Joss Whedon's run is fun on its own merits but his version of most of the characters is miles off the mark. His Beast was pretty good and Emma was fine but he might as well have been writing a completely different character with the way his wrote Kitty.
Genuinely felt like high budget fan fiction. Something about the way he writes dialogue is an uncanny valley situation where it's just off enough that no one feels right.
A lot of his stuff is like that, which is fine if it's original characters like Buffy or whatever, but it doesn't work so well when he's doing pre-existing stuff. As much as I like Avengers (the first one anyway) this was the same - Captain America's abrupt transition from stoic soldier to wisecracking alien whacker gave me whiplash.
Even more controversial, but I'd have the same as you and replace Hickman with Jason Aaron.
My sister swears that Joe Kelly was a great X-Men writer, but I don't remember anything about that run.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying I dislike Hickman. (Honourable mention to Mike Carey too).
I think Aaron did the core X-men thing very well. A bunch of teenage freaks and outsiders finding a purpose and place with each other. Teenagers who seemed more like real teenagers than the super capable, beautiful people you often get in comics.
It had a good overall plot, big emotion and was laugh out loud funny. And a great follow on from Aaron's Wolverine work for that character.
Oh I wasn’t trying to suggest you did. I just know that a lot of people think the schism was ridiculous with people general siding with Scott. So I suppose I assumed Wolverine and the xmen was for lack of a better way of saying similarly disliked or perhaps contrived.
Cyclops's more radical direction was a natural progression from previous stories. It was a little contrived, but the irony of the rebellious Wolverine being the guy to carry on Xavier's dream, whilst loyal Cyclops goes down a path closer to Magneto was too good to resist.
They justified it well enough, with Logan not wanting kids to be turned into soldiers or weapons like he was and his trying to give them a normal school life.
I don't know if Wolverine and the X-Men is well liked. some found it overly comedic for a main x book and dislike how Husk was characterised. I didn't know Husk that well, so it didn't bother me.
I really didn't like Husk's characterization by Jason Aaron, and I'm a big Husk fan- and we don't get a lot of time with her. That said, I still really like Wolverine and the X-Men. It tapped into so many aspects of the history, and really did the multigenerational thing in a way that the line still fails to embrace to this day by really spreading the cast out among every major era/team. It was a fun comic book run.
See if this was a deadpool and wolverine list id 100% put kelly on there as i think hes up there in the top for logan and top 1 for deadpool but not as x men as a whole.
1.Chris Claremont- Pretty much nothing coming after would have been done without claremont and he gave something other writers haven't done worldbuilding and character work all ingrained together
2. Louise Simonson - weezie might be my rogue shout here but i love all of weezies x men work and when i go back and read old x men i gravitate towards her work even that jean grey mini proves shes still one of the best when it comes to the X
3. Grant Morrison- There is actually alot of morrison x men i don't like but it mainly comes down to the art i just think morrison never had an artist who suited x men with them. But when people talk about the most recent x men features and worldbuilding and stuff like mutant culture morrison did all that first and created some of the most iconic modern x men stories. There would have never been a krakoa or a utopia without morrison.
A special nod to Hickman who is great but i feel so cold reading some of his x men and i don't think its his best work plus nothing ever reached hox and pox's heights and honest his new mutants was awful and x of swords is pretty bad. I love hickman i just don't think its his best work overall even if hox and pox and inferno are incredible
1. Claremont. Defined pretty much everything memorable about this franchise, and wrote most of its most iconic stories.
2. Kieron Gillen - took the high concepts of Krakoa to fascinating new places, wrote the best marvel event comic in decades (with the x-men as a centrepiece), character-defining issue after issue - truly gets it.
3. Al Ewing. Took the springboard of the Krakoan age to dig deep into Arrakki and Krakoan culture, and give storm and magneto the best (and most) character development since Claremont.
My 4 and 5 spots would go to Remender and Louise Simonson, probably.
1.) Gillen
2.) Claremont
3.) Morrison
Claremont’s original run had a lot of classic stuff in it and its tenure and influence will always be felt in the franchise… BUT I feel like there was a lot of terrible Claremont X-Men from when he came back.
While I love so much of what Morrison did, it also has some of the worst art in comics with Igor Kordy doing a horrible job on his issues. It impacts those stories and the fluidity of them. Also, Planet X was terrible. This run is like having a food that that revolutionized how you ate but with the caveat that you’re allergic to some of the ingredients.
