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Post by berkley on Mar 5, 2024 18:45:00 GMT -5
Bendis is a decent writer.. he just can only write one character. Powers is good. Ultimate Spidey is great. That's the character he can write. His Avengers would have been better if the same story wasn't pasted onto existing characters with personalities that were not the character he writes. Sadly, it started a trend to do so that has continued since. Bendis’ team books suffered from what some TV shows suffered from. Everyone had a quick wit. That’s not true in real life. I remember watching the “House “ TV show, every one was quick with a comeback. It got tiring after a while. Some people are quick and many are not.
Perhaps not entirely a coincidence since from the few things I've read his influences seem to come more from tv and especially movies than from comics or prose literature, though I understand he cites David Mamet as his favourite writer.
When I first started looking at mainstream comics again in the early 2000s, Bendis was one of the writers I heard most about along with Morrison, Ellis, and Ennis. I eventually came to appreciate the other three but Bendis has never appealed to me much.
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Post by commond on Mar 5, 2024 18:56:28 GMT -5
I respect Bendis for pushing the boundaries of what a comic book narrative looks like. It may not always work for me, but at least he doesn't pretend that comic books ended with the Bronze Age.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 5, 2024 21:29:26 GMT -5
Bendis’ team books suffered from what some TV shows suffered from. Everyone had a quick wit. That’s not true in real life. I remember watching the “House “ TV show, every one was quick with a comeback. It got tiring after a while. Some people are quick and many are not.
Perhaps not entirely a coincidence since from the few things I've read his influences seem to come more from tv and especially movies than from comics or prose literature, though I understand he cites David Mamet as his favourite writer.
When I first started looking at mainstream comics again in the early 2000s, Bendis was one of the writers I heard most about along with Morrison, Ellis, and Ennis. I eventually came to appreciate the other three but Bendis has never appealed to me much.
Bendis was pretty much enraptured by Mamet. He was constantly singing his praises in his letters page, on his crime books and Powers, as I recall. I like his crime fiction, though the dialogue is often laughably unrealistic; but, I don't think his approach works well on superheroes and don't care for his work on that. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of Mamet; but to each their own.
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Post by berkley on Mar 5, 2024 22:17:23 GMT -5
I respect Bendis for pushing the boundaries of what a comic book narrative looks like. It may not always work for me, but at least he doesn't pretend that comic books ended with the Bronze Age.
I'd certainly prefer someone who tries something different, in however limited a manner, than someone like - I dunno, Geoff Johns? - who keeps recycling his idea of the comics he loved as a kid. However, I haven't read enough superhero comics the last many years to talk about any of these guys much. The few things I have looked at have not impressed me - at all - and that goes for all of them.
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Post by tonebone on Mar 7, 2024 16:19:56 GMT -5
With Bendis, I don't know if it's the stories or the heavily decompressed way he tells them that is controversial. "Hmmm... I'm coming up a little short on ideas... I know! I'll reveal the hero's secret identity to the world!" - Bendis, with every single character.
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Post by jason on Mar 27, 2024 15:41:47 GMT -5
I may have said this before, but I dont know why the Fantastic Four have code names if their identities are known to the public. Maybe it's for copyright reasons (and Human Torch is a shout out to the 40s character), though names like Thing and Invisible Woman are too generic to be copyrighted.
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Post by kirby101 on Mar 27, 2024 15:58:22 GMT -5
Because, Goodman okayed doing Superheroes, and Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben are not Superhero names.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Mar 27, 2024 19:58:35 GMT -5
I like it in the pages of Strange Tales where Stan Lee clearly forgot that the FF's identities were public and had Johnny Storm desperately trying to prevent folks from learning that he was the Human Torch. For months!
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Post by tonebone on Mar 27, 2024 20:07:03 GMT -5
I respect Bendis for pushing the boundaries of what a comic book narrative looks like. It may not always work for me, but at least he doesn't pretend that comic books ended with the Bronze Age. I feel like he pushed the boundaries, until he found boundaries he was comfortable with, and then stuck with those boundaries. I think he got all his innovation out of the way early on, and then settled into a really comfortable mode of retreading the same plots and characterizations. Now, I feel differently about Powers and his creator-owned work, which I find to be much more original and thought provoking. But his Marvel and DC stuff... Meh.
