Re: Fantastic Four series discussion (spoilers)
I was under the impression that DC: The New Frontier writer/artist/graphic designer Darwyn Cooke co-wrote/co-plotted the majority of JLU , though admittedly I have no idea what gave me that impression.
To be precise, Darwyn Cooke's involvement with the DCAU was only as storyboard artist for
Batman: The Animated Series and
Superman: The Animated Series. He did do the title design for
Batman Beyond, but otherwise he has had almost no story involvement with JLU save for a story credit on "Task Force X", a pretty interesting heist episode that was more of a meta-plot advancement episode than the usual glory-service-for-B-listers fare that the series is known for.
While Dwayne McDuffie had major involvement with JLU, I wouldn't automatically use it as a promise of excellence from him for
Fantastic Four. He's had some forgettable work and some excellent work, but clearly some of his forgettable work would include the writing for the videogame
Justice League Heroes, which is surprising considering that one'd expect he'd work better with the team he's had a hand in popularizing in animated format.
To be fair, that's a videogame and I've yet to see a memorably handled videogame plot written by someone whose experience lies in non-videogame work. Another example of this would be Zak Penn (
X-Men: The Last Stand, the hack who did the
Fantastic Four videogame which didn't even HAVE a coherent plot.
Most people regard McDuffie's shining work to be
JLU. He is credited as writer/producer, and that's largely a TEAM role. I remember listening to J.M. DeMatteis on WordBalloon, and the way he described the writing process, it works like other television shows where there's an overall mission for each episode and writers collaborate and the one gets teleplay credits is merely the one who puts all the pieces together into a 22-page script. Stylistic things like dialogue are shaped and hammered by the team, which is why the Warren Ellis-written "Dark Heart" sounds like Ellis and does not sound like Ellis all at the same time.
