Next month, Marvel launches an all-new era of series and storytelling (with the same history and continuity) called “All New, All Different Marvel!”
What does that really mean? Think of it this way – Marvel treats every few years of their comics as like a TV Season or one of their Cinematic Phases. Every comic released from October 2012 to right now was part of “Marvel Now.” As of the end of this month, every one of those comics will end, and we’ll start a new season or phrase, called All-New, All-Different Marvel.
That means we just had three whole years of brilliant, interconnected storytelling in the largest and most long-running shared universe in the world – and I read every comic along the way.
As a look back at what was awesome about Marvel Now, I’m ranking every writer in the bullpen. What’s great about this list even the writers at the bottom of the rank turned in some five-star issues for me, but the ones at the top are the unquestionable best-of-the-best of Marvel Now – they write the books I immediately snag from the box and read in the middle of the floor like an eager little kid.
The criteria: Writers had to be the sole pen behind more than six issues or more than a single arc in the main Marvel Universe during Marvel Now, beginning with Uncanny Avengers in October, 2012 and extending through titles currently in their Last Days arcs during Secret Wars like Magneto, Ms. Marvel, Loki, Black Widow, and Punisher.
Honorable Mention: Warren Ellis – If we let Ellis loose on this list he may very well be its ruler every time, so let’s call him “Warren Ellis the King Emeritus of Marvel”. His 2014 run on Moon Knight (go to the guide!) was a jagged reboot of eminent readibility and his Avengers Assemble (go to the guide!) team-up with Kelly Sue DeConnick was a delight. That’s what Ellis does for Marvel: parachutes in once a year to leave things nice and messy for the next writer up at bat. We love him for it.
In ANAD: Writing Karnak, the Inhuman. This should be pretty interesting since Karnak was dead last time I checked. He’s also one of the most interesting Inhumans, so getting him back under Ellis’s pen is an awesome development.
Now, on to the list! Do you have some different opinions? Sound off in the comments!
Heatseekers: Jeff Lemire, Jason Latour, & Robbie Thompson – These authors spanned multiple stories in Marvel Now, but their work was was late-breaking enough that I don’t have a collection to read at press time! This is a bummer, since I love all three of them. Luckily, they’re all back for more in All-New, All-Different.
35. Brian Wood – After a strong opening, his all-female X-Men team (go to the guide!) work fizzled. The concepts were big and fresh without leaning on Cyclops or Wolverine, but the storytelling didn’t hang together as well as it could have from panel to panel. Maybe that’s the fault of the Battle of the Atom crossover coming so early in his run, losing two of his core characters, or the lack of real estate to develop his main story alongside tales of the younger X-Men. Afterwards, his take on Moon Knight (go to the guide!) was kinetic and enjoyable, and actually nodded to the core mythology of the character a bit better than Ellis.
34. Paul Cornell – We’ve seen must-read material from Cornell in previous years from both Marvel and DC, but his Wolverine run (go to the guide!) across two volumes was muted. There were several good ideas there that weren’t as memorable as they could have been – a virus Wolverine couldn’t kill by force and Wolverine as a villain. The better story was an up-close-and-personal hostage situation with Logan, Kitty, and Sabretooth. Maybe Marvel’s most-favorite mutant was just a bad fit for Cornell, or maybe he was mechanically getting Logan from point-A to point-B to tee up the story of his death. He got the job done, but it wasn’t the thrilling book I was hoping for. It will be good to see him on another title sometime soon – hopefully something with a bit more humor.
33. Kaare Andrews – Kaare Andrews is an auteur and his Iron Fist (go to the guide!) run is the perfect example of that. He handled every duty from top to bottom – everything but the lettering! The downside is that Andrews loves to deconstruct … except Iron Fist already went through that, quite perfectly, on the Eisner-Winning Immortal Iron Fist. The result was a sort of puzzling run that hit a lot of the same beats almost frame for frame, even as it used a lot of very clever narrative choices. It would have been more awesome to see Andrews either take on a largely ignored character without a defining arc or to see him take Iron Fist into a totally different context.
