Is the Bendis Era of Avengers Worth Reading?

[ARkadelphia]

Why no. No it is not worth reading.

[charliehustle415]

Yes, if you are a fan of Luke, Spider-Woman or Jessica Jones then you might really enjoy the run. The rest of the cast is more or less window dressing, when not being straight up character assassinated. Wolverine and Spider-man in particular were just there to pose on the covers and increase sales.

The thing Bendis does very well is having a diverse cast, especially characters that were never called up to the big leagues

[Vishop]

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.



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.
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Puhhh, There were other bigger titles(New X-Men and Ultimates) and it was Qusesda who started all of it. Selling books doesn't do you much favors bc they were also releasing movies which have much more profit than just comics

[Vishop]

Dark Avengers was good.

His Dark Avengers basically followed the doors of what Warren Ellis left behind with Thunderbolts. He said it himself that he wouldn't be able to bring this team to an extension if it weren't for Ellis, especially for Osborn. The only notable idea that he came up with was Illuminati but it turned out mediocre with respect to the run

[Ultimate Captain America]

The Avengers BB (Before Bendis) were just an obscure comic that most ignored and nothing in it had consequences elsewhere (not even when they should, like when Kang conquered the whole freakin' world). They lived under the giant shadow of X-men and Spider-Man.

By this time, all of that changed. Starting with Civil War, we had company-wide crossovers based on the Avengers (or even before that; House of M is a joint X-Men/Avengers crossover and a direct sequel to Avengers Disassembled). And we got loads of Avengers comics: New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, Young Avengers, The Initiative, the Ultimates (another universe, but Avengers' related as well), Illuminati. Captain America, Iron Man and Thor had always had standalone comics, but now many other Avengers had their solo ones, such as Ms. Marvel (the current Captain Marvel; Kamala was not in the scene yet), Beta Ray Bill (Thor related), Extremis (Iron Man related) Incredible Hercules, Irredeemable Ant-Man, Son of M, etc.

And all this, before the MCU was a thing.

[Steroid]

The Avengers BB (Before Bendis) were just an obscure comic that most ignored and nothing in it had consequences elsewhere (not even when they should, like when Kang conquered the whole freakin' world). They lived under the giant shadow of X-men and Spider-Man.

By this time, all of that changed. Starting with Civil War, we had company-wide crossovers based on the Avengers (or even before that; House of M is a joint X-Men/Avengers crossover and a direct sequel to Avengers Disassembled). And we got loads of Avengers comics: New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, Young Avengers, The Initiative, the Ultimates (another universe, but Avengers' related as well), Illuminati. Captain America, Iron Man and Thor had always had standalone comics, but now many other Avengers had their solo ones, such as Ms. Marvel (the current Captain Marvel; Kamala was not in the scene yet), Beta Ray Bill (Thor related), Extremis (Iron Man related) Incredible Hercules, Irredeemable Ant-Man, Son of M, etc.

And all this, before the MCU was a thing.

I wouldn't say it was obscure and Spider-Man and the X-Men big storylines didn't have any consequences elsewhere pre Civil War.

[gurkle]

Lots of comics don't have big consequences for other comics, I don't really think that matters much. The Kang story isn't better or worse now because other comics weren't tying in at the time.

To some extent what happened in the Bendis era is that it coincided with (started with, in fact) Marvel's commitment to yearly line-wide events and status quo shifts that every comic would have to react to, starting with Disassembled and House of M. Bendis's Avengers was designed as their flagship book, and even the event he didn't write, Civil War, was edited by the Avengers office.

So the Avengers were at the center of everything because Marvel chose to put it at the center of everything. It couldn't have worked if New Avengers hadn't been a good book, but other Avengers runs were not designed that way and I don't see why it matters. The X-Men comics were often so cut off from the rest of the Marvel universe that fans would ask why the Avengers didn't do anything about all these attacks on mutants; the answer is that it doesn't matter.

[Ultimate Captain America]

Yes, that's how it works. And the point is...?

[Triniking1234]

Lots of comics don't have big consequences for other comics, I don't really think that matters much. The Kang story isn't better or worse now because other comics weren't tying in at the time.

To some extent what happened in the Bendis era is that it coincided with (started with, in fact) Marvel's commitment to yearly line-wide events and status quo shifts that every comic would have to react to, starting with Disassembled and House of M. Bendis's Avengers was designed as their flagship book, and even the event he didn't write, Civil War, was edited by the Avengers office.

So the Avengers were at the center of everything because Marvel chose to put it at the center of everything. It couldn't have worked if New Avengers hadn't been a good book, but other Avengers runs were not designed that way and I don't see why it matters. The X-Men comics were often so cut off from the rest of the Marvel universe that fans would ask why the Avengers didn't do anything about all these attacks on mutants; the answer is that it doesn't matter.

This is a round-about way of saying Bendis' Avengers was good.

[jwatson]

At the end of the day only you can decide what's worth reading or not worth reading for you. People can get you excited to pull the trigger or trepid to hold off but not a single person can tell you if something is a good read for you. Let alone worth it.

[gurkle]

This is a round-about way of saying Bendis' Avengers was good.

True, but it's more that the fact that it affected other books doesn't make it any better than runs that didn't affect other books. That's an editorial decision, it has nothing to do with the experience of reading it, especially after the fact.

[Lukmendes]

fair enough, but I don't just him blame AvX. I blame everyone involved. I was just trying to be diplomatic, and frankly I think I was a little too nice. I hated AvX with a passion. I actually took a hiatus form Marvel after that event. It damaged my perception of certain characters even to this day.

Can't blame ya, that story fucked over too many characters involved in it.

X-Fans are still butthurt at Avengers for existing 'cause of it, Cap in particular may be talked like he's a psychopath.

Puhhh, There were other bigger titles(New X-Men and Ultimates) and it was Qusesda who started all of it.

Ultimates and New X-Men only came around after Ultimate Spidey though, it should be obvious in Ultimate's case 'cause Spidey is what started that universe, so without Ultimate Spidey, there wouldn't be Ultimates.

Selling books doesn't do you much favors bc they were also releasing movies which have much more profit than just comics

True, but Marvel was still at risk of going bankrupt to begin with, and Bendis helped to make it less bad, and Ultimate Spidey is iconic, so like it or not, he did stuff that made his name recognizable.

[Ultimate Captain America]

True, but it's more that the fact that it affected other books doesn't make it any better than runs that didn't affect other books. That's an editorial decision, it has nothing to do with the experience of reading it, especially after the fact.

So? Everything that gets published, gets published because of an editorial decision.

[gurkle]

So? Everything that gets published, gets published because of an editorial decision.

Yeah. I'm just saying that I don't think whether a run affects other books says anything about its quality. "The Kang Dynasty" wasn't mentioned in any other books but that has nothing to do with how good a story it is. And "New Avengers" would still be a good comic even if Marvel hadn't made it the center of the comic line.

IMO of course.

[Odd Rödney]

I enjoyed it but found it had diminishing returns the longer it went on. High point for me was his use of Spider-Woman and Luke Cage.

Finch is certainly a gifted artist but it bugged me during this run that all the faces look the same.