Following to the Ends of the Sea

In the recent past, a transition has taken place. Creators have become more and more high-profile in the comics industry, occasionally eclipsing the notoriety of the subjects of their works.

As a kid, I read the four Superman titles regardless of who wrote them. I read them because of my love for the character, not because of who was attached to the books (this could be why I suffered through some questionable stories and villains ::cough::Dominus::cough). But then there were instances when my love for a character led to me associating them with whoever was writing them at the time.

Some writers are so in tune with their characters that anyone else’s take on them just can’t measure up. Take Mark Waid’s first run on the Flash. This guy made Wally West a pillar of the DCU and the greatest speedster of them all. After he left the book, things went downhill, and now the character is nowhere to be seen. Even his own second run on the book couldn’t match the magic he had in the past. Other writers have captured Wally’s voice and told great stories with him, but for me they just never measured up.

Ron Marz and Kyle Rayner make for another example of this. Granted, Marz created the character, but no one else has been able to capture his essence. After Marz left the title, Kyle either spent too much time in space or too much time with his supporting cast. Marz’s Green Lantern had the perfect balance of super-heroics and human drama. When he returned to the book for its last story arc and then wrote the Ion limited series, it was like welcoming an old friend back home. It’s great that Kyle has been featured in GL Corps and, more recently, New Guardians, but it’s not the same Kyle. While I started reading Green Lantern and Flash for the characters, I dropped the books once Marz and Waid left them.

Blockbuster crossovers and team books have been a showcase for hot writers to show what they can do with multiple characters and large-scale stories. Books such as JLA and DC One Million showed that Grant Morrison can wow readers with wide-scoped, detailed epics that involved new worlds and far-reaching adventures. Fans were amazed and knew what to expect later on in events such as Batman: RIP and Final Crisis.

Geoff Johns’s work on Infinite Crisis let readers know that he has a firm grip on the DC Universe as a whole and can deliver the goods with any number of heroes. The Sinestro Corps War was further evidence of this. Green Lantern: Rebirth and Flash: Rebirth proved to readers that the man can take characters that were written out of their own roles and make them relevant again.

Now I find myself picking up the latest issue of Aquaman because Geoff Johns wrote it. Aquaman? Really?? I have no history with this character, whom I thought peaked in the 90s with his grittier, one-handed incarnation. Still, I bought it, because Johns has a knack for bringing back characters with a new spin, and I figured if anyone could make Aquaman relevant and entertaining, it was him. Sure enough, it was my favorite of the New 52 first issues.

It shows that with the right writing, any character can be compelling.

Creator-following can have its drawbacks though. Superheroes typically don’t change much if they’ve been around a while (yes, I know the aforementioned Aquaman and Green Lantern are huge exceptions to this). Even if you don’t like who’s writing Batman at a given time, you know that the character’s personality is not going to change, and he’s going to be solving dark mysteries.

That’s why creators are hired, because they can supposedly do the job that’s expected of them. Established characters are who they are, barring drastic retcons. The problem is that writers are human. They’re going to have hits and misses, and fans will decide whether a disappointing story with a favorite character is enough to keep them interested. I dropped a favorite in Green Lantern after Johns’s Blackest Night, and now I’m happily sailing the seas with his Aquaman.