32. Si Spurrier – Spurrier’s Britishisms, violent sarcasm, and occasionally nonsensical dialog can be delightful on the right characters, as X-Men Legacy (go to the guide!) showed at the outset of Marvel Now. It was a wild hit with major fans – on CBR they elected him their favorite writer, a pretty big deal for a non-flagship book. It was a bit dissonant when he next helmed the traditionally grim X-Force (go to the guide!) with a cast who have established voices. His concepts were clever (a constantly dying Cable and disembodied Hope getting help from an unnoticeable X-Man), but the dialog and narration didn’t always feel distinct from character to character. It was just one big rambling soup. His plots on both series reached amazing crescendos, but I’d like to enjoy the ride a bit more.
31. Chris Claremont – His Nightcrawler was old-school fun. So what if it relied overly much on a pat romance and repetitive beats – that’s X-Men to a tee, because he built them that way. Marvel has Claremont on permanent retainer, so it would be nice to see him permanently affixed to a solo X-ongoing. Maybe it’s time to put him on an explicitly all-ages-friendly mutant title that can find the success of Ms. Marvel or Squirrel Girl rather than tucking him away on sideline books to avoid pulling attention from a flagship.
30. Rick Remender – When it comes to deep divers into character continuity with undertones of realistic PTSD, Remender is your man. However, in sum he starts to come off as Marvel’s GrimDark specialist – plus, he’s obsessed with death/resurrection cycles, alternate dimensions, and time loops. It’s all fresh in limited supply, but tired as a major payload. His Captain America (go to the guide!) didn’t start getting good until his deconstruction was in full swing, four arcs in. And, Uncanny Avengers (go to the guide!) was a rocky road compared to how much fun a title with that cast ought to be. It spent half its life on a story that wasn’t real and was never once enjoyable along the way. Then, in Axis (go to the guide!) he piloted not only the worst Marvel Event in recent memory, but perhaps the worst of all time – also one with most of its events reversed. I was pushing hard for Remender as an architect of Marvel heading into Now, but sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.
29. Scottie Young – The cover-master has become Raccoon wrangler, and there’s little doubt Young is the right man for the job. He could have gone for a weirder, almost-dadaist take on the manic Rocket – (more like what Ryan North is doing on Squirrel Girl), but he stuck with a standard space chase and found the silliness within it. What we got looked like a kid’s book, but was much more mean-spirited – just what you’d expect from a Rocket Raccoon book (see the Guardians guide!). Plus, Young actually extended some aspects of Rocket’s backstory – something we simply don’t have time for on the main Guardians title.
28. Ryan North – This Dinosaur Comics creator and Adventure Time comics vet has a weirdly irreverent tone for Marvel. It was a bad match for a Young Avengers series in the Origin Sin anthology, but that may have been purely down to the wrong cast and mismatched art. By contrast, his Squirrel Girl is brilliant. It’s packed with hilarity, in-jokes, and ridiculous situations with surprisingly sound logic. In the future, I’d like to see him tackle something not so on the fringe of Marvel, like She-Hulk or Deadpool.
In ANAD: He’s back with a new run on Squirrel Girl!
27. Tom Taylor – Fresh off of keeping DC’s unexpected smash Injustice: Gods Among Us a hit for three whole years, Taylor had a more ignominious debut at Marvel running down the clock on Iron Man’s solo book from the end of Axis to the beginning of Secret Wars (go to the guide!). Yet, Taylor crafted a nuanced, enjoyable super-hero read that continued the themes and tone of Gillen’s volume. That’s saying a lot for something that was supposed to simply fill space – imagine what he’ll do with a run all to himself.
In ANAD: Taylor steps into the limelight, writing X-23 as Wolverine.
26. Sam Humphries – Humphries turned in ho-hum work on the schizophrenic Uncanny X-Force (go to the guide!), really missing the mark on character voices despite his so-out-there-it-feels-like-X-Men plot. His Matrix-eseque machine-based dystopia on Avengers A.I. (go to the guide!) was pretty interesting stuff, but definitely on the offbeat side. Then, out of the blue, he turned out to be a perfect fit for the dastardly Star-Lord (see the Guardians guide!). I’m all for a newer Marvel writer finding his rhythm, and it looks like Humphries is on his way.
In ANAD: Humphries tackles a pair of titles well-suited to his voice: Star-Lord and Weirdworld.
25. Nathan Edmonson – A new kid on the Marvel block, Edmonson delivered a thrilling take on the Punisher that blended hyper-violence with more somber moments. I can’t quite say the same for Black Widow, where an unusually harried and self-doubting character was carried through a meandering story by Phil Noto’s peerless art. Deathlok (go to the guide!) was less exciting, for me. This all gives me hope for more super-heroics from him, especially since I love his creator-owned Who Is Jake Ellis, but it has to be characters he really relates to for everything to click.
