Bendis Looks Back on His Term as the "Avengers" Assemblyman

[CBR News]

Brian Michael Bendis recently finished a record-breaking 8-year run on Marvel's Avengers family of titles and CBR News got a chance to speak with him about that run. Today we present part one of our two part interview.


Full article here.

[motteditor]

I probably shouldn't even read this interview, I know...

I'm glad to say I never sent Bendis a death threat. Bitched about him, but even *I* have some sense of priorities.

The uproar Bendis created with "Avengers Disassembled" meant that he had dug a hole for himself, and the best way to dig himself out, of course, was to prove his love for Earth's Mightiest Heroes. He started to do that with "Avengers Finale," the one-shot that followed "Disassembled" and brought the original volume of the series to a close.

"Some readers were saying that I was on 'Avengers' even though I've never read the book before; like I had never even heard of it before I took the gig. I had been reading it since I could read! I know it by heart. Why would I waste my time writing 'Avengers' if I didn't like the book? I loved the Avengers, and 'Avengers Finale,' which had been written before I had gotten my ass kicked, kind of proved to people that I knew my stuff and that I gave a crap. I certainly want to thank George Perez for drawing the last pages of that story because it gave the book an air of classiness. It felt like the Avengers going off into the sunset."

Except even that book was ridiculous. IIRC, it had people talking about their favorite Avengers moments being things they weren't even ON the team for. On the other hand, it's got the distinction of being the very last piece of Bendis work I've ever paid for (or ever will).

And I still say if you loved the Avengers as much as you claimed to, you'd have wanted to write about those characters instead of killing them off and writing about Luke Cage, Wolverine, Spider-Man and other characters who weren't Avengers. He even says it in that last quote, and I just don't understand. "Why would I waste my time writing 'Avengers' if I didn't like the book?" Why would you want to write the Avengers if you weren't going to write about Wanda, Vision, Hawkeye, Simon, Jan, Hank ... ? For all the talk about the Big Three, nothing in the Avengers had any impact on them because they had their own titles. It was these OTHER characters whose stories were told in the Avengers, who were the heart of the book. You say why would you write the Avengers if you didn't like the book, and some of us still wonder. Because after all this time, you still don't seem to like the characters that were the heart of the title.

Yes, you finally brought back Vision and Jan from death (though the former was reduced to a bit of spare parts that Tony dabbled on when he had time as opposed to a core member of the team); yes, you sort of had Simon not being a villain just as bizarrely as he was a villain but it just left the character a damaged mess; you never did a single thing to fix Wanda, who you destroyed beyond recognition. And Hawkeye you brought back only to have him be a murderous ninja, which is utterly missing the point of the character.

And of course he still doesn't acknowledge he completely changed Wanda's powers in Dismembered, much less that the entire enciting moment of his run is based in the incorrect idea that she didn't know about her children.

[josh straightedge]

Loved Disassembled. Loved New Avengers. Liked the events that happened during those books. Loved Dark Avengers too. Bendis is probably as loved as he is hated. But, I thought he did good, especially at the beginning. I haven't read any of his Avengers stuff in the last few years.

[Beast]

Before Bendis on Avengers I was all about the X-Men. His was the only run I ever really followed from beginning to end.

He brought in long running characters that should have been Avengers a long time ago. From Luke Cage to Spider-Man to Wolverine.

I enjoyed the ride and think he did more good for the franchise than anyone can claim he did bad. And I love what he's doing with the X-Books.

[DebkoX]

Thanks michael. Without you I would have walked away from trying comics.

[StrongGuy]

I probably shouldn't even read this interview, I know...

I'm glad to say I never sent Bendis a death threat. Bitched about him, but even *I* have some sense of priorities.



Except even that book was ridiculous. IIRC, it had people talking about their favorite Avengers moments being things they weren't even ON the team for. On the other hand, it's got the distinction of being the very last piece of Bendis work I've ever paid for (or ever will).

And I still say if you loved the Avengers as much as you claimed to, you'd have wanted to write about those characters instead of killing them off and writing about Luke Cage, Wolverine, Spider-Man and other characters who weren't Avengers. He even says it in that last quote, and I just don't understand. "Why would I waste my time writing 'Avengers' if I didn't like the book?" Why would you want to write the Avengers if you weren't going to write about Wanda, Vision, Hawkeye, Simon, Jan, Hank ... ? For all the talk about the Big Three, nothing in the Avengers had any impact on them because they had their own titles. It was these OTHER characters whose stories were told in the Avengers, who were the heart of the book. You say why would you write the Avengers if you didn't like the book, and some of us still wonder. Because after all this time, you still don't seem to like the characters that were the heart of the title.

Yes, you finally brought back Vision and Jan from death (though the former was reduced to a bit of spare parts that Tony dabbled on when he had time as opposed to a core member of the team); yes, you sort of had Simon not being a villain just as bizarrely as he was a villain but it just left the character a damaged mess; you never did a single thing to fix Wanda, who you destroyed beyond recognition. And Hawkeye you brought back only to have him be a murderous ninja, which is utterly missing the point of the character.

And of course he still doesn't acknowledge he completely changed Wanda's powers in Dismembered, much less that the entire enciting moment of his run is based in the incorrect idea that she didn't know about her children.

Incorrigible, this one is. And the same talking points used over and over again. Yawn.

On to the subject at hand. Bendis' Avengers were far from perfect and sometimes suffered from his usual storytelling quirks (Strong buildup only to fizzle out in the end, etc) but the lasting impact he's had on the title is and was incredibly huge.

