What is The General Consensus on Bendis' X-Men ?

[Havok83]

I enjoyed most of the ride... the problem was that nothing he did ended up mattering or sticking. Except gay Iceman. Which is a plot that I still hate to this day. To make matters worse, it can’t be undone without a huge backlash....

IDA. While alot didnt, he introduced Goldballs and Eva, both of whom are vital figures in the current era. Current Illyana is heavily inspired by him

Also I wouldnt say things not sticking as a slight against his run as that was rampant for most of the X-runs after Fraction until Rosenberg

[Thundershot]

IDA. While alot didnt, he introduced Goldballs and Eva, both of whom are vital figures in the current era. Current Illyana is heavily inspired by him

Also I wouldnt say things not sticking as a slight against his run as that was rampant for most of the X-runs after Fraction until Rosenberg

I agree.. I forgot about the new characters added in the Cyclops book. i enjoyed most of them. I had my mind on the O5 situation because it stands out the most and was unresolved during his run. I admit, I stopped reading comics regularly in 2008 when my son was born (plus I just wasn’t enjoying them like I used to and was buying out of habit rather than enjoyment) and didn’t come back until 2012 with the Bendis X-Men. I kept up with things using solicitations and message boards and wikis before that. I stopped again when Bendis left and picked back up with the train wreck that was Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men... I knew it was leading to the Dawn of X, so I trudged through it...

So I really did enjoy the Bendis books... I just felt like there could have been a cooler resolution to the O5 situation than “they just get sent back”. I wonder if Bendis had a plan had he stayed on the book...

[Ikari]

I liked O5...for a while. It was role-reversal for all these numerous 'X-men/New mutants get stuck or see a glimpse of the horrible future where everybody is dead or messed up'. Well, now we're in the future and here we see these time-travellers being horrified about it. But it went on WAY too long.

[Whim]

typical Bendis crap. he can write his own characters okay but anything else? nope. he just ignores years of characterization to do whatever.

as with his other work the beginning was sort of decent. I actually gave it a chance. then the middle of end was a bunch of nothing that went nowhere. the O5 storyline was bad and went way too long. Battle of the Atom was just an awful crossover.

again some of the new characters were okay but .... not much went anywhere.

since his run was going to be pretty forgettable he goes and tries for shock value with the Iceman ending. again he just says screw continuity to do what he wants. the whole way it was down just made teen Jean obnoxious.

not to mention that bad Matthew Malloy plot.

putting Kitty in the Guardians and forcing that whole thing with Starlord stunk too.

[Project Initiative Cascada]

Nearly every Bendis team book (Will give him credit for his solo books like Spider-Man, Daredevil and Alias) are like Ryan Murphy television series; Start off strong with a lot of promise and then fizzles midway through with a super anticlimactic ending.

I’ll give him credit for writing an entertaining Magik and X-23 and creating Jeen and Tempus. Other than that, it’s an utterly forgettable era for the most part with UXM and ANXM. He really can NOT write team books.

[captain Qball]

It was bad.... bends style gets old after awhile, and it was a bunch of wasted potential. Some interesting starting ideas that fizzled. Nice art on all-new, not really a bachelo fan. I dropped the run half way through cause I felt like nothing happened and it didn't make me care.

Someone above said it was the best x-book at the time, but i would say that was Cable and X-force was the best book. Good art, fun stories.

[gambitxremy]

I agree that there was unrealized potential but I think the same about Gillen's run. I found Bendis' issues enjoyable to read. He wrote a great version of Jean, delivered solid fan service in a few issues, and the art was awesome.

Gillen’s run was amazing, if you add He’s generation hope and sword series in there also and secret wars siege tie in

[loke13]

Nearly every Bendis team book (Will give him credit for his solo books like Spider-Man, Daredevil and Alias) are like Ryan Murphy television series; Start off strong with a lot of promise and then fizzles midway through with a super anticlimactic ending.

I’ll give him credit for writing an entertaining Magik and X-23 and creating Jeen and Tempus. Other than that, it’s an utterly forgettable era for the most part with UXM and ANXM. He really can NOT write team books.

Considering the lackluster job he's doing on Superman I don't think he can write solo characters either

[mozzle]

Love it!!! It's a perfect hangout book. Great character moments for the ones that written in character. And the ones that aren't, well it's not the end of the world. Some really cool quiet moments. Decomressed and chill most the way through. Doesn't really resolve, but doesn't need to. Top 5 X-Men writer for me.

[ETMike1988]

For me his Uncanny was better than All New. And both were better than the other X-Men team books from that era.

[Kingdom X]

Nearly every Bendis team book (Will give him credit for his solo books like Spider-Man, Daredevil and Alias) are like Ryan Murphy television series; Start off strong with a lot of promise and then fizzles midway through with a super anticlimactic ending.

I’ll give him credit for writing an entertaining Magik and X-23 and creating Jeen and Tempus. Other than that, it’s an utterly forgettable era for the most part with UXM and ANXM. He really can NOT write team books.

That is... the PERFECT comparison! Especially since the two of them seem to be running a million different projects at once with very few actually being good.

Agree on Jeen and Tempus (even though she was thoroughly wasted afterwards), but I could not stand his X-23. He was content to just throw her into random relationships and I'm pretty sure he only brought her on because he needed another female team member and he thought he could do a fun spin on the Logan/Jean/Scott love triangle.

[sunofdarkchild]

The general consensus as far as I can tell is that the Bendis run was fun but without much weight. The first 10 issues or so of his Uncanny run are considered quite good, but the Battle of the Atom and Last Will stories are considered major low points, with the occasional standout issue like All New X-Men #25 and Uncanny #33.

[Dante Milton]

The art on both books was consistently great. Every crossover from that time was awful, BotA, Trial of Jean Grey, Black Vortex, The Ultimate Marvel issues, just bad.

ANXM: I hated the concept, and the execution was mostly pointless stories. Although I did appreciate that Jeen got to be real and fallible in ways she never really was allowed to be before, and that he had enough clout to let Iceman finally come out.

Uncanny: Some potentially interesting concepts with terrible execution. Too much focus on his OCs that had mostly interchangeable personalities, and his characterization of the established characters was poor. He (and Aaron) really doubled down on the Schism/IvX hate between the two groups of X-Men to the detriment of everyone.

Uncanny 600: This was actually not that bad, but it was really hurt by Marvel delaying it to after Secret Wars and then completely ignoring everything from it for the post SW X-books. The Cyclops rally also should have been built up more prior to 600.

Also the best X-book of the time was Spurrier's Legacy, it's not even close.

[Shadowcat]

It was garbage. It had moments, but utterly just regular Bendis trash.

[Kisinith]

It started out very strong, both ANXM and UXM had good characters, great art and compelling stories (You either liked Bendis' dialog or you hated it with a passion). Then it started to go... nowhere, both books began spinning in place accomplishing nothing, doing nothing and going nowhere. Both of his books then descended into mediocrity and then total irrelevance.

My opinion on Bendis' run is that he had meticulously planned out a detailed, well constructed start to a story, knew more or less how he wanted it to end but never really thought about how he was going to get to that point. Started throwing random crap at the wall to see what catches his fancy, got bored, eventually rushed his ending and basically gave it all a shrug saying "meh, good enough".

Ultimately, I think he had some excellent character moments in a run that is otherwise almost entirely forgettable. I don't think he ranks as one of the worst X-Writers, for that very reason. His run wasn't very good but by and large it didn't hurt anything either. Personal opinion, I think that several of his contemporary writers, Jason Aaron, Rick Remender and a few others were actually much worse because of the consequences of their runs. Bendis at worst was just boring, some of the others were downright offensive.