Bendis at DC

[Hol]

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

Oh I was referring to his DC work.

As far as Marvel...I honestly only got into Marvel about a year before he took over Avengers (other than reading some Spidey in the late 80's) so to me Avengers Disasembled was exciting and crazy. It moved me and made me sad but I guess because, at that point, I had no history with these characters it didn't bother me what he did with Wanda. What happened to Wally bothered me. A lot.

But who knows if that has anything to do with it because I have been reading and loving DC since 1985 and I loved Identity Crisis. (I know I know I am the only person on this board who does) So I wonder if I would still have enjoyed his Avengers and House of M if I had been a long time Marvel reader.

[Frontier]

Oh I was referring to his DC work.

As far as Marvel...I honestly only got into Marvel about a year before he took over Avengers (other than reading some Spidey in the late 80's) so to me Avengers Disasembled was exciting and crazy. It moved me and made me sad but I guess because, at that point, I had no history with these characters it didn't bother me what he did with Wanda. What happened to Wally bothered me. A lot.

But who knows if that has anything to do with it because I have been reading and loving DC since 1985 and I loved Identity Crisis. (I know I know I am the only person on this board who does) So I wonder if I would still have enjoyed his Avengers and House of M if I had been a long time Marvel reader.

For me I first read Bendis' Avengers stuff but reading back-issues and other runs have made it age worse for me because it seems to miss what the team was about and messed up a lot of my favorite characters.

[Hol]

For me I first read Bendis' Avengers stuff but reading back-issues and other runs have made it age worse for me because it seems to miss what the team was about and messed up a lot of my favorite characters.

Yeah I guess for me his Avengers is what got me into these characters. Bendis got me into most Marvel characters. Except Brubaker made me a Cap fan. But I read a lot of comics because of Bendis. But I get that he is not everyones cup of tea. I have been hearing it for years. I feel like Bendis at Marvel and Johns at DC have both put out the largest quality body of work at each publisher for the last twenty years-ish. More than anyone else.

[Overhazard]

On one hand, I am happy that the Legion is getting more attention, but Bendis really isn't the best person to be on the book, so for me it's a double edged sword. The very nature of the Legion doesn't lend itself to his strengths. I don't think he's a bad writer, his version of the clone saga is the best one, he just isn't the most well-rounded writer out there.

[Hol]

On one hand, I am happy that the Legion is getting more attention, but Bendis really isn't the best person to be on the book, so for me it's a double edged sword. The very nature of the Legion doesn't lend itself to his strengths. I don't think he's a bad writer, his version of the clone saga is the best one, he just isn't the most well-rounded writer out there.

Oh yeah I really enjoyed his Clone Saga! That was great.

I couldn't get into his Legion either but I am not really a fan to begin with. Only Legion story I ever enjoyed was Legion of 3 Worlds and Superman and the Legion of Superheroes by Johns.

[Overhazard]

Oh yeah I really enjoyed his Clone Saga! That was great.

I couldn't get into his Legion either but I am not really a fan to begin with. Only Legion story I ever enjoyed was Legion of 3 Worlds and Superman and the Legion of Superheroes by Johns.

The legion is like a combination of the X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy, two books that were not written well by Bendis because A. He can't write a large team very well, he has trouble with character voices, and B. He can't do space, he just can't. The Guardians book was saved by the art and movie hype, but it was directionless for the most part. the X-fans kept that book alive through sheer spite, it wasn't good either. He got on Legion because he's a fan and his name would bring attention to the book, but I don't think he panned out as well as he wanted, unless he just wanted to pivot into television.

[phonogram12]

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

The show or the comic? Either way, I have to disagree. But to each their own.

[Hol]

The legion is like a combination of the X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy, two books that were not written well by Bendis because A. He can't write a large team very well, he has trouble with character voices, and B. He can't do space, he just can't. The Guardians book was saved by the art and movie hype, but it was directionless for the most part. the X-fans kept that book alive through sheer spite, it wasn't good either. He got on Legion because he's a fan and his name would bring attention to the book, but I don't think he panned out as well as he wanted, unless he just wanted to pivot into television.

Oh I disagree. I loved his X-men books. All New X-men was my favorite but Uncanny was close. I think he especially nailed the little character moments between young Scott and Jean. I was all about those books. I enjoyed his Guardians but not as much as his X-men.

[Ascended]

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

They'd have to bomb pretty hard to make less money than floppy comics. You're right though, it could happen.....but I think my odds of winning the lottery are better than the odds of those shows making so little revenue, even in failure. It'd have to be like, abject, "people uninstall the app" failure to get that bad, I think.

Granted, the CW isn't gonna make a ton of money on any character, not by tv standards, and I have no idea how much HBOMax makes on average so maybe this isn't quite as unlikely as I think it is, but still.

[Digifiend]

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

You know, you're right. Scarlet Witch in AD, Wally West in HIC. Both were vilified at the time for killing other heroes, but other villains turned out to be to blame (Wally was framed by Savitar, and Wanda was sent insane by Doctor Doom). And both were only exonerated several years later.

