Bendis

[CA Rodgers]

I'm reading the Ultimate Spider-Man and it's so good! I really like this new take on Spider-Man it's a lot better than the old school stuff. Brian Micheal Bendis has made Peter Parker more of a character that you can relate to. It's not too campy and corny to the point to where you can't read it. It's sad that comic writers are getting respect that they deserve, or the the new comic writers, everyone always talks about the classic guys, though they are good, but some of these guys that have come out over the past few years. Have been great! All the stuff I've read all the writers like Garth Ennis, Bendis, Vaughn Even Kevin Smith!!!! They to me have really reshaped comic books for me, I love Spider-Man more now than I did a long tie ago.

[The NZA]

Funny, i just landed the Ultimate Spider-Man Collection (big ass hardcover with issues 1-40 something with venom) for like $30 on half.com.

 

Thing is, i discovered Bendis on an issue of Jinx in the day, which had awesome dialouge and a great chase scene - both rare for me in comics at the time. i didnt follow his work on Curse of Spawn (think it was) but his own books, Powers and such, were just awesome.

 

When he was picked to retool Spider-Man (you gotta remember, 2000/2001 the book had dropped right off & not recovered since the Clone saga. JMS was working hard to bring Amazing Spider-Man back, and it was a great book, but series needed a relaunch), i thought he was a great pick, and taking Bagley, my favorite artist from Amazing Spider-Man of the 90's, felt right,t oo. He and Mark Millar over on Ultimate X-Men soon thereafter were basically told to make Marvel fresh & new again, via the Ultimate universe...and they did, though Bendis stuck with his book the whole way through, still to this day.

 

The result was a really fun Spidey book that you didnt have to read or know anything else about to love - many lame villains got fresh starts, and most characters came off cooler than before (exceptions were Omega Red and Deadpool, for me). If you could get past things like Bendis always writing words like "tucahs" in where they shoudlnt be, its solid. Even his other book, Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, was a lot of fun. The book wasnt timed right to capitalize on the first spidey movie, as i recall, but it did its job.

 

What kills me about Bendis is that when he's on single-character books - like his 5 years on Daredevil - he shines as one of my favorite writers. But i feel like ever since he turned Spider-Man around, Marvel's done everything they can to keep him from DC (he's dying to write a batman book), and that means leaving him on a lot of team books. New Avengers, a list of characters he loves & gets to all but create from scratch with a few of them, he'll knock out of the park. But he keeps being left in charge of huge marvel events & the like and while the dialogue will always shine, the plot direction will often be questionable - Avengers: Disassembled, House of M and such. I just wish he'd be allowed to stay on team books of his own like NA and single-character vigilante books, cause as a fan, that's where i think he's done his best work.

[Silent Bob]

I agree 100%. Bendis is absolutely great with single characters but not so much with the big events. I think the problem, ironically, is one of size. The big events are actually too small for him. When he knows he's going to have years and years with characters - like with Daredevil or Ultimate Spidey - he takes his time, he lets things play out naturally (more or less), and though he may make some missteps along the way (I'm looking at you, Decalogue) he'll pick it right back up next month. When he's on a big event he's really only getting four, five, maybe six issues for his story. So, we end up with some great, Bendis trademark, character and dialogue driven setup for the first few issues and then it's almost like he's realized he needs to wrap the story up and rushes through the last couple issues. House of M, Secret War, Avengers Disassembled - they all felt that way to me. They felt as if the last two issues had another eight issues worth of plot in them. So generally I'll skip his big events...that is, unless it happens to have Gabriele "Oh My God That's Amazing Art" Dell'otto involved, anyway.

 

That said, for my money, no other writer in the field right now writes Spiderman and Daredevil as well as he does.

[The NZA]

True, Dell'otto's art is actually worth the delays.

its a shame too, cause when you think about it, the concepts behind that Secret War book, and even Decalogue, are pretty exciting, but yeah, we're on the same page here as far as execution.

