3:53 that panel, it has Ultimate Cap, Wasp and Hulk, and 616 Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther. What comic did this image come from and what issue?
Honestly, Bendis has been like a golden fish for Marvel, making all wishes come true. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I know Brian had his fair share of lazy-writing and questionable writing to say the least, but it’s all overshadowed by the colossal, simply colossal work he’s done, in many ways he shaped Marvel as we know it, with MCU being basically an adaptation of ultimate universe, 616 pulling itself out of the mud by adapting aspects of the ultimate universe, and every new Spider-Man movie relying on ultimate Peter Parker (his best work imho) more than the last one, although never getting what made ultimate Spider-Man so great in the first place.
Just the sheer amount of work he's done is impressive. And a lot of it is really good. For almost 2 decades he was at the head of the marvel universe, that's not easy to do
Originally Bendis was going to have Daredevil join the Team (but as Ronin) however so many people guessed the twist they changed it to Echo instead. Would have preferred DD
Well Daredevil joins the team eventually so he didn't give up on it, same time as The Thing too one of the more unique line up additions in a string of unique line up additions 😆
This over-delendence on unlredictable plot twists is one of the things I don't like about Bendis books. I love that era of his New Avengers, but I honestly think that good writing amd a well executed reveal more than makes up for a twist that may have been predicted already. Daredevil was added later just so Bendis could say he finally made him an Avenger for a hot second before his inclusion was completely overlooked and never brought up again when his run finally ended after AvX, but it would have been way cooler and far better executed if he just made Matt Murdock an Avenger when he originally planned.
@@OwenLikesComics Both of you guys are amazing and produce great content, Allowing me to understand and learn about comics that I've never read and expanding my understanding for books I have read.
Bendis pretty much set the framework for the MCU's domination, by making Avengers a top priority for readers, which lead to those readers hyping up the movies for the general audience. With a lot he did that can be criticised, his good work was GREAT.
Everything he wrote is iconic. Ultimate Spider-Man being the blueprint of most of Spider-Man movies, Katy Pryde having an amazing portrait, and saved avengers
I dunno, I appreciate that bendis put a class heroes like spiderman or wolverine on his team and put it as a financial success, but it kinda disappoint me that his predecessor kurt busiek gets put in the shadows, his avengers run is a masterpiece
@@robd1329 his writing in the last decade hasn't been the best. There are extremely good stuff like his Defenders run but most of his work in Marvel and DC since 2012 has been disappointing and at times bad.
@@bertanosomething9246 i didnt know that. Ive been looking to buy this New Avengers run and a shit load od comments say the same thing of his later work being crap
Long story short: -Bendis created his very own Avengers team and it was great. - Civil War happened and his fantastic run was very short lived. - Bendis went insane and lost all his writing talents that made him a super star writer in mid-200's. (Not sure about that part)
Idk, I liked his post-Civil War, pre-Siege New Avengers. It was some of his other stuff that could be hit or miss. I'm a bit nostalgic for pre-Heroic Age New Avengers, but honestly, I don't think I have liked the vast majority if his books for Marvel or DC now ever since he left the Avengers franchise. Some of his X-Men was interesting which devolved into awfulness overall. Ironheart and his Superman/Action Comics stuff just pissed me off half the time (currently speaking in terms of Superman books). I suppose his Dr. Doom book post-Secret Wars was mostly pretty good from what I remember. That's about it ppst-Avengers. Don't mean to hate, but I stopped loving his work many years ago, but I'll never discount his stuff that I do/did love. He deserves that much respect at the very least.
Nah mate, his original run of new avengers was fantastic, and some of his other avengers book during that time were also great. The fall from grace came at the 2010s, between Avengers vs X-men and Civil War 2
As soon as he became a "superstar writer" it went to his head. When you're a nobody you tend to produce the best work. Going SJW certainly didn't help. His dialogues between characters can be horrendous. Something like "I told you yesterday" response "But you didn't tell me yesterday" response "Yes I did" response "Are you sure you told me yesterday" response "I'm pretty sure I told you yesterday" response "Ok, if you're sure you told me yesterday". Garbage like that.
I agree with this OP. I still like his work on Powers and noir and procedural stories rely on elements such as dialogue. For me, he went out of step like I used to say Kieth Giffen did about Legion when they relied too heavily on theit eccentric touch to storytelling. See, it's hard to pinpoint it, because both of them have current, modern works that are still really good as well. I wonder if it's just that their ideas on Avengers and Legion just petered out after.