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Post by Cei-U! on Mar 28, 2024 3:07:07 GMT -5
I like it in the pages of Strange Tales where Stan Lee clearly forgot that the FF's identities were public and had Johnny Storm desperately trying to prevent folks from learning that he was the Human Torch. For months! That's not quite what happened. It was Larry Lieber who scripted those first few Torch stories from minimal synopses provided by Stan. Lieber, having not read the actual FF comics (few pros read their employers' output in those days), assumed that Johnny had a secret ID like every other super-dude. Stan, who trusted his baby brother's writing prowess, didn't get around to reading those early stories for several months. Once he did, he quickly instructed Larry to correct his error. I heard the Lieber brothers talk about this at a ComicCon panel 20 years or so ago. Had Stan told the anecdote, I might have doubted its veracity but Larry had a much better memory and wasn't much interested in exaggerating his role in Marvel history.
Cei-U! I summon the filial faux pas!
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Mar 28, 2024 4:24:33 GMT -5
I like it in the pages of Strange Tales where Stan Lee clearly forgot that the FF's identities were public and had Johnny Storm desperately trying to prevent folks from learning that he was the Human Torch. For months! That's not quite what happened. It was Larry Lieber who scripted those first few Torch stories from minimal synopses provided by Stan. Lieber, having not read the actual FF comics (few pros read their employers' output in those days), assumed that Johnny had a secret ID like every other super-dude. Stan, who trusted his baby brother's writing prowess, didn't get around to reading those early stories for several months. Once he did, he quickly instructed Larry to correct his error. I heard the Lieber brothers talk about this at a ComicCon panel 20 years or so ago. Had Stan told the anecdote, I might have doubted its veracity but Larry had a much better memory and wasn't much interested in exaggerating his role in Marvel history. Cei-U! I summon the filial faux pas!
Thanks for the correction. As ever, the truth is much more interesting than what I thought happened.
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 28, 2024 5:00:30 GMT -5
I respect Bendis for pushing the boundaries of what a comic book narrative looks like. It may not always work for me, but at least he doesn't pretend that comic books ended with the Bronze Age.
I'd certainly prefer someone who tries something different, in however limited a manner, than someone like - I dunno, Geoff Johns? - who keeps recycling his idea of the comics he loved as a kid. However, I haven't read enough superhero comics the last many years to talk about any of these guys much. The few things I have looked at have not impressed me - at all - and that goes for all of them.
I can't name a single Superhero writer that doesn't begin to recycle their plots or approach plots the same way after years of doing it. Johns is not the only culprit.
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Post by tarkintino on Mar 28, 2024 5:15:48 GMT -5
I'd certainly prefer someone who tries something different, in however limited a manner, than someone like - I dunno, Geoff Johns? - who keeps recycling his idea of the comics he loved as a kid. However, I haven't read enough superhero comics the last many years to talk about any of these guys much. The few things I have looked at have not impressed me - at all - and that goes for all of them.
I can't name a single Superhero writer that doesn't begin to recycle their plots or approach plots the same way after years of doing it. Johns is not the only culprit. Indeed. I could name some choice writers (and artist/writers) in comic history who were guilty of that, but that would turn into 90 pages of what-about-isms.
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 28, 2024 7:03:20 GMT -5
I can't name a single Superhero writer that doesn't begin to recycle their plots or approach plots the same way after years of doing it. Johns is not the only culprit. Indeed. I could name some choice writers (and artist/writers) in comic history who were guilty of that, but that would turn into 90 pages of what-about-isms. I guess that's why most writers move on. Even people like Alan Moore only seem to do about 3 years on a title. The stories get stale and you need a fresh perspective. Look at Claremont, he stayed too late at the dance with X-men.
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Post by kirby101 on Mar 28, 2024 7:32:37 GMT -5
I like it in the pages of Strange Tales where Stan Lee clearly forgot that the FF's identities were public and had Johnny Storm desperately trying to prevent folks from learning that he was the Human Torch. For months! That's not quite what happened. It was Larry Lieber who scripted those first few Torch stories from minimal synopses provided by Stan. Lieber, having not read the actual FF comics (few pros read their employers' output in those days), assumed that Johnny had a secret ID like every other super-dude. Stan, who trusted his baby brother's writing prowess, didn't get around to reading those early stories for several months. Once he did, he quickly instructed Larry to correct his error. I heard the Lieber brothers talk about this at a ComicCon panel 20 years or so ago. Had Stan told the anecdote, I might have doubted its veracity but Larry had a much better memory and wasn't much interested in exaggerating his role in Marvel history.
Cei-U! I summon the filial faux pas!
How could this be? Stan was the greatest Editor in comics history. Or so I have been told.
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