In ANAD: The just-announced Red-Wolf.
24. Brian Bendis – Marvel’s bald Kingpin of comic writers, Bendis drops into slightly dysfunctional titles and bursts open their narrative possibilities like a pinata. He’s great on younger characters and solo heroes, but his pair of character-packed X-Men titles did a lot of decompressed treading of water (go to the guide!). Speaking of water, his Guardians of the Galaxy (go to the guide!) watered down what Abnett & Lanning did to make them so magnetic in favor of creating a by-the-numbers advertising pamphlet for the movie. It was enjoyable, but not distinct. This trio of titles (plus his Ultimate Comics Spider-Man) sold like gangbusters, but they weren’t the best books of Marvel Now. Also, his disassembly game is something every new writer comes equipped to do – it’s a lot less shocking now than it was 15 years ago! It would be nice to see him deliver a core run that felt classic and not distracting. As for Guardians of the Galaxy – eh, it’ll be fine.
In ANAD: Hopefully the move to a single-character title on Iron Man will give us some amazing Bendis issues, plus he’s writing a solo Spider-Man in the main Marvel Universe! Wishes do come true!
23. John Layman – I’d be intimidated to bat clean-up on a series after it’s intro’d by a master like Greg Rucka, but industry-vet and Chew-creator Layman treated Rucka’s incredible set-up as a lay-up rather than a bar he had to clear. The result was a major score – a totally charming page-turner that was one of Marvel’s best younger-hero books month in and month out. It will be criminal if we don’t see more work from him, but he’s a busy guy.
22. Kathryn Immonen – Wherefore art thou, Ms. Immonen? After her superb run on the slept-on Journey Into Mystery (see the Thor guide) she didn’t make more than a single-issue appearance in the credits until the Agent Carter mini-series. In a world where Marvel has 16 books with female leads it’s hard to imagine there’s not a rule for Immonen in piloting one of them to critical success, but it seems like she simply might prefer mini-series based on her history. Oh well – at least we have creator-owned work like Russian Olive to Red King.
21. Dan Abnett – Abnett can seemingly do no wrong when he’s playing in Marvel’s sandbox. Case and point: Guardians 3000, which should have been a snoozy series full of annoying time travel tricks was a page-turner with real emotional beats. How does it do it? He focuses on what makes characters real instead of just what makes them super. It was only eight issues, but it left me wanting a lot more.
In ANAD: Abnett writes for a ton of other publishers, yet we’re getting two books from him – Guardians of Infinity and Hercules!
20. William Blackman – Elektra was good (go to the guide!). Like, really really good. Un-put-downable. You have to credit Mike DelMundo for much of that success due to his unparalleled visuals, but the writer who made it all click in the first run to feel authentic to Elektra since Miller was Blackman. Marvel seems to understand the lightning they captured in a bottle when Blackman walked off of the critical hit Batwoman, and hopefully they’ll keep him around for years to come.
In ANAD: Nothing announced yet, but the buzz from Elektra was that Marvel loved him. We’re going to see something, eventually.
19. Felipe Smith – Smith’s Ghost Rider (go to the guide!) was full of incredible, indelible heat – from the animated character designs to the rich social fabric of the across-the-tracks LA setting of the book. Ms. Marvel may have received the lion’s share of media attention about a young hero of color taking on an existing mantle, but this book was every bit as good – maybe even a little better.
ANAD: Nothing yet, but Marvel would be foolish to loose this amazing new voice now that’s he’s transitioned from penciller to writer.
18. Peter David – A perennial author and reliable fan-favorite, David knows how to make even the most extreme 90s-era character trait into a nuanced hook to hang a conversation and a plot upon. His character voices are always distinct, and his sitting around while talking scenes never feel like decompression. While his recent All-New X-Factor (go to the guide!) relaunch didn’t have the spark of his Madrox team, it was still a readable run that caused plenty of guffaws as it mined character relationships (and the lack thereof). His Spider-Man 2099 is a blast of fun, making us realized we really did miss the characters of this potential future.
In ANAD: Spider-Man 2099 continues!
