really good job in Justice League at having the characters use their powers in creative or visually appealing ways that highlight why they're cool. His constructs over in Green Lantern have been really awesome since the relaunch too.

I'm really down on Gail Simone. I thought she was a decent writer before the relaunch, not superb but pretty good, but both Batgirl and Firestorm were / are terrible. They were two of my most anticipated books when the relaunch lineup was announced, and they both just sucked on the writing end. Her dialogue and characterization is annoying, and the execution of the stories is just really off-base.

I'm up on Scott Lobdell. I used to hate his writing on X-Men after Claremont, but all his new books (Teen Titans, Superboy, Red Hood) range from pretty good to really good. For whatever reason, all his books feature characters I do not like, but I've always disliked the Teen Titans so I think that's more of an editorial / personal thing than anything to do with his writing.

Never knew much about Jeff Lemire before. I think Frankenstein is nothing special but Animal Man is superb, good enough that he's definitely a guy for me to watch for now.

I really liked how Blackhawks was written and hope Mike Costa gets another chance.

I like some Snyder work more than others. I think American Vampire and Swamp Thing are overrated...they're not badly written or anything but the art is clearly the main draw there, and the writing isn't good enough to really interest me. But his writing on Batman is ridiculously good. He is the definitive Batman writer to me, he completely gets every aspect of what makes Batman cool and his execution is flawless.

Still hate Adam Glass. Nothing else to say there.

Still hate Tony Daniel. Same as above.

Krul's work has improved a bit. It's still really cliche and derivative but it's at least tolerable now. Although his short-lived Green Arrow was really freaking bad and same ol' Krul there.

Peter Milligan is a guy who needs the right project. If you can have him just do characterization and ignore everything else he's gold, but he fails at plot. Justice League Dark had amazingly well written characters but the book was going nowhere. I actually kinda wish they could have just brought Lemire on as a co-writer to handle the plots while Milligan could still script and interject his dialogue / character scenes.

Paul Jenkins....yeesh. I don't know how much input he had on The Dark Knight, but that was written sooooo badly.

I thought Ron Marz did a good job with Voodoo. I don't know why he was let go.

George Perez is an alright writer but his stuff is BORING. That Superman title put me to sleep. It's really out of touch with how comics are written today.

Dan Jurgens is bland as hell. Nothing exciting or interesting there at all.

Keith Giffen has interesting concepts but I've always found his execution to be kind of annoying. It's hard to explain why but his work just rubs me the wrong way.

Brian Azzarello has superb concepts but I can't stand the way he writes dialogue. I HATE IT. It's so "look at me, how clever I wrote this sentence," it strikes me as really pretentious and irritating.

Johnson & Green (Supergirl) do a decent job at hitting emotional beats, but it's so cliche.

Grant Morrison is still Grant Morrison. He's done a great job at combining the emotionally appealing aspects of Superman with the sci-fi weirdness and iconography of the character.

Never liked Tomasi or Bedard, still find them really dull. They feel like Johns-lite. They write like Johns but lack his drive and ambition.

Winick has improved but still has flaws. His Batwing is pretty good, and I love his characterization for Selina, but the new villains and supporting cast he's created for Catwoman are so lame and turn me off the book entirely.

Swiercynzki has done a fabulous job with Birds of Prey. He has definitely impressed me with that title since I never liked his Marvel work.

Higgins has been okay. Both his titles were alright but nothing really special.

I liked Williams & Blackman's work on the first arc of Batwoman, but the second has been a misguided mess. They need to get things back on track ASAP.

In contrast, Manapul & Buccellato's Flash has been great. I think the Rogues redesigns are unnecessary, and their original villains (Mob Rule and Turbine) are a little eh, but the tone of the writing is great, the characterization for Barry and his supporting cast is fine, and the sci-fi writing is really really cool. Good job there.

I've always hated James Robinson in the past due to his bizarre dialogue, but I had no problems with Earth 2, and really liked the story there. I hope it stays that way.

I hope Eric Wallace is permanently done. Mr Terrific was one of the worst comics I've ever read. Atrocious, pretty much defines the bottom of the barrel.

Scott McDaniel's Static was really bad. Another work that absolutely deserved its cancellation, although it's a shame because the writer who took over in the next couple issues did a much better job.

Nocenti's Green Arrow has been kinda weird. At least it's interesting which is more than I can say for Krul's.

Liefeld is Liefeld. It's pretty horrible but what do you really expect?

Levitz's Legion features well written characters but the plots go nowhere and it's like he's barely even trying to get people really excited about anything. Reading it feels like it's written for decades-long fans who will be there no matter what happens this month or next.

I've always found Fabian's writing technically fine but boring, and Legion Lost did nothing to change that.

I don't personally like I, Vampire, but it's written well and I'd like to see more from Fialkov for sure.

Cornell's Stormwatch was a total dud but his Demon Knights is one of the best written books of the entire relaunch and features superbly well written characters. People talk about Johns in a "I can't believe he wrote both those books" way, but for me that's Cornell, I can't believe Stormwatch was that off mark and Demon Knights is so good.

Palmiotti & Gray's All-Star Western is very well written, but I don't like westerns and I thought the Hex / Arkham dynamic got old quickly.

Hawk and Dove's writing was just as bad (if not worse) than it's art. It borderline felt like Gates was making it bad on purpose. I don't know if he felt like he had to write like that to complement the art, but it was just ridiculously bad writing. I never thought he was that good before, and after reading H&D I hope he's done with DC.

China Mieville's Dial H #1 was superb and if I can expect more of that, I definitely want more of that.

...and I think that's everyone I've read.

[WhitOro]

Pretty impressive Sombrero.

Brian Azzarello is an enemy of all that is good and pure and beautiful in the world. His name on anything will be an automatic no-sale.

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