DC fans, how do you feel about Brian Bendis?

[Talon1load]

I genuinely think it speaks well of Bendis that he is this polarizing. I don't love everything he does (though I do quite a bit of it) but I admire both his willingness to take risks and that his writing has such a unique voice - and I don't just mean the "Bendis-speak". I also don't think you can overstate just how huge an impact he had on superhero comics, particularly in the first decade of the century, both good and bad.

Looking at the sales numbers for his books, I don’t think his being polarizing is such a good thing. Just because he had a huge impact early on in 00’s doesn’t mean he should be put in charge of such a large portion of DC. He was supposed to attract new readers but unless he was going to bring a **** ton of new readers, which it doesn’t seem he has, then DC can’t really afford to lose the existing fan base. They should be working to keep the fans they have while attracting new ones. Not trying to replace them. Bendis being polarizing is not helping anything right now.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Looking at the sales numbers for his books, I don’t think his being polarizing is such a good thing. Just because he had a huge impact early on in 00’s doesn’t mean he should be put in charge of such a large portion of DC. He was supposed to attract new readers but unless he was going to bring a **** ton of new readers, which it doesn’t seem he has, then DC can’t really afford to lose the existing fan base. They should be working to keep the fans they have while attracting new ones. Not trying to replace them. Bendis being polarizing is not helping anything right now.

Well, I care rather more about the work itself than how well it does, financially. Also, are any ongoings from DC doing particularly brilliantly, right now? At least his stuff is causing a buzz.

[kingaliencracker]

Well, I care rather more about the work itself than how well it does, financially. Also, are any ongoings from DC doing particularly brilliantly, right now? At least his stuff is causing a buzz.

Not a Bendis hater, but what buzz? None of his DC stuff has been selling well.

[Stick Figure]

Other than Straczynski, Bendis is my favorite writer. I buy book he does with characters I don’t really care about. I just consistently enjoy his work. I admit his last years at Marvel weren’t as good as his Ultimate work or Daredevil, or something like Powers. I think he’s been solid at DC though. I’m surprised he hasn’t brought in bigger numbers. I work with a guy who literally hunts down everything Bendis does. He’ll read anything he does. I didn’t know he wasn’t a fan favorite anymore. Right now, I’m forward to his books each month. Great stuff!

[lordozone]

Well, I care rather more about the work itself than how well it does, financially. Also, are any ongoings from DC doing particularly brilliantly, right now? At least his stuff is causing a buzz.

There is absolutely no buzz at all. We are discussing it here, because we are DC fans, but Comics fans at large don't care at all about these stories: they talk about X-men, Absolute Carnage,Doomsday Clock, Tom King's books at DC... But, except maybe the first issues of Naomi, nobody care about the Bendis books at DC. Even Legion of Super-heroes reboot was met with a slight disapointment.

[Masterff]

I like a lot of Bendis's past works his Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-Man run are some of the things that made me a life long fans of those characters. However, while I think he has great ideas they are not executed in the best way. For instance, he is writing Young Justice and Legion of Superheroes both featuring a Superboy. Instead of using Conner if wanted to use a teenage Superboy in Legion he ages Jon Kent up. Not only making this relatively new character's history complicated especially if you just came off of Tomasi's Superman where he was a 10-year-old boy and his team-up book with Robin in Supersons. Not to mention Bendis clearly has not read previous runs of Action Comics or Superman based on his writing. I give Bendis a lot of passes in his writing before but I felt like his run on a lot of these characters has not only ruined Tomasi successful Superman run but also made characters like Conner who just got brought back redundant.

Is Jon Kent being apart of the Legion of Superheroes a good idea. Yes, do you need readers and his parents missing 8 years of his life to do that, I really don't think so. I feel like Bendis and the heads of DC really don't know why readers value young characters in comics so much. Its because we like seeing them grow up and develop as people. If readers don't get to see the journey then why bother?

I'm sure he's had his hands tied to one degree or another.

There were (and maybe still are?) plans for Tim involving Dr. Manhattan and the DCU's missing time. Bendis can't screw with that stuff because it's not his story. Conner didn't even exist in current continuity and Bendis' main goal there had to be explaining where he's been and why no one remembers him, and that had to be "Conner priority #1."

Bart and Cassie....I'm not sure if Bendis has had to contend with stuff from the Flash and Wonder books, especially since Cassie, I believe, hasn't been part of Diana's editorial group for a long time (I know that's the case with Donna but not 100% about Cassie). But Bendis does have some subplots with Cass in the pipe, we just haven't gotten to them yet.

