Can Someone Explain the Criticism of Bendis' Avengers?

[XPac]

I will say it again. ANY writer could have made the Avengers as big as Bendis did. It had nothing to do with his talent it was the fact that Marvel gave him the whole store to work with. Bendis said "I want to use all the biggest most popular characters" and Marvel said sure whatever we don't care. He had EVERYONE to play with. Even someone like Rob Liefeld could have made the Avengers sell if he was given every big popular character Marvel had. If he had not be given Spider-Man, Wolverine, and all the other big characters and his run had still sold I would give him credit.

Good point. Avengers Disassembled was a massive hit because of Wolverine and Spider-Man... except Wolverine wasn't really in it, and Spider-Man showed up for like 4 panels. And of course there's Mighty Avengers, which did just as well ... again without Spider-Man and Wolverine. Dark Avengers had guys in Wolverine and Spider-Man suits, so I guess you can count at if you want... but I don't think it was really fooling anyone after the first issue.

[Frontier]

Good point. Avengers Disassembled was a massive hit because of Wolverine and Spider-Man... except Wolverine wasn't really in it, and Spider-Man showed up for like 4 panels. And of course there's Mighty Avengers, which did just as well ... again without Spider-Man and Wolverine. Dark Avengers had guys in Wolverine and Spider-Man suits, so I guess you can count at if you want... but I don't think it was really fooling anyone after the first issue.

I think Dissassembled is kind of a testament to a lot of the issues with Bendis tenure with the Avengers.

[Paradox_Nihil]

From where I am sitting everything. Including the right to a reply. I see a very apparent craft at work. So do Marvel and everyone else that pays him.

Oh, my bad. I thought the publishers wanted him because his name was selling comics. Silly me.

You attacked me. I didn't attack you.

I don't attack people on forums (or in real life). Only their opinions, eventually. (And this regardless of the fact that you actually "attacked" anyone who couldn't see how great his work is.)

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

I think Dissassembled is kind of a testament to a lot of the issues with Bendis tenure with the Avengers.

It's a real shame that no one gave a damn about Marvel characters outside of Spider-Man and X-MEN before Bendis' stuff happened.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I think the biggest problem is that editors assume that if a writer does well in one field, he can therefor do well in all of them.

Bendis can do crime noir well. That's how he made his mark in DD.

But he cannot do espionage well. He has no desire/ability to pay attention to details, no desire/ability to foreshadow and no desire/ability to translate superhero concepts into real world issues/parallels. The extra effort that is required for it, he does not put forward. We saw this in his 'Secret Wars' and 'Secret Invasion'.

When he wrote the Avengers, he did not do superheroes well. He never seemed to get that villains act for reasons beyond profit or being insane. The 'new concepts' his characters did the same thing and damn if he didn't repeat himself.

Ability in one genre is not ability in all

[H-E-D]

I think the first volume of "New Avengers" and his "Dark Avengers" were good on their own terms. Maybe when viewed from a continuity-focused perspective, looking at it from a perspective of being a continuation of something else rather than its own thing, maybe then it fails. But on it's own merits, I think it holds up.

[XPac]

I think the first volume of "New Avengers" and his "Dark Avengers" were good on their own terms. Maybe when viewed from a continuity-focused perspective, looking at it from a perspective of being a continuation of something else rather than its own thing, maybe then it fails. But on it's own merits, I think it holds up.

The thing I enjoyed about Bendis Avenger books during the Initiative and Dark Reign period, is that he wrote multiple Avenger books with very distinct and unique vibes. New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, and Dark were all great books in different ways. Mighty had more of a classic vibe, while Dark had a great atmosphere. New has sort of a down to earth street mix to it. THey were all Avenger books by the same guy, but they were all were unique and different. Post siege, I think the books started losing some of their uniqueness... that's when I think Bendis stuff started to lose a lot of their momentum. They still had some fun stuff happening... but it wasnt the same.

[Dark-Jacket]

I didn't like Bendis' run because of the Darker and Edgier approach, because of the scenario, because of the dialogue and because everything he wrote needed heroes to hold the idiot ball. I also don't like much decompression which was his speciality.

[H-E-D]

I think Bendis' dialogue is honestly fine, most of the time. Distinctive? Sure. But I honestly think it only sticks out to much because the back-and-forth nature of it leads to more speech bubbles, which stand out regardless on the content of them.

I also don't mind decompression, but I admit I'm more of a trade reader than a floppies guy.

[Jokerz79]

I think Ultimates which IMO hasn't aged well but I think that not Bendis is what helped make Avengers a bigger brand again.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

I think the biggest problem is that editors assume that if a writer does well in one field, he can therefor do well in all of them.

Bendis can do crime noir well. That's how he made his mark in DD.

But he cannot do espionage well. He has no desire/ability to pay attention to details, no desire/ability to foreshadow and no desire/ability to translate superhero concepts into real world issues/parallels. The extra effort that is required for it, he does not put forward. We saw this in his 'Secret Wars' and 'Secret Invasion'.

When he wrote the Avengers, he did not do superheroes well. He never seemed to get that villains act for reasons beyond profit or being insane. The 'new concepts' his characters did the same thing and damn if he didn't repeat himself.

Ability in one genre is not ability in all

You forgot to mention he also can't write cosmic and fantasy characters.

[MichelleDiMera]

Explain? He sandbagged Scarlet Witch to create his dream roster. Simple.

[Dark-Jacket]

I think Bendis' dialogue is honestly fine, most of the time. Distinctive? Sure. But I honestly think it only sticks out to much because the back-and-forth nature of it leads to more speech bubbles, which stand out regardless on the content of them.

I also don't mind decompression, but I admit I'm more of a trade reader than a floppies guy.

His dialogue is fine for street level characters. When you got captain america tony stark hawkeye and Spiderman talking the same way, there's a problem.

[Mike]

His dialogue is fine for street level characters. When you got captain america tony stark hawkeye and Spiderman talking the same way, there's a problem.

Avengers: Prime

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[Gaastra]

Bendis made the Skrulls modern and interesting.
Dark Reign was lots of fun.
He gave one of the best Luke Cage stories in the Civil War tie in.
He wrote Iron-Man like RDJ before RDJ

Didn't he turn iron man into a evil jerk who started a hero cw and used caps dead body to lure out heroes then shot at aunt may and mary jane when spidey switched sides then created a clone of his friend who killed another hero?

Iron man was awful at that time.

As for luke cage he was bendis pet who was shoved down our throats every second! He made him the leader of the avengers with cap and wasp right there out of the blue and even had him own avengers mansion. He reminded me of the second captain marvel but she was a better leader to me and was thor powerful!

Plus lets not forget luke having the avengers help old ladys cross the street and pick up trash or "standing there" to show the avengers are down to earth. Yeah lets waste the team that was made to fight kang and Ultron like threats by picking up trash. It's not like there isn't a country in danger somewhere! Luke has a team to pick up trash. It's called heroes for hire not the avengers who could be out saving a city right now!

Then there's his Spider-Man. Spidey by this point was grown into a really well known hero and was a pro. Even outsmarting thanos! Bendis wrote him as a 10 year old loser who didn't know what he was doing. Ugh. Spidey was as big as a pro as iron man at that time not a whiney little kid.

What he did to wanda is awful.

With all those grips you think I hate everything bendis. Nope I did like some of his stories and his books did have a grand adventure tone to them. I did keep reading them for some time and liked some of the members and new heroes he added. And even though I complained about cage he did bring him out of his shaft d list and made him a big name! So yes I complain about bendis but still liked some things also!