I get hell from some of my oldest friends that are into
comics for my opinions on Brian Michael Bendis. I won’t hide the fact that I
think he’s one of the best to ever write a comic book. He, more than any other
person, is responsible for the Marvel Renaissance of the last decade. He
renovated an Avengers franchise in terminal disrepair. He took over for Kevin
Smith on Daredevil when Smith abandoned Marvel for Green Arrow at DC. He
brought indie cred to the Marvel creator-owned line when he moved his own
Powers series to the Bullpen. And, more than anything, he breathed new life
into Peter Parker and invented Miles Morales, bringing Spider-Man back from the
dead and inventing the longest-living on-going alternate universe in comics history.
It seems appropriate to look at BMB’s current work in the twilight of the
Ultimate universe, just prior to the events of Secret War which is long-rumored
to end the world Miles Morales was born into.
Roughly two years ago, Bendis took over the helm of the
biggest franchise in Marvel, producing both the flagship Uncanny X-Men and his
own, All-New X-Men, featuring the 60’s teen X-Men flashed into the present by a
desperate Hank McCoy in the wake of Xavier’s death at the hands of Cyclops
during AvX. The time jumping continued through Battle of the Atom, an X-Men
crossover of meager proportions that spanned the Bendis books and the Brian
Wood title, X-Men (with bookends and a graphic novel rounding out the story). Battle
of the Atom was, in my estimation, solid but nothing special, a B-level event
with some cool images and decent story-telling stretched too long to sell more
products. If this story had been five issues, I’d have enjoyed it enormously. I’m
over long arcs, I’m over cross-overs into my regular books, and I’m done with
big X-Men events. The X-Men need some character development.
The book is drawn adeptly by Kathryn Immonen, an artist who
has grown by leaps and bounds over the decade into a top tier artist. She isn’t
going to wow you with breath-taking detail, but produces a remarkably
consistent book given the demands of a Bendis schedule. The art works well for
the book and I especially love the way she draws both young and old Bobby
Drake. I dare you to show me a better Ice-Man.
That said, I think Bendis has performed admirably exploring
these characters. The mirror of the old, young X-Men turned on Beast, Iceman,
and Cyclops has been powerful, in my estimation, at explaining what drew people
to these characters in the first place. Bendis is getting to the heart of the
archetypes here, returning us to the central themes of the characters, some so
far gone (Cyclops) that it’s hard to remember where they started, and some on
the cusp (Beast) of making horrible decisions that their hearts, epitomized by
these younger versions of themselves, are the only hope of preventing. The
centerpiece of the entire thing, of course, is the return of Jean, who everyone
in the X-Men, old and young, loves. Emma is pissed. Old Cyclops if distracted.
Young Cyclops and Beast are courting. Thank god Wolverine is in
Westchester/dead. But Jean shines a light on the X-Men as brightly as she ever
did in the 60’s in these Bendis books. She is headstrong and thoughtful,
reminding the team what they’re about, regardless of how much water is under
the bridge (or eyebeam singeing Xavier’s bald head). I like the All-New X-Men a
lot.
Uncanny is an interesting book. At times it feels like it’s
risking becoming a continuation of All-New X-Men, but don’t forget that Bendis
invented this “two interrelated books a month” thing with Avengers and New Avengers.
His stories have simply become too big to tell in one issue, but they’re both
still great and each is fuller because of the other. Uncanny is more focused on
Scott Summers and his new team, who lives in the old Weapon X compound and use
Cerebro to hunt down new mutants and recruit and train them (not at all creepy
and morbid). So, Scott’s f’d up pretty hard. He killed his mentor under the
influence of the power that also killed his girlfriend like five times. That’s
a lot to handle. He’s tired of taking any crap, so he’s training mutants
assuming that humans can’t be trusted and that Xavier’s dream is dead. This is
a hardcore “terrorist cell” version of the X-Men. Emma and the Cuckoos are
still around, Magneto is off and on, Magik – who is really spooky – is also
kicking it. This ain’t your grandpa’s X-Men.
The new X-Team is fairly nondescript. They largely serve as
a sort of window into the insanity that is being around Cyclops today. The
dialogue is classic Bendis, explaining the sheer terror of these young, untrained
mutants following Scott to, say, fight a Sentinel. It’s everything that’s great
about the X-Men. It also lets you know that no one feels really comfortable
around Summers, even Emma, his now very long-time significant other. Roughly
the only person that stands up to Scott is Erik, but he’s off the reservation
most of the time flirting with his own demons. Kitty has been fairly quiet
since joining the team, but has some promise as a leader now more than ever.
