Is the Bendis Era of Avengers Worth Reading?

[Timothy Hunter]

From the mid 2000's to the early 2010's, Bendis produced almost 140 issues of Avengers, his run being the driving force behind Marvel's big events at the time including Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign Siege, Fear Itself, and Avengers Vs. X Men.

I've heard mixed things about Bendis' stint on Avengers. Some people consider it one of Bendis' best comics while others argue it was the point where his writing went downhill.

[Steroid]

It really depends on your tastes. I personally detest the run but if you want to read a generally more grounded version of Avengers and can put up with Bendis speak then I would say everything up to Siege is worth giving a shot. Post Siege even his fans knew he over stayed his welcome.

[FFJamie94]

Honestly... it's great. It's the second best series Bendis ever did and it basically directed the comics for a good few years. It does lose steam after Secret Invasion however, but I'd argue it's still worth reading.
It gets a lot of crap nowadays, but I feel it's because it does feature a lot of Bendis sins, the dialogue and decompression can get a little taxing, but the mythos it carves is pretty darn fun.
Maybe I'm biased as it was the first run that helped get me into comics, and I was already a Bendis fan beforehand due to Ultimate Spider-Man.
But I'll say it's worth a read.

[gurkle]

From the mid 2000's to the early 2010's, Bendis produced almost 140 issues of Avengers, his run being the driving force behind Marvel's big events at the time including Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign Siege, Fear Itself, and Avengers Vs. X Men.

I've heard mixed things about Bendis' stint on Avengers. Some people consider it one of Bendis' best comics while others argue it was the point where his writing went downhill.

It's both, as long runs sometimes are.

"Avengers Disassembled," which sets up the run, is terrible, but "New Avengers" was a fine series about reinventing the Avengers for a new era, that takes the Avengers seriously as a team in a way that I think Hickman's run does not. Then it started to show cracks when the aftermath of "Civil War" split it into two books, and by the end of the run pretty much everyone knew he'd stayed too long.

But I guess the best advice is start reading from the first issue of "New Avengers" and read until whenever you get bored.

[krazijoe]

Sure, why not? Read it and then form your own opinion of the era...

[Clea]

Define what you mean by 'worth reading'? I personally find his writing style to be much more suited towards television scriptwriting than comics. I got so annoyed with his run that I quit partway through. His style at that time (don't know about now because I refuse to read anything else he's done) was dialogue heavy and massively decompressed, which is fine for tv but stinks in a Marvel superhero team book, IMO. Other people loved his run on the title. If you can find some (all?) of the run for cheap, try a few issues and decide for yourself.

[charliehustle415]

Honestly... it's great. It's the second best series Bendis ever did and it basically directed the comics for a good few years. It does lose steam after Secret Invasion however, but I'd argue it's still worth reading.
It gets a lot of crap nowadays, but I feel it's because it does feature a lot of Bendis sins, the dialogue and decompression can get a little taxing, but the mythos it carves is pretty darn fun.
Maybe I'm biased as it was the first run that helped get me into comics, and I was already a Bendis fan beforehand due to Ultimate Spider-Man.
But I'll say it's worth a read.

Hell yeah, it's my 2nd fav (1st being Hickman) Avengers run it's so good. Ignore the negativity and pick up Breakout you won't regret it.

[Vishop]

From the mid 2000's to the early 2010's, Bendis produced almost 140 issues of Avengers, his run being the driving force behind Marvel's big events at the time including Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign Siege, Fear Itself, and Avengers Vs. X Men.

I've heard mixed things about Bendis' stint on Avengers. Some people consider it one of Bendis' best comics while others argue it was the point where his writing went downhill.

I will be honest. "If" you have seen people saying this is the Marvel's best superhero run during that time then I am pretty sure it's pure hype. Only Marvel knows why kept up with him for so long bc it wasnt like there weren't heavily underrated writers from Marvel during that time. Not even mentioning DC here bc it's not worth comparing them to such lows

[dreyga2000]

From the mid 2000's to the early 2010's, Bendis produced almost 140 issues of Avengers, his run being the driving force behind Marvel's big events at the time including Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign Siege, Fear Itself, and Avengers Vs. X Men.