I mean, I want to get right into it with all these characters too. I've missed this team so much! But there's a big roster and everyone needs some spotlight time and there's been problems even getting them onto the page (the continuity stuff), so.....I'm willing to give Bendis some time here, yknow?

I as huge Conner,Cassie,Tim,Bart....Fan have to say that I am really disappointed by YJ so far.

His Conner doesnt have the coolness of the Kessel Version and he isnt as powerful as the TT Version of Conner.
The YJ Arcs are to long and I am losing the interest, because they are kept away from main-stories and I hoped that he would age Conner,Cassie,Tim..up.

It makes also NO SENSE to give them Naomi,Teen Lantern,Jinny....as partners...
Conner,Cassie,Bart,Tim...should be Legends right now and be together with experienced heroes.

I REALLY MISS Johns and Kessel who wrote a better Conner.

[DragonPiece]

To me this is very bait-y, considering it should and is well known that Bendis is a controversial figure, to the point that he has a hatedom, that he's blamed for everything that happens... And tbh this question has already been answered, through the multiple times that Marvel and DC fans continuously bring up his name so they can insult and/or put blame on him for something that's he's not associated with.

As for the actual question, I like him and his writing, his comics can be dialogue heavy but he's a talker himself so it make sense. His writing style along with how he paces is very similar to how a mangaka would structure a manga so as a manga lover, it's easy to deal with. His characters tend to be used frequently and even when they aren't they're not shelved completely so they're easy to invest in and he brings the best artists on his books, so that's a worry I don't have to deal with.



Then those poc don't even know what tokenism is which is sad b/c they should.

I agree with you, I don't know if that was the op's intentions, but these threads with Bendis are always met with loads of unnecessary hate.

[LP22]

to tell the truth I like bendis ideas the only thing that i'm slightly in disagreement with his direction is the fact that Lois and Clark are living separately.

[Talon1load]

I agree with you, I don't know if that was the op's intentions, but these threads with Bendis are always met with loads of unnecessary hate.

If lots of people dislike his writing and the direction he takes characters they love, is it really unnecessary hate? Who are you or anyone else to tell people their feelings are unnecessary?

[Holy Nightwing Fan]

I'm not sorry to say that I'm hating him. He doesn't listen to the fans, and even call them babies, he doens't research about the characters, which make the characterization extremely off (if you are reading Superman you know what I'm talking about), and he doesn't respect neither the previous events nor the characters. And the one that has suffered most was Jon. I mean, besides the fate of Supersons comics, which were pretty light and fun and I loved, why aging a beloved character like that just to put him in the Legion?

I know that in the Silver Age Superboy was leading the Legion, but c'mon! Couldn't he just insert a Superboy from the future and leave Jon as boy in the mainstream era? It would have had the same effect and I wouldn't dislike him so much as right now. Jon was my sole motive to read Superman, because I was never a huge fan of the blue boyscott. But now? Now I won't even touch a modern Superman comics until they bring Jon back, which most probably will never happen. They should have done the same they did for Damian: slow growth. Let the readers accompany his journey in his growth and they will love him and you for that. But no, screw that, isn't it? I want my Legion comic and I need a star to lead it because I don't know how to write good stories and I need to attract readers somehow. Geez, talk about insecurities and ego...

And before someone corrects me, I know that the decision to grow Jon up was not Bendis' but DiDio's, but he could at least be against this idea and maybe the editorial could have changed their minds. But nope, Bendis don't care, he never did.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Not a Bendis hater, but what buzz? None of his DC stuff has been selling well.

There is absolutely no buzz at all. We are discussing it here, because we are DC fans, but Comics fans at large don't care at all about these stories: they talk about X-men, Absolute Carnage,Doomsday Clock, Tom King's books at DC... But, except maybe the first issues of Naomi, nobody care about the Bendis books at DC. Even Legion of Super-heroes reboot was met with a slight disapointment.

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?

I as huge Conner,Cassie,Tim,Bart....Fan have to say that I am really disappointed by YJ so far.

His Conner doesnt have the coolness of the Kessel Version and he isnt as powerful as the TT Version of Conner.
The YJ Arcs are to long and I am losing the interest, because they are kept away from main-stories and I hoped that he would age Conner,Cassie,Tim..up.

It makes also NO SENSE to give them Naomi,Teen Lantern,Jinny....as partners...
Conner,Cassie,Bart,Tim...should be Legends right now and be together with experienced heroes.

I REALLY MISS Johns and Kessel who wrote a better Conner.

