DC fans, how do you feel about Brian Bendis?

[Ascended]

Dude, since when Lois and Superman are "eerily on point"?

Since forever.

If the only Superman someone knows is the post-Crisis/Rebirth version, they don't know the character, just one small facet of him. If you read stuff from other eras, you'll see how well Bendis gets Superman.

His Lois was definitely off at first; those early issues had some cringe-worthy dialogue from her. But he's gotten a stronger grasp on her voice since then. Still not 100% there but he's making real progress.

Clark though? He had Clark nailed down from panel 1.

[manwhohaseverything]

Since forever.

If the only Superman someone knows is the post-Crisis/Rebirth version, they don't know the character, just one small facet of him. If you read stuff from other eras, you'll see how well Bendis gets Superman.

His Lois was definitely off at first; those early issues had some cringe-worthy dialogue from her. But he's gotten a stronger grasp on her voice since then. Still not 100% there but he's making real progress.

Clark though? He had Clark nailed down from panel 1.

Yeah well, bendis threw out that facet in the trash. He ain't superdad no more. He is just superman, now. That's fine. But, since lois and clark we had superdad. As for lois, the same problem times ten.I don't see anything motherly let alone supermom like about lois. Both of them behave the exact opposite way of superdads and supermoms should.

[OpaqueGiraffe17]

Honestly I no longer care how well Bendis 'gets Clark's voice.' The moment he had Clark and Lois abandon their kid with a deranged supervillain, he made them so moronic and borderline despicable, it overshadows everything else he's done with their characters.

[Zero Hunter]

It was Bendis and his growing influence over everything that drove me away from Marvel in the 00's and it is happening again with him at DC. The more he influences things the less I like the product as a whole. He has the same kind of relationship with Didio he had with Quesada over at marvel in they just let him do whatever he wants without worrying about the long term damage it causes, and that mindset bleeds over into other writers the longer he is around.

[Sacred Knight]

I still don't care about his changes to Jon just because I hate the character so much. But trying as hard as I can to look at that specific situation objectively (the age-up, not Jon himself; I never have nor ever will be able to look at him objectively), there was no point to it. Hell even in light of knowing about 5G, there's still no point to it as you could just age him up all at once to steal the Superman role if that's what Bendis always wanted. There would have been better precedence to have him adventure with the Legion as a child in fact, like Superman did, as opposed to starting those adventures as a teen like Kara and Kon did.

All that said though, Ascended is right that he gets Superman's voice. Like OG, for me its not enough of a fallback anymore to outweigh the negatives, but he does get his voice down. But he is displaying more and more that despite getting his voice he doesn't get the things that complete the overall myth and mystique of the character. I mean if you want to remove the secret ID, replace his role as Superman with someone else, then make his new role a politician, you just simply don't get it.

[kingaliencracker]

I don't agree. He certainly isn't the sales draw that he once was but his work does get people talking and tends to be pretty heavily promoted. As for sales, is anything at DC really setting the charts alight?

Well the sales aren't a matter of opinion they're fact. We talk about Bendis and his work here because we're fans and that's what we do. But as far as tangible results, they don't exist. If I was DC, I would certainly think twice about putting all my stock into Bendis' 5G movement because there is virtually no real interest in the Bendis name strictly based sales.

And again, I say this as someone who generally likes Bendis' work and who feels Ultimate Spider-Man is one of the greatest comic books of all-time. But the success he had in Marvel at least up to about 10 years ago hasn't transferred over to DC.

[Ascended]

If DC was expecting Bendis to sell like he did over a decade ago, they were fooling themselves and deserve to get burned. Bendis hasn't been as big a power player as he used to be, and as much as switching companies seems to have reignited his creative fires he's still not, and won't be, the hot new sales powerhouse he was back when he was first hitting the big leagues. Geoff Johns doesn't seem to sell like he used to either, for that matter.

Presuming that no one expected Bendis to sell 100K+ an issue, the question then becomes whether he sells like DC expected him to.

And of course, it's not just individual issue sales that have to be taken into consideration. How much is David Marquez worth to DC? Or Alex Maleev? Or Fraction? What about the digital sales and trades and all the other formats that are slowly making the direct market matter less? Legion apparently hit #4 on comixology, which is better than I ever expected that book to do.

