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Need to read through it fully at some point. The most I read was Disassembled and that didn't put me in a good mood. Such a garbage, sexist piece crap. Though, ironically, it was the first time we saw Bendis try to rewrite She-Hulk into a more dramatic character dealing with trauma and an inner beast. Thankfully it didn't stick back then.
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I remember reading Bendis' run as probably one of my first major exposures to the Avengers property.
It wasn't until watching the [I]Earth's Mightiest Heroes[/I] cartoon that I felt like I truly came to understand what The Avengers was really about.
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Pretty great for the most part, with his usual inconsistencies here and there.
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[ATTACH=CONFIG]96573[/ATTACH]
Also gave us this, one of the best Luke Cage issues ive seen.
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[QUOTE=your_name_here;4966788][ATTACH=CONFIG]96573[/ATTACH]
Also gave us this, one of the best Luke Cage issues ive seen.[/QUOTE]
I don't know why but Bendis is strait up gifted when it comes to writing street level heroes.
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[QUOTE=your_name_here;4966788][ATTACH=CONFIG]96573[/ATTACH]
Also gave us this, one of the best Luke Cage issues ive seen.[/QUOTE]
Bendis doesn't get enough credit for his handling of Luke Cage IMO. He did some really great stuff with the character, and put a spotlight on him in general that we haven't seen before or since.
Seems unlikely at this point, but I'm still hoping another writer down the line decides to put Cage in the Avengers again. Having a more down to earth perpective in the group really added something IMO.
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I will always be incredibly grateful that Bendis put Spider-Woman on the roster and brought Jessica Drew back into the spotlight.
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[QUOTE=Elmo;4965525]
with Dark Reign -- were people totally behind this concept back then? I was dying for it to be over. Dark Avengers had great spectacle but most of the down-time moments consisted of Moonstone trying to bone every team member (GROSS!!!) . the best thing to come out of Siege was the death of Sentry. I really can't understand why Bendis spent so much time trying to expand this character. the original miniseries was incredible, it should have just ended there. [/quote]
Naw. There's more to that story. The ending is more ambiguous. That door was left open for a reason. Just Bendis, being Bendis, ignored character development granted the character elsewhere and squandered every bit of good will that the character could have had.
It was *such* a waste and the ending was incredibly offensive to me as someone who has some of the same mental illnesses the Sentry did as a character.
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[QUOTE=Tendrin;4966953]Naw. There's more to that story. The ending is more ambiguous. That door was left open for a reason. Just Bendis, being Bendis, ignored character development granted the character elsewhere and squandered every bit of good will that the character could have had.
It was *such* a waste and the ending was incredibly offensive to me as someone who has some of the same mental illnesses the Sentry did as a character.[/QUOTE]
In fairness, the first few years before Civil War, I think The Sentry was pretty interesting under Bendis. I think it was clear he had a good plan.
Essentially, he was Bendis’ way of showing us “golden age” heroes/way of thinking will crumble under the new modern, “darker” sensibilities. As I said before, the problem was the events and that he never got the chance to expand on the characters further the way he probably originally intended to.
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[QUOTE=your_name_here;4966965]In fairness, the first few years before Civil War, I think The Sentry was pretty interesting under Bendis. I think it was clear he had a good plan.
Essentially, he was Bendis’ way of showing us “golden age” heroes/way of thinking will crumble under the new modern, “darker” sensibilities. As I said before, the problem was the events and that he never got the chance to expand on the characters further the way he probably originally intended to.[/QUOTE]
I'm not so sure, to be honest. A lot of Bendis' early moves seem missteps to me. If you want to talk about 'golden age heroes crumbling', you certainly don't have them rip someone in half right out the gate. No, his writing on Sentry was nearly as schizohprenic as the character. The unnecessary retcons began right away, too, with the Void being a product of Mastermind, something he himself later ignored, and he did *not* have the deft touch for the meta aspects that Jenkins displayed with his hammy 'Paul jenkins' storyline. Bendis retconned himself like... numerous times.