His run, IMHO, coincided with Marvel's attempt to make the Avengers franchise as popular as the X-Men, especially considering that they didn't have the movie rights to the X-men. You can see a clear attempt to build up the property to that level.

Contrary to our repetitive friend, the Avengers books were getting stale. There were always more than the characters mentioned but were beholden to a philosophy where the Big Guns had their stories told in their own books while the glue guys had their own moments of characterization. To say that the Avengers roster was carved in stone (Wanda, Vision, Hawkeye, Simon, Jan, Hank ) just because that's the roster you grew up with is laughable and presumptuous to boot.

Once Marvel said, screw it let's have the the Earth's Mightiest Heroes actually represent that, the storytelling options were open. Again, not a perfect run but no doubt a successful one, both from a marketing and a literary perspective.

Curious to see where Hickman takes things from here...

[new_onslaught]

From his stuff I've only read House of M which I liked (moslty because of Coipel), Siege and the Avengers annual where Luke Cage gets married. From those I got that his stories are too plot-driven and that he doesn't care much for the characters unique voice.

[Vic Vega]

Bendis work on Avengers: Finale and the Oral Histories showed that he knew the characters well enough.
It was just his (and Marvel's) belief that the Avengers wasn't as cool as the Xmen were or as important as the JLA are.

Once you got past Cap, Thor and Iron Man you are looking at a horde of C-list characters who don't have thier own books. He just didn't find that enticing.

Had he been able to do what he wanted for the Ronin arc he would have had a line up of Cap, Iron Man, Spider Man, Spider Woman, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Daredevil and the Sentry. Cage and Sentry would have been the only C-lister on that roster (heck, Spider Woman was an A-lister when Bendis was reading comics).

The Xmen are popular because they are underdogs. The classic Avengers are pretty much overdogs with government clearances and a hotline to the POTUS and all that. Much of Bendis' run from Civil War to Seige was about making the Avengers (or at least a part of them) outright underdogs.

There was a reason for all the stuff he did.

We can quibble about execution.

[StrongGuy]

Bendis work on Avengers: Finale and the Oral Histories showed that he knew the characters well enough.
It was just his (and Marvel's) belief that the Avengers wasn't as cool as the Xmen were or as important as the JLA are.

Once you got past Cap, Thor and Iron Man you are looking at a horde of C-list characters who don't have thier own books. He just didn't find that enticing.

Had he been able to do what he wanted for the Ronin arc he would have had a line up of Cap, Iron Man, Spider Man, Spider Woman, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Daredevil and the Sentry. Cage and Sentry would have been the only C-lister on that roster (heck, Spider Woman was an A-lister when Bendis was reading comics).

The Xmen are popular because they are underdogs. The classic Avengers are pretty much overdogs with government clearances and a hotline to the POTUS and all that. Much of Bendis' run from Civil War to Seige was about making the Avengers (or at least a part of them) outright underdogs.

There was a reason for all the stuff he did.

We can quibble about execution.

Well put sir.

[Kaiolino]

Chris Claremont never wrote founding X-Man Iceman and barely featured Angel and Beast, while at the same introducing all new characters. He must've completely hated the X-Men if he didn't want to write about them!

[krisis]

Brian Michael Bendis recently finished a record-breaking 8-year run on Marvel's Avengers family of titles and CBR News got a chance to speak with him about that run. Today we present part one of our two part interview.


Full article here.

That was a SPECTACULAR interview!!!

Seriously. kudos to Dave Richards to putting a coherent, compelling narrative around Bendis's time on Avengers. It comes at the perfect time for me, as I happen to have been reading (and, in some cases, re-reading) this run over the past few months and just arrived at Siege last night. A behind-the-scenes glimpse of how each line-up and story took shape is an incredible director's commentary on the comics I've been reading ... and mostly enjoying.

I think this article captures what Bendis brought back to Marvel - and brought to the Avengers for the first time since Byrne: a sense of the importance of continuity and narrative, and a grand scope that is not afraid to alter the status quo. Without Bendis we would not have writers like Hickman and Remender taking the range of this franchise.

I may not always love his dialog, but his plots on Avengers were largely entertaining.

(And, this is coming someone who believes strongly that Spider-Man and Wolverine are not and will never be Avengers and that Bendis is about to ruin X-Men with a terrible plot ;)

[StrongGuy]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[StrongGuy]

Chris Claremont never wrote founding X-Man Iceman and barely featured Angel and Beast, while at the same introducing all new characters. He must've completely hated the X-Men if he didn't want to write about them!

The kicker is *spoiler alert* Beast was an X-Man before the Avengers. But that's apparently okay because he was already on the roster when some started reading the book.

[Winghead]

Thanks Brian! Loved your Avengers dearly. Laughed out loud many a time. You're the reason I got in to comics as an adult and I'll now say goodbye to Avengers and follow you to X world and Guardians of the Galaxy. Haters can hate, but Bendis rules IMO.

[starman]

I like reading stuff like this. You get to see how all the big ideas and events took shape. It's hard to imagine that all of this took shape from Bendis asking why wasn't Wolverine and Spider-Man on the Avengers. It's also interesting that House of M came from Cassaday being late on Astonishing and a Loeb question.
I still hate everything Bendis did with the Sentry and would like to know why he took a huge dump on the character, but overall I'm happy with how things went down.