[Aarkus]

I repeat:

solo characters, with supporting cast = thumbs up

team books, or anything not set on earth = run as fast as you can in the direction of a different writer. he's just not good at that stuff, regardless which "sandbox" he's in

[ducklord]

While there are some things that seriously clicked during Bendis's tenure (as others have mentioned, Clark's voice, Batman Universe, Green Arrow's voice, etc.), I gotta single out everything Leviathan for special abuse, 'cause dammit that was everything wrong with Bendis in, like, a big stinking pile of WTF.

It had an intriguing premise - a mystery villain (and seemingly a former hero) recruiting disillusioned spies from all of the various DCU intelligence agencies to, um, blow them up, reveal all the secrets and build some sort of Utopia? Okay, motivations are a bit murky, but you have my attention.

And what did we get? Six issues of Batman, Green Arrow, Steve Trevor, Plastic Man (again, not a detective), Manhunter, Talia, the Question, and Lois Lane standing around doing Bendis-chatter, while almost nothing happened. It even got to the point that an entire B-Team of investigators was brought in to do MORE standing around and chatting while even MORE almost nothing happened.

And then it was revealed that Leviathan was Mark Shaw. Finally, something cool! I can't wait to find out how Shaw went from mercenary-spy-former Manhunter to "guy who wants to blow it all up while armed with almost magical future tech." But that never happened. Instead of EVER explaining how and why Leviathan came to be, Bendis pissed him away with some appearances in the Super-books, followed by a (tremendously late) follow-up mini in which (stop me if you've heard this before) another group of heroes spend most of their time standing around talking until *another* mysterious figure is revealed to be a grown-up Kamandi.

If this mess ever gets cleaned up, I can only hope that it carries on the spirit of the first two minis, and features a half-dozen or so people talking until the final boss is revealed to be, oh, I don't know, Egg-Fu.

PS Oh, just as an aside: Rose and Thorn are immortal now. Why?

[charliehustle415]

So does Bendis only have the few remaining JL issues, JL vs LofSH, & Naomi Season 2 left at DC?

[Rakzo]

While there are some things that seriously clicked during Bendis's tenure (as others have mentioned, Clark's voice, Batman Universe, Green Arrow's voice, etc.)

Yeah, no.

There's nothing particularly bad about it and there are others who have done a worse job with Ollie's voice and character (Tom Taylor keeps writing him for some reason despite that he clearly doesn't get nor like him), but at the same time there's nothing really great or even good about it. Is a by the numbers Green Arrow portrayal that doesn't offer anything engaging about it.

[Factor]

Overall, I think he’s had a lot of ups and downs, but my overall feeling is kind of meh. I don’t hate most of what he did, but his contributions were very limited, especially the craft of his stories. Even when he had good ideas, the execution was mostly lacklustre.

THE BAD:
The 3 really terrible things he did were:
1- The way he aged up Jon (no way a kid would be well adjusted after being abandoned for years on Earth-3, Bendis’ handling of that was incredibly bad)
2 - The unnecessary reboot of the Legion (after several reboots, another one was the last thing the book needed and he’s failed to do anything exciting with the “new” team). His run is completely derivative, most of the new characters never got any development and everyone has the exact same personality. They could all be clones of the same person and the book would read the same.
3 - Demon Rose. Just a really pointless new character that brought down the quality of every book he starred in. Also came with ignoring the existence of Lucy Lane for some reason.

THE GOOD:
1 - Naomi was really good and I feel it will be the one new character he introduced with a true lasting impact on the DCU.
2 - Wonder Comics. Even if he didn’t write the best of WC, but he was responsible for creating a fun new line that should have lasted a lot longer.
3 - Action Comics and the Superman line. I didn’t care for the main Superman book, but his Action was mostly pretty good and I liked the new villains like Red Cloud. I think he could have ended the run a lot better, but it was mostly above average. He should also get some credit for getting some good writers for the rest of the Superman line too.
4 - Batman Universe. I didn’t read it, but it seems to be universally well liked. Pun intended.

THE MEH:
1 - Justice League. Not truly bad, but the book never amounted to anything. Bendis actually chose a pretty good line-up, but the book feels so inconsequential. It seems like the dumping ground for plotlines from Bendis’ other books (Naomi, Checkmate, Superman and now LOSH) and not the big flagship it should be. It never became a good run in its own right.
2- Checkmate. As with JL, he had some good ideas that went nowhere. A nice cast, but terrible pacing and no clear sense of direction. He disassembled most of the DCU spy agencies to create this new Checkmate, but we were left with a pretty empty and unexciting new team and some very predictable twists (oh no, Talia can’t be trusted lol). I wish DC rehired Rucka to fix this book and bring it back to glory, as his vision of Checkmate was much, MUCH better than Bendis’ pretentious new take.
3 - Young Justice. I was SO excited about this team’s return. I loved that it seemed like the characters would finally be back to their recognisable and fun selves. Instead, it became a lame book about the DCU’s contrived continuity. Bendis should have focused on telling a new story about the team and not trying to make sense of the senseless reboots. Huge missed opportunity, if not outright terrible.