 

Ill second the last sentiment. For runs on USM like the Mojo one (which i knock, but i mean, look what he had to work with), there's shit like what went down with Gwen Stacy. For things having my scratch my head like the ultimate clone thing, there's the Marvel Knights team he had going for a bit that i enjoyed the crap out of.

and as for DD, ive come to realize Brubaker's current run isnt looking to overtake Bendis', but he's the best possible guy to carry the torch. his first arc knocked my socks off, and im still looking forward to trades like "Without Fear".

But no, that doesnt take from Bendis writing what i thought was such an important book: a continuous story for so many years was unheard of in mainstream books, for the most part - and DD worst of all, as everybody'd been afraid to step up in the shadow of Miller like 10 years prior.

[Silent Bob]

I think Bendis really enjoys the slow, steady set up. He's great at it. If you look back on his Daredevil run you'll see that the last four or five storylines - in a way, his entire run - was all a build up to what happened to DD at the end of The Murdock Papers. But the climax, the payoff? He left that for Brubaker. He's at his best when he's allowed to let his characters and situations unfold slowly and naturally, but he crumbles at the climax because that's when he's expected to speed things up. I genuinely think if he was just given enough time and enough issues to let his big events unfold like they should, they'd turn out a lot better. But then, I feel that way about a lot of the big events, not just those from Bendis.

[CA Rodgers]

Funny, i just landed the Ultimate Spider-Man Collection (big ass hardcover with issues 1-40 something with venom) for like $30 on half.com.

 

Thing is, i discovered Bendis on an issue of Jinx in the day, which had awesome dialouge and a great chase scene - both rare for me in comics at the time. i didnt follow his work on Curse of Spawn (think it was) but his own books, Powers and such, were just awesome.

 

When he was picked to retool Spider-Man (you gotta remember, 2000/2001 the book had dropped right off & not recovered since the Clone saga. JMS was working hard to bring Amazing Spider-Man back, and it was a great book, but series needed a relaunch), i thought he was a great pick, and taking Bagley, my favorite artist from Amazing Spider-Man of the 90's, felt right,t oo. He and Mark Millar over on Ultimate X-Men soon thereafter were basically told to make Marvel fresh & new again, via the Ultimate universe...and they did, though Bendis stuck with his book the whole way through, still to this day.

 

The result was a really fun Spidey book that you didnt have to read or know anything else about to love - many lame villains got fresh starts, and most characters came off cooler than before (exceptions were Omega Red and Deadpool, for me). If you could get past things like Bendis always writing words like "tucahs" in where they shoudlnt be, its solid. Even his other book, Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, was a lot of fun. The book wasnt timed right to capitalize on the first spidey movie, as i recall, but it did its job.

 

What kills me about Bendis is that when he's on single-character books - like his 5 years on Daredevil - he shines as one of my favorite writers. But i feel like ever since he turned Spider-Man around, Marvel's done everything they can to keep him from DC (he's dying to write a batman book), and that means leaving him on a lot of team books. New Avengers, a list of characters he loves & gets to all but create from scratch with a few of them, he'll knock out of the park. But he keeps being left in charge of huge marvel events & the like and while the dialogue will always shine, the plot direction will often be questionable - Avengers: Disassembled, House of M and such. I just wish he'd be allowed to stay on team books of his own like NA and single-character vigilante books, cause as a fan, that's where i think he's done his best work.

Your are right about the DC thing they just don't want batman to be better.

[Jables]

Funny, i just landed the Ultimate Spider-Man Collection (big ass hardcover with issues 1-40 something with venom) for like $30 on half.com.

 

Oh, that burrns us. I'll give you the Scud Omnibus for it?

[The NZA]

...limited edition, or the standard one that's $20 on amazon? im wondering if we're talkin' business or insults here, sir.

[Jables]

Heh. Oops. Insults.

[Osidius the Emphatic]

I want him back on Daredevil, fucking Brubaker.

[The NZA]

details, sir!

