Bendis at DC

[HsssH]

The Naomi and Legion shows will generate more money than any amount of comics could, so why would WB/DC care if his monthlies didn't top the charts?

We don't know that yet, those shows might bomb.

[Wat]

Kinda Meh.

[Rac7d*]

Naomi had the same pacing as her comic which is bad. I can’t belive the show runner was supposed to also be making the now cancelled New Gods movie

[Lvenger]

Toss him and undo everything he did, especially on the Super books.

This.

10 char.

[Jabare]

He's been fine. People on this forum complain about his time at DC. Still, from what I see, he's been solid. Bendis just hasn't duplicated the impact he had at Marvel. I also feel DC is probably restricting him and not giving him complete control like Marvel did.

People forget this man was a key architect at Marvel for over a decade, authoring some of the most popular/successful Marvel comics. He's directly influenced Marvel animation, live-action shows, and movies from Agents of Shield, Netflix Marvel shows, Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, the MCU Movies, Civil War, Secret War, etc. He created Jessica Jones had strong imprints on Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and probably the upcoming Moon Knight.

As many of you know, his Marvel work is not without criticism, mostly nitpicks about Canon and voice. I haven't heard the same complaints about DC.

From what I can tell, he's changed the Legion a little bit, but that run only lasted 12 issues. DC will adapt the story to live-action if it's a good concept. If not, they will leave it alone. He created Naomi, and she's got her own CW show. So far, that character has been well received.

I'm shocked DC hasn't put him on, Batman. Street-levelers are like his go-to, and that one Batman comic he wrote was pretty fun.

His Justice League has been kind of so-so, but at least he's handling the team better than Johns did.

[Hol]

I am a HUGE fan of Bendis Marvel work. I will never understand the hate this guy gets. Maybe it is just a case if you are so big and have so many hits you are bound to have lots of vocal critics. His Ultimate Spiderman was incredible. In my mind the best run of the Spiderman character. Have re-read it several times. His Daredevil run is up there with Miller & Brubaker. Really enjoyed most of his Avengers and ALL of his X-men. (especially All new). In fact I have read every thing he has written at Marvel and lots of his indie stuff and only a handful of that work disapointed me.

I said all of that because ALL of his DC work left me cold. I did not hate it like lots of people on this board seem to but it all just bored me. I wanted to love Young Justice so much. I was so excited for that book and it was just meh. Checkmate and all the Mark Shaw stuff is so much the kind of stuff I wanted to read and I feel like he didn't get the character voices right and I didn't even understand what was going on half the time. His Superman was ok at best.

So I am not a fan of his DC work but I also think people make such a big deal about what he has done. He didn't make Tom King Heroes in Crisis type damage. His stuff was a big meh. No harm no foul.



***EDIT...I did really like his Batman Universe book. That was fun!***

[Ilan Preskovsky]

The good:

He really nails Superman's voice and Lois and Clark's dynamic.
Wonder Comics had some excellent books... mostly not written by him, though.
Batman Universe was excellent
Naomi is a solid new character and her book was very good too
Really, really liked Cover with David Mack

The meh

Legion of Superheroes (and that's not even getting into the stupid race-bending for a team that is a) already pretty diverse and b) easy to add new minority characters to)
Young Justice (fun characters but where the hell was the story?)

The bad

However much I enjoyed his character work on Superman, his story choices were either bloody awful (aging Jon Kent by having him spend his childhood years imprisoned by people who look like his parents with no ill effects) or woefully under-developed (bringing Superman's story closer to the Exodus by having someone actually responsible for the destruction of Krypton; Superman revealing his secret identity) or badly drawn and/ or badly drawn out (Romita's godawful work on an already floundering Action Comics).

His whole last year or so on Superman was just... yoiks, really.

Event Leviathan. Terrible conclusion and zero interest in anything that came from it.


So yeah, a super mixed bag. I was pleasantly surprised by how well he got these characters but some really crap story decisions and ludicrous decompression sadly live down to the worst sides of his reputation.

And I say this as something of a Bendis fan.

[Frontier]

I must be the only person who didn't like Batman Universe that much.

So I am not a fan of his DC work but I also think people make such a big deal about what he has done. He didn't make Tom King Heroes in Crisis type damage. His stuff was a big meh. No harm no foul.

Avengers Disassembled was kind of Heroes in Crisis-esque. Granted that was a long time ago, but still.

His Justice League has been kind of so-so, but at least he's handling the team better than Johns did.

In the sense that it's inoffensive...?

[Vordan]

Love his voice for Clark, even when his plotting underwhelmed his voice for Clark kept me interested. Loved what he did for Jon, he wanted to make him into something other than the little Clark Jr. who just pals around with Damian. Liked Naomi a lot and overall I though his Wonder Comics imprint was fantastic. Loved Batman Universe. He got Fraction on Jimmy Olsen and for that alone he’s aces to me. But I don’t really dig his LoSH reboot, his Checkmate minis, or his JL run. Overall it’s been a mixed bag.

[phonogram12]

I see people praise Batman Universe and I have to say...on a technical level it's fine, especially Nick Derrington's art, but the story was just so random.

And Bendis doesn't have a good voice for Bruce. The man can write Superman well but can't write Batman's voice. Weird.

I think what I liked about it was that he showed how just a regular guy (albeit the most capable regular guy on Earth) would interact with the vast weirdness that is the DCU. I understand that it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but ultimately that what won me over in the end.

[Gaius]

Pretty good.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I enjoyed Batman Universe (I read it in the Walmart Giants). The thing I was most hyped for was Young Justice and it fell flat. It had some good character moments between YJ4 and I really like Jinny Hex. However, the pacing was way to slow for this type of book. Also, the whole Drake thing was terrible, but not as bad as Lobdell's character assassination in New 52. At least we got Bart, Cassie, and Kon back out of it.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

What I especially love about Batman Universe is how much it's the opposite of what you would expect from a Bendis Batman book, which was in turn, the exact opposite of the doom and gloom of so many Batman comics. It's big, goofy, swashbuckling, colourful fun - how often can you say that about even the best Batman comics?

[Rakzo]

I mean, there are writers with even worse craft than Bendis working at DC (Tim Sheridan suddenly appears in my mind whenever I think "It could have been worse") but as far as who produced the most global and long-term damage, well, is difficult to argue here.

[Frontier]

Love his voice for Clark, even when his plotting underwhelmed his voice for Clark kept me interested. Loved what he did for Jon, he wanted to make him into something other than the little Clark Jr. who just pals around with Damian. Liked Naomi a lot and overall I though his Wonder Comics imprint was fantastic. Loved Batman Universe. He got Fraction on Jimmy Olsen and for that alone he’s aces to me. But I don’t really dig his LoSH reboot, his Checkmate minis, or his JL run. Overall it’s been a mixed bag.

I can agree to disagree on that being what Jon even was but Bendis' dig at people who liked the Super Sons in one of his last comics felt incredibly unnecessary.

I think what I liked about it was that he showed how just a regular guy (albeit the most capable regular guy on Earth) would interact with the vast weirdness that is the DCU. I understand that it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but ultimately that what won me over in the end.

I feel like I got that better in Brave and the Bold.

What I especially love about Batman Universe is how much it's the opposite of what you would expect from a Bendis Batman book, which was in turn, the exact opposite of the doom and gloom of so many Batman comics. It's big, goofy, swashbuckling, colourful fun - how often can you say that about even the best Batman comics?

Grant Morrison's Batman run?