What's up with Bendis?

TheManWithoutFear said:
I agree it would make a good story... when he's as established as he is in 616. Killing him off now, well I can't begin to tell you how bad that would be (mostly for all of you because you'd have to put up with me)

I agree. Daredevil is not only a well respected character whose death would be downright heresy for a majority of fanboys, but would deny editorial any kind of perverse pleasure they get from humiliating pseudo-canon characters like Sinister and Kraven.
 
supermusli said:
What do you other guys think - is Bendis loosing his edge, or is his best stuff yet to come?

USM seems to be in a little bit of a slump lately, but Bendis is a great writer and I'm sure he'll bring it back up. I wouldn't say he's losing his edge, especially considering New Avengers, Avengers Disassembled, etc.
 
I wouldnt say bendis is in a slump at all. Carnage was awesome, Teamups, i guess no one likes, but thats just one arc. Hobgoblin looks to be the best arc yet
 
ourchair said:
I agree. Daredevil is not only a well respected character whose death would be downright heresy for a majority of fanboys, but would deny editorial any kind of perverse pleasure they get from humiliating pseudo-canon characters like Sinister and Kraven.

Woah, you didn't like SINISTER? Wow, I thought he was one of the more provacative Ultimate counterparts of the characters...
 
The first USM I picked up was #22, and I got the other 21 issues in trade. I've not missed an issue since, but frankly, I think USM is terrible.

It seems that Bendis has decided to ultimatise everything from the Marvel Spidey - including the god-awful grim and gritty era of the 90s. Look at the evidence - Carnage and Venom are clones. Clones, I tell ya. It's happening again.

Okay, so maybe that clone thing isn't true, but USM sucking pretty much is.

See the first 21 issues, are BEAUTIFUL works. Truly. The only thing I have a problem with is the Burglar in the origin story. I prefer the movie's version of the burglar (and that's all). Osborne, Doc Ock, Kingpin, all terrific. God, the Kingpin arc had me CRYING with laughter.

The second Osborne arc, with the bridge scene, wasn't so great. It was exciting, but it's lost its charm over time. Then we had the "chameleon" thing with the fake Spidey, which was a non-event. Good build up, then no ending.

#28 was nice, I liked that one. Then we got Venom, which missed the point, then god-awful Geldoff, in which nothing happened, but then Men of Influence was actually very enjoyable - felt like old school Spidey and I loved it. Then Black Cat non-happened, then Hollywood, which was pathetic. Doc Ock in Hollywood was okay actually, what pissed me off was the lack-of-Gwen story. Then, we got Carnage, which just as bad as Maximum Carnage, pointless in everyway. Then we got Wolverine, which was not ill-timed (anything to get away from "Mouring Spider-Man, with real crying action!") but ultimately stupid, Torch and Doc Strange, which were both pointless (noticing the pattern) and now DullGoblin.

Ugh.

The problem is not Bendis running out of ideas - he's just using everyone he comes up with. When he was working on half a dozen books, Bendis seemed to be able to edit his own work, in his head, producing his best. The first 21 issues of USM are superb, and proof of this. A writer, no matter how good, knows 90% of his ideas are terrible, with 10% being good. Because Bendis is writing so many books a month, he is unable to do this, so every 9 issues he seems to do is bad, with 1 being good. You can see this in his choice of endings. He just stops his stories, he doesn't end them, and everytime it just feels like he hasn't had time to work it out, and is instead relying on his terrible dialogue (which for some reason, people think is good) to carry his stories.

For example, look at his choices for Gwen Stacy. In Hollywood, we continually build up to Gwen Stacy meeting Peter, now knowing he's Spider-Man, blaming him for her father's death. When Peter returns home, I'm sure many of you were, as I was, on the edge of my seat, wondering what Gwen would do next. Peter manages to disarm her and she runs away before blowing his cover to Aunt May. Then what happened? Gwen walks in to MJ and Peter, and the three of them talk (or rather, stammer, stutter and start every sentence three times before getting to the end of it) with on-the-nose dialogue, voicing their hearts, and everything is sorted out. Yay. Then, in the Carnage storyline, Gwen and MJ, with on-the-nose dialogue, solve all their problems - and then Gwen is killed by the monster in the garden.

