Brubaker vs. Bendis

[Step into the GT]

Which writer is the current best in the Marvel U? Bendis right now has the two avengers titles (New and Dark), but Brubaker has some of the most critically acclaimed work (Daredevil and Captain America). They also are known for street level crime stories.

[Blind pugh]

Brubaker
I think their bodies of work speak for themselves

[CaptainCanada]

And it's Brubaker in a one-punch TKO!

[Congo Jack]

Brubaker. I love most of his Marvel stuff - CAP, DD, IRON FIST.

[ZeoVGM]

That's a tough one, to be honest. Bendis has stepped up his game hugely after SI ended. DA and NA are fantastic, and Ultimate Spidey still kicks ass.

[G. Boney]

I don't know about the "best" at all of Marvel as I don't read every title published, but between the two...Brubaker.

[remoteman]

I would say Bendis. His Ultimate Spider-Man beats anything that Brubaker has done, and his Dark Avengers is shaping up to be an excellent series while in my opinion Brubaker's Captain America is going steadily downhill.

[Guest_1001]

Paul Cornell.

Nah, I know. I just wanted to do the "name a writer who isn't either of the choices" before anyone else did. Out of Bendis and Brubaker though, I'm saying Brubaker. Captain America has blown me away time and again. As good as Bendis was on Ultimate Spider-Man, that wore thin as soon as everyone and their mother began to make appearances in the book . . .

But Paul Cornell really is top-notch . . .

[striderhirryu2]

I voted Bru earlier but I'm starting to wish I didn't make such a hasty decision. The only fair comparison between the two is their Daredevil runs because they're doing very different things. Bru's in his own little pocket in the universe doing his own thing and doing it very well while Bendis has 2.5 team books going that are all encompassing the universe. I've made it to issue 72 in Bendis' Daredevil and it looks like a really tough act to follow. I'll admit it's vastly superior to his Avengers work, but considering he was at the top of his game and moved out of his comfort zone of street level crime, he's doing a good job.

[Frodo-X]

Brubaker. His Cap is so good that even his lackluster X-men work can't bring my opinion of him down.

[HaroldAllnut]

While I'm not an enormous fan of either, I had to toss my vote Bendis' way because I enjoyed some of the earlier stuff he wrote in Ultimate Spider-Man, specifically the "Warriors" arc and the "Ultimate Knights" arc. Those were quality.

[Ed Sullivan]

Brubaker is awesome.

[Merrik]

Out of the two choices, Brubaker, definitely.

[enema]

Brubaker owns bendis

[NickFury90]

I'm defintely a Bendis fan. His Ultimate Spider-man/DD runs are fantastic(with Ult. Spidey being the most consistenly good Spidey book for a good 10 years now), Dark Avengers is pretty darn good so far, and the few issues of Powers I read were really cool.

That said, he doesn't have **** on God Bru. Captain America, Immortal Iron Fist, Criminal, Gotham Central, hell even Daredevil is awesome. I will read just about anything he does, and he's one of the few writers I think I would ever attempt that somewhat finacially-risque move :biggrin:

[coldstar]

Brubaker. I like Ultimate Spider-Man and New Avengers... but DA hasn't been interesting me as much as I'd hoped, and you just can't beat Brubaker for Daredevil or Cap.

[pimp1911]

In Bru we trust.

[GHalecki]

Brubaker is better than Bendis by a mile, based on what I have read of them both.
However both of them together aren't as good as PAD.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Their styles are quite similar...


But Bru does it better. MUCH better.

[ANewHope]

Brubaker is definitely the better writer.

However, Bendis is the master architect of the Marvel Universe. I don't think anyone else could do what he does. Bendis is a genius in this regard.

[GHalecki]

The problem there is that somehow he has people fooled into thinking that doing what he does is enough, instead of doing what he is trying to do well.

He has come up with some of the greatest ideas for Marvel in decades, yet not one of them was done any where near as well as it should have been done.

He has great ideas that don't fit the charachters, and he decides to redefine the charachters to fit his ideas, where he should be incorperating the charachters as they are into his plans.

[MTL76]

I think Bendis did a much better job on Daredevil than Bru has done. Bendis's run on DD, and his Alias series, are phenomenal. However, his Avenger stuff has been painful.

Bru's more consistently good, but he's like a one-note symphony; I feel like everything he writes is the in the same genre of crime noir. Granted, I haven't read everything by him, I'm thinking mainly of DD, Cap, Sleeper, Batman, Criminal and Point Blank.

[_OM_]

And it's Brubaker in a one-punch TKO!

...Yep. Yet another poll proving that Bendis isn't the "writer gawd" that his sycophants make him out to be. I love it!

[Chino]

Brubaker. It's not even close. I really wish Bendis would just go back to solo, street level stuff. His Avengers is terrible.