17. Ales Kot – This Wild Children, Materials, and Zero writer is a wild card, quickly ejected from DC but seemingly with his hooks in at Marvel on the more violent side of the line with Secret Avengers (go to the guide!), War Machine, and Winter Soldier. His high-concept madness isn’t for everyone, but there’s something kinetic and fresh about his books – they never feel like they’re circling the drain of the same old plot. Secret Avengers was a livewire thrill that I could not get enough of, and War Machine was a self-contained puzzle that never got overly-weird. However, his muddy Winter Soldier missed the mark on a character who isn’t hard to excite with.
In ANAD: Nothing yet, and given his outspoken criticism of not putting women and POC in the driver’s seat for characters of same he might be boycotting Marvel, at the moment.
16. Charles Soule – It’s hard to judge Soule fairly when Marvel keeps using him to resuscitate titles on the brink of disaster, as he did briefly n Thunderbolts (go to the guide!) and from the start on Inhumans. Heck, we can throw Death of Wolverine and its associated tie-ins on that pile, too. We’ve seen some weak spots and bad plots on those books, but it’s hard to know how much Soule was to blame when his job was to pull a book out of the flames. It’s his captivating She-Hulk that’s the clear winner of the bunch, which points to good things now that he’s on the obvious assignment of Daredevil in addition to his continuing Inhumans work.
In ANAD: Daredevil, All-New Inhumans, and Uncanny Inhumans – plus his creator-owned work, including the fantastic Letter 44!
15. James Robinson – Robinson is a classic writer in the modern day – he treats continuity as sacrosanct and will always pull out a forgotten connection rather than a newly devised one. He nailed the tone and history of every character on his Invaders (see the Namor guide) and Fantastic Four (go to the guide!), and it’s strangely relieving to read a pair of Marvel titles so tied up in the company’s history. The downside is that his titles can feel like they drag, but that’s because this man has never heard of decompression – he packs every issue with story. The upside is he rarely loses sight of a character’s heart.
ANAD: A weird combo of Scarlet Witch and Squadron Surpreme. It will be good to see Robinson step away from the massive blockbuster heroes for something a little weirder where he has more latitude to experiment.
14. Greg Pak – Poor Pak. Marvel showed so little faith in him after shuttering his unusually effective X-Treme X-Men at the beginning of NOW that he leapt tracks to pen DC flagship Superman/Batman. Yet, he returned on his professed dream book – Storm’s first solo ongoing title. With a new focus on female heroes and Storm the defacto leader of the X-Men, the run was sheer brilliance – there wasn’t a single missed beat in 11 perfect issues. It’s an instant classic.
ANAD: Pak is back on another longtime dream – writing Hulk again on Totally Awesome Hulk but with a Korean-American star (and his own creation) Amadeus Cho!
13. Kelly-Sue DeConnick – I seem to be simpatico with every one of DeConnick’s plots. Her Avenger Assemble (go to the guide!) was the heart of the franchise and the best book about the people of the Avengers until the madcap Spencer/Kot Secret Avengers. Her Captain Marvel (go to the guide!) was rock solid and will be the utter barometer of Carol’s voice for all future writers, even if it sometimes seem to skirt using the character in the way she’s most enjoyable and effective.
In ANAD: DeConnick steps back from Marvel to focus on creator-owned work and her own production company.
12. Christopher Yost – Yost gets characters. It’s hard to explain it any better than that. Whether it’s Spider-Man, a young X-Men like Anole on Amazing X-Men, or an obscurity like Sun Girl in New Warriors, Yost nails the motivation behind the powers every darn time. There’s something special about the way he connects with the joi-de-vivre of super-heroism. He also writes glossy, fun books that move quickly – which is hard to believe given so much of his success is attributable to a bloody pair of runs on New X-Men and X-Force. And, seriously, who else could make New Warriors as eminently readable? This guy is amazing.
ANAD: Nothing yet, which is a major error on Marvel’s part!
11. G. Willow Wilson – Her Marvel debut on Ms. Marvel (go to the guide!) has been a breath of fresh air, truly the modern take on Spider-Man it was hyped to be. Still, Ms. Wilson is the new kid on the block, and she has some room to grow when it comes to the action in her plots. Her run on X-Men (go to the guide!) captured 4 out of 5 character voices perfectly while spinning a clever story with fresh ideas and ties to continuity.