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[QUOTE=your_name_here;4966788][ATTACH=CONFIG]96573[/ATTACH]
Also gave us this, one of the best Luke Cage issues ive seen.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=charliehustle415;4966827]I don't know why but Bendis is strait up gifted when it comes to writing street level heroes.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=XPac;4966875]Bendis doesn't get enough credit for his handling of Luke Cage IMO. He did some really great stuff with the character, and put a spotlight on him in general that we haven't seen before or since.
Seems unlikely at this point, but I'm still hoping another writer down the line decides to put Cage in the Avengers again. Having a more down to earth perpective in the group really added something IMO.[/QUOTE]
I think Bendis' use of Luke Cage was probably more significant to his run then his handling of the actual Avengers...
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[QUOTE=Tendrin;4966975]I'm not so sure, to be honest. A lot of Bendis' early moves seem missteps to me. If you want to talk about 'golden age heroes crumbling', you certainly don't have them rip someone in half right out the gate. No, his writing on Sentry was nearly as schizohprenic as the character. The unnecessary retcons began right away, too, with the Void being a product of Mastermind, something he himself later ignored, and he did *not* have the deft touch for the meta aspects that Jenkins displayed with his hammy 'Paul jenkins' storyline. Bendis retconned himself like... numerous times.[/QUOTE]
As always whenever a Sentry-esque post pops up, I am in agreement.
I team-followed the Sentry through to Siege and then immediately lost interest. I didn't much like his Ares either. Oeming's(?) mini along with the Dark Avengers: Ares mini were far better.
Actually thinking on, Dark Reign: Hawkeye was a better Bullseye than Bendis could write...
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[QUOTE=Tendrin;4966975]I'm not so sure, to be honest. A lot of Bendis' early moves seem missteps to me. If you want to talk about 'golden age heroes crumbling', you certainly don't have them rip someone in half right out the gate. No, his writing on Sentry was nearly as schizohprenic as the character. The unnecessary retcons began right away, too, with the Void being a product of Mastermind, something he himself later ignored, and he did *not* have the deft touch for the meta aspects that Jenkins displayed with his hammy 'Paul jenkins' storyline. Bendis retconned himself like... numerous times.[/QUOTE]
I agree Bendis dropped the hall with The Sentry as he went on. More because he was too busy juggling events, leading into the next one. However, there were interesting elements there.
I terms of “crumbling”, it’s just a matter of opinion but I *think* he was intended to be Bendis’ way of showing us what his run was meant to be about. Essentially, it was that the old way of doing things (this can be taken meta too) had to quickly align themselves with the modern era, which was darker and had sensibilities they didn’t have “back then”. That’s why SHIELD, the original Avengers failed and crumbled...The Skrulls exploited this naivety. The whole run is almost like a “stop-gap” period of ushering us into Avengers-Greatness again.
So back to Sentry, I believe he was meant to be the proof of his statement. That Sentry, the old-scool Superman-esque character, succumbing to the darker ways of the modern era where things aren’t necessarily clear-cut, to the point he finds himself completely lost and manipulated.
I completely agree - Bendis clearly lost his message here and there. He didn’t seem to know HOW to make this message with The Sentry. There was interesting premise with that first story he told, it’s just a shame he couldn’t let that stretch and tell what probably was his original plan. I suspect the excitement of pushing these big events got in the way of these other stories.
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[QUOTE=Frontier;4967023]I think Bendis' use of Luke Cage was probably more significant to his run then his handling of the actual Avengers...[/QUOTE]
It’s fascinating that he never actually wrote a Luke Cage solo book.
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New Avengers was very good until Civil War, more uneven after that.
I think Bendis’s revamp was necessary and if he had done it without trashing the old-school Avengers and their characters his run would be less controversial. He clearly wrote with some love for the franchise (which I don’t get from Hickman), but starting out by breaking all the toys and telling the old school fans to go away was a bit cruel, as I think even he has acknowledged.