Marvel has been putting out some of the best comics for a long time even if they do keep making some of the same basic mistakes over and over again. The company gets some of the best writers and artists around and puts them on their titles, getting the best out of each one. Fan-favorite creators working on the biggest characters is usually a recipe for success, continuing Marvel’s legacy of quality storytelling.
However, there are times when for whatever reason, a creator starts out strong but things go downhill. There have been plenty of runs like this and they’ve often hurt the books and characters immensely.
10 Kurt Busiek’s Avengers Is Great But Didn’t End As Well As It Began
Kurt Busiek was put on Avengers after the failure of Heroes Reborn, when Marvel farmed out that book, Captain America, Iron Man, and Fantastic Four to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. Joined by superstar artist George Perez, Busiek told some of the greatest Avengers stories in years, including the best Ultron story ever- “Ultron Unlimited”.
Busiek earned his place as one of the best Avengers writers of them all, but later stories never reached the heights of his opening stories. Busiek’s run isn’t bad, even towards the end, but it’s not as good as it was when it started.
9 Jeff Lemire’s Extraordinary X-Men Got Kneecapped By Editorial Edict
When Jeff Lemire was announced as the writer of Extraordinary X-Men, fans were excited. He seemed like a great pick for the team and the roster that was shown was full of fan favorites like Storm, Magik, Old Man Logan, and Colossus. The premise was interesting and the first story arc was great.
However, things went bad quickly, as Lemire’s run ran afoul of Marvel’s editorial edicts against the X-Men. His run had some good moments but it was kneecapped by constant crossovers and the fact that it wasn’t allowed to do very much beyond not getting in the Inhumans’ way.
8 Dan Slott Seemed Perfect For Amazing Spider-Man
It can’t be denied that Dan Slott wrote some great Spider-Man stories but his run went on way too long. He started out as part of the Brand New Day Spider-Man brain trust when the book was being put out weekly and made a huge impression. Eventually, he became the sole writer and people loved his stuff.
However, as time went on, things got worse. While Superior Spider-Man was an uptick, after Peter Parker returned, the book returned to its pattern of diminishing returns, with a new Spider-Man centric event dropping every couple of months. People soured on Slott and he was kept on the book longer than he should have been.
7 Mark Waid’s Captain America Never Recovered From Heroes Reborn
Mark Waid and Ron Garney took over Captain America right before Heroes Reborn and it was the best the book had been in years. After Heroes Reborn, the team was put back on the book and fans were thrilled. However, while it was pretty good, it never reached the heights of their initial work.
Garney would leave the book and Andy Kubert would take over on art but fights with Marvel editorial would cut the whole thing short and Waid would leave the book. Waid was one of the best things to happen to Captain America in years but having the book wrested from him by Heroes Reborn definitely affected his work and enthusiasm for the book, while Marvel editorial breathing down his neck didn’t help either.
6 Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers’ First Volume Was Amazing But The Second Was Terrible
Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers started off strong- combining the X-Men and the Avengers, setting up Red Onslaught, and dealing with Apocalypse Twins from his Uncanny X-Force. Unfortunately, the reaction to the event the book set-up, Axis, was bad and the second volume of the book was a complete failure.
Most of the fan favorites from the original run were gone and the book was used to explain why Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were no longer Magneto’s children. Combine that with Remender already on his way out from Marvel and this book fell off quickly.
5 Brian Micheal Bendis’s X-Men Books Had Great Premises But Didn’t Deliver
Bendis was given two X-Men books after Avengers Vs X-Men, All-New X-Men, and Uncanny X-Men, and they immediately became the flagship X-Men books. All-New X-Men dealt with Beast bringing the original five X-Men to the present and Uncanny X-Men saw Cyclops, Magik, Magneto, and Emma Frost deal with the fall out of the Phoenix Five’s actions during AvX.
The book’s started very strong, full of great art, and Bendis’s soap opera style fit the X-Men well but he kept dragging everything out. It didn’t help that Bendis’s style can get sort of boring. Slow stories with no action and resolution in sight killed his run.
4 Tom DeFalco’s Fantastic Four Failed When It Tried To Bring Itself Into The ’90s
Fantastic Four is a hard book to get right. Its mixture of superheroes and sci-fi can be timeless if done correctly. Tom DeFalco’s Fantastic Four was able to hit the sweet spot for a time; he wasn’t telling timeless stories but they were still pretty good. However, when sales started to flag, he tried to bring the book into the ’90s and failed miserably.
From giving Invisible Woman a sexy costume to replacing Franklin with a Cable-esque future version of himself to killing Reed, DeFalco tried to do all the ’90s things to boost sales but ended up driving away fans.
3 Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men Started Amazing And Immediately Fell Off A Cliff
The opening story of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men, “Gifted”, was a back-to-basics approach after Grant Morrison’s revolutionary New X-Men run. Fans loved it — the art and writing were great. However, the next arc, “Danger”, was the beginning of the book’s downfall. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great and things got worse from there.
The next two arcs, “Torn” and “Unstoppable”, kept up the downward trend. The art looked great but the stories just weren’t up to snuff and readers noticed. The constant delays didn’t help either and the book’s legacy is questionable at best, with Whedon’s reputation souring the whole thing even more.
2 Bendis And Maleev’s Daredevil Went On Way Too Long
Bendis and Maleev’s Daredevil was a highlight of Marvel for a long time. The two worked together well and their gritty Daredevil stories were amazing, seeing Daredevil defeat Kingpin, take over for him, and have his identity revealed to the public. This was where everything went off the rails, though.
The problem came in that Bendis started to draw things out, telling stories that really didn’t need to be told, like “The Golden Age” and “Decalogue”. Combine that with Daredevil gaslighting his friends about his identity and basically being unlikable with Bendis’s dialogue-heavy, low-action writing style really taking effect and the latter half of their run looked great but was boring and drawn out.
1 Bendis’s Avengers Books Would Never Reach The Heights Of “Avengers Disassembled”
Bendis and David Finch’s “Avengers Disassembled” was a breath of fresh air after Chuck Austen’s terrible Avengers run. It did a great job of ending the old team and starting a new era of the Avengers, one that readers would see in New Avengers. Unfortunately, the cracks started to show almost immediately.
While the new roster, with fan favorites like Wolverine and Spider-Man and B-listers like Spider-Woman and Luke Cage joining Captain America and Iron Man, was great, Bendis’s style wasn’t the best fit for the Avengers — there was too much talking and not enough action. While New Avengers and his other Avengers books set things up for all of Marvel’s major events, they committed a cardinal sin for the Avengers as they were boring. On the books for too long, Bendis’s run ran out of steam way before he left.
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