Amph Comic writer Chuck Austen

Seriously. Has he ever written anything good? What other writers are terrible enough to drive you away from a book or comic you might otherwise read?

 

His two issues of Ultimate X-Men which introduced Gambit were pretty decent. And other than that....ummm...I'll have to get back to you.

 

His worst act was to do a Captain America mini with Jae Lee. Because Jae Lee's art makes me cry tears of joy, but I couldn't force myself to buy something with Austins name on it.

 

*Blinks*

Did I just see Mastdage complain about something? Four years of patient waiting expires. Knew you'd crack eventually.

In fairness, when it comes to ridiculous superheroes that look and go by the name of Captain America, there's a natural tendency to make them casual. I've long sentimented on the lack of seriousness in leisure media.

 

Did you just insult Captain America? A Jack Kirby creation?

ARE YOU INSULTING THE KING YOU ******* PHILISTINE?!!

DO YOU RELEASE WHAT LEVEL OF **** YOU DESERVE TO BURN ON FOR THAT?!!

 

Philistine? What the hell does a Philistine have to do with expletives? They died out thousands of years ago. Just look at America. That pajama costume, the gaudy stripes. The name. Leia's beard, you can't be serious.

You know, now that you've gotten me thinking about it, America is very nationalistic when it comes to their fellas. What was Superman's creed again? Truth, justice, and the Australian way? Who do they think they are . . . hmph!

Say, any dark skinned superheroes/ines? I don't think so.

 

Good question, I've wondered that myself. Has anyone read his WorldWatch?

 

[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Blademu0.png/225px-Blademu0.png] [image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f8/TurnerStorm.jpg/180px-TurnerStorm.jpg] [image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/66/Greenlantern156.jpg/225px-Greenlantern156.jpg]
[image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/24/Firecstorm_23.jpg/200px-Firecstorm_23.jpg] [image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/60/Jsa80.png/200px-Jsa80.png] [image=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c8/Blackpanther1.jpg/250px-Blackpanther1.jpg]

I'd post more, but you get the idea.

 

This thread can remain open (for now) but kindly keep it at a level of criticism, not straight-out-unadorned bashing.

 

To be fair, I've disparaged the character myself, but I think Ed Brubaker's cleaned him up pretty well.

Another writer who'll drive me away from most projects is Ron Marz. He's not usually awful, but his writing's just so bland that I find I have no interest in reading any of it. I've heard great things about his Samurai: Heaven and Earth, but because he's the writer, I haven't been able to bring myself to give it a chance.

 

You are aware that Captain was created in March 1941 to fight National Socialists, and that one of the main plots dealing with Captain (more so the Ultimate version) is him being a fish out of water?

 

That's one of several Superman creeds, yes. And with him being an American citizen, I find it rather appropriate that he, in fact, likes it here.

 

He did a good juggernaut.

And thats about it. Austen can write about Mutants, Women, or 99% of anything out there. As a Polaris fan I wanted her to die on his run... Jut to spare her from the shame. And the foul BEAST killed Skin!

 

IIRC, the "American way" bit was added during the George Reeves TV show in the 50's. Cuz, they needed to show that Superman wasn't a Commie. What with that big red cape and all.

 

Gotta love paranoia

 

Thanks, Sniper. Didn't know America went so far back. That's a nearly four generations.

I wasn't thinking of Blade, something recent, more the "classic" "superhero/ines." Interesting though.

 

It's not surprising there are barely any black superheroes from the thirties/forties. Times were very different then.

Black Panther first showed up in the mid-sixties, I think he's the earliest in mainstream US comics.

 

Nick Fury is now black too, at least in the Ultimate universe.

A lot of the black characters in DC and Marvel are characters who had been white originally, and are the heirs or reworkings of the original. Good thing or bad thing, I don't know.

 

I think Luke Cage showed up in the 70's.

 

On the original topic, I'm really not a fan of Bendis. When he's on, he's really on, like his Daredevil run and Powers comics. But for other things, I find his style not fitting. And the man does the most boring mega events. I hated Disassembled and House of M. And his Ultimate X-men run was the worst of the multitude of writers on that, and his Ultimate Spider-Man has been so hit and miss one wonders if it's worth it.

Also Hudlin. I'm sure if he wasn't the president of BET and black, he would have been fired or at least repremended. His Black Panther run takes every Marvel character it runs into and takes them completely out of character. What he did to Doom, and Storm was an abomination.

 

I agree, generally. Bendis is very hit-and-miss, and since he writes roughly 50% of everything Marvel publishes, that's not a good thing.

I haven't read Ultimate Spider-Man yet, nor have I read his work on Ultimate X-Men. I love The Ultimates and Ultimate Fantastic Four, as well as much of the other Ultimate stuff. But Millar's run on UXM was so overall bland and boring, even Ultimate War couldn't grab my attention. And I see that he's followed as writer by Bendis, who's followed by Brian K. Vaughan, whom I love, but I've heard that even his tenure on the book is weak. What is it about that series that brings out the worst in writers?

As for Hudlin, I haven't even bothered with his Black Panther. An interview with him about the title was enough. And as soon as it was announced Storm was getting married, was there any reader in comicdom who didn't know she would be marrying another black character?

 

The worst thing about it is that Hudlin has completely butchered the character. She's currently acting as a lackey to Panther, when it from her power and her history she should his be equal or the dominant one in the relationship. There is no reason for her to marry Panther, no motivation. A recent mini put out tries a hasty ret-con showing that they met when they were younger, but still. It seems to ignore the relationship she had with Wolverine during (Claremount?)'s heyday. Now Claremount knew how to write Storm. Before he went all...not good.