I quit reading Avengers during Bendis' run because of his "deliberate pacing". I lost patience when he devoted an ENTIRE issue to the Quintet crashing. I was enraged, "that's it," I yelled gently throwing the book down, "I'm done with Bendis, I am done!" and I didn't return to Avengers till he was gone. He has this tendency to apparently not care if his books are exciting, spending whole issues with a single conversation. If he wants to write stage plays, fine, but don't hijack my favorite characters to work out your own peccadillos. that said, Hickman's run on Avengers was even more excruciating, but I'm a Busiek (it rhymes with "music") boy myself, he could strike the delicate balance between characterization and action! anywheeze, thanks for the thoughtful video, I always learn stuff!
A lot of people love having actual characters with actual character development. Hickman's was also amazing. Maybe Spawn or something else is more your speed if all you want is mindless action.
@@ScottCreley no need to be nasty, I never said I prefer mindless action, I want a BALANCE of action and character devleopment, not one at the sacrifice of the other.
It's definitely a matter of taste. He dedicated an entire issue of USM to Peter telling MJ his identity and I honestly really loved that. It's the kind of character conversation I WANT to see drawn out and spend time on
Excellent video as always, Owen. Probably my second favorite run of the Avengers comic behind Jonathan Hickman's run. Jason Aaron's run has been pretty fun, too.
This is a good video! I think you might have even undersold the impact of the New Avengers on the depiction of the team forever after. It was Bendis who brought Spider-Man to the team after years of him choosing to be a lone wolf, gave Hawkeye much more spotlight and intrigue than he had in years, etc. But I think the biggest contribution was the entire vibe of the team. With other super teams, they were usually either Serious Colleagues Handling Global Affairs (Justice League of America, the previous Avengers) or an oddball family who lives together (X-Men, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans arguably). Bendis made his Avengers HQ a place where the superheroes would get help with a crisis, but also a clubhouse where they would hang out, order Chinese takeout, watch movies. They were like coworkers who were actually friends, and that's exactly how the MCU portrays them. Many parts of AoU, Civil War, FATWS, and Endgame could have been lifted right out of the pages of New Avengers. I think the modern Justice League and Titans comics take a lot of inspiration from the tone set by Bendis and later the MCU.
Considering how time moves in Marvel; Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, Seige, Fear Itself, AvX all probably happened in a year. How are the Avengers NOT insane?
Nice theory and history. I'm glad to see Wolverine, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, and Spider-Man being the new Avengers along with Ironman and Captain America.
Actually...that started in the 80s when George Perez worked on the book and was touched on again in the 90s by John Byrne during his West Coast Avengers run...both were good storylines...
@@mr.fleetwood2901 She drove major events by altering reality? Like breaking up the Avengers, remaking the world into a mutant paradise, and ultimately "no more mutants?" Those stories were the foundation that Bendis built upon but Bendis was the guy who turned her into a "crazy" event dispenser. Both the runs you mention were good and I was reading both titles at the time, I just don't agree that they compare to this.
His New Avengers is good, but I think Busiek has the best Avengers run. But Bendis New Avengers and the Ultimates universe are more influential on the whole. Also all the events and lineup changes take their toll, eventually slowing the momentum of his various Avengers runs down especially Secret Invasion.
His New Avengers was great, but you've gotta remember his short run on Dark Avengers. Holy crap those 12 issues are bonkers, wildly entertaining, and rival anything he's ever done.
Personally I'm not a big fan of Bendis run in the avengers. I don't think was bad and understand that was a important change for the avengers, however I feel the group lost alot of their epic tone their stories had before (specially in the Kurt Busiek run). As Marvel's justice league, the avengers always had the heroes dealing with big threats, going in epic adventures, be stopping a kree or skrull invasion or battling against Loki or Kang. When Bendis took over, their stories didn't have the same feeling and they became more street level heroes, rather then be the Earth Mightest heroes. Plus the fact that after the Sentry's arc, the book became a bunch of tie-ins to events such as civil war or secret invasion.
THis. Bendis tried to push the Avengers as the "epic team" after Siege (a run that culminated with the completely forgotten Age of Ultron event), but Bendis isnt good at writing Avengers level threats and it showed.
@@kpaso6419 Honestly, yeah. Plus the pacing was SO bad here. I still like New Avengers, but really hated the pacing, which goes for a lot of Bendis books I've read as well. Except maybe Siege.
@@smashmaster521 True, although I think Kurt Busiek's run is the best avengers run of all, having big epic stories, while also tributing and developing things from the past (ex: Tony Stark helping Carol deal with her alcoholism, Hank Pym's battle against Ultron, love triangle between Vision, Wanda and Wonder Man).