Since he still has a job and is still on the same books I assume DC is satisfied. But if 5G really is Bendis' baby and really does take over the whole publishing line I figure that'll change pretty quick. 5G is gonna crash hard if it's a total replacement.

[Dreaded Porcupine]

I’m just glad he is not at Marvel anymore. His main events were some of the worst ever. The X-Men franchise is finally back to it former status and selling very well since he’s been gone.

[kingaliencracker]

If DC was expecting Bendis to sell like he did over a decade ago, they were fooling themselves and deserve to get burned. Bendis hasn't been as big a power player as he used to be, and as much as switching companies seems to have reignited his creative fires he's still not, and won't be, the hot new sales powerhouse he was back when he was first hitting the big leagues. Geoff Johns doesn't seem to sell like he used to either, for that matter.

Presuming that no one expected Bendis to sell 100K+ an issue, the question then becomes whether he sells like DC expected him to.

And of course, it's not just individual issue sales that have to be taken into consideration. How much is David Marquez worth to DC? Or Alex Maleev? Or Fraction? What about the digital sales and trades and all the other formats that are slowly making the direct market matter less? Legion apparently hit #4 on comixology, which is better than I ever expected that book to do.

Since he still has a job and is still on the same books I assume DC is satisfied. But if 5G really is Bendis' baby and really does take over the whole publishing line I figure that'll change pretty quick. 5G is gonna crash hard if it's a total replacement.

Difficult to say what DC's expectations were and they certainly won't ever comment on it.

However, one would at least figure that YJ, LoSH, and Event Leviathan would be a top-10 to top-20 seller with just his name and relaunches alone. I'm giving him a break with Superman because it's not like Superman has been selling like gangbusters but even those books are now selling below where Tomasi/Gleason and Jurgens were selling.

But then again, nothing at DC is really selling well these days.

[Vordan]

The Young Justice relaunch has been a flop under Bendis. He’s wasted so much time just putting the team together and they’re already down in the 20k’s saleswise. But yeah across the board DC is selling really poorly, and 5G might be DC You 2.0. I wonder what’s the breaking point for WB where they will remove Didio from power?

[Ascended]

However, one would at least figure that YJ, LoSH, and Event Leviathan would be a top-10 to top-20 seller with just his name and relaunches alone.

Well, what other Bendis books in recent years have sold that well just on his name recognition? Seriously asking, because I have no idea.

Years back yeah, his name was enough to carry a book. These days? When was the last time his name alone got a book that high up the rankings?

And I honestly wasn't expecting Legion or YJ to sell well anyway. The Legion hasn't mattered in decades and every relaunch they've had in recent years has been awful. And YJ hasn't been around in at least ten years and it's roster got a lot of abuse since 2006, so I wasn't expecting much there either (I did expect better than 20+K though). I dont think we can blame Bendis alone for those books not selling well, they're troubled IP's that would struggle to hit the top 10 regardless of who was on them.

That's assuming Legion does sell poorly; if it hit #4 on comixology it's already doing far better than I thought it would.

[Uncanny Mutie]

He hasn't really done anything with the actual characters in Young Justice though. For as many issues as it has, nothing has really happened other than the characters, or some version of them, have returned.

That's pretty much ANY Bendis book: For the most part, nothing really happens from issue to issue, for issues upon issues. It's mostly just characters standing around chatting in the same "Bendispeak" voices from panel to panel.

On top of that, he basically ignores years worth of continuity to establish his own terrible ideas and push his own lame creator characters, and he leaves messes for other writers to either have to clean up or straight up ignore once he leaves a book and is done with its character(s).

[Uncanny Mutie]

It was Bendis and his growing influence over everything that drove me away from Marvel in the 00's and it is happening again with him at DC. The more he influences things the less I like the product as a whole. He has the same kind of relationship with Didio he had with Quesada over at marvel in they just let him do whatever he wants without worrying about the long term damage it causes, and that mindset bleeds over into other writers the longer he is around.

Yep. It's like people just REFUSE to say "NO!" to the guy and his terrible ideas. Funny thing is, as someone pointed out earlier, if any other writer went to editorial wiht the same bad ideas that Bendis does, they would get shot down and their stuff would NEVER get published.