 

here's the thing: Bendis made DD for me, best post-Miller work period. Kevin Smith got the ball rolling in a weird direction, but Bendis built the house.

pretty much up to the King of Hell's Kitchen is golden for me, and i adore that arc as well; Hardcore to the King arc (with the yakuza assassination shit!) is just...look, this is my current desktop wallpaper for a reason.

 

Golden Age was good, im still not sure what Decalogue was about. Murdock Papers was a great ending, but Bru hit the ground running with the jail shit, hands down. it slowed a bit after that, going to spain and all, but "without fear" and the current arc, im digging. its more hits than misses, but im not sure how you can crap on Bru, he's largely tearing it up on that book.

[Osidius the Emphatic]

details, sir!

 

here's the thing: Bendis made DD for me, best post-Miller work period. Kevin Smith got the ball rolling in a weird direction, but Bendis built the house.

pretty much up to the King of Hell's Kitchen is golden for me, and i adore that arc as well; Hardcore to the King arc (with the yakuza assassination shit!) is just...look, this is my current desktop wallpaper for a reason.

 

Golden Age was good, im still not sure what Decalogue was about. Murdock Papers was a great ending, but Bru hit the ground running with the jail shit, hands down. it slowed a bit after that, going to spain and all, but "without fear" and the current arc, im digging. its more hits than misses, but im not sure how you can crap on Bru, he's largely tearing it up on that book.

 

Nah I am not buying this lady bullseye bullshit in DD. I love bullseye but I never wanted a female one. "Without Fear" was a cute arc and your right the prison arc was gold for some reason I thought Bendis wrote it. But honestly I don't see where Brubaker is going, he is back tracking in an event that is already over. To me he dropped the ball. I'll collect my issues cause DD is my boy but this guy better do DD justice.

[Newtype]

Nah I am not buying this lady bullseye bullshit in DD. I love bullseye but I never wanted a female one. "Without Fear" was a cute arc and your right the prison arc was gold for some reason I thought Bendis wrote it. But honestly I don't see where Brubaker is going, he is back tracking in an event that is already over. To me he dropped the ball. I'll collect my issues cause DD is my boy but this guy better do DD justice.

 

Your kidding right?

 

Bru is doing a damn good job.

[Osidius the Emphatic]

Your kidding right?

 

Bru is doing a damn good job.

 

I am glad you are liking it but, honestly I do not. I think Bendis did it (or does it) better.

 

Back on the subject I think Bendis does an amazing job with any title he is working on. Secret Invasion was amazing and I was dying to read each issue. Does he still write New Avengers? I havn't been up to it had to cut my collecting to DD til I have the money to contunie/catch up on my other titles.

[archangel]

oh God. Someone hide him from Skeeter.

[Jables]

I'ma kill you Oedipus!!!

 

Kidding- I can see some folks cling to SI like a raft, all's I see are broken promises & wasted potential.

[The NZA]

Back on the subject I think Bendis does an amazing job with any title he is working on. Secret Invasion was amazing and I was dying to read each issue. Does he still write New Avengers? I havn't been up to it had to cut my collecting to DD til I have the money to contunie/catch up on my other titles.

 

yeah, i still stand that bendis shines on individual character books, but New Avengers has been consistently good for years now, so that's my exception. he's still on it, with lenil francis yu who i love from his days on wolverine. also, Mighty Avengers took a while to take off for me, but its a great one lately as well - the SI epilogue was...crazy.

 

As for your Bru/Bendis comparison, i can kinda see why you'd lean towards bendis; again, bru hit the ground running but then eased up, Bendis was nailing it for years. that's why, for me, i dont think i wanna compare their runs until however many years Brubaker takes; i wanna see what he's got in store overall, since i have it in my head that its one continuous arc like bendis did. that's clearly what he's doing over on Captain America, anyway.

[Osidius the Emphatic]

I'ma kill you Oedipus!!!

 

Kidding- I can see some folks cling to SI like a raft, all's I see are broken promises & wasted potential.

 

Is it me or people are not liking any of the Marvel events?