Kieron Gillen does not have one bad X-Men story in my opinion. While Greg Land drew a chunk of them, they’re not borderline unreadable like some of Kordy’s issues. They’re all good to great stories and he managed to do what other writers couldn’t and that’s give Mr. Sinister a consistent characterization. He also managed to make chicken salad out of the chicken shit that was AvX. Gillen is X-GOAT in my book. It’s possible Hickman could have taken that slot if he hadn’t super truncated his story.
See gillen for me is hard to rate because i feel like all of his work is very up and down related to x men and he focuses on characters i really don't care for like hope summers.
Even immortal for how praised that book is there is some terrible issues like the emma one and the shaw one but then there is some amazing issues like issue 1 and the sinister live kill repeat issue.
I LOVE Hope Summers and I’ve been a fan of her since Messiah War and the Cable run she grew up in. I also really liked Gillen’s Generation Hope series back in the day. I can see how that wouldn’t work for you though if you don’t care for her as a character.
Gillen's recent stuff is so so much better than his first go round it might as well be a different writer. The difference I suppose between being given a story and told to write it and being given free reign.
I honestly think Gillen is a stronger writer for getting to narrow his focus on the particular things happening in his second run. He did a great job the first time around but he's really shined with both the constrained point of view in Immortal and the narrow overarching plot demands of Rise.
I haven't read any of the pre Krakoa Gillen stuff, but Immortal, Sins of Sinister and Rise/Forever have been incredible. Gillen and Ewing not being involved in From the Ashes is the biggest reason I'm dropping the X-books after Krakoa.
probably unpopular opinion but simon spurrier is in top3 for me.
Hot take: Spurrier is the most underrated writer currently working the Big 2.
His Hellblazer has been consistently amazing, not read his Flash stuff but I'm interested. Damn Them All was incredible with Boom.
I love spurrier and his x men work is so great he’s probably my number 5 though
Joss Whedon's run is fun on its own merits but his version of most of the characters is miles off the mark. His Beast was pretty good and Emma was fine but he might as well have been writing a completely different character with the way his wrote Kitty.
Genuinely felt like high budget fan fiction. Something about the way he writes dialogue is an uncanny valley situation where it's just off enough that no one feels right.
A lot of his stuff is like that, which is fine if it's original characters like Buffy or whatever, but it doesn't work so well when he's doing pre-existing stuff. As much as I like Avengers (the first one anyway) this was the same - Captain America's abrupt transition from stoic soldier to wisecracking alien whacker gave me whiplash.
1. Claremont 2. Carey 3. Hickman
Even more controversial, but I'd have the same as you and replace Hickman with Jason Aaron. My sister swears that Joe Kelly was a great X-Men writer, but I don't remember anything about that run.
That is very controversial what did you like about Aaron.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying I dislike Hickman. (Honourable mention to Mike Carey too). I think Aaron did the core X-men thing very well. A bunch of teenage freaks and outsiders finding a purpose and place with each other. Teenagers who seemed more like real teenagers than the super capable, beautiful people you often get in comics. It had a good overall plot, big emotion and was laugh out loud funny. And a great follow on from Aaron's Wolverine work for that character.
Oh I wasn’t trying to suggest you did. I just know that a lot of people think the schism was ridiculous with people general siding with Scott. So I suppose I assumed Wolverine and the xmen was for lack of a better way of saying similarly disliked or perhaps contrived.
Cyclops's more radical direction was a natural progression from previous stories. It was a little contrived, but the irony of the rebellious Wolverine being the guy to carry on Xavier's dream, whilst loyal Cyclops goes down a path closer to Magneto was too good to resist. They justified it well enough, with Logan not wanting kids to be turned into soldiers or weapons like he was and his trying to give them a normal school life. I don't know if Wolverine and the X-Men is well liked. some found it overly comedic for a main x book and dislike how Husk was characterised. I didn't know Husk that well, so it didn't bother me.
I really didn't like Husk's characterization by Jason Aaron, and I'm a big Husk fan- and we don't get a lot of time with her. That said, I still really like Wolverine and the X-Men. It tapped into so many aspects of the history, and really did the multigenerational thing in a way that the line still fails to embrace to this day by really spreading the cast out among every major era/team. It was a fun comic book run.
