The Bendis Debate

Do you like BENDIS!


  • Total voters
    51

TheManWithoutFear

#1 reason not to join UC
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Bendis can write better comics then all of you so maybe we should be nice and stop thinking he sucks. His USM lacks sometimes that's about the only problem I have with him. HoM was a good read and an even better idea. The only reason it will be "retconned" is because everyone started *****ing about it before it even happened.
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
Bendis can write better comics then all of you so maybe we should be nice and stop thinking he sucks. His USM lacks sometimes that's about the only problem I have with him. HoM was a good read and an even better idea. The only reason it will be "retconned" is because everyone started *****ing about it before it even happened.
He's a hit and miss guy. It's normal.



BUT HE SHALL PAY FOR WHAT HE DID TO ICEMAN. I WILL SMITE HIM, LIKE A MIGHTY SMITER!!!!

:evil:
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
There are probably people on this site with better ideas than what Bendis has been coming up with lately. Have you read Compound's Superman idea?
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
That idea is more original and interesting than anything Bendis has written in a long time.
 
Where's the "vote often" option? I need to be able to vote more than once to express my dislike.

Okay, MWoF, because you asked -

First off, there is no such thing as a universally popular comic. There are plenty of people who strongly dislike ULTIMATES and can trot out any number of good reasons why.

I liked both POWERS and (most of) ALIAS, where Bendis was writing original characters. The setup on both books was perfect for him - no more than a main character or two, lots of time to examine the character, stories that could wander around and take the time to get where they were going. The things that drive me nuts in the rest of his work are there - characters who talk right over the top of each other, characters who sound exactly alike, lots of exact repeat panels, strange and rambling pacing, lots of stuttering pauses passing for "realistic" dialog - but in POWERS it works. In NEW AVENGERS it doesn't, and he's writing a large team superhero comic with established characters out of the same bag of tricks he wrote a 2 person cop noir drama from - which is why NEW AVENGERS reads like a series of vaguely connected MARVEL TEAM-UPS to me.

I don't mind "talky," dialog-heavy comics - in fact I LIKE them. I don't read comics for the fight scenes, I tend to flip through them rather quickly because I find them boring, much like football. But too many of Bendis' conversations are elliptical - they don't actually GO anywhere, and the dialog is too expository, telling me the plot directly. I also find Bendis' of humor aimed a bit too much at about the 14 year-old age level. That's fine in USM, where Peter is young, but it's not appropriate in NEW AVENGERS, and, worse, it's not funny.
 
Rhyo said:
I also find Bendis' of humor aimed a bit too much at about the 14 year-old age level. That's fine in USM, where Peter is young, but it's not appropriate in NEW AVENGERS, and, worse, it's not funny.
Bendis does good with Spidey's line in New Avengers...
 
Rhyo said:
Where's the "vote often" option? I need to be able to vote more than once to express my dislike.

Okay, MWoF, because you asked -

First off, there is no such thing as a universally popular comic. There are plenty of people who strongly dislike ULTIMATES and can trot out any number of good reasons why.

I liked both POWERS and (most of) ALIAS, where Bendis was writing original characters. The setup on both books was perfect for him - no more than a main character or two, lots of time to examine the character, stories that could wander around and take the time to get where they were going. The things that drive me nuts in the rest of his work are there - characters who talk right over the top of each other, characters who sound exactly alike, lots of exact repeat panels, strange and rambling pacing, lots of stuttering pauses passing for "realistic" dialog - but in POWERS it works. In NEW AVENGERS it doesn't, and he's writing a large team superhero comic with established characters out of the same bag of tricks he wrote a 2 person cop noir drama from - which is why NEW AVENGERS reads like a series of vaguely connected MARVEL TEAM-UPS to me.

I don't mind "talky," dialog-heavy comics - in fact I LIKE them. I don't read comics for the fight scenes, I tend to flip through them rather quickly because I find them boring, much like football. But too many of Bendis' conversations are elliptical - they don't actually GO anywhere, and the dialog is too expository, telling me the plot directly. I also find Bendis' of humor aimed a bit too much at about the 14 year-old age level. That's fine in USM, where Peter is young, but it's not appropriate in NEW AVENGERS, and, worse, it's not funny.
fair enough.

