Okay, I'm gonna use my favorite whipping-boy here: IRON FIST.
IF was created by Roy Thomas-- many don't know this-- as a tribute to the Bill Everett character AMAZING MAN. (Years later, when Roy created a 2nd AMAZING MAN for A.S.S., he gave him the same color scheme as IF-- how's that for a connection?) But Roy, as E.I.C. and CONAN head-honcho was too busy to do a new series himself-- so immediately handed it off to others, who had little idea what to do with it (and I suspect Roy may have plotted out the entire origin and discussed it with the writers who finished it for him).
PREMIERE # 15 -- Thomas / Kane / Giordano
16 -- Thomas & Wein / Hama / Giordano
17 -- Moench / Hama / Giordano
18 -- Moench / Hama / Giordano
19 -- Moench / Hama / Giordano
DEADLY HANDS SPECIAL #1 -- Moench / McLaughlin / Crusty Bunkers
20 -- Isabella / Jones / Green
21 -- Isabella / Jones / Colletta
22 -- Isabella / Jones / Bradford (part 8 / conclusion or origin)
DEADLY HANDS #10 -- Isabella & Kraft / McLaughlin / Nebres
TEAM-UP #31 -- Conway / Mooney / Colletta
23 -- Claremont / Broderick / McLeod
DEADLY HANDS # 18 -- Mantlo / Broderick / Austin
24 -- Claremont / Broderick / Colletta
25 -- Claremont / Byrne / McWilliams
IF # 1 -- Claremont / Byrne / McWilliams
2 -- Claremont / Byrne / Chiaramonte
The last listing was when the series FINALLY settled down to a 'regular" team. Isn't that REDICULOUS??? Len Wein was notorious for not sticking with most things, Doug Moench dropped off because suddenly MASTER OF KUNG FU was a popular as CONAN (and he didn't want to do 2 kung fu series at the same time). But when Doug left, why did Larry Hama, who was so EXCITING (and BRUTAL) leave, along with Dick Giordano, who'd been the only one to do every episode up to that point? Newcomers Tony Isabella & Arvell Jones were a joke-- Tony hadn't figured out how to write yet, and Arvell didn't learn to draw until he got to DC a few years later. The fact that he had 3 inkers in 3 issues made it worse-- and when you went from Green to Colletta to Bradford (my vote for the WORST inker at Marvel in the 70's) it was like watching stock prices PLUMMET. Claremont may have been a perfect fit for the series, as Chris clearly never had a sense of humor, and Pat Broderick's debut blew me away-- Bob McLeod made it more so. But like Jones, he only lasted 3 episodes (one of them the SONS OF THE TIGER team-up) and had 3 inkers in 3 stories-- Mcleod, Austin, Colletta (more plunging stock prices, so to speak). I think at that point they must have been looking for ANYBODY who'd stay on the job-- and newcomer John Byrne got his shot at the "big time" right there, and took it. After 2 issues of terrific inks, they got probably the 2ND-worst inker in the biz to work with him-- wonderful.
After 3 decades, I still like to use this as an example of the worst aspects of Roy Thomas "editorial style". (I'm sure he learned from Stan. Never mind who'd be best suited for a project-- "Who's available TODAY??")