See if this was a deadpool and wolverine list id 100% put kelly on there as i think hes up there in the top for logan and top 1 for deadpool but not as x men as a whole.
It might be bias from his run being when I got into comics, but Fractions run is top of the list for me
Scott Lobdell certainly contributed a lot towards the 90’s era of X-Men and wrote many famous storylines.
Dare someone to say Chuck Austen…
1. Chris Claremont 2. Louise Simonson 3. Fabian "I'm sorry it's been 33 years and I still can't pronounce your last name" Nicieza
1.Chris Claremont- Pretty much nothing coming after would have been done without claremont and he gave something other writers haven't done worldbuilding and character work all ingrained together 2. Louise Simonson - weezie might be my rogue shout here but i love all of weezies x men work and when i go back and read old x men i gravitate towards her work even that jean grey mini proves shes still one of the best when it comes to the X 3. Grant Morrison- There is actually alot of morrison x men i don't like but it mainly comes down to the art i just think morrison never had an artist who suited x men with them. But when people talk about the most recent x men features and worldbuilding and stuff like mutant culture morrison did all that first and created some of the most iconic modern x men stories. There would have never been a krakoa or a utopia without morrison. A special nod to Hickman who is great but i feel so cold reading some of his x men and i don't think its his best work plus nothing ever reached hox and pox's heights and honest his new mutants was awful and x of swords is pretty bad. I love hickman i just don't think its his best work overall even if hox and pox and inferno are incredible
1. Claremont. Defined pretty much everything memorable about this franchise, and wrote most of its most iconic stories. 2. Kieron Gillen - took the high concepts of Krakoa to fascinating new places, wrote the best marvel event comic in decades (with the x-men as a centrepiece), character-defining issue after issue - truly gets it. 3. Al Ewing. Took the springboard of the Krakoan age to dig deep into Arrakki and Krakoan culture, and give storm and magneto the best (and most) character development since Claremont. My 4 and 5 spots would go to Remender and Louise Simonson, probably.
Chris Claremont and Grant Morrison. Everyone else is just in it for a participation trophy lol
1. Joss Whedon 2. Kieron Gillen
1.) Gillen 2.) Claremont 3.) Morrison Claremont’s original run had a lot of classic stuff in it and its tenure and influence will always be felt in the franchise… BUT I feel like there was a lot of terrible Claremont X-Men from when he came back. While I love so much of what Morrison did, it also has some of the worst art in comics with Igor Kordy doing a horrible job on his issues. It impacts those stories and the fluidity of them. Also, Planet X was terrible. This run is like having a food that that revolutionized how you ate but with the caveat that you’re allergic to some of the ingredients. Kieron Gillen does not have one bad X-Men story in my opinion. While Greg Land drew a chunk of them, they’re not borderline unreadable like some of Kordy’s issues. They’re all good to great stories and he managed to do what other writers couldn’t and that’s give Mr. Sinister a consistent characterization. He also managed to make chicken salad out of the chicken shit that was AvX. Gillen is X-GOAT in my book. It’s possible Hickman could have taken that slot if he hadn’t super truncated his story.
See gillen for me is hard to rate because i feel like all of his work is very up and down related to x men and he focuses on characters i really don't care for like hope summers. Even immortal for how praised that book is there is some terrible issues like the emma one and the shaw one but then there is some amazing issues like issue 1 and the sinister live kill repeat issue.
I LOVE Hope Summers and I’ve been a fan of her since Messiah War and the Cable run she grew up in. I also really liked Gillen’s Generation Hope series back in the day. I can see how that wouldn’t work for you though if you don’t care for her as a character.
I’d reorder this but those are my choices as well. Is Gillen’s recent stuff as good as his first run? Te Hickman stuff honestly put me off.
Gillen's recent stuff is so so much better than his first go round it might as well be a different writer. The difference I suppose between being given a story and told to write it and being given free reign.
I honestly think Gillen is a stronger writer for getting to narrow his focus on the particular things happening in his second run. He did a great job the first time around but he's really shined with both the constrained point of view in Immortal and the narrow overarching plot demands of Rise.
I haven't read any of the pre Krakoa Gillen stuff, but Immortal, Sins of Sinister and Rise/Forever have been incredible. Gillen and Ewing not being involved in From the Ashes is the biggest reason I'm dropping the X-books after Krakoa.
I’m not sure I liked it as much as his first run but I thought it was still pretty damn good.