I’ve enjoyed some of Bendis’ work, but I’m glad to hear he’s leaving.as a long time Avengers fan I think Bendis struck a sour note from the very start of his run when he ignored several years of stories and suddenly had the Scarlet Witch go nuts over the loss of her two sons.I could deal with some new motivation, but Bendis decided to cherry pick continuity – dipping back into decades-old John Byrne West Coast Avengers stories and ignoring pretty much every treatment of the Witch that followed by other creative teams.however new Avengers started strong, with a nice mix of characters. I actually find that when he is writing some of the icons like Cap, Thor and Iron Man – as he has in Mighty Avengers and Avengers – Bendis’ style is less grating.But then Bendis wrote the Sentry into Marvel continuity – a good idea that he complicated with a bizarrely updated backstory that wanted to both preserve what Paul Jenkins had done in the mini series but add some new touches. I never got why Jenkins’ origin for the character just couldn’t be incorporated into new Avengers.
And then new Avengers simply appeared to be treading water between events, from House of M to Civil War to Secret Invasion, and the big guns were replaced by all the “street level” members Bendis clearly prefers. honestly at the end of the day you could have skipped those years of new Avengers and pretty much be all caught up if you simply read the “event” books. Gone were the days of great stand out “arcs” like Shooter’s Korvac saga or Stern’s Fall of the Mansion and Olympus sagas or Busiek’s battle with Ultron.
Things got better with Mighty Avengers, where Bendis clearly was trying to write a more traditional book using more classic members. But in my opinion that book was at its best when Dan Slott took over.
All that being said, I must admit that I’ve generally enjoyed Bendis’ last year or so on Avengers. Again, because of the make up of the team – Bucky-Cap, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Red Hulk, the Protector – he just can’t get away with as many Bendis-isms as he can over in new Avengers. He’s got to really try harder to play things straight and heroic. and he also worked hard to raise the threat levels. so we got some decent arcs – the Kang/alternate future/Ultron story, the Illuminati/Infinity Gauntlet story. and even Bendis’ fear itself tie ins were decent done-in-one issues focusing on a couple characters.
As for new Avengers, I dropped it after the Siege relaunch but am back on board for the ongoing “Osborn returns” story because of the tie-in with the Avengers book and also because I like having Daredevil on board. I don’t think Bendis ever really did a good job defning why this Avengers team needs to exist other than he likes to write the characters and it was a top seller. it could just has well have been the Defenders or a variation of Heroes for Hire or some brand new team.
At the end of the day far too often new Avengers under Bendis was like “the Underdog Avengers.” they always seem to get beat up or to kind of flounder their way to victory, in between all the banter. I never felt the book was particularly heroic.
I will give Bendis credit for raising the profile of the Avengers concept. I don’t think he was the only creator who could have made the book a popular one over the last few years. But he was successful. and despite his writing two – and next year three – Avengers ongoing titles, there has certainly been plenty of variety because the book has proved a top seller: Slott’s Avengers, Secret Avengers, Avengers Academy, Children’s Crusade, the Joe Casey minis focusing on the team’s past, the more kid-oriented title penned by Jeff Parker.
But as I said at the start, I’m glad he’s moving on. I’m hoping for a writer that I can honestly say I love and not one who entertains me one month and irritates me the next.
And right here and now I’m going to put an early request in for Jeff Parker. He’s a smart writer who has a love of the characters and Marvel history and can really tell some creative stories. No, he won’t be the “edgy” choice. But of the stable of current writers out there, unless Marvel somehow convinces Mark Waid or Grant Morrison to take over Avengers, Parker’s my man.
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