The Best
5. Fabian Nicieza
The 90s are generally regarded as a low point for the X-Men, and its hard to argue with that. During a time when the X-Men animated series was widely successful, the comics themselves were a bit less so, plagued by annual crossovers and some really confusing ideas. But despite all of that, Fabian Niciezas run on the comics, spanning from X-Men #12-45, is something of a diamond in the rough. For instance, if youre a fan of Gambit, you probably have Nicieza to thank. While he was created by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, the character didnt really get much development until Nicieza came around. And it was something he would expand when Gambit received his own ongoing series, written by Nicieza for issues #1-24. And if you like the matching of Gambit and Rogue, again thats Nicieza to thank. Seeds for it were sown before he came onboard, but Nicieza really developed the bulk of their relationship and wrote some of the best stories between them. Outside of the X-Men, Nicieza was also the scripter for Rob Liefelds X-Force run, and when Liefeld departed Marvel, Nicieza took the reins of the book, bringing it closer to the New Mutants title that preceded it. A lot of the initial character work on Cable and Deadpool also came from Nicieza, and later he got a chance to write them together in the highly entertaining Cable & Deadpool series.