There are absolutely many exceptions to the rule that fans generally are average, just as there are many exceptions to the rule that artists that write are totally lousy. The greatest examples I can list off the top of my head are Kurt Busiek, and don't forget Julie Schwartz himself, who was a fan before comics fandom existed.
As for the people you specifically mention:
I'm conflicted about Jim Shooter. Cute little Jimmy Shooter wrote the greatest Legion stories ever, bar none; his characterizations for them are their defining personalities, and his creation, Karate Kid, was possibly the first DC hero to have a personality. I'm still wowed by Mantis Morlo's artificial sun and blowing up the wrong earth. Jimbo's Superman stories were just as sharp, and he gave us the gift of the Parasite. But, like most members of Menudo, the moment Jimmy started to shave is when things started to go downhill.
Specifically, I mean his AVENGERS run, which had Hank Pym behave in a totally out of character manner: downright villainous and psychotic, constructing a robot to attack his friends and even striking his wife, the Wasp, at one point. As a result of Shooter's decisions, all the writers that work on the character had to run around and play damage control in order to allow Hank Pym to function as a superhero.
By that same note, I also wasn't a fan of "Korvac Saga." Sure, it had some funny moments, particularly with Beast and his bottles and bottles of shampoo. But Korvac lacked personality, meandered around picking up supermodels with all the desperation of a country gentleman on a constitutional stopping to sniff daisies, and his murder of the entire Avengers was a gigantic 12-page ode to viciousness, the daydream of a man forced into comics that wanted to write for THE NEW YORKER. The ending was the most profoundly unsatisfying ever, because the story was resolved without any action on the part of the characters, whose decisions and actions are supposed to drive the story. The Avengers were essentially forced into a futile battle they could not win which further they LOST, and that's not the Avengers I know, doing no credit to their resourcefulness or bravery. What, did somebody
else have the Ultimate Nullifier that week?
True, how could anyone really triumph against a foe as powerful as Korvac? That isn't the point, though: the point is, this situation of helplessness and impotence exists
only because Jim Shooter created it. Oh, and it turns out Korvac was actually a good guy all along, adding to the senselessness and pointlessness of this entire story. Jimmy probably meant the whole Moondragon ending to be tragic and poignant...really, when I saw her with a little vaseline tear in her eye, thinking "But I will know..." the hysterical melodrama of it all made me burst out laughing.
To be fair to Jimmy's run on that book, though, Jimmy did introduce the wonderful Ms. Marvel into the Avengers, and she has remained a great character since. Ditto for the wonderful Jocasta.
As for Levitz, I never said I disliked him. I don't like Levitz, I don't hate Levitz. I nothing Levitz. In Levitz's defense, he was good at certain aspects of worldbuilding: the cute little details like Legion H.Q. being based in "Weisenger Plaza" (classy) and the fascinating tunnel system based at the center of the earth. Though generally his Legionnaires were rather dull, as you pointed out, Quislet was wonderfully gossipy and egotistical, and it saddens me that no one has thought to return him to the Legion in some form.
I am not willing to forgive Levitz, however, for invalidating the Adult Legion story and stating it never happened and further, that it never could. While the story's exection was centered on an unsatisfying Deux Ex Machina, I'm talking about the
concept. We could see, ahead of time, what happens to our own Legionnaires - even some that hadn't even joined yet! It was absolutely mindblowing. It was a wonderful framework to hang and build to future stories.
Incidentally, Great Rao, how about that one for a future scan for the site? I'll do it and send it to you if your scanning hand is cramped up.
I could continue here about characters whose deaths Levitz carried out that I think was rather unnecessary and wasteful, or decisions about the Legion setting he made that were not consistent with the spirit of previous writers, but it occurs to me that all of it really is atomic hairsplitting. Levitz didn't really do anything, apart from the Adult Legion, that really bugs me. Like I said - he was an alright writer.
As for Levitz's two famous stories, I always preferred "Earthwar" to "Great Darkness." Darkness was interesting, but it didn't feel like a Legion story - more like a story that incidentally featured the Legion. "Earthwar" on the other hand, played with all the Legion toys in the toybox.
