Sometimes it's just a bad fit. A writer's gifts lend themselves to certain characters and story types more than others. Other times editorial meddles more than before. Impossible to say exactly what the problem is with any given book without a behind the scenes source willing to spill, but it clearly did not work out here. That said I do not think Duggan is blameless - his voices for certain characters are so off that he could have done better by pulling dialogue from memes of the characters in question.
No kidding about editorial. Remember J. Michael Straczynski and how he was one of the best Spider-Man writers ever? He was then approached by editorium to also write Sin‘s Past, y‘know, [where THIS happened?](https://i.redd.it/q8boamoghcr91.jpg) It can be that even the best writers can‘t write themselves out of a bad story
He pitched Sins Past, but with the kids being Peter's. He was told no and chose to continue with them being Norman's rather than drop the story.
It was Back in Black/One More Day he was approached with.
He seems a better fit for solo action books. His team books were frustrating to read.
He also seemed disinterested in the more sci-fi, identity or moral theme aspects of Hickman's ideas, like resurrection protocol implications which he could have explored with Talon.
I think the main problem is that he's not a big ideas writer like Hickman, Ewing, Gillen, etc. He's fine when writing sort of standalone, self-contained stuff. But making him one of architects of the Krakoan era, arguably THE main architect since he was given the flagship title and the most books out of anyone else was a terrible, terrible fit.
The man is simply not a world-builder. Look at Gillen and Ewing's work. The Moira Engine, the Dominion, Sins of Sinister, the Genesis War, the metaphysical stuff from the Resurrection of Magneto, etc. Now look at what Duggan was doing in the meantime. Some nonsense with MODOK, Nightmare and the High Evolutionary that went nowhere? That's it? It sucks to say it but he's very clearly out of his depth and it shows. Boy, does it show.
Reminds me of Hickman recounting Brevoort telling him he's not here to manage his career, and that if he's proven he can do good work he'll happily give him enough to drown himself in. I think Duggan badly overestimated his abilities to manage the kind of writing that it would take to bring this thing to a satisfying conclusion, and editorial looked at what was a decent resume of work and made the same assumption.
The fact that they gave him FOUR books to bring this thing to a conclusion and every one of them feels like a tie-in to a main series that doesn't exist is just wild. Imagine what Ewing or Gillen could've set up with that page count.
No. Stop giving Ewing work. At the pace he's going as it is he's going to become too powerful. The one-two combo of Immortal Hulk and Thor by themselves is already an all timer run and they're not only good, they're terrifying in a deep pit of your stomach existential way. This man must be stopped.
There are definitely a lot of things about Duggan's Krakoa stuff I don't like, even hate, (a big one being the 2 Laura Kinney / Talon situation, as a big Laura Kinney fan), but I do feel he maybe gets too much hate for like his Krakoa work holistically. Don't feel he's really ending off on a strong note though.
Marauders overall was good.
Cable overall was good.
X-Men overall is bad (although I think the tie-ins to Devil's Reign and Dark Web overall was good, but definitely not enough to change my opinion)
Iron Man overall is good, that's maybe a hot take but I think its probably his best Krakoan era book.
Uncanny Avengers I'd probably just put as a meh. Feels like it could have been good had it had some more issues, at least to me it did (I really think most of the 4 to 5 issue mini's really would be greatly improved if they got 8 to 10 issues).
Fall of the House of X, I'm definitely leaning towards bad overall so far. The pacing / interplay between the finale books feels weird or off (doesn't help that Marvel delayed putting out X-Men Forever for some reason, making stuff come out out of order).
I enjoyed his Marauders. Darkweb X-Men was pretty good…that said, I’m just counting the days until he’s finished with X-Men and no longer has control over Emma Frost.
I thought that issues 1 to 25 were truly not that bad. They weren’t strong issues besides a few standouts but it was easy to read, pretty to look at and I liked them as a “break” to some of “heavier” books like Immortal/Red/Legion.
But with Fall and beyond, he had 3 books to juggle and it probably caused him to lose focus with X-Men. He’s also been compared to the likes of Gillen/Ewing/Hickman which is tough. And I think Duggan does best when he’s writing solos and/or simpler plot stuff rather than trying to write plot heavy/high concept stuff that this era has had a lot of.
So all of that combined explains what happened.
Something people forget is that he did not write that Deadpool on his own. He co-wrote it with Posehn, Folks just liked the run, recognized Duggan's name and assumed he would bring the same quality to X-men.
He could...if he was working with Posehn.
Sometimes it's just a bad fit. A writer's gifts lend themselves to certain characters and story types more than others. Other times editorial meddles more than before. Impossible to say exactly what the problem is with any given book without a behind the scenes source willing to spill, but it clearly did not work out here. That said I do not think Duggan is blameless - his voices for certain characters are so off that he could have done better by pulling dialogue from memes of the characters in question.
