Best and Worst X-Men Creators

Recently I've been over on Wikipedia reading or editing things about comic book history and continuity. The practice has helped give me a better understanding of the publication history of the comics, particularly which creators contributed what and when.

Since I've read pretty much every X-Men comic, I now present my somewhat subjective list of the best and worst X-Men creators

FIVE BEST WRITERS

5. Joss Whedon (Astonishing X-Men #1-24, Giant-Sized #1)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon made his mainstream comic debut with Astonishing X-Men. This twenty-five issue series followed the events of Grant Morrison's New X-Men and was its natural successor. The story mainly focused on the relationships of Scott and Emma as well as Kitty and Piotr. The subject matter ranged from alien prophecies to a sentient and vindictive Danger Room and echoed classic Claremont and Byrne stories. The characterization was spot on and the dialog was fantastic, which should be no surprise to Whedon fans. My personal favorite was issue fourteen where Emma Frost tears down Scott Summers of all his emotional insecurities demonstrating a masterful knowledge and understanding of both characters.

4. Scott Lobdell (Uncanny X-Men #289-350, X-Men (Vol. 2) #6-11, 46-69, 110-113, Generation-X #1-28)

A lot of fans would take exception to this, but I think history will prove that Scott Lobdell was one of the best X-Men writers. He had the unenviable role of following Chris Claremont's historic run and I think fans blamed him more for things that other writers or editors were doing. It was the early '90s so editorial abuse was at an all-time high and crossovers were being pushed like crazy... probably slightly worse than things are now. Lobdell likely had to deal with more editorial interference than any writer with constant crossover events like X-Tinction Agenda, Phalanx Covenant, Age of Apocalypse, Onslaught, and Zero Tolerance.

Despite this, Lobdell maintained a five-year run on X-Men, making him second only to Claremont in shear volume of X-Men material produced. On top of which, he put over two years work into starting the teen spin-off title Generation X. His work was followed by Joe Kelly and Steven Seagle, both of whom did a decent job, but it all went downhill from there.

My favorite: Uncanny X-Men #340 "A Son's Pain" featured the death of Iceman's father. Bobby's dad had always been an anti-mutant bigot who fought with Bobby at every chance, but when he finally turned around and stood up for him, those same bigots beat him to death and there was nothing Bobby or the X-Men could do.

3. Grant Morrison (New X-Men #114-154, Annual 2001)

After Kelly and Seagle, X-Men sales remained high, but the stories got worse and more and more difficult to read. The more they tried to fix it, the more broken it ended up looking. After the return of Chris Claremont failed, they need a big name, dynamic writer to reinvigorate the franchise. The Matrix was huge at the time and Marvel wanted the X-Men to "go in that direction" so they hired the guy who claimed The Matrix ripped him off: Grant Morrison.

Morrison abandoned the popular mutant metaphors of the past twenty-five years (race and sexuality) and instead made it about non-conformity. Mutants represented sub-cultures... people with different values and beliefs... people outside the mainstream. He turned Emma Frost into one of the most interesting Marvel characters in the past decade. He introduced Xavier's evil twin sister Cassandra Nova, the brilliant anarchist Quentin Quire, the bizarre and beautiful Stepford Cuckoos, Fantomex and the Weapon Plus program... and much more. Although people often didn't get what he was doing, he breathed new life into the title and writers since have benefited from his odd genius.

2. Stan Lee (Uncanny X-Men #1-19)

But, at the same time, let's not forget the man who started it all. Stan Lee included all of the primary elements of the X-Men in their very first issue. They were the next stage in evolution, the product of radioactive pollution, and they were gathered by Xavier to save and train other mutants to prevent a war between the races. It is beautiful and elegant... perfect for creating an ongoing comic series. In addition, Stan (with artist Jack Kirby) created some of the most enduringly popular characters and elements like Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Juggernaut, the Sentinels, and the Savage Land. Whatever the others accomplished, it was because Stan built a strong foundation.

1. Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men #96-279, X-Men: God Loves Man Kills, X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-3, New Mutants #1-54, 63, 81, Excalibur #1-34 [mostly], Wolverine (Vol. 1) #1-4, (Vol. 2) 1-8, 10, and more!)

But no one has contributed more to the X-Men than Chris Claremont. He boasts an absurd 16 year run on the best selling comic of all time! Len Wein may have introduced the "all-new, all-different" X-Men, but Chris Claremont breathed life into them. He made us fall in love with Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, and (of course) Wolverine. He wrote the stories that shaped the X-Men including the Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, God Loves Man Kills, Alpha Flight, Proteus, the Hellfire Club, the Morlocks, the Mutant Massacre, and Inferno. He also launched successful X-Men spin-off titles New Mutants, Excalibur, and Wolverine not to mention the countless one-shots or mini-series he wrote. It is hard to imagine that anyone will break his well deserved record.

