Are there too many different writers for one comic book series?

What I meant by this is that for example, what happens if there are like 70 different writers writing for Spiderman? Would that be way too many writers writing for Spiderman and changing the storyline every few issues? It is true that over time, there will always be a different writer to a comic book series since I can’t really see the same writer writing for the same comic book series for over 30 years (although it’s possible that some writers have written comic book stories for that long).

At one point in time, there were very few comic book writers that wrote one series. For example, when X-Men first came out, the only writers writing for the X-Men series at the time were Chris Claremont and Stan Lee. Therefore, the stories in the X-Men series always remained consistent with the continuity of the stories and the characters. However, over the years, more new writers like Joss Whedon, Matt Fraction, Grant Morrison and Ed Brubaker came and wrote new stories for the X-Men series. While it was interesting seeing all kinds of different writers pitch in to write the X-Men series, it became difficult to follow the stories since every time a new writer comes in, the characters either changed their personalities completely or the events that a new writer creates does not follow the events that the last writer wrote.

Probably the most popular example of where a new writer writes in a totally different direction from the entire comic run of one series would be on “Ultimate X-Men” when volume 19, “Absolute Power” had a totally different writer and it depicted that Ultimate Colossus was a drug addict and was using a drug called Banshee to make himself stronger. The problem with this scenario was that the older issues of “Ultimate X-Men” that were written by Mark Millar and Bendis, never stated that Colossus had used drugs and therefore, when we read the volume “Absolute Power,” the story is lost on us and we are wondering about how this situation even came about in the first place.

So, what is my opinion on all this? Personally, I have no problems with having different writers write one line of a comic book series like X-Men or Spiderman because we have the chance to experience the characters in a different light such as one writer writing a character to be good hearted while the next writer writes the character to be cruel and vicious and we can explore the character on a more universal level in that manner. As long as the writer can write a story that has plenty of action, brilliant character development and characters interacting with each other, then it doesn’t really matter to me about how the story is written, just as long as the story can catch my attention and I can invest myself into the characters. The only problem that comes with having too many different writers writing for the same comic line like Spiderman is that we are subjected to having too many different plots and drastic changes to the characters’ personalities and if the new writers wrote these changes in a way that doesn’t really make a lot of sense within that universe, then I would be very upset at how the writer made drastic changes to the characters and the story lines without a proper development to the situations. I think it also depends on the reader about what type of writing they enjoy like if you enjoy comics that develop the characters and have the characters interact with each other, then find writers that can write that type of story or if you love straightforward action without going through character developments, then find writers that has that type of writing.

Every writer has a different style of writing a story and only the reader can decide which stories they want to invest their time in reading. So as far as having different writers write one line of comic books, the positive side is that we would be exposed to many different views of the characters and the situations at hand, but on the negative side, it would cause so much confusion among fans who are trying to figure out what is really happening in the story while following the time line that was set in the story.

So what do you think? Do you think that there are too many writers writing for one line of a comic book series and that the comic book industry needs to limit the number of writers in order to make the stories flow together easily or is it a good thing to have many different writers writing one series?

Nice blog.

It's an interesting issue for sure. For one thing, we can end up with a diverse set of stories for some characters, as each writer could bring something new to the table. It's also less rigid, in a sense, than only having one writer - if fans feel a writer is doing really bad, they can be replaced (this in turn, should motivate/pressure writers to do better, I suppose).

On the other hand, it's like you mentioned, we could end up with a bunch of inconsistencies and/or over-complicated plotlines. I think consistency is one one of the main draws of manga, which are compared to comic books a lot round here. If it's good, theoretically it'll stay good throughout it's run (of course it's not that simple, but you get what I mean). That being said, seeing a different writer on a character you enjoy is always interesting.

@Adnan said:

Nice blog.

It's an interesting issue for sure. For one thing, we can end up with a diverse set of stories for some characters, as each writer could bring something new to the table. It's also less rigid, in a sense, than only having one writer - if fans feel a writer is doing really bad, they can be replaced (this in turn, should motivate/pressure writers to do better, I suppose).

On the other hand, it's like you mentioned, we could end up with a bunch of inconsistencies and/or over-complicated plotlines. I think consistency is one one of the main draws of manga, which are compared to comic books a lot round here. If it's good, theoretically it'll stay good throughout it's run (of course it's not that simple, but you get what I mean). That being said, seeing a different writer on a character you enjoy is always interesting.