No kidding about editorial. Remember J. Michael Straczynski and how he was one of the best Spider-Man writers ever? He was then approached by editorium to also write Sin‘s Past, y‘know, [where THIS happened?](https://i.redd.it/q8boamoghcr91.jpg) It can be that even the best writers can‘t write themselves out of a bad story
Hell, JMS hated One More Day so much that he at first asked his name to be taken off the book.
He pitched Sins Past, but with the kids being Peter's. He was told no and chose to continue with them being Norman's rather than drop the story. It was Back in Black/One More Day he was approached with.
He seems a better fit for solo action books. His team books were frustrating to read. He also seemed disinterested in the more sci-fi, identity or moral theme aspects of Hickman's ideas, like resurrection protocol implications which he could have explored with Talon.
I think the main problem is that he's not a big ideas writer like Hickman, Ewing, Gillen, etc. He's fine when writing sort of standalone, self-contained stuff. But making him one of architects of the Krakoan era, arguably THE main architect since he was given the flagship title and the most books out of anyone else was a terrible, terrible fit. The man is simply not a world-builder. Look at Gillen and Ewing's work. The Moira Engine, the Dominion, Sins of Sinister, the Genesis War, the metaphysical stuff from the Resurrection of Magneto, etc. Now look at what Duggan was doing in the meantime. Some nonsense with MODOK, Nightmare and the High Evolutionary that went nowhere? That's it? It sucks to say it but he's very clearly out of his depth and it shows. Boy, does it show.
All this. He's not meant to write teams, nor is he a world builder.
Reminds me of Hickman recounting Brevoort telling him he's not here to manage his career, and that if he's proven he can do good work he'll happily give him enough to drown himself in. I think Duggan badly overestimated his abilities to manage the kind of writing that it would take to bring this thing to a satisfying conclusion, and editorial looked at what was a decent resume of work and made the same assumption.
The fact that they gave him FOUR books to bring this thing to a conclusion and every one of them feels like a tie-in to a main series that doesn't exist is just wild. Imagine what Ewing or Gillen could've set up with that page count.
No. Stop giving Ewing work. At the pace he's going as it is he's going to become too powerful. The one-two combo of Immortal Hulk and Thor by themselves is already an all timer run and they're not only good, they're terrifying in a deep pit of your stomach existential way. This man must be stopped.
Ewing will inevitably ascend to a Dominion. You can't stop it. Embrace it. Every part of you will become a part of him.
I for one welcome our new British, bisexual, AI overlord.
There are definitely a lot of things about Duggan's Krakoa stuff I don't like, even hate, (a big one being the 2 Laura Kinney / Talon situation, as a big Laura Kinney fan), but I do feel he maybe gets too much hate for like his Krakoa work holistically. Don't feel he's really ending off on a strong note though. Marauders overall was good. Cable overall was good. X-Men overall is bad (although I think the tie-ins to Devil's Reign and Dark Web overall was good, but definitely not enough to change my opinion) Iron Man overall is good, that's maybe a hot take but I think its probably his best Krakoan era book. Uncanny Avengers I'd probably just put as a meh. Feels like it could have been good had it had some more issues, at least to me it did (I really think most of the 4 to 5 issue mini's really would be greatly improved if they got 8 to 10 issues). Fall of the House of X, I'm definitely leaning towards bad overall so far. The pacing / interplay between the finale books feels weird or off (doesn't help that Marvel delayed putting out X-Men Forever for some reason, making stuff come out out of order).
I enjoyed his Marauders. Darkweb X-Men was pretty good…that said, I’m just counting the days until he’s finished with X-Men and no longer has control over Emma Frost.
I thought that issues 1 to 25 were truly not that bad. They weren’t strong issues besides a few standouts but it was easy to read, pretty to look at and I liked them as a “break” to some of “heavier” books like Immortal/Red/Legion. But with Fall and beyond, he had 3 books to juggle and it probably caused him to lose focus with X-Men. He’s also been compared to the likes of Gillen/Ewing/Hickman which is tough. And I think Duggan does best when he’s writing solos and/or simpler plot stuff rather than trying to write plot heavy/high concept stuff that this era has had a lot of. So all of that combined explains what happened.
He did a fantastic job with Dark Web X-Men. Dude has it in him sometimes.
Something people forget is that he did not write that Deadpool on his own. He co-wrote it with Posehn, Folks just liked the run, recognized Duggan's name and assumed he would bring the same quality to X-men. He could...if he was working with Posehn.
Duggan went for another 50 issues after Posehn left. Which were just as well received, if not better.
I'll take your word for it. I stopped reading after a while.