Best Writer of 2007

Doominato says: Mike Carey, Ed Brubaker, Peter David, Craig Kyle and Chris Yost!

I really like Grant Morrison, but his turnout this year has been pretty lax. I don’t really have a good vote. Except for the combination of writers that gave me a throbbing gristle for “Messiah Complex.”

Fin Fang Doom says: Ed Brubaker!

While it’s hard to vote against Peter David for best writer of anything, I’ve got to hand it to Mr. Brubaker. In 2007, he made me care about a series where the title character is dead. He made me care about Daredevil, Iron Fist, Storm, Warpath and even Hebzibah. He made me care about a comic without a single superhero or zombie within it’s pages. Everything that’s had Ed Brubaker’s name on the cover was just a treat to read in 2007.

Doom DeLuise says: Ed Brubaker!

Criminal, Daredevil, and Captain America are three of my favorite ongoings, and it’s all because of Brubaker (and some phenomenal art in all three). Reading Captain America since his much-hyped death in issue 25 has been one of my biggest pleasures of the year, because I could see how easily the entire thing could’ve been fumbled (ahem, Captain America: Fallen Son, ahem), but it hasn’t faltered, and Brubaker is to thank for that.

Jim Doom says: Brian Michael Bendis!

I actually spent some time trying to think of someone other than Bendis, because it just almost seems lame to give this nod to someone that a ton of people like. I want to sing the praises of some unsung hero or something.

But I think what made 2007 such a great year for Bendis is that we started to see the fruits of several years worth of labor in laying the groundwork for the Skrull invasion.

The guy has a lot of quirks that annoy some readers, and of course no one is going to be everybody’s cup of tea. But one thing that I absolutely love – whether it’s the several-year build-up to Infinite Crisis in comics or watching As the World Turns when James Stenbeck made his big comeback in 2001 – is when I can see how a writer makes all the context come together in something meaningful.

I mentioned at points throughout the year that I don’t know if Bendis had this conversion in mind all along, or if he’s just doing a great job of finding ways to piece it together. But he is without a doubt the architect of the current structure in the Marvel Universe that rivals the beautiful build-up that made Infinite Crisis so awesome.

Bendis brings out humor by tapping into some of those “real life” aspects of superheroes – for example, In New Avengers #33, the bartender hates Wolverine because he’s always trashing the place – without having to hit the reader over the head with some kind of deconstruction of the fascist superhero archetype. It can have those touches of reality’s implications without having to pull you out of the realm of superhero action comics. Additionally, Bendis can address what the readers need to know and what they’re thinking, and he can put it in the characters’ voices. I think a fantastic example is Wolverine’s monologue addressing the Skrull confusion from New Avengers #32:

“…No one is talking because no one on this plane is completely sure that everyone on this plane is exactly who they say they are. (CAGE: Including you.) Including me. Sure. But let’s look around the plane, shall we?

“Well, we have Clint Barton – Hawkeye – back fro the dead and all dolled up as the ninja of the 21st century…where you been the last few months? Don’t feel like sharing? Dead, alive, dead, alive. And here you are, no bow and arrow…and with us instead of your old Avengers friends. Well, that’s not suspicious at all.

“And Jessica Drew, the woman of a thousand allegiances. Who’d your daddy work for? Where were you before the New Avengers got together? S.H.I.E.L.D.? Hydra? Hey, where’s Nick Fury, Jess?

“Echo. Kingpin’s assassin is now, all of a sudden, the scourge of the underworld. The only two people that vouched for you were Captain America, but he’s dead, and Matt Murdock, and he’s…wherever he is.

“And why is Captain America dead? Because all the super heroes in the world have spent the summer beating the crap out of each other. And let me ask you, Peter Parker – the man who spent every single second of his adult life trying to protect his identity as Spider-Man from the world – who just went and told the world he was Spider-Man and escalated the war – hey Pete, who benefited the most by you doing that?

“And Luke Cage…who used to be a satin-shirt, metal-tiara wearing hero for hire…but now went and turned himself into a husband and father and leader of a super-team that years ago he wouldn’t be found dead on. And now he rarely speaks to his so-called ex-partner Iron Fist, who all of a sudden has a plane. (IRON FIST: I didn’t all of a sudden get a plane.)

“And Doctor Strange, nothing suspicious about you…master of the mystic arts. Where were you during the Civil War? (STRANGE: And where were you?)

“Exactly! And then there’s me! Who is everywhere at once and all of a sudden knows exactly who he is.”

Honorable mention: Geoff Johns had a pretty good year, but he’s had some big blemishes like Action Comics and the way in which Justice Society of America has fallen. I guess the moral of this story is “Don’t make Geoff Johns write with anybody,” or else it’s “Don’t let Alex Ross and Richard Donner write stories anymore, because they can make even Geoff Johns crappy.”

Hey! Check out what we had to say about this category in 2006 and 2005!