Sorry, but Kesel and Johns basically wrote completely different characters. At least Bendis' Superboy seems like the same character that Kesel created, unlike that plank of blandness that was Johns' Superboy. I'm enjoying YJ but, yeah, the first arc was insanely drawn out. I didn't mind because I love the character interactions but, yeesh, it took forever to get through a pretty simple plot. The Multiverse arc, though, has been lots of fun, and I did really enjoy the Teen Lantern origin - even if, yeah, the noobies are nowhere near as compelling as the founding four.

to tell the truth I like bendis ideas the only thing that i'm slightly in disagreement with his direction is the fact that Lois and Clark are living separately.

I was too at first but because Superman can get between cities quicker than most of us can get from one room to the next, it doesn't really matter. Indeed, though I still strongly dislike the decision to age up Jon, I've been loving the way both Bendis and Rucka write the Lois and Clark marriage.

I'm not sorry to say that I'm hating him. He doesn't listen to the fans, and even call them babies, he doens't research about the characters, which make the characterization extremely off (if you are reading Superman you know what I'm talking about), and he doesn't respect neither the previous events nor the characters. And the one that has suffered most was Jon. I mean, besides the fate of Supersons comics, which were pretty light and fun and I loved, why aging a beloved character like that just to put him in the Legion?

I know that in the Silver Age Superboy was leading the Legion, but c'mon! Couldn't he just insert a Superboy from the future and leave Jon as boy in the mainstream era? It would have had the same effect and I wouldn't dislike him so much as right now. Jon was my sole motive to read Superman, because I was never a huge fan of the blue boyscott. But now? Now I won't even touch a modern Superman comics until they bring Jon back, which most probably will never happen. They should have done the same they did for Damian: slow growth. Let the readers accompany his journey in his growth and they will love him and you for that. But no, screw that, isn't it? I want my Legion comic and I need a star to lead it because I don't know how to write good stories and I need to attract readers somehow. Geez, talk about insecurities and ego...

And before someone corrects me, I know that the decision to grow Jon up was not Bendis' but DiDio's, but he could at least be against this idea and maybe the editorial could have changed their minds. But nope, Bendis don't care, he never did.

Look, I'm with you on aging Jon but so much of this is ludicrously wrong. First, Bendis, like any writer, isn't required to bow to fan demands, but he always seems like an incredibly gracious dude to me with both fans and other creators. Doesn't care about the characters? Then why is he the first person to write the core YJ characters in-character since Peter David's series ended? His Clark Kent/ Superman is almost eerily on point, I love his depiction of the Planet and, this is the really controversial one, I adore how he writes Lois. He clearly loves and respects what Tomasi and Jurgens did on the character and has said that he loved their stuff so much that he thought he couldn't bring anything new to the table with the same status quo, which is part of why he shook things up when he took over the books.

I also find it hard to believe that he doesn't care about the characters or doesn't do research. One of the delights of his work is seeing just how many classic DC Easter eggs he throws into his books. He clearly knows DC's history and even its more obscure characters, whether through his own love of the material and/ or extensive research.

I understand not liking or even hating Bendis' work (I love it but some of his choices are... not my cuppa tea) but allegations that he doesn't place tremendous care and love into his writing, especially currently, is just completely insane to me.

[Holy Nightwing Fan]

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?



Sorry, but Kesel and Johns basically wrote completely different characters. At least Bendis' Superboy seems like the same character that Kesel created, unlike that plank of blandness that was Johns' Superboy. I'm enjoying YJ but, yeah, the first arc was insanely drawn out. I didn't mind because I love the character interactions but, yeesh, it took forever to get through a pretty simple plot. The Multiverse arc, though, has been lots of fun, and I did really enjoy the Teen Lantern origin - even if, yeah, the noobies are nowhere near as compelling as the founding four.



I was too at first but because Superman can get between cities quicker than most of us can get from one room to the next, it doesn't really matter. Indeed, though I still strongly dislike the decision to age up Jon, I've been loving the way both Bendis and Rucka write the Lois and Clark marriage.



Look, I'm with you on aging Jon but so much of this is ludicrously wrong. First, Bendis, like any writer, isn't required to bow to fan demands, but he always seems like an incredibly gracious dude to me with both fans and other creators. Doesn't care about the characters? Then why is he the first person to write the core YJ characters in-character since Peter David's series ended? His Clark Kent/ Superman is almost eerily on point, I love his depiction of the Planet and, this is the really controversial one, I adore how he writes Lois. He clearly loves and respects what Tomasi and Jurgens did on the character and has said that he loved their stuff so much that he thought he couldn't bring anything new to the table with the same status quo, which is part of why he shook things up when he took over the books.

I also find it hard to believe that he doesn't care about the characters or doesn't do research. One of the delights of his work is seeing just how many classic DC Easter eggs he throws into his books. He clearly knows DC's history and even its more obscure characters, whether through his own love of the material and/ or extensive research.

