The PoP! Stars narrow it down to the cream of the crop in categories ranging from (but not limited to) Comics, Movies, Toys and Geek Culture in general. This is the PoP! Top 6-Pack.

Jason Aaron/Ron Garney

Notable Collaborations: Post-Messiah Complex “Get Mystique” story arc in Wolverine (issues #62-65); the newest Canucklehead ongoing, Wolverine: Weapon X

Of all the teams listed here, Aaron and Garney are relatively new together and don’t have much of a track record working together. However, they did bring us the enjoyable and rough story arc of Wolverine where he goes after Mystique through the Middle East. If anything good came out of Messiah Complex, this was it. Aaron’s take on the popular mutant and his ridiculous superpowers made for the best Wolverine tale since “Enemy of the State.” Combined with Garney’s crisp lines and action storytelling, it’s no wonder the duo got their own ongoing series, Wolverine: Weapon X. I just hope to see the two work together on other projects in the future; then there’s no doubt they’ll be competing with Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (with whom Aaron is currently working on PunisherMax).

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Gail Simone/Nicola Scott

Notable Collaborations: Simone’s most popular work to date, Birds of Prey; current cult hit Secret Six

If there’s one creative duo I’m less familiar with here, it’s the one of Simone and Scott, a rare combination of female force in mainstream comics. Thing is, I haven’t followed much of Secret Six since its initial story arc, but I very much appreciate the work Gail and Nicola do, giving competition (mostly creatively) to their male counterparts. It’s sad to write that in 2010, but the industry is still dominated by male creators. While fandom seems to be much more varied in recent years, what obviously benefited was the rising amount of female creators. They’re still few, but more than we had a decade ago.

As for the team in question, Simone’s writing style has been favored by fans for the better part of the last decade, working on books like Deadpool and Birds of Prey. No doubt she’s the most popular woman in comics today. Scott is fairly new to the industry, starting her career in her homeland of Australia a couple of years ago. Her collaboration with Simone seems only natural, as she’s adding an exciting visual to the writer’s scripts. Just see the page featured above.

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Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon

Notable Collaborations: The legendary Preacher; a couple of issues of Hellblazer; revamping Frank Castle for a new age in Marvel Knights’ 12-issue The Punisher and later ongoing series

It’s been a long time since Ennis and Dillon worked together (except for a Punisher miniseries wrapping Ennis’ long run with the character), yet the effects of their works are still here. No doubt Preacher is the book that cemented their mark on the industry, with Dillon penciling each of the 66 issues of the series, aside from several related specials and miniseries. At the dawn of the 21st century, Marvel hired the boys to work their magic on the Punisher, a popular vigilante in the late ’80s and barely a shadow of itself in the late ’90s, and they did exactly that. The result was a successful (on all accounts) re-imagining 12-issue series under the Marvel Knights line, followed by an ongoing series with more than 30 issues. The book was canceled with Ennis taking Frank Castle to the more mature MAX imprint, without Dillon to his side. Sixty issues and four and a half years later, Ennis parted ways with Castle, passing him to a young generation of writers (like the aforementioned Jason Aaron).

Ennis is famous for his violent tales, fusing sadistic characters and plots with his criticism of institutionalized religion, political and historical screw-ups, and any war that ever occurred since the end of the 19th century. Dillon’s art, while portraying action like no other artist can, usually gets criticized for the artist’s lack of character designs, moving from three or four types of faces. No matter what your opinion on Dillon or how you can’t stand Ennis’ writing (I can understand why many people don’t agree with his stance on… everything), there is no denial that together they created some of the greatest adult comic stories of the last 20 years.

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Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale

Notable Collaborations: A revamp to Jack Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown; various lauded Batman stories (The Long Halloween, Haunted Knight and Dark Victory); Superman for All Seasons; Marvel’s “Color Series”: Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Gray, and Captain America: White; Catwoman: When in Rome; Superman/Batman #26 (Loeb’s farewell to both the book and his late son); Wolverine & Gambit: Victims; Sale also provided art to the first three seasons of Heroes while Loeb acted as executive/consulting producer and writer on the show.

