In an effort to make Multiversity Comics a “bigger blog” of sorts, I hope to introduce new features. While there will still be weekly reviews and recommendations on Friday, I figure that another interesting thing to write about would be articles detailing the rises and/or falls of some of the most popular comic authors. This article will be as relevant to new authors as it will hopefully be to the fabled and important authors of the past, such as Bob Kane or Stan Lee. Today, however, I’d like to focus on the biggest man (both figuratively and perhaps literally) in the Marvel offices today: Brian Michael Bendis.
If you aren’t getting at least one title with his name on it in the Marvel Universe right now, chances are you’re reading absolutely nothing that is relevant to the overall scheme of things. It’s not even fully cutting it to say that Bendis is dominating the Marvel U right now with his crazy ideas and universe shattering antics. This is the man that Disassembled the Avengers, Decimated the Mutant population, and then handed the keys to the world over to Norman freaking Osborn. In fact, by all rights and standards, there are probably more reasons to dislike Bendis’ work than there is to like it, especially if you’re a fan of older comic continuity. But where did this man come from? And is his work today really worth our merit?
Upon joining at Marvel, Bendis began writing Daredevil in 2001, which at the time was under the title Marvel Knights. Bendis wrote about 55 issues, all with major plot developments such as the outing of Daredevil’s secret identity and the re-introduction of the Kingpin as Daredevil before finally landing Daredevil in jail and leaving the series to Ed Brubaker. His contribution to Daredevil was so big that he even got namedropped in the Daredevil film, along with Frank Millar and David Mack who had previously had the biggest and most important impact on the character aside from Kevin Smith, who killed Karen Page. He also started up a 28-issue series entitled Alias, starring Jessica Jones, on the MAX imprint, completely revitalizing her character as a stand alone being before later bringing her into his New Avengers world. However, the thing that really brought Bendis to the forefront in the creative team was his help in creating the Ultimate Universe.
Originally intended as a way to allow “indie” creators the opportunity to tell their own stories about popular characters, the Ultimate Universe has since grown to be one of the most popular elements of Marvel, and without Bendis (and Mark Millar, respectively) this would not be the case. Bendis was the mastermind plotter behind the most succesfull title in the Ultimate Universe, Ultimate Spider-Man, which has since become the longest running series in the Marvel U and the only series to last beyond Ultimatum due to it’s popularity. I would be 100% willing to argue that if weren’t for his excellent work in creating this series, he wouldn’t be as big of a writer as he is today. Furthermore, I’d like to fully state that when this series first launched, I did not support it one bit. While it’s goal of bringing in new readers was easily accomplished, I felt like a puritan who only wanted to read classic stories with the original versions of the characters. When one of my friends sat down and forced me to read every issue of the series up until wherever it was at the time, I became a die-hard fan, easily falling in love with Bendis’ understanding of the character but appreciating his original spin to the stories. Bendis would also go on to write for Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Team-Up, as well as other minis within the Ultimate universe, and this is how he earned Marvel’s trust to destroy the universe.
I read an interview with Bendis at the time of Secret Invasion that he went into a Marvel boardroom one day, sat down, and said to everyone at the table a single word: “Skrulls.” Bendis laid out a plan that he had apparently been working on for some time to have Skrulls infiltrate the Marvel U and eventually attack in one of the most insanely twisted plotted stories of all time. Bendis was allowed to destroy the Avengers (in the heartbreaking Avengers Disassembled) which was met with high fan backlash due to the death of characters like Hawkeye. However, within the next 4 years, Bendis would put out three of the defining mini-series of the current Marvel Universe: House of M, Secret War, and Secret Invasion. He also helped oversee the events leading up to Civil War, although he didn’t write it. Marvel trusted Bendis with all of this different work, and the man had an insane amount of titles to juggle between himself. Along with these mini’s, he has written every issue of New Avengers since it started, as well as starting the Mighty Avengers after Civil War and monitoring 90% of the Dark Reign titles that came from the Secret Invasion. Needless to say, at this moment in time Bendis defines the Marvel universe in every way, shape, and form.