[jackdaw53]

The only time they did the same series (to my knowledge), Mr Bendis actually entertained me considerably more: that was Daredevil. (I thought the Ed Brubaker arc immediately following the Brian Bendis run was terrific, but afterwards fell off just a bit.)

But Ed Brubaker has done so much in recent years that I've thought was exceptionally good (Sleeper, Gotham Central, Criminal, Catwoman, Captain America) that he's the one that I really look forward to reading his new stuff.

[whiteshark]

Bendis have written better stories in my opinion.
Although Daredevil and Captain America by Brubaker is good as well.

[Blind pugh]

But Paul Cornell really is top-notch . . .
Preaching to the choir!

[Karl O'Neill]

Bru.

Gotham central
Catwoman
Batman
Daredevil
Captain america
sleeper
criminal

[passer-by]

Brubaker. It's not even close. I really wish Bendis would just go back to solo, street level stuff. His Avengers is terrible.My sentiment exactly.
I enjoy(ed) Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil and Powers is a great creator-owned series. His team books are unreadable.

As for Brubaker, the only thing written by him I didn't like were his Uncanny X-Men. And Sleeper is fantastic.

So from those two - Brubaker. Otherwise, as it was already said - Peter David. :cool:

[Will.S]

I like them both the same.

[MTL76]

Bru.

Gotham central
Catwoman
Batman
Daredevil
Captain america
sleeper
criminal

Add Incognito to the list. They're all so similar, though. You could pluck Bucky Barnes out of Cap and put him in Gotham Central, swap out DD and put him in Sleeper, etc.

It's funny, because that's a criticism I hear about Bendis a lot (all his characters are interchangable/sound the same.)

[killerbass]

I love them both -- which is to say that neither is perfect, but I like most of their stuff the great majority of the time...

--Tom

[GHalecki]

Add Incognito to the list. They're all so similar, though. You could pluck Bucky Barnes out of Cap and put him in Gotham Central, swap out DD and put him in Sleeper, etc.

It's funny, because that's a criticism I hear about Bendis a lot (all his characters are interchangable/sound the same.)

Well to be fair, it is one thing to have Daredevil act one way in a story, and have Batman act in a very similar way in a similar story.
It is very diferent to have Luke Cage, Clint Barton, and Peter Parker in the same book, and have their dialogue be virtually interchangable.

[Hrist]

They're all so similar, though. You could pluck Bucky Barnes out of Cap and put him in Gotham Central, swap out DD and put him in Sleeper, etc.

It's funny, because that's a criticism I hear about Bendis a lot (all his characters are interchangable/sound the same.)

While the best of Brubaker's stuff is all in a similar genre, I think that's pretty true of Bendis as well. (With USM as an exception, I guess.) Furthermore, I don't think Bucky Barnes = Holden Carver = Selina Kyle = Zack Overkill, even remotely. They have different motivations and different ways of reacting to things, even if superficially they have similar voices. If you put Matt Murdock in Sleeper, Sleeper would have turned out a whole lot different.

[md62]

Brubaker...

[Karl O'Neill]

I knew brubaker would win, but not by such an astounding margin.

[Alan2099]

I'm torn. I think Bendis sucks. Completley and totally.

I don't like Brubaker, but I can recognize what he does as qualityy work. I just don't agree with it or appreciate it.

There's not really a good option in the poll that reflects that.

[artiepants]

I like 'em both the same and think they have different strengths and weaknesses.
They're 2 of my faves though.

[AllisterH]

I find both are not so good outside of the low level/street level universe. Bendis is SLIGHTLY better IMO but neither are as good as say Busiek.

Seriously, while many bemoan Bendis' run on Avengers, Brubaker's run on Uncanny was even worse.

[passer-by]

I find both are not so good outside of the low level/street level universe. Bendis is SLIGHTLY better IMO but neither are as good as say Busiek.

Seriously, while many bemoan Bendis' run on Avengers, Brubaker's run on Uncanny was even worse.That's debatable, but even if it was so, Brubaker's UXM run is shorter than Bendis' writings on all things Avengers.

Plus, there are many other X-titles by many other writers. And in the Avengers Slott came only recently on MA. I don't really count A: TI as a genuine Avengers title - for the sake of my argument. :biggrin:

I like Bendis on Ultimate Spider-Man, DD and Powers. But his team books are terrible and that lowers the grade considerably. :biggrin:

[Flinkman]

obviously in the minority, but Bendis.

Bru's Cap is good, but maaaaan his Uncanny was bad.

[CaptainCanada]

Seriously, while many bemoan Bendis' run on Avengers, Brubaker's run on Uncanny was even worse.I don't think so; Brubaker's UXM was generally mediocre, but in terms of effects on the franchise, he left the series basically as it was when he took it on. Apart from the death of the fairly minor Corsair. Compare that to just Avengers Disassembled, let alone everything that's come since.

