Brian Michael Bendis - Only Pick One!

I would also like to include the first 5 issues of The Pulse w/ my ALIAS mention, if the judges will allow it.

Disclaimer: I haven't read any of his Ultimate work, or Sam & Twitch/Fortune & Glory/Secret & War

i guess i like his daredevil stuff the best but even that is pushing it at times.

(But not enough to trade for it.)

*Bad drawing².

²Of, essentially, a stick figure. Matt Feazell = good artist. Brian Michael Bendis = bad artist.

didi i do wrong?

i never read him before.

(ok apart from a bit of powers. and a DD issue.)(or 2)

Although I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that Bendis really has improved over the years. I read a bunch of his stuff around the time that Powers started and his dialogue shit drove me nuts. And his stories usually weren't much to write home about, either. Nowadays, even the stuff that's on the lower end of the scale in terms of what he's shown himself to be capable of is at least generally entertaining and pointedly less irritating.

Incidentally, does anyone want my copy of Jinx?

(probably have to skim the dialogue, I have no patience for his sub-Chaykin/Bruzenak sub-Mamet efforts exactly due to the forcedness you note [well that and HOW obvious the influences are and that he never seems to absorb and process them, just hammer out imitations for years {nb. I have not read an actual Bendis comic for years}])

ARISE

I said this somewhere already, but the first ish of Secret Invasion was the most enjoyable thing of his I read (USM notwitstanding) in maybe the past year-plus. Am also now questioning my commitment to Powers & his Avengers things.

Who did I give Alias to?

I guess I need to check out Alias, huh? Wow. Of the stuff I've read, Daredevil takes it, for the reasons discussed above (even if the best scene in the whole series is probably in the Brubaker story that finishes off Bendis's plots. That's not to say Brubaker is better at the book, though, since it's been horribly downhill from there).

i read the most recent few issues of powers lately and then the first one and oh god has he/it gone downhill, jesus. (and yet and yet peak of his career, argh.)

i'm kind of hoping that secret invasion is going to pick up some of the just-came-across-the-definition-of-'metafiction'-and-thought-it-sounded-kinda-neat steez of his other stuff, just for train wreck value.

ha, i forgot about the pulse. at what point did guy's priorities change such that j jones became a back seat character?

his resume in the first post makes me think he'd do much better work if marvel weren't dedicated to EVERYTHING ALWAYS CHANGING AND YET ON A HIGHER LEVEL STAYING EVEN MORE THE SAME like they are lately.

I read Alias two or so weeks ago. SO good.

Really?

Not really. Decent pulp that keeps you reading to the end, not actually "good", pretty dumb and probably comes off well dodgy if read after his recent leaps in sensitivity towards women. Get gaz to borrow it from the library and lend it to you.

Given his opinions of other stuff, I think EFG's "not really" is everyone else's "pretty good."

Super entertaining. And whoever said that it should be read in tandem with Daredevil was OTM.

"SO good": 1929 Thimble Theatre, 1953 Peanuts, 1987 Bradleys, 1990 LSH, 2000 Boys by Rege & Reidy, 2008 Scott Pilgrim. Rank Alias on this level or lower?

SWEET CHRISTMAS!

I'd say that Alias was at least as entertaining as Gets It Together, though obviously there's a different scale. For what I was expecting (a superhero comic) it delivered really well. And it subverted the genre and the trappings of the genre well enough that it was memorable and interesting.

Comparing 1953 Peanuts (or even 2008 Pilgrim) to Alias feels like an unnecessary trans-genre comparison. Obviously Casablanca is better than Independence Day, but aren't they totally different movies?

Yeah, one's a good movie and one's a bucket of shit.

one assumes "his recent leaps in sensitivity towards women" is irony, what with walker's I AM AMAZING IN BED superpower etc.

Who did I give Alias to?

ME. (Really should keep up with this board more often.)

I always find the panel arrangements in Bendis comics a bit difficult to follow. I feel like he's aiming for some kind of manga-style hyper-drama, with lots of silent panels and extreme reactions, but it just seems... clunky.

I'm about half way through Bendis' run on Daredevil. He is so mean to Matt Murdock and yet there are scenes that are funny as hell. I love the scene after Daredevil's ID has been outed where Stilt-man comes to see Murdock is pure gold.

I always find the panel arrangements in Bendis comics a bit difficult to follow.

He really likes to do lots of two-tier double page spreads with no indication that they're double-page spreads, so you've read half of each tier before you have a clue why it doesn't make sense. But then, his normal transitions and dialogue are pretty clunky anyway.

one assumes "his recent leaps in sensitivity towards women" is irony,

There's this.

first CHALLENGING OPINION on the comic board? surely not right?

see any thread with Tuomas and breasts!

breasts = fascism

I guess my Liefeldesque busom makes me Mussolini!