I think I should get an idea of what titles people read and how they'd rate those.
 
I hate the bald guy. He made Quicksilver a villain, i apreciate taking him off the limbo, but now he's going to go back there and powerless, well thanks a lot!

And Powers is not that big deal, i always thought of it as a Kingdom Come with stupid dialogues and monkey sex. Alias was cool, didn't have monkey sex but had stupid dialogues, but they do seem better on Jessica. I hope he stays in Ultimate Spider-Man and someone just forget him there so he cant annoy no one else again... (well its my least favorite Ultimate Title...together with Ultimate Brain Tissue Man)
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
I think I should get an idea of what titles people read and how they'd rate those.

My current favorite titles:
The Winter Men (Brett Lewis/John Paul Leon; WildStorm)
Astro City (Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson; WildStorm)
Ultimates (MM/Hitchy; Marvel)
Captain America (Ed Brubaker/Steve Epting; Marvel)
Strange Girl (Rick Remender/Eric Nguyen; Image)
Desolation Jones (Warren Ellis/JH Williams III; WildStorm)
Ex Machina (BKV; Tony Harris; WildStorm)
Battle Hymn (B. Clay Moore/Jeremy Haun; Image)
 
Rhyo said:
My current favorite titles:
The Winter Men (Brett Lewis/John Paul Leon; WildStorm)
Astro City (Kurt Busiek/Brent Anderson; WildStorm)
Ultimates (MM/Hitchy; Marvel)
Captain America (Ed Brubaker/Steve Epting; Marvel)
Strange Girl (Rick Remender/Eric Nguyen; Image)
Desolation Jones (Warren Ellis/JH Williams III; WildStorm)
Ex Machina (BKV; Tony Harris; WildStorm)
Battle Hymn (B. Clay Moore/Jeremy Haun; Image)
:roll: I meant Bendis titles.
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
Bendis can write better comics then all of you so maybe we should be nice and stop thinking he sucks. His USM lacks sometimes that's about the only problem I have with him. HoM was a good read and an even better idea. The only reason it will be "retconned" is because everyone started *****ing about it before it even happened.

He's okay, but God he's the master at streching a story to be far longer than it should be. Also I don't like the fact he has turned most of the DD villains into wimps.
 
Ice is right on the money. He's hit or miss. EVERYONE is hit or miss. Just as Rhyo said - there is no universally liked comic. Similarly, no writer is universally liked.

I like Bendis's work. I enjoyed Avengers Disassembled and New Avengers, while not perfect, is one of my favorite books. House of M was pretty good, even if the ending was a little unsettling in the sense that it didn't finish. Ultimate Spider-Man, for the most part, is great. The times when USM was not at it's best was when Bendis was not writing it all himself; writing other people's ideas (Venom, Carnage, and even Ultimate Fantastic Four). Same goes for Ultimate X-Men. Ultimate Six had the same problem as House of M - decent story, poor ending.

I tried Powers and didn't care for it, and I haven't read any of this other creator-owned work. But for the most part I like what he's done and do think he's getting better.
 
Nurhachi said:
Bendis captures Spider-Mans character better then any other writer IMO, except maybe JMS.
I sort've agree. I just can't wait until we're all sick of Spider-Man's jokes in midbattle. Thing is I don't think I'll mind it because I think Bendis is trying to make the point Spider-Man is annoying in those situations.
 
I still like him as a writer, and I do feel sorry for the guy for all this jump-on-the-bandwagon Bendis hate that seems to be so trendy with everyone nowadays.

However, he's not perfect, and he is hit and miss, but I still enjoy most of his comics.
 
He does teenage, early 20s people, dialogue superbly.

I love Powers, and I absolutely love USP when it's good.

That said, the man isn't perfect.

*shrug*
 

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