Comic Book Resources

I liked the three spreads, but that might only be because it reminded me of Nextwave and made me hope to see some Elvis MODOKs in there somewhere…

I think that it’s a combination of him being stretched very thin and him dealing with things that don’t suit his style as well. Big superhero action romps aren’t necessarily as effective in a decompressed dialogue heavy sort of way.

I think his strongest recent issues have been the done-in-one character pieces, for New Avengers, for instance, some of which came during Civil War and some of which were back in the teens, like the JJJ issue and the one where Spider-Woman spoke with Captain America.

No, it was never very good, you’re just all catching on now.

I agree with Matt D, Bendis is spread thin and out of his element.

I also think that, because of that, he’s adopted a new writing style for his Avengers titles which really seems to be geared for todays “Wikipedia Comics” readers. Most of the issues seem to have the last scene as the focus with padding building up to it, whether it be action or endless dialog*.

This is beyond decompression. This is stalling for the Summer Event.

*It’s been a little while since I last read the Avengers so that may have changed, but I doubt it.

Do you mean “changed dramatically” as changed markedly, or changed the method by which he presents stories?

I loved Daredevil and Powers (which is still good, but I’ve read a lot less of it under the Icon imprint) Alias and AKA Goldfish were good, and New Avengers up until Civil War was enjoyable enough. I am no longer reading any of Bendis’ current work, though. I guess he’s moved away from things that I’m interested in–moreover, he’s no longer enough to draw me in. That bespeaks a lack of quality, but it hasn’t been particularly noticable to me.

If you mean the latter, it doesn’t seem so to me. A Bendis book I pick up now reads about the same as his writing always has.

Quick asides: The production values on the Goldfish trade were some of the worst I’ve ever seen and actually hindered my enjoyment of the comic. I’m also really looking forward to the Daredevil End miniseries with Bendis and Maleev, Sienkiewicz, Mack, et al.

I don’t think he’s really changed that much, I just think that his style and sensibilities do not go well with big superhero books. He needs to get back to focusing on single characters with strong supporting casts.

I keep hearing about an Icon crime book with Bendis and Maleev as well as the Spider Woman spy book. Both of those seem so much more appropriate for Bendis than the Avengers. Let’s hope those get fast-tracked.

That said, I think New Avengers need to stay under Bendis so that those who enjoy his style can get their monthly fix and Mighty Avengers needs to be given to someone like Jeff Parker or Fred Van Lente, both of whom know how to do big fun superhero stories with great characterization.

He can’t do super-hero plots or action. Never could.

This actually worked for him for a long time, since a very large section of comic readers seem to be addicted to super-hero comics, and embarrassed by it.

But now, his characters are ‘developed’ (‘Character development’ can’t be the right phrase. A good deal of the characters he works with were developed by the time he was a child.), and the novelty of his dialog, which is mostly reams and reams of cute small talk, has worn off, what are we left with?

Very thin gruel.

Bendis’ skill on his old stuff was in the plotting. His dialogue and characterization has always been spotty.

But now that his plots are required to coordinate with everything being published by a certain company, that’s gone down the drain, too.

I’d have to go with the argument that it’s not so much that his writing has changed, but that he’s gone from the types of books where his strengths are exemplified, to the types of books where his weaknesses are most apparent. He’s moved into “big superhero action”, which is what he’s worst at.

I used to think he was going to be the next big thing for comics when he was doing his crime books.
Not in sales terms, but in progressing the medium.
Sadly, I think it’s been all downhill since he went to Marvel.
I only made it one trade past Matt being the Kinbgpin before I was bored of his DD, and it’s been a long, long time since I picked up an Ultimate Spiderman.

I think perhaps he would have been better to keep doing limited stuff, as opposed to ongoings.
(Especially as several of them were optioned – surely in the long run he’d make more money doing that. Guess it’s not the same as job security until you get the big pay cheque, but it’s got to be better than not owning what you write).