*cough*

I didn't find Gwen's death surprising. It was so obvious Bendis was setting it up, when I read the Gwen-MJ nice-talk scene. I wasn't annoyed Gwen died, but rather that her death was meaningless and cliched. (And I don't mean meaningless in the sense of feeling meaningless, it was a negative turning point - I just mean it has been shown to have had no purpose in the book.) I don't think, 20 years from now, another writer will be writing stories tying into Ultimate Gwen's death the same way that we have writers continually writing stories based on Marvel Gwen's death (even USM has based a story on that death).

Y'know what I thought was going to happen? I thought Gwen would return after running from Peter and she would not come in and tell Peter she's "messed up", and be nice to MJ. I thought Gwen would still hold a grudge against Peter, blaming him, indirectly at best, for her father's death.

Imagine it for a moment.

It's dinner time. Gwen, May, and Peter are eating. Peter wolfs down his food and May says that he should look after himself. Gwen says, "Oh, he gets plenty of exercise, don't you Pete? Swinging and climbing - on the gym bars."

Imagine Gwen, living with Peter and his Aunt, and she hates Spider-Man. The amount of conflict this could have created in Peter's life would have been amazing. The sheer tension would have been exhilarating. Peter isn't home when he's meant to be - is Gwen telling Aunt May? Is she moving around his costume? Is Gwen covering Peter? Getting him into trouble? You can just imagine how a character like Peter would worry himself sick in this situation - and it could build to a wonderful climax where Gwen and Peter can finally forgive each other.

But no, instead we get trite apologies, and then she dies to a red cliche'.

*sigh*

Honestly, I have some terrific books done by Bendis, and I truly believe the guy can write. But right now, maybe because he's doing too many books, or because he has a new child, or the success has gone to his head, or all three, or none, I don't know why - but Bendis hasn't produced a good issue of anything in almost 2 years, and it's really pissing me off.
 
Hasn't written anything good? (hehe I can bring this up in this thread :twisted: ) I'll agree USM isn't up to par but I think the next arcs are going to blow the past out of the water. As for other titles... New Avengers? DAREDEVIL? For the love of christ guys if you want a good story read Daredevil. It's not an arc by arc thing he's created this whole situation for Matt Murdock that's just unbelieveable. It's got me on the edge of my seat wondering what is going to happen to Matt Murdock and everyone that is effected by it. I'm not good with words and I'm no where near insightful as most of you but take my word for it... we're all here because of Ultimate Titles so we know we all have good tastes... if you want good Bendis get Daredevil.
 
I get Daredevil.

Got it since his first four-issue arc with Mack.

It was terrific. Now, it's dull. Really dull. I haven't enjoyed Daredevil in over a year. Basically, anything after "Kingpin of Hell Kitchen" - well, the only reason I'm enjoying Daredevil is Alex Maleev.

Secret War is no good, and Avengers Disassembled I've not read, but seen lots of previews, skimmed the issues and read opinions on it (same for Identity Crisis) and while I won't say with 100% conviction that they're no good - I'm going to say that to me, they look very, very bad.

Sorry.

See, I have no friends who read comics like I do, so all my opinions have been bottled up in me for YEARS. Now I have this place to vent, so I'm going to waffle on, talk gibberish and sound VERY opinionated until I get used to there being other points of view. So bear with me. :)
 
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Bass said:
I get Daredevil.

Got it since his first four-issue arc with Mack.

It was terrific. Now, it's dull. Really dull. I haven't enjoyed Daredevil in over a year. Basically, anything after "Kingpin of Hell Kitchen" - well, the only reason I'm enjoying Daredevil is Alex Maleev.

Secret War is no good, and Avengers Disassembled I've not read, but seen lots of previews, skimmed the issues and read opinions on it (same for Identity Crisis) and while I won't say with 100% conviction that they're no good - I'm going to say that to me, they look very, very bad.

Sorry.

See, I have no friends who read comics like I do, so all my opinions have been bottled up in me for YEARS. Now I have this place to vent, so I'm going to waffle on, talk gibberish and sound VERY opinionated until I get used to there being other points of view. So bear with me. :)


Hmmmmm.... Bass your not Stephan from ManWithoutFear.com are you?
 
Er.... no. I'm Bass. That's actually my real name. Bassim. It's arabic. I have absolutely no idea who Stephan is, nor did I know there was a site. What did I say that reminded you of him? (PS: If he's a ****, I'll try to be nicer to people. :D)
 
Bass said:
Er.... no. I'm Bass. That's actually my real name. Bassim. It's arabic. I have absolutely no idea who Stephan is, nor did I know there was a site. What did I say that reminded you of him? (PS: If he's a ****, I'll try to be nicer to people. :D)

He just hates Bendis... No you're not as bad as him but I'll be watching... :shifty:
 
I don't hate Bendis at all.

