What's up with Bendis?

im gonna need a lawyer that isnt blind

Goodwill said:
In MwoF's defense, I too would be pretty upset if DD was offed so soon. I mean, for goodness' sake, we still haven't even seen his Ultimate Origin! I think there needs to be more to Ultimate DD before we go killing him and I think that, if they killed him in USM, that would be pretty silly because I think there'd be a lot of stuff that his death would snow ball into and USM's no place to see it play out.
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WTF, i never said he WOULD BE OFFED, all i said was MWOF would be the first to complain if it happened.....read between the lines....do you guys read everything i say or just the first to lines???
 
Caduceus said:
You hope. Personally, I think It'd make a good story but I doubt it. As for the Captain being high....well.....Ah screw it, he's higher than Marvin the Martian tied to a rocket ship
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Im not high, im a drug free role model....im just on a different level of thinking than some of you......i actually bring some facts into what i speak about and when im just playing on a side note some of you take it to heart....I love you too caduceus :oops:
 
I really liked Hollywood. That arc had so many great scenes! Doc Oc pulling out one of Peter´s tooth, Gwen Stacy finding the Spider-man suit, Peter discovering he´s in Brazil, Kong starring in the Spider-man movie and so on.

After that, at first I thought the quality had gone down. Both the art and the stories seemed to lack something in the Carnage arc, and the Superstars arc. Regarding the art, that was probably due to the new inker. My biggest problem with the stories was that Spider-man suddenly was fighting so many super-criminals. Earlier, the costumed super criminals was few and far between - doc oc, green goblin, sandman, electro and so on, and always used to great effect. But suddenly they were all over the place. Punisher, that robot zombie guy with the Ultimates, and that Gladiator guy in issue 60, and thats not counting Carnage. Also don´t forget the Beetle guy in the last issue. I suddenly get the impression that Spider-man is fighting superthugs once a day, and that´s not my idea of USM. It should be more down to earth, mainly focusing on the High School cast, and when something out of the ordinary happens, it should have a big impact. That was my impression when I first read these issues.

I have recently re-read them though, and I must say that the stories to me seemed better when you read them in a single session. These two arcs are when Peter Parkers life really start to spin out of control, due to his gig as Spider-man. Up until now, he has been able to more or less live a normal life when he doesn´t wear the mask. A life with tragedies, sure, but a life without superpowers interfering nonetheless. But suddenly, all his actions as Spider-man is bouncing back into his normal life. Gwen is killed, and he almost doesn´t have time to griev, because all sorts of things keep happening. Wolverine, Johnny Storm and Dr Strange all gets in his way, and disturbs not only Spider-mans life, but Peter Parkers life as well. Now there is no more a distinct border between Peters life as a superhero, and his life as a high school kid. This poor boy has these amazing powers, but every time he uses them, someone he cares about dies. And the more he tries to live a normal life, the less normal his life becomes. And now Harry Osborne is back, who knows he´s Spider-man, and who surely will disrupt Peters wellbeing even more. And Mary Jane is sliding away from him too...

I still have some problems with the art, and the "Super Villain of the week"-threatment, but I really think the best USM stories are yet to come. The last two arcs does a great job in showing just how much his career as Spider-man has messed up Peter, and how his life now seems to go straight to hell. It was a long time I saw Peter smile, indeed.
 
Thank you! For once, someone else pointed out the inker is a problem... He takes away from a lot of Bagley's drawings, lemme tell you. If I could complain about one thing about this title, it would definitely be the coloring and inking job.

Ca[tain, I never said that you said he was going to die and I knew what you are getting at. I was only saying that it may not be MwoF to first to complain; it may be me... Depends whose on this board first. ;)
 
im not a huge comic fanatic (gotta buy it all, and know all), but someone that might be close to a fanatic tell me how many comics bendis puts out a month?
 
Goodwill said:
Thank you! For once, someone else pointed out the inker is a problem... He takes away from a lot of Bagley's drawings, lemme tell you. If I could complain about one thing about this title, it would definitely be the coloring and inking job.
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Yeah i agree with that, the color and inks were way better before hollywood. I remember getting that and wondering why the art wasnt as good, then saw the inker changed. Bring back the old inker!!! (who was it again?)
 
Art Thibert was the old inker... I'm not sure who it is now, however, I would love to see Thibert come back to the title. Maybe then I can stomach the colors better. ;)
 
Scott Hanna is the new inker. Also, the new colorist debuted in #50, the Black Cat arc. I'm serious, the last time USM had magnificent artwork was issue #49. (Seriously, if you have it, take a look, and then look at #50) Hanna debuted in issue #59, which is where the art went straight downhill
 
ultimatedjf said:
Scott Hanna is the new inker. Also, the new colorist debuted in #50, the Black Cat arc. I'm serious, the last time USM had magnificent artwork was issue #49. (Seriously, if you have it, take a look, and then look at #50) Hanna debuted in issue #59, which is where the art went straight downhill
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I thought issue 50 had good artwork...nothing but looking at the black cat for the first several pages wasnt so bad...
 
Touche, Supermuesli

I like your posting, Supermuesli, not only do you have a definite opinion, but you also take the time to express it.
Actually, I liked the Carnage Arc better than most other arcs before. Last Summer, when Carnage came out, Spiderman was the comic I enjoyed most for 2-3 months. I loved the way Dr. Conners was shown, his conflict, his ethical troubles. It's something I wouldn't have cared about, 10 years ago. On the other side, 10 years ago I actually enjoyed issues in which nothing happened except for one langthy fight between Spidey and Scorpion or Doc Ock. I think I've grown out of that by now, that's why I didn't get anything out of the Doc Ock plotline in Hollywood. Some more insight into the motives and plans of Doc Ock might have made it more interesting to me now, but it somehow read like a lengthy battle without any read substance to me, now.

