Has Bendis Jumped the Shark?

[drice6900]

So, as many may know - I am not BMB biggest fan

 

Be that as it may, the man wrote some excellent books prior to the Avengers: Disassembled debacle. He could do no wrong and was universally praised in several magazines and on the Internet.

 

Now, his Avengers work is panned, many feel USM has dropped off (Gwen is dead already? And what was that Hollywood [#@$%!!!]?), New Avengers has had tepid reviews despite selling well (at least initially), no one even remembers Secret Wars with its quarterly + schedule, someone should check the pulse of the Pulse, and BMB has announced his run on Daredevil is over after 3 more arcs.

 

Have we had enough? Are we suffering from Bendis overload? Is this just a temporary setback (is this a setback?), or are we tired of the same old "talk with little action" books spread over 6 issues?

[helionaut]

Like any creator, he has his ups and downs, but on the whole I still think he's doing excellent work. I may be in the minority, at least on this board, but I thought Disassembled was awesome. I never really read Avengers, as it always seemed the big ongoing question in the book was who was in the Avengers. Yawn for that. So I don't have the attachment to it other people do, and that's good for me because I thought it was a major event that stories can be spun off for years. With USM, for me, the spark was gone a couple years ago, but I hung on through the mid-60s out of habit. I'll probably switch to trades or hardcovers now. It's still one of those books that is a good, solid read. But again, my avoidance of Marvel Zombiedom as a kid helps my enjoyment of it now. I knew that no matter what, the Gwen Stacy thread was not going to end up as good as the original, but that's OK. Powers is still one of the best books going. The first Icon arc wasn't too great, though a ton of stuff happened (now that I think about it, it was great), and the last Image arc was great. Daredevil is another of the best books on the stands. Maleev makes the book go, but for a guy whose had his ID outed a number of times, fights the same villains over and over, and never leaves the Kitchen, Bendis continues to find new stories and new ways to tell old stories. And Night Nurse is the coolest Marvel character in a long time. Secret War, I think, will turn out to be better as one long read, rather than in episodes. The Pulse, well, you may have something there. It's definitely not Alias without the curse words like it was billed, but once it gets cooking I think there will be some good stuff coming out. There's a lot of potential, anyway, for a Marvel U newspaper.

 

So while having so much work may blunt his edges sometimes, I think he still puts out, on the whole, eminently readable, interesting stuff on a very consistent, and frequent, basis. Maybe not like he was in 2000-2002 when Powers was like gold, Alias was quietly becoming the best Mavel book, and his Daredevil was fresh and new, but still real good.

[Illiterati-migration]

There's a fun dig at "Bendis-style" comic books in the third "Invincible" TPB.

 

I don't have much to add to the conversation, because now, when I go back and look at his older material, it ALL sucks. (With the exception of some of his early Image books.)

[blowout]

I don't have much to add to the conversation, because now, when I go back and look at his older material, it ALL sucks. (With the exception of some of his early Image books.)

 

His stuff on Alias and Dardeveil was good in bursts, but other than that I agree.

 

There is one word that springs to mind when I think of Bendis...Overated.

[rjpb]

I enjoy his work on Daredevil, and find the current Original Kingpin story arc to be one of his better ones, but I haven't read any of his other work, not even his early indy stuff. It does seem he may be a bit too prolific for his own good, judging by the complaints I've been reading. This is the problem I've had with Alan Moore - when he's good he's very good, but he also produces a large amount of forgettable filler. As a result it takes more than his name alone to get me to pick up something he's written.

[Illiterati-migration]

I enjoy his work on Daredevil, and find the current Original Kingpin story arc to be one of his better ones, but I haven't read any of his other work, not even his early indy stuff. It does seem he may be a bit too prolific for his own good, judging by the complaints I've been reading. This is the problem I've had with Alan Moore - when he's good he's very good, but he also produces a large amount of forgettable filler. As a result it takes more than his name alone to get me to pick up something he's written.

 

I would disagree for the most part, really, that he is a "good writer stretched too thin". Even when you read his early material ("Total Sell-Out" is a good sampling of his pre-comic work), it becomes obvious that most of his stuff is terribly unoriginal, if not completely derivative and dull.

 

At one time I enjoyed Bendis a great deal, but those days are well behind me at this point. Maybe I should give "Fortune & Glory" another read-through tonight... just to see if I'm jaded to his work or if it really DOES just plain suck.

[BradleyX2]

As most of you know, Bendis has been wanting to write a DAREDEVIL/BATMAN crossover.

 

My prediction for one of the pages, should it come to pass:

 

 

 

DAREDEVIL: "So this cave is like, your headquarters?"

 

BATMAN: "Yeah."

 

DAREDEVIL: "It's huge."

 

BATMAN: "Yeah."

 

DAREDEVIL: "What's with that huge penny?"

 

BATMAN: "A trophy. Used to be crook's."

 

DAREDEVIL: "No way!"

 

BATMAN: "I swear."

 

DAREDEVIL: "Wow."

 

BATMAN: "I know".

 

DAREDEVIL: "So, do wanna like, fight some bad guys?"

 

BATMAN: "I guess."

[drice6900]

[Robert]

He was just "right place, right time" with USM and everything else snowballed, unfortunately.

[Smokinghawk]

BATMAN: "I swear."

 

DAREDEVIL: "Wow."

 

 

 

No, no NO!!! It would be "Whoa--dude!", not "Wow."

[Norrin_Radd]

Well, I hate to breakup the Bendis hate-fest, but I like USM and I thought Fortune & Glory was funny.

[awe4one]

The reason Bendis is held in such high reagrd is because he is better then 75-80% of the writers out there today. He's not great. Just good enough to be noticed for not pumping out mediocrity.

 

Jim

[Norrin_Radd]

Thank you. I agree.

[drice6900]

Thank you. I agree.

 

I'm not so sure that was a compliment...

[Hobgoblin]

Well, I hate to breakup the Bendis hate-fest, but I like USM and I thought Fortune & Glory was funny.

 

I also for the most part enjoy USM, and can't wait for the Hobgoblin arc. I also enjoyed Avengers: Disassembled. He could have done some things much better, but when guys like Hawkeye are dying, it catches my attention. And I'm pumped for New Avengers, and this the first arc could be fairly interesting. But apparently that's just me