@@alexandrefrauches132 Oh, I won't deny that Kurt Busiek's Avengers run is the best CLASSIC Avengers run. However, Jonathan Hickman's Avengers/New Avengers run is the best MODERN Avengers run.
Honestly New Avengers Breakout was the first comic book I ever bought and that run of avengers and titles that set that universe is my Marvel until about 2013/2014
Compared to where Bendis is at now, in terms of his writing at DC, New Avengers was his peak. I mean, yeah, "Alias", and the one comic he did over at "Image" mixed together was his magnum opus, it's just that his work on "New Avengers" showed us how he was able to handle dynamics, characters being able to play off each other, team banter, and conversational dialogue. I think if Bendis goes back to focusing on these elements, especially the dynamics, and going back to developing street level heroes, I think he'll truly be back in his prime. Plus, I think he would do great with a run on Green Arrow.
i still wanna see an Avengers run with this roster: Cap Iron Man Spidey Hulk Thor or Valkyrie Wolverine Black Panther Storm or Phoenix Doctor Strange or Brother Voodoo or Scarlet Witch & The Silver Surfer
Really sad to see how far Bendis has fallen from his glory days at Marvel to his current work at DC. (Action comics and LOSH have both been pretty bad)
@@OwenLikesComics I say that there should have been some editors saying some words to Bendis and King when they took over there flagship titles like: "I read both of your work you can be great writers, but the titles you chose to do aren´t the right titles for you" Superman: Up in the sky and Batman: Universe give a look how things could have been like if Bendis did work Batman, a crime detective series like the one´s he grew famous with, and King wrote Superman, a character that´s better suited for talking about depression in the way King does. Batman and trauma can work, also Batman and break-ups can work but it has to be wrote a little bit different than King does.
Yeah he started out alright but I think his popularity became his undoing. He was clearly comfortable on books with single characters that were more grounded such as alias, Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-man. Then overtime he gets popular and Marvel puts him on Avengers and after that they start putting him on TONS of books. At the same time Bendis is still trying to work on his creator owned stuff like powers. He got stretched thin and his writing suffered and he became more reliant on his trademark writing tropes to save time. Perfect example is how often he dedicates two pages of a comic to close ups characters being asked a question. I think in 2014 he was writing a total of SIX comics between his creator owned work and his stuff for Marvel, but I could be misremembering. I don't know if he took on that many titles because he just got excited at all the opportunities and couldn't say no, or if he just started buying into his own hype but either way he spread himself too thin and it came back to bite him.
Amazing how Spider-man is still part of the Avengers I remember in the early days of the book over several years...he was asked to be an Avenger but he turned it down do to the fact he was always a Solo Hero and one story line he tried to be part of a team and had problems adjusting to taking orders From Captain America and being part of a Team.
Bendis? "I know, right?" Please. Sales went up because Marvel allowed Spider-Man and Wolverine to be permanent members. Any writer given that would have had huge sales. I'd argue that the Avengers movies were much more influenced by the Ultimates than Bendis' Avengers.
I don't think you've given Kurt busiek and George Perez enough credit. It was their work as a team that pulled The Avengers out of the Heroes Reborn muck- I think if it'd hadn't been for their work (which Bendis largely ignored or discarded) there wouldn't have been an Avengers book left at all.
That's fair, I definitely skimmed over Busiek's run when it's a topic that deserves more attention. I needed to acknowledge it in the context of where the Avengers were at when Bendis took over, but discussing it in detail would've felt tangential. Maybe I'll make a follow up video dedicated to the Busiek/Perez run?
@@ScottCreley George perez has been an icon in comicbooks since the '70s, his work is definitely not "mediocre '90s" by any means. He filled pages with detailed characters, and his use of page space and panels was amazing. Busiek's work on Avengers was probably the best that had been done on the title since John Byrne was writing Avengers/ West Coast Avengers- and arguably better than than that. I don't know who else could have revived the Avengers as a team and as a title, not just after Heroes Reborn, but after the incredibly poor handling the title had received right through the '90s.
Dear God, no. Bendis doesn’t write like he used to. Give him a street level hero and he’ll still make some good shit, but I’d keep him away from team books.
Brian Michael Bendis is one of my favorite Comic book writers because of his work on Ultimate Spider-Man. Not only that, he revitalized the Avengers as a team which kicked off a new era in Marvel Comics after the events of Avenger Disassembled and would continue during Civil War before the start of Heroic Age with a new line up of the New Avengers that adds members such of Mocking Bird, DareDevil, and the Thing. Other than that, I love Bendis's run on the New Avengers because his run would last until Avengers vs X-Men.