Firstly, I don't know the man. Never met him, and I'd not judge his character solely on interviews.

Secondly, I like Bendis' work a whole lot - I just think that the last year or so of his work has been mediocre at the best of times, and I'm annoyed since I really used to get excited when I got a new issue of DD or USM - but now, I pick them up out of morbid curiosity in the hopes that they're good.

I may come off strong, but personally, I think Bendis is a talented writer who has let his quality slip for the last two years and doesn't seem to think he's doing anything wrong, and therefore, it would appear that this state of affairs won't change - but I live in hope.

But if you don't believe me, and you're watching me - fear this! :arrgh:
 
Goodwill said:
Woah, you didn't like SINISTER? Wow, I thought he was one of the more provacative Ultimate counterparts of the characters...
Actually, I LIKED Sinister. That was taking a patently goofy concept (Claremont initially conceptuallized him as "What is a supervillain to a ten year old?") of an obsessive genetic engineer and turning him into a street level servant of Apocalypse, and remaining a credible threat to the X-Men. And that whole "Stairs." page was so hilarious I was like, "Why didn't they do that YEARS ago?"
 
Bass said:
Then, we got Carnage, which just as bad as Maximum Carnage, pointless in everyway.

hey hey hey. Maximum Carnage was awesome. And the pointless violence is what made it awesome :shifty: Although, i was a bit annoyed that there was no Ultimate Cletus Kasady :(
 
Hey Bass,

I don't know if you care about it, but I strongly agree with everything you said. Okay, nearly everything. I personally found the carnage arc good (except for Gwens's death, obviously. Dr. Conners was the most interesting, conflicted comic-book cherakter I've read in a while), but apart from that, I'm completely backing you up.

issues 47-49 are still my personal favorites on this title, and I agree about most other things as well. Very true, everything you wrote, and very well expessed.

I also agree on your general judgement on Bendis. I wouldn't pick up any titel with his name in right now, except for Ultimate Spidey, which I'm still reading because I care about characters like Kong, "Brainy Jane" and ultimate J.J.J.
I'm not really getting any good stories about them recently, though.
 
An Ultimate Cletus Cassiday can still be Carnage, you know... That whole loose end with Ben Reilly can lead to a lot of things, you know. That's the kind of thing that you need to watch. ;)
 
To be honest, I was a little disappointed when Bendis announced that this Carnage was going the be drastically different, however, I thought nothing of it when I saw the results. I think that it was a great arc and I really enjoyed it, although, Lizard and Carnage shouldn't thrown down in fisticuffs. ;)
 
Ricky said:
Hey Bass,

I don't know if you care about it, but I strongly agree with everything you said. Okay, nearly everything. I personally found the carnage arc good (except for Gwens's death, obviously. Dr. Conners was the most interesting, conflicted comic-book cherakter I've read in a while), but apart from that, I'm completely backing you up.

Really? I found him remarkably conventional. You want a conflicted character? Pick up The Invincible Iron-Man #1 by Warren Ellis and Adi Gravinov that came out in the US four months ago. I did a brief synopsis of its themes (not the story so much) in the general discussion here. He's conflicted and very interesting.

issues 47-49 are still my personal favorites on this title, and I agree about most other things as well. Very true, everything you wrote, and very well expessed.

I also agree on your general judgement on Bendis. I wouldn't pick up any titel with his name in right now, except for Ultimate Spidey, which I'm still reading because I care about characters like Kong, "Brainy Jane" and ultimate J.J.J.
I'm not really getting any good stories about them recently, though.

I know, it's sad. Two years ago, I would pick up a title because Bendis was on the front (Alias, Powers, USM, Daredevil...), now, honestly? I AVOID them.

It's sad, because I really used to like him. But so long as Wizard keeps saying he's "Man of the Year 2004" and Marvel keeps letting him write anything he wants, and his books consistently sell in the top 10, I don't see why he'd stop and look at his work and say, "Man. This stuff could be a lot better."

Shame, I just hope he gets out of his funk soon. I miss good Bendis stories.

Thanks Ricky for the kind words.
 

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