Thoughts on Bendis' Avengers

[XPac]

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.

Some may disagree with this ... but I think the early controversy actually helped the book. It got people talking and generated a buzz.

[gurkle]

Some may disagree with this ... but I think the early controversy actually helped the book. It got people talking and generated a buzz.

It helped it sell, no question, but it’s hurt its reputation in retrospect because there are more fans of Wanda, Vision, Clint, Scott, etc. than there were at the time.

If the run starts with New Avengers instead of Avengers Disassembled, it’s more appealing.

[Alan2099]

Sometimes I feel like one of the only people in the world that DIDN'T like what Bendis did with Luke Cage.

I mean, he used him an aweful lot and kept pushing him to the foreground of every single thing that was happening, but he took all the edge and interesting bits away from the character. He wouldn't even give the guy a costume. He was just generic nice black guy.

[XPac]

Sometimes I feel like one of the only people in the world that DIDN'T like what Bendis did with Luke Cage.

I mean, he used him an aweful lot and kept pushing him to the foreground of every single thing that was happening, but he took all the edge and interesting bits away from the character. He wouldn't even give the guy a costume. He was just generic nice black guy.

You can argue the character lost some of his edge (though frankly marriage and fatherhood can do that to a person), but I think the lack of a costume is perfectly in character for Cage.

He doesn't have a secret identity to protect, nor is he reliant on a costume for protection or his powers. He's simply a guy who doesn't feel the need to run around wearing brightly colored spandex... and I totally buy that from him.

[Frontier]

Luke should wear yellow no matter what.

[Winterboy]

I'm not a big fan of him but I have everything collected because the artwork is stellar.

Besides, I will always be grateful to Bendis for bringing Jessica Drew back from limbo and making her an avenger.

jessica drew.jpg
finch.jpg

[charliehustle415]

It’s fascinating that he never actually wrote a Luke Cage solo book.

The closest was his short Defenders run which I think only existed because of the horrid Netflix show

[Tendrin]

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.

THe argument against this is that he never actually let the Sentry be that. He was compromised from the moment he started using him. For that story to have had meaning, it would need to clearly have a point A, which he never did. IF this was intent, he failed miserably from word go.

I think he was just enamored with a cool character that wasn't being used, but couldn't find a good way to really use him, and wound up flailing around a lot through several different ideas, none of whose direction lasted long enough to go anywhere. Ultimately, this floundering was the exact opposite of what a character like that needed, and we haven't had a good run on the character since as a result. Since then, his story has been incremental steps forward followed by amazing leaps back as every writer seems to want to use their own 'sentry versus void' story. Lemire broke the cycle, and what happens next? Zub and Rosenberg put him back to the conflict that story was supposed to break out of.

Which, in a way, is sort of a funny allegory to the way relapses happen in mental illness, but also the way nobody who knows you lets you move past it either.

[your_name_here]

THe argument against this is that he never actually let the Sentry be that. He was compromised from the moment he started using him. For that story to have had meaning, it would need to clearly have a point A, which he never did. IF this was intent, he failed miserably from word go.

I think he was just enamored with a cool character that wasn't being used, but couldn't find a good way to really use him, and wound up flailing around a lot through several different ideas, none of whose direction lasted long enough to go anywhere. Ultimately, this floundering was the exact opposite of what a character like that needed, and we haven't had a good run on the character since as a result. Since then, his story has been incremental steps forward followed by amazing leaps back as every writer seems to want to use their own 'sentry versus void' story. Lemire broke the cycle, and what happens next? Zub and Rosenberg put him back to the conflict that story was supposed to break out of.

Which, in a way, is sort of a funny allegory to the way relapses happen in mental illness, but also the way nobody who knows you lets you move past it either.

Absolutely agree that Bendis dropped the ball on what I imagine he originally wanted to showcase. The first year on NA he made me really interested in The Sentry, but I feel like constantly either building up to, or tieing into, events made this piece of story devolve.

[your_name_here]

The closest was his short Defenders run which I think only existed because of the horrid Netflix show

It was an okay book, made a lot better by the art.
Bendis has just lost interest by then. You could tell these characters no long excited him.

[Alan2099]

bendis seemed to want to make it clear that Sentry had mental problems, but what those problems were exactly seemed to change from issue to issue. There was never really a time you could get a clear idea of what Sentry was. It just felt like Bendis missed the whole idea of the character. He just wanted the biggest strongest guy around for various roles.

[Tendrin]

bendis seemed to want to make it clear that Sentry had mental problems, but what those problems were exactly seemed to change from issue to issue. There was never really a time you could get a clear idea of what Sentry was. It just felt like Bendis missed the whole idea of the character. He just wanted the biggest strongest guy around for various roles.

Given Bendis' handling of D-Man, Moon Knight and Sentry, I think he needs to not be allowed anywher near characters like them. :P

[H-E-D]

I liked what Bendis did with the Sentry.

[K7P5V]

Intriguing set ups, but bad follow through. The interactions between the different characters mostly worked, but the plots tended to meander and then just sort of petered out.

I'll say this for the Bendis run, it had a great start full of potential:

The idea seemed to be a very interesting one.

Only a few issues into it, I was already tired of it. It never felt like "the Avengers". It was just a random team-up that stuck around, many of them being written badly out of character to justify.

Agreed. But I still stuck around for the artwork (David Finch, in particular):

Luke should wear yellow no matter what.

Agreed. Classic is best:

[Alan2099]

He doesn't have a secret identity to protect, nor is he reliant on a costume for protection or his powers. He's simply a guy who doesn't feel the need to run around wearing brightly colored spandex... and I totally buy that from him.

Just a simple guy that doesn't felt he need to dress up is NOT the kind of thing you do when you're an Avenger. The Avengers have a reputation. And really, Luke should understand the value of a reputation, as well as recognition and even marketing. If he's an Avenger, he needs to look like an Avenger, not like a random black guy that just happened to be standing there. Given Luke's background, he should be a guy that's marketing himself and making money off his new found status. He doesn't even need a full costume, just a trademark look.

Honestly, his 70s outfit with the yellow and the metal headband and his 90s outfit in the Cage book were never really anything more than slightly exaggerated street clothes.