Bendis's run on avengers is what made me start to read other marvel comics besides spiderman. I dont always like hes stuff but he has made some pivotal works in my personal comic reading history
When Spider-Man finally joined the Avengers, that was a BIG deal. Like a seriously big deal. One day you should make a video about that topic. I don’t think any comics channel tackled that yet. It doesn’t seem like a big deal now because Avengers teams come and go like the wind.
Honestly, I thought Busiek and Perez's Avengers was the thing that saved the superhero team. Bendis's run was very meh to me. Although the Dr. Doom time/travel arc was kind of cool.
I heard something that I think is very true. Hickman took the appetizer ideas that Bendis introduced amd just sort of played around with and evolved them into full course meals in his own run.
Not really a fan of Bendis but I liked some parts of the New Avengers. Still Avengers Disassembled was the beginning of the end for the Classic Marvel stories.
in my opinion the ideal avengers team would be Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, Spider-man, Hulk, Black Panther, Ant Man, Wasp, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Sentry, Captian Marvel
Bendis run is my starting point on reading Avengers, its new reader friendly. Own volume 1-5 of the complete collection. Would love to read Busiek's run also but the Omnibus are out of print. Great video BTW.
How about a video on Grant Morrison's X-men? Or Grant Morrison's anything, really. Because it would be awesome. (Yes, I saw the video on Grant Morrison's Superman. But more, please!)
the new avengers was a good series by bendis however i don't like that bendis used avengers disassembled which destroyed the team in order to make a new team of avengers which isn't necessary a bad idea in theory however the execution was kinda a mix result in my opinion, however i will say this though this avengers team by bendis was really good and tons of fun.
@@srstriker6420 true yes but technically speaking when bendis wrote new avengers peter parker was actually adult during that time and was still married to his wife mary jane which in my opinion is best marvel couple that shouldn't have been destroyed by Joe quesada and his bullshit.
I did love this. I wish bendis was given more ti.e to have fun with his avengers. Yet it was nice to see many who were never avengers be avengers. I would like to see someone talk about grant Morris run on the JLA.
I can never get past the Bendis speak. The fact that nearly everyone in his stories has the same personality. I also never understood why Luke cage was there. They have so many superheroes with super strength and impenetrable skin. They even had Sentry.
He put Luke Cage in there cause he had a soft side for the 70s street level heroes. He also wanted to use characters that had been underutilized by Marvel.
@@DavidMartinez-ce3lp it wasn't a logical decision. He did it for his sentimental reasons. Personally I would have chose Colossus or an X-men character instead
Cool video! I also really liked this era of Marvel. Avengers Disassembled led to some great storylines like, "House of M," "Decimation," "Secret Invasion," etc. that I really liked. I've always enjoyed Bendis, and some of his characters (Jessica Jones and Riri Williams especially) are some of my favorites so I don't understand why it's cool to hate on him. If it wasn't for his work on New Avengers and Ultimate Spider Man, the current MCU would be very different. And, like you pointed out, I like that he would highlight lesser-known characters like Spider Woman (even if she was really Veranke the whole time, supposedly) and The Sentry. As much as I love Captain America and Wolverine, it was great to see some other characters get some attention.
I feel like sentry being implanted with mental commands to erase the world's memories of him makes makes the self sacrifice from the original series mean less, he was a compelling character because he made the choice to save the world by making sure he didn't exist to them on his own and for the greater good.
The New Avengers has one of the best written Captain Americas. Loved this run. I also loved how it made Luke Cage one of the coolest characters in Marvel.
Bendis has certainly had commercial success, but I fail to see how his work is creatively any better than, say, Kurt Busiek's. Quite on the contrary, it has many very serious flaws, most of which are directly connected to a gravely overgrown concern for marketability of the characters.
@Naquin Green The pacing is way too slow and relies on way too many "mysteries', not entirely unlike 1990s writing. Characterization is shallow and unsubtle. The storytelling relies way too much on sexualized posing. And the very conception of the "Avengers" strays so far away from what I would expect that I stopped following the title for good.
@Naquin Green I guess I just did not notice those positives, such as they may exist. Nor am I much of a fan of objetification. Or, for that matter, of making freaking Wolverine a supposed "Avenger". That threw me entirely out of the history for good.