FIVE WORST WRITERS

5. Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men #381-389, 444-473, X-Men #100-109, X-Treme X-Men #1-46, New Excalibur #1-8, 16-24, Exiles #90-100, New Exiles #1-18, X-Men Forever #1-current, and more!)

Sadly, Chris Claremont left the X-Men in 1991 due to editorial disputes. When he returned in 2000, X-Men fans were delighted... until the comics came out. With all due respect, it was a huge disappointment. Claremont had lost that magic and fans wanted to give him a chance, but each issue was worse than the last. The new villains that Claremont came up with were all impossibly generic and even the characters he had been writing for so long seemed out of character... and distractingly intense. Sensing fan disappointment, Marvel took him off the X-Men titles in less than a year and gave him his own title for fans to read or not as they saw fit. With apparently no sense of subtlety or nuance, it was titled X-Treme X-Men and featured the X-Men as they were never seen before... with designer sunglasses. The title flopped and Chris Claremont has been hovering at the edges of the X-Men world ever since, never let too close to center for fear that he will spoil it again. He can currently be found writing X-Men Forever, a title which imagines an alternate reality where Chris Claremont can keep writing the X-Men from where he left off. If such a thing could be, Chris, nothing would stop me from reading it, but the X-Men didn't get messed up while you were gone. It was always just you.

4. Alan Davis (Uncanny X-Men #366-380 [mostly], X-Men #85-99 [mostly])

After Kelly/Seagle but before the return of Claremont came the work of Alan Davis. Davis is an incredible penciller and wrote the best Excalibur stories, but his work on the X-Men was awful. It started with the Magneto War which was an event book once again made to "fix" things in the most awkward way possible. Then they went to another dimension where Xavier and Wolverine merged into one person, then they went to the past at the Skrull homeworld, and he finished his run with a hastily conceived Apocalypse story based on an obscure line in a much older comic.

3. Joe Casey (Uncanny X-Men #394-409, Annual 2001, X-Men: Children of the Atom)

While Grant Morrison was reinventing the X-Men in New X-Men, Joe Casey was whoring them up in Uncanny. In the aforementioned effort to be more Matrix-like, the characters now wore long leather dusters and sunglasses at night. Their first villain was a poor Tetsuo rip-off and it just went downhill from there. Casey later admitted that he shouldn't have taken the X-Men job, but it was pretty obvious by then.

2. Fabian Nicieza (X-Men #12-45, X-Force #1-43, Cable (Vol. 1) #1-2)

Considering how much I revile this man's work, you can imagine what I must think of the number one on this list. Fabian Nicieza has a name that I just loathe. It isn't racist. I just think anyone whose name is Fabian probably has questionable parentage. But everything of his reads like a gritty, hyperbolic paramilitary wet dream of Tom Clancy's. If you can imagine a Michael Bay remake of Star Wars starring Clive Owen as Luke, it'd probably be pretty close.

1. Chuck Austen (Uncanny X-Men #410-441, New X-Men #155-156)

If you add up all but number 2 on this list, you will notice over one hundred issues of terrible Uncanny X-Men comics (that's almost ten years of failure!), but the worst was from Chuck Austen. Chuck appeared from nowhere to no acclaim and was soon writing Uncanny X-Men and the Avengers. Fans hated his work and widely panned him, with very few defenders who usually admitted to far more failures than successes. His run was just one awful interpretation after another. The worst was a story that revealed Nightcrawler's father as being an actual demon. Fortunately, so few people read this run that it is easy to pretend it never happened.

TEN BEST ARTISTS

Since it is no fun to look at mediocre art and talk about mediocre artists, I'm simply going with the ten best artists here.

10. John Bolton (Classic X-Men [back-up stories] #1-29, 31-35)

When they started reprinting old X-Men comics as Classic X-Men, the stories were about ten pages shorter than what was then the modern standard. In order to sell the comics at full price without leaving the reader short changed, they wrote new stories set in the past written by Chris Claremont and Ann Noccenti. The stories were mostly drawn by John Bolton who conveyed a much softer and emotional interpretation of the characters. Although these stories are rarely collected, they are some of the best and well remembered for adding depth to events like Logan falling for Jean Grey or Nightcrawler "coming out" as a mutant.