Thanks!! I agree about how manga always manages to keep the stories consistent, therefore that's why I love reading mangas so much!

Bump.

Good Blog, I agree completely about how one writer can come in and throw in some horrible additions that do not fit the character and not even be around long enough to finish those things up...One of the worst examples was always the Alpha Flight series in the early 90s, many times a character subplot would go unanswered or go two years before they wrapped it up, but by then you couldn't remember/care what it was about...

@ntb1124 said:

Good Blog, I agree completely about how one writer can come in and throw in some horrible additions that do not fit the character and not even be around long enough to finish those things up...One of the worst examples was always the Alpha Flight series in the early 90s, many times a character subplot would go unanswered or go two years before they wrapped it up, but by then you couldn't remember/care what it was about...

Thanks!! I agree about the Alpha Flight incident! I don't even remember about the team anymore since the writers barely wrapped up anything during that series!

 The more writers, the less consistency, the less entertaining, the less money, the less market share.
 Comics are not generating money for comic companies anymore. It's the 3rd party shares that are keeping Marvel and DC from going bankrupt.

@tron_bonne said:

The more writers, the less consistency, the less entertaining, the less money, the less market share.
Comics are not generating money for comic companies anymore. It's the 3rd party shares that are keeping Marvel and DC from going bankrupt.

LOL!! Ain't that the truth!

Bump.

I think you read my mind when you wrote this post. I yearn for the consistency of the Chris Claremont years even if I didn't like everything he wrote. While many won't agree with me I hated 90% of what Grant Morrison wrote on New X-Men. I think the main issue facing X-Men in particular right now is 8 titles with characters appearing across multiple titles with different writers on each one. Psylocke is technically in X-Men and X-Force for the foreseeable future with what is going on in those two series that just makes my brain hurt. Marvel, you went to all the trouble of splitting them off into teams and even neatly packaged them into teams within teams. Simplify!

@rawr said:

I think you read my mind when you wrote this post. I yearn for the consistency of the Chris Claremont years even if I didn't like everything he wrote. While many won't agree with me I hated 90% of what Grant Morrison wrote on New X-Men. I think the main issue facing X-Men in particular right now is 8 titles with characters appearing across multiple titles with different writers on each one. Psylocke is technically in X-Men and X-Force for the foreseeable future with what is going on in those two series that just makes my brain hurt. Marvel, you went to all the trouble of splitting them off into teams and even neatly packaged them into teams within teams. Simplify!

I agree about the whole Psylocke thing. I'm still trying to figure out what her purpose in appearing on both teams is for. I guess we'll find out later on.

I think it really should be a policy to make sure that a writer is informed about the characters they plan to write.

@Dommed_Cannon said:

I think it really should be a policy to make sure that a writer is informed about the characters they plan to write.

Yes!!! Definitely this!!!

I think this can be a problem if it is not managed properly. Wolverine is a prime example of having multiple writers on different titles try to get their version of the character over to the masses. The problem I have found is that there is no clear vision for the character and depending on the title he can be the loner rogue has has been for years, the experienced veteran or now a damm headmaster of a school. The problem if this was a gradual progression from A to B to C is one thing but WOlverine does not get written that way. As reciently as schism when he was suppost to be watching the benefit/fund raiser/opening at the mutant history museam he was at a bar having a drink when the trouble with the Sentinels went down. But in the individual Wolverine monthly he was sent to hell and was manipulated into killing children he fathered with woman he has affairs with over the years. I know he is tough but I would not trust him to guids a group of children in anything. DC seems to do a better job keeping their vision for a character intact across multiple titles, with Batman not being quite so disjointed. As for the chart showing DC as the number one publisher with Marvel trailing I would remind everyone that DC is still riding the huge boos their sales recieved with their relaunch/reboot. These are not real numbers and I expect the historical trend of Marvel being #1 to continue once the hype dies down and people actually evaluate the initial story lines of the DC titles.

I would love to see different writers doing their own take on these famous characters. But the problem is that there could be too many writers at one time. If we were fond of the original work done by our favorite writer/artist, we need to see that everyday in comics. But there are certain times that these creators may not able to write/draw the series and have to leave their work to the new creators. So I guess you would say it's nice to see different writing or artwork. But it depends on the creator's quality, creativity, and experience and how he or she can surpass the original artwork which were done by the old creators.

