Writer Strengths & Weaknesses

[Whiskeyclone]

I may have done something similar in the past year or so, but whatever (and I don't think so).

What do you see as the main strengths & weaknesses of the following comic writers?

Alan Moore

Neil Gaiman

Grant Morrison

Warren Ellis

Ed Brubaker

Matt Fraction

Bendis

Geoff Johns

Scott Snyder

Jeff Lemire

Rick Remender

Jason Aaron

Kieron Gillen

Mark Waid

Scott Lobdell

Jeff Parker

Christos Gage

Paul Cornell

Brian Azzarello

Brian Wood

Peter Milligan

Obviously cover as many or few as you feel you're qualified to.

[Jabroniville]

Alan Moore- Strengths: Originality, commentary on the medium itself, little touches nobody else could or would think of. Weaknesses: An obsessive over-use of sex.

Grant Morrison- Strengths: Originality, event storytelling. Weaknesses: Gets way too up his own ass with details and overly-complicated plots. Moore is hyper-complex to read, but you can always follow his own stuff.

Ed Brubaker- Strengths: Great with street level guys and gritty storytelling. Weaknesses: Good overall, but never quite hits that great level for ending stories or iconic moments.

Bendis- Strengths: Work ethic (ie. amount of books), humourous dialogue, use of obscure characters instead of JUST the big names. Weaknesses: Writes everyone like they're the same character. Writes "Bendis Dialogue". Just cycles through all the events and ends up with talking heads. Tends to focus on certain characters and tosses them out there with nothing to do- things end up very crowded.

Geoff Johns- Strengths: Likes to "fix" shitty or unpopular characters, good with some dialogue, good with events or big stories, invented Stargirl & Cyclone. Weaknesses: Gets way too tired, and craps out partway through many of his runs. Gets obsessive with shitty characters, or over-does the rosters so that nobody gets a chance to stand out anymore (looking at you, JSA).

Mark Waid- Strengths: Humor, interesting characters and characterization. Weaknesses: Never hits that "Next Level" aside from Kingdom Come. His runs are always interesting, but seem unmemorable and hard to sum up for me.

Scott Lobdell- Strengths: Can write some funny shit. Weaknesses: Ruined the X-Men with stupid bullshit storytelling and horrible characters. Fuck Scott Lobdell.

[Whiskeyclone]

Alan Moore - Strengths: Mastery of the craft, massive creativity & versatility, world building
Weaknesses: Like Jab said, has become increasingly obsessive with sex, particularly rape. Enough is enough.

Neil Gaiman - Strengths: Excellent at handling fantasy & mythology and distilling them into well-crafted, literary comic stories.
Weaknesses - Not always incredibly gripping or exciting, lack of desire to really do much in the medium

Grant Morrison - Strengths: Strong story-telling and creativity
Weaknesses - Lets being "Grant Morrison, shaman rock god of comics" get in the way of actual story-telling at times

Warren Ellis - Strengths: Turns in work that's at once intelligent and edgy; does wide-screen action as good as just about anyone, funny as shit
Weaknesses: Laziness; can be single-minded pursuit of his pet themes

Ed Brubaker - Strengths: The Man at crime & spy noir
Weaknesses: Has proven lackluster outside of his comfort zone; lacks big memorable moments

Matt Fraction - Strengths: I don't really know any more. Not Bendis.
Weaknesses - Drags things out to lifelessly bloated lengths and then fails to deliver anything close to a satisfying pay-off

Bendis - Strengths: These days? Nada. Evidently was capable of excellent street level character work.
Weaknesses: WRETCHED at team work and big event stuff despite being the go to guy for them. Barely any distinction in character voices, over-reliance on his trademark dialog style, which has just gotten worse by the month, no respect for continuity or established character work; forces his pets on readers and drops them as he sees fit

Geoff Johns: Strengths - Good at villain-based character work - has done as much for DC villains as anyone of his generation
Weaknesses - Has become increasingly bland and forced; not particularly interesting when handling heroes; another pet-character guy

Scott Snyder: Not enough experience with him. I like Swamp Thing, I don't much care for his current Batman run. Haven't read anything else.

Jeff Lemire: Also limited experience. I like everything I've read. Seems fairly versatile, even if he's sticking with horror-esque characters

Rick Remender: Strengths - Good at making lame-sounding ideas work; mixes fun, big sci-fi superheroics with nice character work
Weaknesses - Shaping up to be a bit hit & miss...could become the next Frank Tieri if he's not careful

Jason Aaron: Strengths - Versatility; especially good at fun, whacky super-hero stuff that doesn't sacrifice characterization. Has done more for Wolverine's development than almost anyone in ages
Weaknesses: Likes to draw from cliches; gets stuck on ideas he thinks are better then they actually are sometimes (this kid Hellfire Club seems to be a big one)


The rest later.

[Whiskeyclone]

Kieron Gillen:  Strengths - Dialog & narrative, even if he verges on overdoing it; telling over-center, non-conventional superhero stuff; JiM implies a good handle on mythology (MU mythology, mostly)
Weaknesses - Hasn't shown any real ability to excel in traditional super-hero settings; can be downright boring

Mark Waid: I dunno, he's hit and miss and yet rarely awesome or awful. He just generally occupies the different regions of "the middle"

Jeff Parker: Strengths - One of the most consistent no-frills superhero comic guys currently active. We get fights, cool stories, minor character work - that sorta thing.
Weaknesses: Another who is very hard-pressed to do much that's above and beyond and as such, memorable

Christos Gage: Strengths - A lot like Parker actually. Good at character voices and obviously cares about MU continuity. Rarely drops the ball completely.
Weaknesses: I'd say he's become too workman-like and often tells forgettable, somewhat generic stories


The last 4 later again.

[Cleric]

Kieron Gillen:  Strengths - Dialog

You're shitting me, right?