So now you know his story. The question is, do you love or do you hate Brian Michael Bendis?
It’s easy to see why someone would dislike him. First of all, he killed Hawkeye. Sure, he brought him back later in House of M, but that doesn’t change the fact that he killed Hawkeye. On top of that, he has single handedly changed everything about the Marvel U. Norman Osborn rules the world with an insane and iron fist with seemingly no end in sight as more and more Dark Reign titles get announced. There are brief hints at a future event that will hopefully lead to the restoring of the balance of power, but Bendis’ work is far different than the comics of old. The Avengers is probably the biggest thing I miss, because while the flagship title was probably given an end date without him, he really went and made it so there’d never be a real Avengers again. We have 6+ groups of Avengers now (Dark, New, Might, Young, Dark Young, and the Initiative). Does anyone else miss the Holy Trinity as much as I do (Cap, Iron Man, and Thor)? And don’t get me started on what he did to the Mutants! Granted, I fully agree with his actions in House of M because I believed that the X-Books had become too full of throw away mutants and side characters, but let’s be serious here – for all intents and purposes, the comic book world is a living and breathing entity (theoretically). These characters have existsed for decades and have entertained thousands upon thousands of people. Bendis came in and took out more than half of those characters in three simple words, including the IGN #1 Villain of all time, Magneto. I’ll give you a second to breathe that in incase you didn’t know: Bendis de-powered Magneto. That is just not ok. I’m a fan of dark and edgy as well as pushing the limit, but does Bendis push it too far?
In my personal opinion, I still think Bendis is one of the great writers of today, but he might be trying to do much at once, and it causes his work to suffer. In it’s final days before Ultimatum, Ultimate Spider-Man became increasingly convoluted and stopped following it’s own canon. In fact, when Bendis wrote the prelude to Ultimatum, Ultimate Origins, he repeatedly forgot to take into account some of the things that he himself had introduced. Granted, he was balancing someone else’s immensely disappointing event with his wildly succesful Secret Invasion, but for a Universe that he helped give birth to, I don’t think it’s a good move to neglect it as much as he did. On top of that, while it was cool and exciting at first, Dark Reign isn’t keeping up the stakes as much as I’d like it to be. The major difference between the fallout from his other events and this one is that all of the fallout was much more easily managable. House of M is over and the mutants are screwed up, but everyone else can go on. Civil War is over and the Mutant Registration Act is in order, and now it’s just a question of do you register or not? Most books can either just say that their hero registered or not and forget about it, moving on to their own adventures. Dark Reign changes everything, and we consistently see more and more mini’s and tie-ins that add little to the overall story line. On top of that, lately New Avengers has been incredibly hit and miss. It’s pretty easy to concede that when New Avengers started out, it was one of the best series on the market at the time. It’s still the best Avengers title, even if the cast is completely different. But while it’s the best Avengers title, that doesn’t mean that the book doesn’t suffer. The last arc about the new Sorcerer Supreme was, as I described it, a roller coaster right. It had great up moments, but then it had ridiculous down moments. So as much as I admire the man’s story telling abilities and really respect all he’s done as well as his “from rags to riches” tale, I believe Bendis has definitely slipped recently.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I love Bendis. Remember when David wrote the article about Y: The Last Man and said that this was the whole reason he got back into comics? Brian Michael Bendis and Ultimate Spider-Man was the book that brought me back into the forefront of buying ridiculous amounts of comics every Wednesday. I will also continue to read pretty much anything Bendis puts out, and Spider-Woman is one of my most anticipated titles of this year. However, I like to try and remain objective and honest about my opinions of authors, even if I greatly respect them. Brian Michael Bendis was and is the defining author of the current Marvel generation in my mind. I’m just waiting for him to bring something good into the universe like he did with Ultimates instead of just destroying all we hold dear.