I understand not liking or even hating Bendis' work (I love it but some of his choices are... not my cuppa tea) but allegations that he doesn't place tremendous care and love into his writing, especially currently, is just completely insane to me.

Dude, since when Lois and Superman are "eerily on point"? Since when Lois or Clark would be so bad as parents to leave their single child travel with a person that Clark barely knows about? And Superman lines and posture sound so dumb and strange compared to when he was depicted by Tomasi that makes me wonder if this actual one is indeed Superman. I know that authors are not obliged to bend for fans, but when you are new in a publisher it would be humble, and interesting, to at least hear some of them instead of just label them as 'babies' and give the middle finger, just like what he did with Jon. About YJ, anyone would have picked that comic sooner or later anyway, that doesn't prove that he cares. About the easter eggs, it's easy to know about them in any wikipedia around the internet, but it's evident that he doesn't care about the DC timeline.

[Jackalope89]

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?



Sorry, but Kesel and Johns basically wrote completely different characters. At least Bendis' Superboy seems like the same character that Kesel created, unlike that plank of blandness that was Johns' Superboy. I'm enjoying YJ but, yeah, the first arc was insanely drawn out. I didn't mind because I love the character interactions but, yeesh, it took forever to get through a pretty simple plot. The Multiverse arc, though, has been lots of fun, and I did really enjoy the Teen Lantern origin - even if, yeah, the noobies are nowhere near as compelling as the founding four.



I was too at first but because Superman can get between cities quicker than most of us can get from one room to the next, it doesn't really matter. Indeed, though I still strongly dislike the decision to age up Jon, I've been loving the way both Bendis and Rucka write the Lois and Clark marriage.



Look, I'm with you on aging Jon but so much of this is ludicrously wrong. First, Bendis, like any writer, isn't required to bow to fan demands, but he always seems like an incredibly gracious dude to me with both fans and other creators. Doesn't care about the characters? Then why is he the first person to write the core YJ characters in-character since Peter David's series ended? His Clark Kent/ Superman is almost eerily on point, I love his depiction of the Planet and, this is the really controversial one, I adore how he writes Lois. He clearly loves and respects what Tomasi and Jurgens did on the character and has said that he loved their stuff so much that he thought he couldn't bring anything new to the table with the same status quo, which is part of why he shook things up when he took over the books.

I also find it hard to believe that he doesn't care about the characters or doesn't do research. One of the delights of his work is seeing just how many classic DC Easter eggs he throws into his books. He clearly knows DC's history and even its more obscure characters, whether through his own love of the material and/ or extensive research.

I understand not liking or even hating Bendis' work (I love it but some of his choices are... not my cuppa tea) but allegations that he doesn't place tremendous care and love into his writing, especially currently, is just completely insane to me.

Bendis, despite using him more and more lately, clearly hasn't done his research on Damian Wayne, other then maybe a bare bone glance at his wiki page. Because NOTHING Bendis has wrote with Damian has sounded remotely like him.
Oh, can't forget Jor-El. No explanation given for him popping up in Man of Steel, and Clark and Lois agreeing to his "deal". Or Lois leaving her grade school son with Jor-El without a word to Clark about it.

I can keep going. But it does show that Bendis only does research when he feels like it.

[Holy Nightwing Fan]

Bendis, despite using him more and more lately, clearly hasn't done his research on Damian Wayne, other then maybe a bare bone glance at his wiki page. Because NOTHING Bendis has wrote with Damian has sounded remotely like him.
Oh, can't forget Jor-El. No explanation given for him popping up in Man of Steel, and Clark and Lois agreeing to his "deal". Or Lois leaving her grade school son with Jor-El without a word to Clark about it.

I can keep going. But it does show that Bendis only does research when he feels like it.

Exactly. And I didn't even started. Bendis has no idea what he is writing about in Superman. For example in Superman #5 he made several mistakes, like placing Kandor as a house instead of a city, forgetting that Jekuul has two suns (ah, and he mispelled as Jakuul), besides putting Superman to live by some "ideal of Superman" and completely dimissing why people love him to begin with: that's natural to him and he acts accordingly. There is no "ideal Superman" to follow, just his personal morals. And that's why fans are inspired by him. I've seen Supeman being angered several times as well when in such circumstances he would have not. About the timeline, he even brought some members of the Crime Syndicate that were already dead!

I just gave you some examples that Bendis is not as careful or love these characters as much as Iian implied, because even me who admits that is not a huge fan noticed these things. Should I keep going?

[Godzilla2099]

Overall, I'm liking Bendis's Work with DC

Especially how he nailed Superman's Voice and the stories are good.