In ANAD: While everyone wants more Ms. Marvel, it will be a thrill to see her unfurl more story beats and continuity on A-Force.
10. Cullen Bunn – I never thought I’d see a list where Bunn is in my Top 10 after he spent the end of the Heroic era batting clean-up on dead and dying books. His Fearless Defenders (go to the guide!) was frothy fun that should have had a much longer lease on life to explore Marvel’s underbill of female heroes. Then there was Magneto. The book – and Bunn’s achievements on it – caught me completely off-guard. It is a masterful, classic take that is going to hold up for years to come. Who knew Bunn was capable of such incredible pathos?!
In ANAD: Bunn’s on the biggest stage in comics as he takes over Uncanny X-Men, the one title that time and again has handily beaten everything from Batman to it’s brother The Avengers on the sales charts. This could be a career-defining moment for him! He’s also co-writer Drax.
9. Dennis Hopeless – Is Hopeless’s storytelling style a little too on the fringe for mainstream Marvel fans? Some readers still revile him for the deathfest of Avengers Arena(go to the guide!), unable to see that it was Marvel Now’s best new series and that the amazing, dynamic characterizations continued into the short-lived Avengers Undercover. Meanwhile, his phenomenal Cable & X-Force (go to the guide!) run may have been the most X-Men-feeling run of X-Men in all of Now aside from Amazing X-Men. He was the first author in a long while to make both thrill and fun out of Cable’s ties to an apocalyptic future. His Spider-Woman ongoing with Greg Land was slightly less successful, but he still found the right wry, battle-worn voice for Jessica from his first panels.
In ANAD: All-New X-Men and Spider-Woman
8. Jonathan Hickman – Equal parts dystopian chronicler and time travel paradox-ist. Hickman is by far the finest crafter of plots of crystalline intricacy in comics today. Really, all of Marvel Now is just one big story he orchestrated, since on Avengers (go to the guide!) he was writing the key character in The Entire Fate of The Earth. Hickman’s big bucket of ideas seemed bottomless, and he was unafraid to appoint fringe characters to major roles, like Hyperion and his adoptees from New Mutants and New Universe. His downside? Characters can feel a little flat, like checkers he’s moving across a board to be kinged. His Avengers titles opened strong but the main book got weary as it became increasingly clear his heart was in it for the complex Illuminati story in New Avengers (to be fair, he confessed this from the start). It’s impressive he’s finishing strongly and as planned all along with Secret Wars.
In ANAD: Hickman takes a well-deserved break from Marvel to continue writing Manhattan Projects, East of West, and other creator-owned work.
7. Gerry Duggan – It seemed like stunt casting to bring a screenwriter to kickstart the Merc With a Mouth, but it turned out to be a blockbuster? Deadpool (go to the guide!) has been in its finest form of all time for all of Marvel Now, Duggan’s Nova (go to the guide!) was a delicious confection of teen heroism and bravado, and he turned around a limping Hulk (go to the guide!) run into something pulpy and fun to close its run. They’re all feel-good comics with real moments of tension and laughter. Turns out this Hollywood guy is a Marvel bullpenner of the finest pedigree.
In ANAD: Writing Deadpool and Uncanny Avengers.
6. Kieron Gillen – Gillen was my favorite Marvel writer as Marvel Now launched in 2012. His amazing port of his Phonogram tone to his pop-culture take on Young Avengers (go to the guide!) was a confection and a clear precedent to the massive hit of his creator-owned Wicked + Divine. His Iron Man (go to the guide!) run breathed a hell of a lot of new ideas into the world of Stark, and managed to make what could have been a tired paternity plot great before flagging slightly at the end. And, he brought Angela to her own book with a distinct feel in the line while also crafting a final love letter to Asgard. It’s a shame that Darth Vader and his creator-owned work will be pulling all his focus to begin 2016, as he’s one of the best writers when it comes to playing in the deep end of Marvel’s pool of characters.
In ANAD: Nothing! Except for Darth Vader, of course.
5. Jason Aaron – How did my previously most-hated Marvel writer shoot to the top of the list? I never enjoyed Aaron before Thor (go to the guide!), but it’s seemingly the comic he was meant to write. Every issue is fantastic, and he’s digging as deep into Thor’s characterization as any author has since his return to headlining in 2007. The less said about the back half of Wolverine and the X-Men (go to the guide!) the better. A quick side-trip to launch Amazing X-Men was the most contained and Claremont-esque as his X-writing ever got. Add to that a tightly-plotted and well-executed event in Original Sin, and Aaron’s stock is pretty high.