The hardest part I've found about starting Bendis Marvek stuff he wrote so much of Marvel and they all seem to connect and all the events and mini events and other people's work that would go good reading with bendis stuff. But it's also a huge strength at the same time. Like it's one big book. Only sometimes I wish he'd do more smaller stories you can read as a one off and not worry about other stuff. Specially more of his indie stuff would be book.
I never started reading avengers until Civil war. I’ve worked my way back since then and now only missing about 50 issues from the entire series. New avengers was the first I read of course. I enjoyed it then, and still do to an extent, but I can see how Bendis really messed up a good thing. Geoff Johns has a short but great run. There were other great runs also. With Bendis it’s like he either ignores or hates continuity. When I got reading all that came before New Avengers I realized just how much Bendis just didn’t think his stories through. He’s not the first writer to do that (Hobgoblin saga and clone Saga in Spider-Man comics) but he really just does whatever he wants, stretches out short stories into so many issues... I just struggle to read anything Bendis now. His Daredevil run is still good but he didn’t wrap it up, another writer had to clean up his mess. Ultimate Spider-Man is great but he had no continuity to refer to. This comment is getting long. I’ll stop now. Bendis’s Guardians of the Galaxy was so bad... just had to say it.
I'm glad you mentioned Johns' short run...it was very good and all but forgotten at this point...he actually made the Falcon interesting and introduced a new Captain Britain...he made Agent Gyrich interesting as well as creating a respectful but distrustful rivalry between Tony and T'Challa...good stuff...
Sentry was a good idea, but no writer before Bendis was allowed to put Wolverine and Spiderman on the team. Before this the writers had to work with much less known characters if they wanted to add members. Easier to write with Spidey and Wolverine on a team then Deathcry or Doctor Druid
@@mayotango1317 I haven't read all, and the ones where Sentry makes an appearance, I'm sorry, agree to disagree. He never got as much development as he deserves.
Bendis's Avengers Disassembled and New Avengers were the first modern Avengers comics I ever read, and made me immediately fall in love with those characters and that team. I know Bendis gets a lot of flack from fans nowadays, but this Avengers run, along with his runs on Daredevil and Ultimate Spider-Man, are reason enough for me to always consider BMB one of the best modern comics writers.
I still think Bendis is a good writer. I do prefer Jonathan Hickman, Jason Aaron, and Scott Snyder over him, but that's just because Hickman's Avengers/New Avengers run, Aaron's Thor run, and Snyder's run on Batman and Justice League are some of my favorite comics runs of all time. Having said that, Bendis' Uncanny X-Men run is what I consider to be his best work, although I'll admit that's due to Cyclops being my favorite X-Man.
Thanks. Just watched your "House of M" video as well. These neat 15-minute summaries of the massive crossover events are very helpful for people like me trying to get our head around the convoluted Marvel continuity.
I’ve only ever read breakout but I’ve always wanted to check out the rest of The New Avengers. Any recommendations on the easiest way to collect this run in physical volumes?
Using that screenshot from the Mark Millar run of FF made me think that'd be a great series for a video. Avoids a lot of the classic Millar problems, and helped set up some of the major aspects of Hickman's run.
Ahh Brian Michael Bendis. The genius that came up with a naked sexy female Ultron/Tony Stark amalgamation. When I saw that panel I was convinced he was a hack. I still think he is, and adding Spidey and Wolverine is the main reason his run broke sales records.
I remember knowing BMB before he became a comic book writer. He worked in a comic book store. He was slender and had hair too. I liked some of his comic book work but I didn't and still don't like Miles Morales. I don't know if he's originally from Cleveland Ohio but that's where I met him when I used to buy comics. He seemed like a nice guy, little did I know he would become an A list comics writer. He went from selling comics to writing them.
I'm sorry but I thought Bendis run was kinda boring. I felt all the Avengers did was sit around the Avengers Tower talking about how cool they are. It wasn't bad mind you. But for me the gold standard Avengers is and always was the fantastic Avengers run by Kurt Busiek and George Perez .
Funny, my gold standard when it comes to the Avengers is Jonathan Hickman's run on Avengers and New Avengers, which came right after Bendis left the book. Then again, the Marvel NOW Avengers titles (Avengers, New Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, and Avengers World) were all excellent reads.
@@smashmaster521 That is interesting. That was the stage where I kinda dropped out of reading Avengers. It wasn't any to do with those books but rather the Civil War storyline. I thought 2006 Civil War was incredibly convoluted mess where all the heroes acted like meatheads. Civil War broke me. Also George Perez spoiled me with his incredible art and and action set pieces. Perez is the GOAT.