Nice blog by the way. :)

- This is a problem that has slowly grown more and more prominent and I see no reason for it to improve. I also long for the days where we actually had one writer for 17 years on Uncanny X-Men, but I am also going to be realistic and accept that it was far more the exception than the rule.

- Writers have become more and more mercenary, content to change titles far more often than before. I understand that they have every right to take their talents to where they feel is the best situation for them and their careers, but this situation IMO helps kill titles, shrinking the available gigs to their peers as a whole.

- When a writer comes into a project on a short term arc, they only care about telling the story they want to tell, things like how their changes and stories affect the title as a whole are not their problem. Many do not take into account or even care how this affects the next writer by their actions which I would find disrespectful to the material and their peers.

- If I were in charge of Marvel, I would not hire a writer who was not willing to contract their services to at least a 2 or 3 year term. If a writer does not care enough about the title to invest at least this much of their time, I do not want them on the book, regardless of their stature. 5 years of consistant work by a lesser known writer is going to be better than 6 months of Bendis, Fraction, etc.

At last the voice of reason! Well said. I wish the two biggest mainstream comic companies could understand that.

@lorex: I agree about the whole Wolverine incident. I don't know why the writers can't stick to Wolverine's original character and if they want to change his character to a nicer person, then they need to develop that idea before they force it on the fans.

@The Impersonator: Thanks! I agree that maybe the other writers need to follow the last writer's example about how to write the characters and what made the last writers so likable to the fans.

@WarMachineMarkV: I agree about how writers should have their own ideas about how to write characters, but if I was writing for Marvel, I would at least try to read from where the last writer left off from and write the story from my point of view while trying to take off from where the last writer left off from so that way fans wouldn't be so confused about what is really going on in the story.

@Phaedrusgr: Thanks!! I agree that both Marvel and DC need to understand that having too many writers could cause confusion from the fans if they don't follow the universe very well.

I actually don't understand some writers. Why aren't there more writers willing to put in a good chunk of their lives to writing something like the X-Men? Claremont did it for 17 years and it is considered the quintessential run. When writers have the time to do long term planning, they can develop the characters much more intimately. You can't get that on a typical comics run, because there is another writer waiting 6 months later to retcon everything the previous writer did just because they want to tell THEIR version of events. It is pretty disrespectful to the hard work and effort that goes into writing these stories.

@kimeraevet said:

I actually don't understand some writers. Why aren't there more writers willing to put in a good chunk of their lives to writing something like the X-Men? Claremont did it for 17 years and it is considered the quintessential run. When writers have the time to do long term planning, they can develop the characters much more intimately. You can't get that on a typical comics run, because there is another writer waiting 6 months later to retcon everything the previous writer did just because they want to tell THEIR version of events. It is pretty disrespectful to the hard work and effort that goes into writing these stories.

I agree! I think that the comic industry needs to set a 5-10 year contract with the writers so that way, the writers can tell their stories and still get the characters developed more deeply and the stories would remain consistent with each other instead of having so many different writers giving different interpretations of the stories.

I agree.

- A 5-10 year contract is just not realistic, IMO 2-3 years is a lot more feasible

@tron_bonne said:

The more writers, the less consistency, the less entertaining, the less money, the less market share.
Comics are not generating money for comic companies anymore. It's the 3rd party shares that are keeping Marvel and DC from going bankrupt.

THE SAD TRUTH

@LP said:

@tron_bonne said:

The more writers, the less consistency, the less entertaining, the less money, the less market share.
Comics are not generating money for comic companies anymore. It's the 3rd party shares that are keeping Marvel and DC from going bankrupt.

THE SAD TRUTH

Yep.

I find it shocking that the heads of both companies do not understand why having no consistency is bad for business... The animated DC shows where good at being consistent and staying in their own universe. That is how they should make the comics...

@VanTesla said:

I find it shocking that the heads of both companies do not understand why having no consistency is bad for business... The animated DC shows where good at being consistent and staying in their own universe. That is how they should make the comics...

I agree that Marvel really needs to remain a bit consistent with their story lines because there are too many different plot lines being handed out and it's just confusing the fans even more than necessary.

There should be a balance, for example look at Bendis and the avengers, having only 1 main writer can also be bad.

@difficlus said:

There should be a balance, for example look at Bendis and the avengers, having only 1 main writer can also be bad.

Especially if that one main writer is not very good at writing stories. It would be nice to have some writers on the sidelines in case the comics start going downhill.

i agree good writers on good titles for 2-3 years. i also wish they developed lesser known characters to make them interesting.

