Who is better X-Men writer: Bendis or Hickman?

[Not BAMF]

I'm not a Hickman fan at all, and as a lifelong X-fan, I found Powers of X and House of X to be wildly insulting. I'm reading Marauders and Excalibur (and I'll read Williams' X-Factor when it comes out), but I have long since given up trying to enjoy Hickman as a writer. His Avengers, Secret Wars, and specifically East of West are some of the worst books I've read in years.

I have barely read any Bendis X-Men, but I'll take a Bendis book, even his bad stuff, any day of the week over a Hickman book.

[Veitha]

I'm not a Hickman fan at all, and as a lifelong X-fan, I found Powers of X and House of X to be wildly insulting.

I have barely read any Bendis X-Men, but I'll take a Bendis book, even his bad stuff, any day of the week over a Hickman book.

Why did you find them insulting?

[Not BAMF]

Why did you find them insulting?

It was basically saying nothing from the last 50 years mattered. It was all play-acting to get to this point.

[MyriVerse]

Bendis for me, but only by default, because there is absolutely nothing I can tolerate about Hickman.

[Shadowcat]

What Bendis did to Dazzler is inexcusable. He didn’t understand the character at all. The pettiness was sooooo....ugh, him making Emma look desperate and pathetic, plus her jealousy over Jeen. There was potential, as there are with a lot of Bendis’ plots, he just doesn’t have the ability to craft an engaging, and enjoyable climax. The only thing he did with Teen Angel was take his wings, and put him in a relationship with X-twentyrine. His Raven was...the art was absolutely beautiful tho.

Things I did enjoy: his Bobby, plus finally making it canon that almost any queer comic reader could tell you from the 80’s on up. I liked his Lady Mastermind, but I needed more.

Not to say I don’t have issues with Hickman’s run, but there’s a lot I’m enjoying more than I’m not. I’m hoping to see where he’s going with the lobotomized Vulcan, the instant alliances with some of their most dangerous villains, etc.

[Havok83]

What Bendis did to Dazzler is inexcusable. He didn’t understand the character at all. The pettiness was sooooo....ugh, him making Emma look desperate and pathetic, plus her jealousy over Jeen. There was potential, as there are with a lot of Bendis’ plots, he just doesn’t have the ability to craft an engaging, and enjoyable climax. The only thing he did with Teen Angel was take his wings, and put him in a relationship with X-twentyrine. His Raven was...the art was absolutely beautiful tho.

Things I did enjoy: his Bobby, plus finally making it canon that almost any queer comic reader could tell you from the 80’s on up. I liked his Lady Mastermind, but I needed more.

Not to say I don’t have issues with Hickman’s run, but there’s a lot I’m enjoying more than I’m not. I’m hoping to see where he’s going with the lobotomized Vulcan, the instant alliances with some of their most dangerous villains, etc.

What he did with Dazzler was one of the best thing to happen to her in years. The biggest problem is that he left his run before he could actually do anything with her but her spotlight issue after she had joined the X-men (UXM v2 #34) was amazing

[Kingdom X]

What he did with Dazzler was one of the best thing to happen to her in years. The biggest problem is that he left his run before he could actually do anything with her but her spotlight issue after she had joined the X-men (UXM v2 #34) was amazing

Sometimes I can't tell if his run was unexpectedly cut short by Secret Wars or if he was just bad at pacing.

[Havok83]

Sometimes I can't tell if his run was unexpectedly cut short by Secret Wars or if he was just bad at pacing.

Maybe a little bit of both. Some of his best issues happened at the very end of his run as he was wrapping things up. It just took way too long to get to these. So many great ideas that he didnt give room to develop before he was out

[braddocks]

I think Hickman is the better X-Men writer simply because I think he enjoys it more - as shown by his delve into continuity and his determination to change the status quo in a way that makes sense and seems to set the franchise up with solid foundations.

But I’m not disparaging Bendis - I just think some writers suit different areas. For example, Hickman’s Avengers (whilst a great run) didn’t feel like the team at all. I don’t think he ever grasped the dynamics outside of Steve and Tony that makes the team appealing. New Avengers was very loosely an A-title. But I think Bendis did a better job with the Avengers franchise - the idea of a ragtag team.

[Alan2099]

Sometimes I can't tell if his run was unexpectedly cut short by Secret Wars or if he was just bad at pacing.

He's always been bad at pacing thing, but it could easily be both.

[Whim]

There's no comparison.

Hickman isn't perfect but he's breathed some life into the X-franchise. There's some interesting stuff even if some characters seem a bit off. It has people interested again.

I very much disliked Bendis's past work. Especially Avengers. Guardians was a snore after DNA was so good. With that said I still gave his X run a chance. Parts of it didn't start off bad. Then came the O5 to the present storyline and that awful Battle for the Atom crossover It was just terrible.

Then in typical Bendis fashion nothing happened, but before he left he had to do what he does best. Ignore continuity and do what he feels like.

Honestly I'd probably take Austen over Bendis. I'm not sure if I should go that far but .... even your Austen's and Rosenberg's had some decent ideas even if was badly executed. Bendis is mostly pointless but the end was just bad. Really bad.

[misty101]

One read of the Matthew Malloy arc will give you your answer.