I've heard mixed things about Bendis' stint on Avengers. Some people consider it one of Bendis' best comics while others argue it was the point where his writing went downhill.

It's mixed bag. I say read the the first half... NEW Avengers to until Secret Invasion

It starts REALLY STRONG but then it peters off and just becomes long fight scenes with little character development

[9th.]

I think so I LOVED his New Avengers

[kcekada]

Well, he certainly had a bold, new approach to Avengers. It wasn't for me, but it was probably necessary to revive the franchise which had admittedly gotten a little moldy. I hate what he did to Wanda, and he did some shitty stuff with Tigra as well. For me, the best thing he did was get Jessica Drew back as Spider-Woman. Of all his stories, Secret Invasion was his best idea -- but it was also a slow burn. The Dark Avengers period is also interesting. Most of his run featured very good artwork -- so that certainly helped.

Maybe his stuff reads better in trades. I do feel he's a frustrated sitcom writer -- and would rather be doing that than writing comics.

[InfamousBG]

I liked it and did not hate it.

[Jabare]

Probably one of the most definitive comic runs in modern times. You can see how his stories have influenced the MCU to video games and animation and the Netflix series.

While there are several fair nitpicks people have particularly with some hero characterizations. That was a very compelling run. Civil War, Secret Invasion and Dark reign. I don't think there's been a more successful chain of comic events. And people forget he basically was the tentpole of the Ultimate Universe with Ultimate Spider-Man. Then he created Miles Morales. He reasserted Luke Cage into the forefront of Marvel stories. Not saying everything was perfect but it's hard to knock his track record.

I Heroic Age the story starts to fall off a little bit. Then Bendis switches over the Guardians of the Galaxy and X-men where he loses his mojo. AvX happens and he doesn't have the same charm

[Lukmendes]

Define what you mean by 'worth reading'? I personally find his writing style to be much more suited towards television scriptwriting than comics. I got so annoyed with his run that I quit partway through. His style at that time (don't know about now because I refuse to read anything else he's done) was dialogue heavy and massively decompressed, which is fine for tv but stinks in a Marvel superhero team book, IMO. Other people loved his run on the title. If you can find some (all?) of the run for cheap, try a few issues and decide for yourself.

His style hasn't changed at all, what I checked out from him has it being significantly worse than his earlier stuff too, it felt stagnant.

I will be honest. "If" you have seen people saying this is the Marvel's best superhero run during that time then I am pretty sure it's pure hype. Only Marvel knows why kept up with him for so long bc it wasnt like there weren't heavily underrated writers from Marvel during that time. Not even mentioning DC here bc it's not worth comparing them to such lows

Bendis basically helped to save Marvel when they were almost bankrupt after the 90's, Ultimate Spider-Man, in particular is beloved and made people think that he shits gold, his Daredevil run is generally liked too from what I hear.

Like the guy or not, what he did was a huge deal, so it's no wonder Marvel allowed him to do whatever.

I Heroic Age the story starts to fall off a little bit. Then Bendis switches over the Guardians of the Galaxy and X-men where he loses his mojo. AvX happens and he doesn't have the same charm

It's worth pointing out that AvX has a bunch of writers involved in the main issues, and even if he was the main writer, I suspect that a bunch of others left their fingerprints too, in particular, we have the reveal that K'un-Lun had some redhead chick who had the Phoenix once, which, in hindsight, it sounds like something Jason Aaron would write, and he was one of AvX's writers.

So while I think AvX is trash, and even if someone thinks it's good, we shouldn't say it was just his doing on the writing department.

[K7P5V]

Most of his run featured very good artwork -- so that certainly helped.

Indeed. All things considered, the artwork was phenomenal (IMHO):