I don't like Bendis. He's an incredibly self-conscious writer who doesn't have the skill to rise above that, or incorporate it into his style the way, say, Morrison does.

Anybody here read Takio?

If I choose one it shall be "None."

I was going to say "Matt OTM" but then I read the thread and lol at my own stridentness throughout

huh https://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/playstation-plus/powers/#howtowatch

I've been bingeing on Bendis's X-Men/Uncanny run and really enjoying it. I can't say I've ever enjoyed anything of his before.

Wrote the best Avengers comics since Steve Englehart

otm

I wasn't much of a fan of his pre-Marvel stuff (mostly because the dialogue was so self-consciously "patter"-y) but I can't think of anything he's written for Marvel that I don't like at least a little bit.

the first trailer did not look good, but i'll definitely give it a shot. i enjoyed the first few years of Powers

Wrote the best Avengers comics since Steve Englehart

I think Bendis' Avengers run is mostly okay (though most of his crossover events are meh, culminating in the utterly pointless Siege), but no way is it better Roger Stern's or Kurt Busiek's.

way

busiek = rehashed roy thomas
stern = too many issues drawn by al milgrom (the buscema/palmer issues are nice)

FWIW I would rate Shooter's first run and the David Micheline issues over Busiek and Stern's issues.

I find his Avengers basically garbage. I don't think he does well with team books. Everyone bantering like they're Spider-Man is dumb, dumb, dumb. Never forget that the centerpiece of his run was Secret Invasion, the worst "event" of the current era. Which is saying something, what with Siege and Fear Itself and whatever Remender's magic brain zap thing was last year.

He seems to be doing a much better job of dialing it down with X-Men, but I think it's because he has the chance to be extra sickeningly quippy with Guardians for balance.

However, I have lots of love for Alias and his Ultimate Spider-Man.

His books are basically just full of macho blather and the only action scene he can do is "a big thing blows up".

On the other hand, I think his regular blather-to-action ratio nicely dovetails with the X-Men characters, he's tamped down on the macho banter nonsense, and he's had a really lucky run of good artists and Chris Bachalo,

He really likes to do lots of two-tier double page spreads with no indication that they're double-page spreads, so you've read half of each tier before you have a clue why it doesn't make sense. But then, his normal transitions and dialogue are pretty clunky anyway. -- this otm

Everyone bantering like they're Spider-Man is dumb, dumb, dumb

This isn't really accurate, but you know that 'banter' is pretty much the raison d'etre of Marvel Comics, don't you?

There's good banter and there's Bendis banter and I HATE the latter.

I agree but I think he's gotten better.

Secret Invasion isn't bad, but it does pretty much require you to read the entire crossover if you want a satisfying story. I read mostly just the miniseries proper the first time around and decided it was garbage but later realized that I was basically just reading random chapters in a long novel.

otm, all the best SI stories are outside of the rather empty main miniseries

The Powers tv show was supposed to go live today -- anybody seen any of it yet?

I'll give it a look in a bit and report back.

I had not figured out the full cost details of this beforehand -- free if you're a PS+ member, $18 (SD) or $25(HD) for the full 10-episode season if not? Anyway, the first episode is free for all, and it was mmmmmmkay, not great. I definitely won't watch the rest of it until all the episodes are out and it won't cost me more than 1 month of PS+ membership.

It was alright. Had all the problems pilots often do - trying to cover too much ground, ropey effects, inconsistent accents, etc. - but it was so much better than any other pilot for a supers show than I've seen the last few years. Cautiously optimistic.

I know that many of the zombies hold them up as crimes against continuity, but I really dig the scenes his various titles where he gets either all the good guys sitting around a table or all the bad guys sitting around the table having a meeting. It seems that many readers don't like Bendis' chatty nature, but I think these scenes work for me as it is always just novel to get many of those characters around a table. I quite liked Maleev's sleazy Namor.

Daredevil is my favorite of Bendis' comics. It's a pretty worthy sequel to the Frank Miller run with the character.

but I really dig the scenes his various titles where he gets either all the good guys sitting around a table or all the bad guys sitting around the table having a meeting.

I'm with you on this.

I'm not against the chattiness in general, but my problem with Bendis chatter (at least in his Avengers books, I'm not that familiar with his other superhero) is that he makes is that he makes everyone sound the same, they all talk like they're characters in hard-boiled detective novel or a cop show, and that just feels tonally wrong for The Avengers (or for most supehero books to that matter). I really don't feel superhero comics should aim for naturalism in their characterization, that goes against their very nature. The Avengers should be bold, idealistic, noble, not these hard-talking clones.