9. Dave Cockrum (Giant-Sized X-Men #1, Uncanny X-Men #94-105, 107, 145-164)

Dave Cockrum is largely responsible for the visual styles that came to define many of the X-Men. In particular, he was a co-creator of Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler. His style added a depth and careful composition. The artist was particularly revered as a cover artist (due to his compositions) and costume designer for his simple, elegant designs. While all the X-Men have changed their costumes at one time or another, they usually end up going back to Cockrum's design at some point.

8. Neal Adams (Uncanny X-Men #56-63, 65)

Although Neal Adam's arrival on the X-Men wasn't enough to save it from cancellation, the sharp rise of sales made them bring it back and within a few short years, it would be their highest selling title. In my book, this makes Neal Adams' run on the X-Men one of the best failures in comic history. His style influenced his greatest successors on the title, particularly John Byrne, Jim Lee, and Art Adams.

7. Joe Madureira (Uncanny X-Men #312-350 [mostly])

Although mostly a forgotten name now, in the mid-nineties, Joe Madureira's work on the X-Men quickly made him into the most popular artist in comic books. Although his style was referred to as "anime-style" at the time, I've always seen it as a cartoonish style more reminiscent of American animation like classic Disney and Warner Brothers. The youthful, energetic style conveys emotion and action simultaneously and the more exaggerated aspects really keep them in a realm of child-like fantasy that makes his interpretation so appealing and approachable. Sadly, Joe Mad's career didn't last long after the X-Men. Success brought money and soon he could earn more as a graphic artist outside of the industry. He has recently returned to comics with... disappointing results.

6. Greg Land (Phoenix: Endsong #1-5, Uncanny X-Men #500-503, 508-511, 515-517)

Simply put, Greg Land is a phenomenal artist. His photo-realistic drawings are so rich they make you want to reach through the page... and if you didn't have sexual fantasies about comic characters before, you will now. Land draws gorgeous men and women (okay, mostly women) on pretty much every page.


5. Salvador Larroca (X-Treme X-Men #1-24, Ann. 1, X-Men #155-179, 182-187, Uncanny X-Men #387-392, 439-443, 487-492, Ultimate X-Men #88-93, Ann. 2)

If you read X-Treme X-Men, you are either a Claremont fanatic, a masochist, or you fell in love with the gorgeous work of Salvador Larroca. Whatever you want, Larroca can deliver. Realism? Sure. Kinetic intensity? No problem. Sexy? Over the top or subtle? Claremont's X-Men were x-tremely ridiculous like a Sublime cover band or Mountain Dew commercial, but Larroca made them so beautiful that you could buy them for the art alone. Yet when he worked with the far more serious and complex Ed Brubaker, Larocca delivers emotionally expressive faces and horror-style mood setting.

4. Andy/Adam Kubert (Andy: X-Men 1992-1996, Ultimate X-Men #5-6, 50-53, Adam: X-Men 1998-1999, Uncanny X-Men 1999-2000, Ultimate X-Men #1-33 [mostly])

I grouped these two together because honestly, I have trouble telling them apart. Since they are brothers and they were taught by their father (a master comic artist himself), it makes sense that they would have very similar styles. Like Larroca, they work well with a wide variety of writers and styles, but like Madureira, they have their own expressive, animated quality that makes their work come alive. To them, every character has their own face and personality. You won't need them in costume using their powers to tell who is who and that takes real craft.

3. John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men #1-24, Giant-Sized Astonishing X-Men #1)

What can I say about John Cassaday? He has the photorealistic ability of Greg Land, but his images have such greater emotional resonance. I don't know if it is his juxtaposition, flow, or expressions, but his characters are alive and vibrant. While Land's characters can seem like manikins with powers, John Cassaday's are complex emotional people. Of course, it didn't hurt that Cassaday was drawing to the script of Joss Whedon. Their cinematic collaboration makes it obvious that the X-Men movies aren't half as good as their source material.

2. John Byrne (Uncanny X-Men #108-143)

Of all the artists on this list, I don't think any have had a bigger impact than John Byrne. Along with Chris Claremont, he really helped develop the X-Men in their formative years. He was a fantastic storyteller who contributed some great ideas like Alpha Flight, Kitty Pryde, and Days of Future Past. His characters are vibrant, alive, and emotionally powerful. Every artist since has been judged by Byrne's yard stick.

1. Jim Lee (Uncanny X-Men #248, 256-258, 267-277, X-Men #1-11)

But for me, Jim Lee is the quintessential X-Men artist. Lee showed up at the other end of Claremont's run, making sure that the writer quit while looking his best. Lee completely redesigned the characters using elements from all different eras. But what can I really say about Jim Lee that I haven't said of the others? He was the John Byrne of his time just as John Cassaday is the Jim Lee of this one.