I read a comic recently (I won’t say which one!) that made me think of really good creative teams, and I wondered if there are any in this new millennium that will have the resonance of Lee/Kirby or Lee/Ditko or Claremont/Byrne or Wolfman/Pérez or any number of others who made their mark back in the olden century. Therefore, I want to know what your favorite creative team of the 2000s is. Now, I have some rules, just so you don’t say that one time Grant Morrison and Walt Simonson teamed up for that issue in which the Outsiders (led, naturally, by Looker) visited the real world. You can’t pick that one! I thought about it, and I think I came up with two good rules, or, I guess, two rules, but only one of which need apply. First, the team must have done a minimum of 15 issues together. This, I think, is a decent number — it excludes a mini-series that brought them together once but doesn’t put a burden on them to create a long series. Rule #2: They must have worked on two different series. BUT! If they worked on two different series, they need not add up to 15 issues. Therefore, if they did two 6-issue mini-series together, that counts. If they only did one series together, they have to have done 15 issues. S’alright? S’alright. I mean, this is completely arbitrary, of course. If you want to claim that Jonathan Hickman’s one issue of Betty & Veronica that he did with Bill Sienkiewicz is the best creative team of this century, I’ll allow it — I won’t be happy about it and will make fun of you, but whatever. I do want to make you think a bit, though, which is why I put the rules in there. Of course, you can’t pick a person who writes and draws. That would defeat the purpose. Teams, people!
Anyway, there are a lot of cool creative teams this century, I think we can all agree. The explosion of independent comics in the 1980s led to a much more DIY aesthetic and a lot more companies, so, I think, there are a lot more comics out there and so a lot more creators. Conversely, Marvel and DC seem to want to flood the market, so it becomes harder to keep artists on books, which is a bummer, as we don’t get the classic teams like we did back in the day who spent a while on a book. However, there are still a lot of cool creators out there who hook up with each other (in a strictly professional sense, come on!) and give us neat comics. One of my favorite artists these days in Juan Ferreyra, and his work with Arvid Nelson on Rex Mundi would certainly count, as they did 20 issues together. Gail Simone and Nicola Scott have done a bunch of comics together, so that would count. Bendis and Maleev did a revolutionary run on Daredevil, and that weird Moon Knight thing. I think Ellis and Cassaday on Planetary counts, as a good deal of it came out in the 2000s. I don’t know if Morrison and Quitely and Morrison and Burnham have done enough issues together, but they’re in the mix. Some people really liked Snyder and Capullo on Batman — I did not, but they do qualify! Hickman and Dragotta did East of West, which is a tremendous series. You get the damned idea!!!!
As much as I love a lot of different comics, I quickly narrowed this down to two creative teams. Brubaker and Phillips have done so many excellent comics over the past quarter-century or so, from Criminal (of course) to Reckless, but, I mean, they also did Fatale and Incognito and Kill or Be Killed and The Fade Out a bunch of standalone books, one of which, Where the Body Was, still might be my favorite work they’ve done together. Just a really impressive body of work, and they work so well together. They’re not my answer, though.
Come on, you know my answer: It’s Gillen and McKelvie! Phonogram is one of my favorite comics of this or any other century, and then they did Young Avengers together, where McKelvie really astonished on the art, and then they did The Wicked + The Divine, which is another amazing work. Their production is not as prodigious as Brubillips, certainly, but what they do produce is superb, and I just love it and hope they do more together in the future. Gillen always seems to get good artists to work with (he is, of course, currently working on something with Stephanie Hans and something with Caspar Wijngaard, two excellent artists in their own right), but his work with McKelvie is on another level.
So that’s my answer. I know I didn’t mention a lot of others whom I might really like (none more than Gillen and McKelvie, though, I don’t think), but that’s why we have an open forum, so you can chime in! Let me know your favorite teams of this century in the comments! Have a nice day!
I love Ennis and Parlov. I think Parlov almost has a modern European version of the old DC war comics style of Kubert, and the retro Marvel work he’s done with Ennis on their MAX books have been perfect for Ennis’ tone.
I think Fraction and Aja also really work well, with Aja tailoring his design centered approach to the action of Iron Fist and humor of Hawkeye very differently but effectively.
Hickman and Ribic, I think, are their own best pairings. Ribic does “epic and grandiose” better than anyone out there these days, and that’s right up Hickman’s alley.
But think my favorite pairing is Morrison and Quietly. We3, X-Men, All Star Superman- they’ve done the best stories this millennium imo.
Those are all very good choices!
Don’t forget Batman and Robin, for Mozz/Quitely!
Burrows has done a great job with Ennis, too.
I’d also shout out Waid/Samnee, Taylor/Redondo and Rucka/Lark.
I don’t think my familiarity with more recent creative teams is comprehensive enough, and your 15 issue/2 series rule eliminated a few that came to mind (Busiek and Pacheco, Lees and Talajic, Kesel and Hahn).