Maybe it will be the aptly named Goldballs (I couldn’t make this up). Who
knows? I can’t even name any of the other new team members. Goldballs is pretty
cool – and a great chance for Chris Bachalo to stretch his legs on some big
panels with whacky effects.
This book is an excellent exploration into what Cyclops is
all about, what’s wrong with him, and how he can (I hope) come back. Honestly,
I like Cyclops a bit more today than I did prior to, say, his psychological
trauma with Apocalypse and his flirting with the dark side for the last decade.
He’s a far more interesting character now than when he was purely a boy scout.
He needed to make some mistakes. Bendis has a particular skill at handling
these very human moments in heroic characters’ lives (see, Daredevil, Alias,
Iron Man after Civil War). I am hopeful that he can handle Scott, re-balancing him
to be the leader that the X-Men need. I look forward to seeing where things go
from here.
If you want my opinion on GotG, read my top 10 article. I
have a pretty comprehensive view on how much I like Guardians. I think it’s a
top 5 book, it’s been the best superhero book until the recent surge on Thor by
Jason Aaron, and it will likely stay as one of the best books on the shelves
each week.
Outside of the regular Marvel U., Bendis is still writing
every issue of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man. I believe it’s the
longest continuous run on any comic book ever already. If it’s not, it’s close.
Honestly, the quality on this book has, remarkably, not slipped. I’d say it’s
as good today as it ever was. I like Miles a bunch, his relationship both with
his folks and his rogues and the classic (lol) USM Peter Parker villains and
cast has been amazing. I won’t give away too much in spoilers, but let’s just
say it picks up right where the other USM left off and continues to hold that
classic 60’s Spidey feel to it. His buddy, Ganke, is awesome and hilarious, the
best Spider-Man sidekick ever. He’s going through all of the same things with
his family and girls and friends and authority figures as Peter did, but truly
updated, not just like, with a cell-phone. It feels familiar and fresh all at
once, just the way you want a new Spider-Man book to be.
My one knock on this book has always been that it is the
slowest developing book of any Bendis book. A lot of people think he writes
like paint drying generally, but you can’t say that about Avengers. That book
had a kinetic pace. USM has always been belabored. The recent fight with the
Green Goblin was like 10 minutes of real life long and lasted 60 pages of
comics I think. That’s a bit much. BUT, at the same time, you feel like you
know these characters and understand them in a way you don’t in some other
books. That’s the blessing and the curse. If you can’t handle long prose-style
dialogue, this book won’t be for you. Part of the issue in stretching the books
out may also be to feature the hot young artist he has drawing Miles. I think
the book looks great and giving some extra action panels is not a bad thing,
even though we consumers are always wanting books to move move move.
Bendis’s indie work is his pride and joy; it’s where he
comes from. I think one day he’d like to go back to doing exclusively his own
work, probably. I’ve stopped reading Powers. It just comes out too frequently.
But I am getting The United States of Murder Inc. each month and, boy howdy,
this man still has some gas in the tank. It’s he and Oeming (his co-creator on
Powers) and they’re telling a twisty future crime story as well as anyone has.
Now, I’m a sucker for gritty crime stuff – Brubaker is my favorite writer for a
reason – but a Bendis plot can knock your socks down and this is a doozy of
one. I’ve always been a fan of Oeming. His work on this book is perfect and
feels fresh and inspired. If I had to guess, the problems with Powers probably
relate more to lack of motivation on the art side than to lack of ability to
finish a book on the writing side. Bendis has never had a slow pace and has, at
times, been doing 5 or 6 top-selling books each month. Maybe USoMI will get
Oeming’s juice flowing again and bring Powers back up to speed. At any rate,
this is a really good book, only outside of my top 10 because of how new it is,
not for any other reason. I love it.
So, that’s the rundown on what’s going on with Bendis’s
books at the moment. I recommend all of these books, some very highly, and all
in my top 25. I think if you were drafting writers to start a comic book
company, Bendis might be the overall number one pick. There are some other guys
who can write one book better than he can, but there are very few guys who can
write two or more per month better. His output matched with quality is
second-to-none.
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