I recently came to the conclusion that I can’t stand Jeph Loeb. I don’t know enough about him as a person, but I know enough about the creator. I’ve never been into his work, unless it was drawn by one Tim Sale. If you look at any of Loeb’s successes (creatively, not by sales figures), Sale provided the art to that work. Batman: Hush? Sure, beautiful art by Jim Lee (sometimes he’s overrated in my eyes), but it was EXACTLY the same story structure and mystery Loeb did years earlier with Sale on Batman: The Long Halloween. I’m amazed that so many readers let that escape them. Superman/Batman? Fine start, but horrible continuation up to the last story arc. Hulk? Ultimatum? Let’s not go there, please…

But we’re not here to criticize what Loeb has done without Sale, right? Spider-Man: Blue, no doubt, is my favorite book from the team and one of the best Spidey stories I’ve ever read. I only read Hulk: Gray from the “Color Series,” and it’s a couple of steps behind Blue, yet entertaining enough to read. While the mystery in The Long Halloween is not impressive or thrilling, as I hoped, Loeb did some of his writing otherwise and Sale’s art is one of the best I’ve ever seen from him.

I heard many critiques of Sale’s art. I realize there are different strokes and all, but it still saddens me to see such a gifted artist being criticized because people are too bound to what they came to believe is the “right” art style. With his images that look like something from the Silver Age, an alleged simple line, Sale managed to make me like the works of a writer I otherwise don’t care for, so he’ll always be one of the best in my book.

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Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips

Notable Collaborations: Scene of the Crime (Phillips inking over Michael Lark, another constant Brubaker collaborator); the celebrated spy thriller Sleeper; the creator-owned Criminal and Incognito under Marvel’s imprint, Icon

Ed Brubaker used to be a writer with taste for noir, creator-owned books and some low-selling titles for DC. In 2004, Marvel signed him on an exclusive contract, and with high-profile works he became more popular than ever. Whether they worked (Captain America) or not (Uncanny X-Men), Brubaker obviously felt the need to go back to his old days of crime tales, so eventually he was given the keys to the exclusive Icon imprint, creating his own in Criminal and Incognito, both with his former partner Sean Phillips. And guess what? It worked.

It shows that Brubaker enjoys writing crime and noir more than anything else, an escapade from his high-profile works for The House of Ideas at the time. Phillips — while, too, going for other ventures once in a while like X-Men or Marvel Zombies — brings his noirish, dark tones to the table, going from one style to another, working with different tools to create some of the best artwork seen in recent years. Together, they’re one of the most competent creative teams in the field.

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Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely

Notable Collaborations: The legally troubled and hard to track Flex Mentallo; wrapping up Morrison’s The Invisibles; JLA: Earth 2, soon to be a direct-to-DVD animated film for all ages (unlike the ambiguous original); making Marvel’s merry mutants über-hip in New X-Men; my favorite book of the last decade, WE3; the awards-sweeping All Star Superman; Batman and Robin; oh, and they also designed Robbie Williams’ 2005 album Intensive Care.

This should be the last line, but I’ll start with “Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely are the best creative team in the industry since Chris Claremont and John Byrne.”

Hate Morrison’s take on Batman or dislike Quitely’s characters, they’re still the best match anyone could ever imagine. Morrison is by default a genius, so add Quitely’s whiz design skills, and you get a spectacle. If you don’t believe me, just read WE3, a fine use of comics language and layouts; New X-Men #121 (part of Marvel’s then ‘Nuff Said month), and All Star Superman for the most entertaining homage to the bizarre Silver Age.

Funny thing is, because they work so much together and do it so perfectly, rumors have surfaced that Quitely and Morrison’s are one and the same (Vincent Deighan is Quitely’s real name, while his made-up one is a play on “quite frankly”). What’s next? Stan Lee is Steve Ditko? Now that I think of it…

Tomer Soiker
tsoiker@panelsonpages.com