@Mega_spidey01 said:

i agree good writers on good titles for 2-3 years. i also wish they developed lesser known characters to make them interesting.

Me too! I don't know why many of the lesser known characters are never focused on. I think that the lesser known characters would be more popular if the writers actually concentrated more on developing their stories instead of leaving them on the sidelines.

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Mega_spidey01 said:

i agree good writers on good titles for 2-3 years. i also wish they developed lesser known characters to make them interesting.

Me too! I don't know why many of the lesser known characters are never focused on. I think that the lesser known characters would be more popular if the writers actually concentrated more on developing their stories instead of leaving them on the sidelines.

But then who would Marvel use as fodder for event comics? :O

I agree with you guys. There are plenty of lesser known characters with great potential that get tossed aside or killed and that's just sad.

@Decoy Elite said:

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@Mega_spidey01 said:

i agree good writers on good titles for 2-3 years. i also wish they developed lesser known characters to make them interesting.

Me too! I don't know why many of the lesser known characters are never focused on. I think that the lesser known characters would be more popular if the writers actually concentrated more on developing their stories instead of leaving them on the sidelines.

But then who would Marvel use as fodder for event comics? :O

I agree with you guys. There are plenty of lesser known characters with great potential that get tossed aside or killed and that's just sad.

I agree! It's sad how the writers would ignore these characters and not do anything with them.

@Rabbitearsblog: Marvel is the worst about it IMO. They outright bring in new characters just to kill them off. That's just a horrible writing practice.

Something I find Marvel has a problem when it comes to their writers is that they feel they have to have one writer on five different books, but what they should do is find a writer who not only understands the characters of the book in choice but who also has great ideas and fresh new directions they want to take those characters. Looking at writers like Ed Brubaker (Captain America), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man), Dan Slott (Amazing Spider-Man), and Brian Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man) those were all characters (well maybe not Spider-Man exactly) who weren't doing so hot and who were at best barely able to hold their own series, but for like characters like Cap and Iron Man, both Brubaker and Fraction came in, understood the characters and had new ideas and directions that fans have never seen before for those characters, and have now made them some of the biggest superheroes in Marvel, I mean if it weren't for Ed Brubaker and what he did on Captain America, the movie probably would have never happened.

What I wish Marvel would do is spread their writers out more and allow newer and younger writers come in and show us fans stories we've never seen before, let that writer expand on their stories and go back and explore plots they had been setting up and planting seeds in issues way back at the beginning of their runs, but more importantly not having that same writer working on three to five different titles at one time all because that one series their writer is such a hit. That's one of the big reasons I don't care for Brian Bendis right now because he brought big success to Marvel with New Avengers and Ultimate Spider-Man, but then they began having him write almost EVERY Avengers title and having him writer other titles like Moon Knight and you can tell that by dividing his work up into multiple titles that his writing and creativity was struggling.

But also speaking of Bendis (no, this isn't going to turn into a Bendis rant :P), there does come a time when even a great writer has been on a series for too long. While is the writers stories are still just as fresh and exciting at when they first began after writing a series for 5+ years and the fans are still loving what that writer is doing then I see no problem with it, but looking at Bendis who had literally been writing Avengers for over 10 years, fans have been wanting him to leave the book for years and it is pretty obvious is you simply look at his popularity on the Avengers titles that he has overstayed his welcome, and when that happens it's time to let some one else who has new and fresh ideas for those titles to come on board.

@War Killer said:

Something I find Marvel has a problem when it comes to their writers is that they feel they have to have one writer on five different books, but what they should do is find a writer who not only understands the characters of the book in choice but who also has great ideas and fresh new directions they want to take those characters. Looking at writers like Ed Brubaker (Captain America), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man), Dan Slott (Amazing Spider-Man), and Brian Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man) those were all characters (well maybe not Spider-Man exactly) who weren't doing so hot and who were at best barely able to hold their own series, but for like characters like Cap and Iron Man, both Brubaker and Fraction came in, understood the characters and had new ideas and directions that fans have never seen before for those characters, and have now made them some of the biggest superheroes in Marvel, I mean if it weren't for Ed Brubaker and what he did on Captain America, the movie probably would have never happened.