Just compare the villains from Ultimate Six (very well done, they planned ahead and nearly outsmarted Fury and the Ultimates) to Doc Ock in Hollywood (the only clever thing was the way he escaped. apart from that its pure anger and hardly any genius). Might me me, but I just LOVE clever plans, that actually work out.

About Gwen Stacy: Mr. Bendis is right, sometimes characters die before their story is completely told. It works for Beast, even very well, I think. But that's because Beast was only one of several interesting X-Men, actually more than the book could really handle, and his death had consequences (for the other characters at least; I loved the way Bobby and Rogue dealt with Hank's death).
Gwen on the other side was probably the most interesting character in Ult. Spidey, and her death resulted in less interesting stories, not more interesting stories. That's my opinion, at least. And although the death itself might be absolutely justifiable, the stories suffer, so from a reader's point of view, it was an unfortunate move on Bendis' part.
But then, he hasn't really taken the effort to shape up any of the other support characters so far. They are mostly ... ignored, recently.

Talking about ideas or a lack of ideas:
Saying "i want to tell a story about spiderman and kingpin and hammerhead" is different from actually having a good story about those characters to tell. And the fact that bendis has worked out a timetable in advance doen't mean that he knows what to put into the issues yet.

Have you ever experienced this: you want to tell a good story about something (a character, an emotion), because it inspired you, but you don't really know what to make of it. It has happened to me before. And I've very often experienced the feeling when you've run out of ideas on a certain topic.
Having a time-line doesn't mean that you really have a good story to tell.

Ricky
 
Well, in Hollywood I actually thought that Doc Ock was fairly clever. Call me a simpleton (How's that for a sub nic? ;)) but I thought that when he attached his arms to the photographer in the tunnel to distract the police, I thought that was pretty clever. Also, he was trying to escape the country, too, which is what someone with a criminal record such as his would've done. I think you're being a little more critical, especially if you're comparing Ultimate Six, where there were two brilliant people working together, with one...

Anyway, I don't see how Marvel hasn't noticed the quality of the color and ink on this title diminish. Do you really think they have?
 
Gosh, thanks for all the credit Ricky. I don´t post a lot here, so its really nice that some people actually read it when I do :)

I agree with you a lot actually. For one thing, I also think the characterization of Dr. Connors was the highlight of the Carnage arc. And yes, in general I think that criminals with a master plan makes for more interesting stories than those who only improvise. That doesn´t mean that every arc should be about that. In Hollywood, Doc Oc didn´t really have time to think up a more sophisticated plan. In Ultimate Six, he had time to plan, and to act. This time he was quite depressed, and it was only the news that they were making a movie that got him to snap out of it and getting contact with his arms again. The best plan he could think up at that moment was probably just what he did - leave the country and lay low for a while. Under the circumstances it was an ok plan, and if he hadn´t been catched he would surely have reappeared with a sinister agenda or something.

I got really upset when Gwen died - she was my favourite character, and it felt so unnecessary and cruel that she had to die, just when things were starting to work out between her, MJ and Peter. But then it struck me, that that´s exactly the way life generally works. And that´s probably exactly how Peter feels about the whole thing to. Part of his grieving is based on the fact that Gwen´s death is so unnecessary. Her story wasn´t told, and if he only had been there at that moment, he could have done something.

One thing I like about Bendis writing is that he plans way ahead, so we can probably rest assured that we haven´t seen all the consequenses of Gwens death yet. In twenty issues or so, I think this could be the basis of some great stories. Fingers crossed.

And finally, yes I have experienced the desire to tell a story about something, without knowing how to tell it. Generally the effect is that I walk around with the idea for some time (lika couple of years) until finally the pieces come together. But of course, I have the luxury of not being tied to a time plan, like that poor Bendis. Then again, he gets paid for his work! ;-)
 
Well, SM, you mentioned that you thought the characterization of Conners was good... Do you think it was right for Bendis to put him away at the end?
 
Goodwill said:
Well, SM, you mentioned that you thought the characterization of Conners was good... Do you think it was right for Bendis to put him away at the end?
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Definitely. He turned himself in, because he´s actually a good person, with a conscience. He did the right thing, and it was in character to do so. Most people are not really evil, but rather forced to do bad stuff, that then spin out of control. And I´m quite sure we haven´t seen the last of Dr. Connors...
 
Well, I think you're totally right and I'm glad you explained that to me. I know that Peter's not going to see it the same way, but I just was put down when he actually turned himself in because I knew that we wouldn't be seeing him for a while. I mean, while I was reading that Carnage arc, I thought to myself, "Man, Conners is the ****." ;)
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
He would be if we got more Ultimate Lizard. Sorry, I just want it so bad... :twisted:
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Yeah. And this reminds me - i have to try and track down the Ultimate Marvel Teamup issue featuring the Lizard. Haven´t read that one yet..

What do you other guys think - is Bendis loosing his edge, or is his best stuff yet to come?
 
Goodwill said:
I mean, while I was reading that Carnage arc, I thought to myself, "Man, Conners is the ****." ;)
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Couldn´t agree more. Its also nice to se an adult share Peter´s secret who is not Nick Fury, and also not a evil and twisted scientist - but just a, well, regular twisted scientist. :)
 
TheManWithoutFear said:
Get the teamups... and his best stuff is coming up.
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I have read most of them, and I liked some of them. The Daredevil/Punisher was good, and the Hulk issue, and the joke issue with the Fantastic Four was very funny!
 
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