[Sgt. Preston]

Both are talented writers though I prefer Brubaker.

I collect an awful lot of Bendis, but the "wordy, everyone talks the same and repeats themselves" routine gets old sometimes.

[Tetsuo_man]

I don't think so; Brubaker's UXM was generally mediocre, but in terms of effects on the franchise, he left the series basically as it was when he took it on. Apart from the death of the fairly minor Corsair. Compare that to just Avengers Disassembled, let alone everything that's come since.

Let me say hear hear.

[ANewHope]

I find both are not so good outside of the low level/street level universe. Bendis is SLIGHTLY better IMO but neither are as good as say Busiek.

Seriously, while many bemoan Bendis' run on Avengers, Brubaker's run on Uncanny was even worse.

No way. Brubaker used characters that no one else knew what to do with. So you didn't like it because it did not feature Wolverine or Cyclops? Typical.

He revived characters like Warpath or Cabal. I loved his Uncanny run. "But nobody listens to the Indian!"

I love how he gave Polaris, Havok and Rachel Grey a real purpose. I haven't caught up with it's impact on War Of Kings yet, but we couldn't have had these stories if it wasn't for Brubaker.

[Chino]

I just really wish Bendis would leave the Avengers. I constantly drop and add these books because I want to follow, but the dialog is just painful.

I tried Brubakers UXM and dropped it mostly due to the fact that the book wasn't doing anything. X-Force is where the real parties at.

[AllisterH]

No way. Brubaker used characters that no one else knew what to do with. So you didn't like it because it did not feature Wolverine or Cyclops? Typical.

He revived characters like Warpath or Cabal. I loved his Uncanny run. "But nobody listens to the Indian!"

I love how he gave Polaris, Havok and Rachel Grey a real purpose. I haven't caught up with it's impact on War Of Kings yet, but we couldn't have had these stories if it wasn't for Brubaker.

Has nothing to do with "popular characters" but the fact that he didnt seem comfortable writing powerful characters like Polaris et al.

I honestly think both him and Bendis are better suited for the crime noir/street level (although Bendis has shown in USM that he can do midcarders well) but the fact that you pretty much can ignore Brubaker's run on Uncanny I don't consider a plus with regard to him in comparison to Bendis' run on Avengers.

At least Bendis is trying and is making his mark whereas Brubaker just doesn't want to deal with such characters.

Bendis' problem is the actual climax of the storyline. The ideas and the main storyline are interesting enough, but the follow through needs work on his Avengers. Contrasted with Brubaker's where from start to finish, the run was forgettable, I rather have Bendis.

[SydneyFalco]

Brubaker tells better stories, but I look forward to Bendis books more.

[bringthenoise]

Bru, but not by much.

[rogerio]

Brubaker, always!:smile:

[jpk]

Had to go with Brubaker based on the consistently strong work he has done in the last four-plus years.

BTW: If you voted 'both are terrible,' do yourself a favor and quit reading comics.

[americocaine]

whowhwohohooo! the i's have it!

[NickFury90]

BTW: If you voted 'both are terrible,' do yourself a favor and quit reading comics.

Seriously, I pray those are some joke votes. I can see you not being a Bendis fan(he has a certain dialog style, and tend to "write-for-the-trade"), but God Bru too?

[G. Boney]

BTW: If you voted 'both are terrible,' do yourself a favor and quit reading comics.

Heh heh. Yeah right. Comics existed before these guys and will continue after them.

[GHalecki]

Heh heh. Yeah right. Comics existed before these guys and will continue after them.

Absolutely correct. While I think Brubaker is far better than Bendis (who I find to be Liefield levels of terrible), he is certainly not great.

I do think that his work on Captain America is very good, even bordering on great, one piece of great work does not make one great.

Guys in the Marvel ranks currently that I DO consider great are people like Stern, Pad, and Necieza.

The rest of the "hot talent" are largely just flash in the pans (like Loeb) who have a great reputation based on a few really good projects in their past that seem to have gone to their heads, and overhyped self important hacks (like Bendis and Austen) who have managed to convince their bosses (and through them they got the hype machines working in their favor) that their personal fanfiction like visions are more important than the integrety of the charachters that they are entrusted with.
There are a few though, like Slott, that seem to be legitemate talents that seem to really get it, and can quite possibly be great one day, if they can put up a large enough body of work that matches the best parts of what they have done so far. In Slotts case, I have seen a lot of pretty good stuff, and can't remember anything that I disliked. In Bru's case, his best stuff so far (Cap) is better than Slott's, but I thought his X-Men was pretty near unreadable. It depends on what direction his future stuff goes. More like his Cap or more like his X-Men.

In a few years I am sure that, Kirby willing, Bendis will be out to pasture relegated to his own little creator owned corner of the comic shops (if anywhere at all) like McFarlane and Liefield.