In ANAD: Writing Mighty Thor and Doctor Strange, plus Star Wars!
4. Dan Slott – The Spider-Writer extraordinaire branched out from vanilla Peter Parker to the Superior Spider-Man (go to the guide!) and the cosmic Silver Surfer during Now, proving he’s not just a web-headed one-trick pony. In fact, due to his typical single-title duties, his many admirable traits are frequently overlooked purely for his ability to get books out on time every month without them feeling too decompressed. That doesn’t give him enough credit for his intricate long-view plotting and brilliant characterizations. Even if the idea of Amazing Spider-Man (go to the guide!) has lost some shine after our Superior two years, he managed to engineer a multiversal Spider-Man event that blew the main Marvel x-over in Axis out of the water. Hell, it blew several years of Marvel events out of the water. Plus, Silver Surfer just might be Marvel’s best comic. Hopefully we’ll get to see more branching -out from Slott in the new world order.
In ANAD: Writing Amazing Spider-Man
3. Mark Waid – Waid is the real deal: he’s a long-term plotter who can engineer a shocking twist and hit outstanding character beats on every page. He’s not afraid to make a big change to a classic character or dissect a long-accustomed character trait, as he’s done on his darling Daredevil (go to the guide!) and his slept-on Hulk (go to the guide!). Marvel handed him a clean slate with the comic version of the SHIELD television series, which was delirious fun. His only bad issues of the entire period were the beginning of his second Hulk volume – it had a very “git’er’done” quality to it, which makes sense given it was his final arc before focusing his energies elsewhere. I enjoy that’s he’s not a company man or a Marvel Architect, but someone who pitches interesting new takes on characters and then executes them well.
In ANAD: Writing All-New, All-Different Avengers.
2. Nick Spencer – Spencer is always superb, but he was on fire for the whole of Marvel Now. His pulpy Secret Avengers (go to the guide!) transitioned seamlessly to the madcap run by Ales Kot. His Superior Foes of Spider-Man was one of the major off-the-beaten path highlights of Marvel Now and a consistent highlight. His co-launch of Avengers World (go to the guide!) with Hickman and it’s clever three-part plot became the character-focused lynchpin of the franchise, month in and month out. And, Marvel showed major faith in him by handing him Ant-Man to lead up to the movie release – it was a downtrodden delight.
In ANAD: Writing Astonishing Ant Man and Captain America: Sam Wilson.
1. Al Ewing – What Marvel author is currently batting 1000, without a single dud? That would be Al Ewing, who has been marvelous from his 2013 Age of Ultron tie-ins through his thoughtful Mighty Avengers (go to the guide!) and utterly phenomenal Loki: Agent of Asgard. He’s got the Brit playfulness of Gillen plus the big action beats of Aaron. Marvel seems to love him, too – keeping him on-board Mighty through a reboot at the end of 2014. He also rotated through Avengers World (go to the guide!). Unfortunately, he’s not yet exclusive (he writes a Dr. Who books), which means he can’t be a part of world-planning events. Bummer, because he’s the real deal – it’s rare to see someone be equally successful on solo and team books.
In ANAD: Writing Contest of Champions, New Avengers, and The Ultimates.
And, finally:
Oops, I missed them: Joe Keating (Morbius) and Jason Latour (Wolverine & The X-Men)
There’s a bunch of awesome writers who didn’t quite qualify: Ben Acker and Ben Blacker (Thunderbolts) , Frank Barbiere (Avengers World) Marguerite Bennett (co-wrote only portions of issues), Mike Costa (various specials, A+X, Avengers Millenium), Matt Fraction (not on a Now book; only running down his Hawkeye run), Christos Gage (mainly co-wrote with Slott), Marc Guggenheim (X-Men), Elliott Kalan (Spider-Man and the X-Men), Greg Rucka (Cyclops), Rick Spears (Axis: Carnage), Peter Milligan (All-New Doop), Kevin Shinick (Superior Spider-Man Team-Up, Axis: Hobgoblin), Jeff Loveness (Groot, A+X, various specials), Tim Seeley (various), and Chip Zdarsky (Howard the Duck).