I think it’s some of everything everyone’s mentioned, plus a few other things.

1) As everyone’s pointed out, he’s stretched a bit thin. Dangers of “chasing the hot writer”; once Marvel finds a popular guy, they put him on every book they’re putting out until he gets burned out and lazy, and is no longer popular. Then they discard him.

2) Out of his element. When you go back and look at what made Bendis a “Name”, it was strongly-characterized crime comics with an emphasis on realism. That’s probably not a guy who should be writing ‘Mighty Avengers’.

3) Never that good to begin with. I don’t mean that he was bad. I rad ‘Jinx’, ‘Torso’, and ‘Fire’, and saw a promising young writer who could develop into a major talent. But I didn’t see a major talent already there, and I don’t think he ever did develop into a major talent, because…

4) He’s not being challenged. Nobody’s moving Bendis outside of his comfort zone as a writer. His editors are letting his tendency to underplot and overdialog go unchallenged, because it means they can continue to spin out a two-issue storyline into a six-issue trade paperback. He’s got a “cult of personality”, fans who will buy anything with his name on it, so he’s got guaranteed income even if he continues to write the same story over and over and over again, which doesn’t encourage him to try anything different (and in fact does the opposite.) This isn’t just a Bendis thing, by the by. I think Mark Millar and yes, Warren Ellis both suffer from their own fanbase. The fact that NextWave Volume One was titled, “This Is What They Want” should speak volumes.

5) He’s working in the current comics climate. Right now is just not a good time to be a comics writer. It’s 90s Redux, with crossovers everywhere, “shock” storylines trumping real writing, “big events” that will almost certainly be retconned in a couple of years when everyone realizes what a bad idea they were all along, and editorial mandates that sink even the best writer’s ideas into a sea of writing by fiat. House of M was never going to be great no matter who wrote it, because the ending was somebody else’s fault.

I didn’t read his earlier work, as it didn’t interest me. Alias I found well-crafted but a bit self-indulgent. His early Ultimate Spidey just bored me. But I have to say, I like his New Avengers. It’s light, fun superhero reading. It’s not groundbreaking or great, but there’s only one or two superhero comics at any one time that are.

Haven’t read any of Bendis’ stuff outside of Avengers. But reading these related columns gave me some insight into his strengths and why folks like him. And, frankly, why he doesn’t work for big superhero books.
One might have been able to say the same thing about Morrison back in his Vertigo days, but then he took over JLA and just excelled at it. He hasn’t looked back.
I just don’t think Bendis’s style translates to mainstream superheroics, and he can’t seem to successfully alter that style.
New Avengers started out strong, but then got mired in “down to earth” “street level” things like fighting Ninjas and shadowing, never-ending espionage conspiracies.
And his Mighty Avengers tries to capture what the New Avengers was lacking but he can’t do it.
His “big” Avengers event – House of M – just fell flat. Not bad, per se. Just kind of boring.
His strength is in his dialogue. But once you get tired of that, as I did a few years ago, there’s no “there” there in his Avengers stories.
I read almost all 400 plus issues of the first Avengers volume through good and bad writers.
At its heart the Avengers is a big, colorful superhero book. He can’t do it. And when he tries, it feels forced and fake.
Bendis has tried to turn it into something like Marvel Knights or Heroes for Hire instead. He would probably excel at those titles. But it doesn’t work for Avengers.
And as much as I love the idea behind Secret Invasion, I ain’t buying it because I just don’t think Bendis can pull something like that off. It’s going to be another House of M.
And this is why it still bugs me that Marvel has him on both Avengers books. There’s nothing for those of us long-time fans of the team who just don’t want to read Bendis. It’s kind of like a big “f— you” from Marvel. And repackaging old stories in Classic Avengers with some pathetic little new back ups doesn’t count.
I get that the guy sells. But give his fans one book and give the rest of us another.