What I wish Marvel would do is spread their writers out more and allow newer and younger writers come in and show us fans stories we've never seen before, let that writer expand on their stories and go back and explore plots they had been setting up and planting seeds in issues way back at the beginning of their runs, but more importantly not having that same writer working on three to five different titles at one time all because that one series their writer is such a hit. That's one of the big reasons I don't care for Brian Bendis right now because he brought big success to Marvel with New Avengers and Ultimate Spider-Man, but then they began having him write almost EVERY Avengers title and having him writer other titles like Moon Knight and you can tell that by dividing his work up into multiple titles that his writing and creativity was struggling.

But also speaking of Bendis (no, this isn't going to turn into a Bendis rant :P), there does come a time when even a great writer has been on a series for too long. While is the writers stories are still just as fresh and exciting at when they first began after writing a series for 5+ years and the fans are still loving what that writer is doing then I see no problem with it, but looking at Bendis who had literally been writing Avengers for over 10 years, fans have been wanting him to leave the book for years and it is pretty obvious is you simply look at his popularity on the Avengers titles that he has overstayed his welcome, and when that happens it's time to let some one else who has new and fresh ideas for those titles to come on board.

I agree with everything you've said! I think that there should be a rotation of writers every few years or so, but the writer who was writing the series before should wrap up their stories before they leave. I think one of the major problems I had with Marvel Comics is that they barely finished the stories that are set up for certain characters like the X-Men or Spider man and if the writer who was writing the series before never had the chance to finish their story lines, it's unlikely that that particular story will ever be revisited again since the next writer would want to do something different.

YES

@texasdeathmatch said:

YES

Agree!

@Rabbitearsblog said:

@LP said:

@tron_bonne said:

The more writers, the less consistency, the less entertaining, the less money, the less market share.
Comics are not generating money for comic companies anymore. It's the 3rd party shares that are keeping Marvel and DC from going bankrupt.

THE SAD TRUTH

Yep.

So marvel currently sells -2 million issues a year?? The graph is quite the SAD TRUTH but doesn't make actual numerical sense once the graph reaches recent years.

I do agree with the blog tho in that less writers does help continuity with story arcs as well as the depiction of characters in the current universe.

I definitely agree with the OP. Adding too many writers and too many books dilutes the shared vision of the story. At most, there should only be 4 writers working on a series and only 4 books directly related to the main story-line of that series (though, the ideal number would be 1 or 2). Although, frankly, I kind of would prefer it if companies would abandon single issues altogether and put all their effort into producing trades (even though I think that would really hurt local comic book stores...)

@cosmo111687 said:

I definitely agree with the OP. Adding too many writers and too many books dilutes the shared vision of the story. At most, there should only be 4 writers working on a series and only 4 books directly related to the main story-line of that series (though, the ideal number would be 1 or 2). Although, frankly, I kind of would prefer it if companies would abandon single issues altogether and put all their effort into producing trades (even though I think that would really hurt local comic book stores...)

I definitely agree with you! I don't understand about why can't they put most of the individual stories through trades instead of through issues. I can also understand about how comic book stores would go out of business if the majority of the stories are told through trades, but this should be allowed only for characters who have single stories like for example, say Marvel wants to do a miniseries on Gambit. Gambit's miniseries should be available through trade, so that way, the comic book issues can still go on without Marvel having to worry about making too many comic book issues for a single character and clash with the mainstream stories. This would also help writers have more time to develop their stories without having to worry about writing for four or five different comics at the same time.

Ultimate X-Men 's quality became affected by too many writers and even the drawings changed over time. Some looked awesome but others looked terrible. Having too many titles of variations of X-Men and others are affecting the quality in both consistency and characterization. Characters behave in one way in one book and then behave differently in other books. It gets annoying after a while and becomes a turn off. They should just write 4 of 5 books and be consistent. Put the writers in a room together and have em agree on the general storyline and be consistent.

@airbound_dude said:

Ultimate X-Men 's quality became affected by too many writers and even the drawings changed over time. Some looked awesome but others looked terrible. Having too many titles of variations of X-Men and others are affecting the quality in both consistency and characterization. Characters behave in one way in one book and then behave differently in other books. It gets annoying after a while and becomes a turn off. They should just write 4 of 5 books and be consistent. Put the writers in a room together and have em agree on the general storyline and be consistent.

I really agree about having all the writers in one room and discuss about the endings of their runs and having the next writer continue from that. The next writer doesn't really have to write the same way as the last writer, but as long as they have a good idea about what happened in the previous story and adapt that to their stories, then the stories will remain consistent with each other.