Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: What is your verdict?

[The Infected]

No, no, a thousand times no.

The dialog is ridiculously homogeneous, and all of the characters have been stripped away to a single base idea. Spidey tells jokes; Wolverine is gruff; Luke Cage loves his wife. They aren't characters, they're caricatures.

But even putting that aside, nothing about his team feels like The Avengers. The Avengers are, traditionally, a team full of veritable powerhouses, tasked to deal with the threats that the heroes can't deal with on their own. They fight cosmic-level threats. Under Bendis, it's a collective of street-level heroes with a powerhouse or two thrown in, albeit usually in a very restricted capacity as to not be that much more powerful than the rest of the team. (ie. Dr. Strange is a useless magician; The Void rears his head every time Sentry is about to do something useful) He keeps the tone of the book dark and edgy because, for so many writers nowadays, this seems to be equated with realism, which is apparently good. As far as I'm concerned, that's not the Avengers. Give me Dan Slott's Mighty Avengers any day of the week over New Avengers or Dark Avengers. The second one makes me a bit sad, really, because Ellis' Thunderbolts run is among my favorite superhero runs ever, and the characters are just being horribly mistreated.

[Brandon McKinnis]

Let's go the opposite route then and have each page have only one panel, then.

MoGGG!!Z?!?!? Bednis' run is 2,500 issues and he puts out 12 Avengers books a month.

That's pretty much just as asinine but in the opposite direction. Overstatements and hyperbole don't come off as clever.

[XPac]

No, no, a thousand times no.



But even putting that aside, nothing about his team feels like The Avengers. The Avengers are, traditionally, a team full of veritable powerhouses, tasked to deal with the threats that the heroes can't deal with on their own. They fight cosmic-level threats. Under Bendis, it's a collective of street-level heroes with a powerhouse or two thrown in, albeit usually in a very restricted capacity as to not be that much more powerful than the rest of the team. (ie. Dr. Strange is a useless magician; The Void rears his head every time Sentry is about to do something useful) He keeps the tone of the book dark and edgy because, for so many writers nowadays, this seems to be equated with realism, which is apparently good. As far as I'm concerned, that's not the Avengers. Give me Dan Slott's Mighty Avengers any day of the week over New Avengers or Dark Avengers. The second one makes me a bit sad, really, because Ellis' Thunderbolts run is among my favorite superhero runs ever, and the characters are just being horribly mistreated.

I think the Caps Kooky Quartet version of the team sort of challenged that notion of them being a powerhouse team pretty early on actually.

[giovedi]

Thinking more on it, I do think that some of the characters Bendis has created for the Avengers series are pretty good. (I just don't like his characterization of some of characters who have long been established, but I'm repeating myself.)

I think given a different title, or creating an entire new team from scratch away, (a team that doesn't get much action of the field as has plenty of downtime) that is not Avnger related, it might not be that bad of a story.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I think the Caps Kooky Quartet version of the team sort of challenged that notion of them being a powerhouse team pretty early on actually.

Again, it didn't take long before Giant Man, Wasp, and Hercules joined that team.

[XPac]

Again, it didn't take long before Giant Man, Wasp, and Hercules joined that team.

The roster shifts around. I didn't think the version with Hank, Wasp, Hawkeye, and Black Panther was that uber powerful either.

Sometimes the team is stacked and sometimes it's not. There was never really an obligation to make them earth's mightiest heroes.

[Ziggy Stardust]

No, what I mean is that Cap's quartet was indeed weak. And it did not take too many issues before some firepower was added.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

No, what I mean is that Cap's quartet was indeed weak. And it did not take too many issues before some firepower was added.

And even when they were weak, it wasn't like they were taking on ninjas or going to the Savage Land.

[Shellhead]

Good, I much prefer this writing to old school writing.

I mean, I'm pretty sure a Simpsons episode could be done in ten minutes, that won't make it good at all.

Bad analogy. Bendis would stretch a single Simpsons episode into a six-episode arc. Same number of jokes, but more filler material in between.

[XPac]

No, what I mean is that Cap's quartet was indeed weak. And it did not take too many issues before some firepower was added.

Maybe they were underpowered... just as other versions of the team have been in the past. But the point is that I don't think it's logical to assume they're not Avengery simply because they don't have a particularly uber roster.

Sometimes the line up isn't that stacked. But that's frankly an irrelavent issue in regards to whether they are the Avengers or not. Stan established that almost right at the start. Bendis created a pretty dam powerful Avengers team with the MA, and people were claiming they weren't Avengery either.

[Brandon McKinnis]

Bad analogy. Bendis would stretch a single Simpsons episode into a six-episode arc. Same number of jokes, but more filler material in between.

That's an equally bad ananlogy. Bendis writing is more akin to storytelling on shows like 24.

[Sighphi]

That's an equally bad ananlogy. Bendis writing is more akin to storytelling on shows like 24.

I never watched 24 but do they have whole shows that are nothing but the dude chilling in his Brooklyn loft eating breakfast?

[Ziggy Stardust]

That's an equally bad ananlogy. Bendis writing is more akin to storytelling on shows like 24.

No, if Bendis wrote it, it would have to be called 128

[Umbra]

I wish marvel would have let Johns do more. Just my opinion.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I wish marvel would have let Johns do more. Just my opinion.

I think they would have.... but, DC was smart enuff to sign Geoff to an excllusive contract.