So I don’t know. Maybe Aaron and R.M. Guera.
p.s. appreciated the Croatian representation in Mike’s comment above.
I did say my rules were arbitrary, sir! 🙂
Aaron and Guera is a good choice, though.
It’s a tricky one.
All of you named some interesting teams:
Brubaker and Phillips (recently finished Kill or be killed)
Hawkeye/Aja (Hawkeye)
Ellis/Cassaday (Planetary)
Busiek/Pacheco (Avengers)
Other that come to mind:
Aaron/Dillon (Punisher Max)
Bendis/Oeming (Powers)
Hickman/Pitarra (Manhattan Projects)
Baltazar/Franco (Tiny Titans)
Morrison/Quitetly (Batman + We3 + Superman)
My personal top 5 in no particular order:
Layman/Guillory (Chew)
Seeley/Norton (Revival)
Hickman/Dragotta (East of West)
Clevinger/Wegener (Atomic Robo)
Ennis/McCrea (Hitman)
There are way more but this is it for now.
Whoops, I forgot Layman and Guillory — I’m so ashamed! They would probably be second on my list, although with their new book, they have a chance to move up!
Most of Hitman was in the 1990s, so I didn’t consider it, but that’s a good team!
ASS8 was in 2015, and McCrea did some Boys fill-ins and Knights Punisher stuff!
Gillen’s best creative partner is probably McKelvie, but Wijngaard is at a similar level. The Thunderbolt mini they did was great, and Power Company is even better. I can’t wait for that series to come back.
Were in the midst of a Mark Waid Renaissance, and his best creative partners include Dan Mora (on World’s Finest and JLU) and Chris Samnee (on Daredevil, Batman & Robin: Year One, etc). I give the Waid and Samnee team the edge, as Samnee’s a more versatile artist.
Brubaker & Phillips, obviously.
Matt Fraction & Steve Lieber put out one of the best and funniest mini-series of all time with Jimmy Olsen. Ooh, and they reunited for a short story in a recent Superman/Spider-Man crossover! That’s two series! It counts!
Mark Russell and Steve Pugh worked together on the excellent Flintstones comic from 2016, then again on a series called Billionaire Island that I haven’t read yet. On the strength of their Flintstones comic, I name them as one of the best teams of the century.
And here I was going to shout out that Wijngaard and Gillen qualify…and that Power Fantasy might be even better than Single Club, so far!
When push comes to shove, Morrison/Quitely might not only be my favorite team of 21st century but of all time.
Another favorite which I’m sure isn’t a popular opinion around here is Geoff Johns/Ivan Reis (Green Lantern/Aquaman/Justice League).
Hey, if you like Johns and Reis, who am I to say anything? Reis is an excellent artist, after all (and you could add Hyde Street to that, too, of course).
A lot of my go-tos have already been mentioned, so I’ll add:
Ennis/Dillon for Preacher and Welcome Back Frank (“GODDAMN YOU! YOU ASSHOLE!” is from September 2000 and Jesse crying is from October!)
Bendis/Bagley for USM and the flashbacks in Alias (plus various 1610 comics).
Bendis/Gaydos for Alias, Jessica Jones, and Cover.
Rucka/Lark for Gotham Central and Lazarus.
Brubaker/Lark for GC and The Devil in Cell Block D (Scene of the Crime is just out of scope!)
Milligan/Allred for X-Force, X-Statix, and X-Cellent.
Spencer/Lieber for Superior Foes and The Fix.
Kurt Busiek and Ben Dewey (!!!) for Autumnlands and Namor!
Bendis and Bagley worked on The Pulse together, so you don’t even need the flashbacks from Alias (plus, I mean, according to my rules, they already qualify for USM)!
All good choices, sir!
Just re-read your rules…and realized that I left out Busiek/Anderson!
Oh, man! Can’t believe this one didn’t come to mind immediately, as just recently I started pulling my Atomic Robo books from the shelf of shame and reading them: Clevinger and Wegener.
When it comes down to it, I am just a sucker for Morrison/Quitely. All-Star Superman, We3, the last issue of the Invisibles, JLA Earth Two, Multiversity (Pax Americana), Batman and Robin… just every collaboration this century is a hit. I think/hope there’s a new one in the works!
Shockrockets is fairly lightweight…but it does get Busiek/Immonen eligible!
Ellis/Immonen are a pretty special duo as well – I love that Ultimate F4 run.
Definitely Morrison/Quitely for me. Is anyone surprised?
But after that, I’d say Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard. Brink, Wild’s End, and New Deadwardians have all been brilliant, so I’ll buy anything these guys do.
I also like the suggestions of Clevinger/Wegener, Waid/Samnee, and Layman/Guillory. I’m sure I’m forgetting somebody.