What's with the Bendis-hate?

I've noticed that on this forum a lot of folks really *really* don't like Bendis. Just curious why? Personally I am really loving the current run of Uncanny X-Men! Others it seems want him nowhere near the X-Men?

If you can't see the existential precedent now, then you're probably not gonna be able to understand the justifications later on. Bendis fans apparently stay Bendis fans till the grave.

I mean, okay, perceptibly condescending intro aside, here's a quick question: how has the man managed to develop the deconstructed character of Emma Frost in the 24 issues he's had penmanship over the character (barring that issue where she took Deeds under her tutelage)?

You basically just asked "How has he developed Emma's character, with the exceptions of the instances when he developed her character?"

@maddpanda531: A deliberate action on my part.

Why is it that he's only managed to poorly develop her character in one issue out of 24? What the bloody heck has he been doing since this belabor kicked off? Lmaooo.

I mean, it's not that his prosaically derivative new additions have been cultivated with layers of intrigue or comprehensive dimensions, because they're all just flat--so he hasn't been developing them, and then there's just the incessant meandering around this imaginary revolution thingy.

???

I've actually really enjoyed Bendis on Uncanny....yeah, his Emma has been very lackluster, usually being more vocal when the team appears in other books, but his Magik and Scott have been great, and of the new students I've actually grown to like Goldballs as stupid as it sounds, Eva to an extent as well.

The plotline with the mystery sentinals and their creator are interesting, the Dormamu chapters were awesome, and while the revolution hasn't properly started off it seems...there have been lots and lots of character interaction moments to enjoy. He does deserve some degree of trepidation, but UX has been a highlight for me personally. And Emma has gotten a bit better in recent issues

I think uncanny x-men by Bendis is very good. I agree, his characterisation of Emma isn't the best, but every book has it's own problems. That said, I do get the hate for Bendis, sometimes. Bendis can be a great writer, for example, his work on ultimate spider-man is amazing, from start to end! On the other hand, his events are usually terrible, bota, age of ultron,... Although house of M was good.

I liked it when giant Kitty Pryde fought Galactus in Cataclysm. (I really think she can grow now on a permanent basis).

His X-men aren't as bad as other comics he wrote

I think most of the Bendis-hate comes from a small but vocal minority who have a particular measure of what an X-men story should be. Some simply don't care for his style of writing (which, to be fair, is quite stylized), while others don't can't seem to fathom that a character can be effectively used in a story without being a main character.

Personally I think he's one of the better X-men writers of the last decade in at least his Uncanny X-Men if not his other stories.

But not everything's for everyone I guess.

All New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men are the sauce.

I like him. I have my criticisms but all in all, he is talented and one of the better comic book writers. Are there any scandals involving him?

Edit: Meant to post in a different thread.

I will never understand this. This character feels like Bendis is making a joke of the Xmen. I like Tempus but thats it.

That said Bendis is the best of what we have right now. Thats not saying much but its something. I still think his stuff would have been inherently better had he chosen to build on characters already established as opposed to creating new ones. This is strictly personal preference but for me it would be so much more impactful to be seeing Scott,Emma and Magik with Surge,Hellion, Dust, Elixir, X-23 and maybe Tempus(one character creation) instead of Triage, Deeds, Hijack, Goldballs. In my opinion this wouldn't solve all the problems with his current run but it would go a long way to solving some of it

Just to build on what was said before, it's a matter preference. If the book started off as Scott starting his revolution and being joined by X-Men who feel the same way it would change a lot of peoples feelings on his Uncanny run, since the number one fan complaint (this week) is his creations. But even with that it says something about the quality of the story that we WANT our favorite characters to be in it, as opposed to thanking god that he chose to create Goldballs instead.

Still, I think were going to look back at a lot of the negativity around him as nitpicking in the long run. I mean what are we really complaining about with Emma? That she isn't saying anything? Well her talk with both Deeds and the Cuckoo's had a lot of impact and even her closing comments in the Inhumanity crossover held weight. So I'd argue when Bendis actually uses her it works......she's just not the one making snarky comments during fights anymore, Magik is.

All New X-Men....has a completely different set of problems mostly directed at its lack of plot beyond its premise. So I can't and won't defend it.

This for sure. As i mentioned Bendis' new creations is a small part of the problem imo. But this is another part of the problem. My biggest point was, that if the focus was more on building the revolution/outlaw story and the natural progression of already established characters, rather than the creation of new characters. Some of the problems that are associated with his run would be lessened significantly.

My other complaint has been with the pacing. But I have since solved that by just waiting for like 3-4 issues to pass then reading them or waiting on the trade. it reads alot better that way

Smh.

Going off of reading his USM comics, I'd say people hate his dialogue. But imo, everything else is rock solid.

1. no character is a fan favorite at first, but I'm enjoying the new characters. I think adding the Cuckoos to the mix was really a smart move, although the tend to steal the spotlight among the students. For me this book has enough of my favorites (Cyclops, Emma, Magik, Mystique, and Magneto) that even if they aren't all main characters all the time, they're all solid enough for me to want to give the new characters a chance.

2. totally agree with this.

I actually have nothing against the infamous Bendispeak, as long as it doesn't make a character sound OOC. The real problem is, this book is nothing like I was expecting, and when the darker tone is being replaced with the Bendispeak, you might start to blame the inventor of it.

Seriously, how can a writer manage to be so unoriginal when writing about such a notorious lineup like this one, I mean he has post-P5 Cyclops, Emma and Magik, he had Magneto, and how that overload of gravitas was reflected in his story? How in 24 damn issues, they don't know who to fight!

I really don't get how this watered-down story-telling (to say the least and be very generous) isn't considered insulting to our intelligence by some of you.

I don't like the poor plotting and lack of attention to prior events. Both of those things leads to murky character motivations. As a result, I have no personal investment in seeing how any of his plots turn out, because he often ignores what he's had characters say and do in prior issues. For example, during "AvX", Magneto was clearly not in possession of the Phoenix Force and fought against the Phoenix 5, yet his powers ended up broken, despite Bendis saying in prior issues that only the holders of the Phoenix Force had their powers broken. Then when he tried to clarify, the explanation made no sense. As a result, the "broken powers" storyline just doesn't have any internal consistency with prior storylines.

Even worse, I don't find this situation interesting - Emma, as others have noted, especially seems to suffer under his pen because he simply doesn't know how to write her as cunning, intelligent, and charming at the same time. Bendis just doesn't seem to be a good fit for writing the X-Men, and rather than try to learn how to learn how to write them better, he spends most of his time making characters do things he wants for the sake of the plot without it making any sense in the grand scheme of things. I've rarely read the cast seem as insipid or mean as he's managed to write them.

I've liked Bendis in prior writing situations like Daredevil, and Ultimate Spiderman, but even then, some of his weakest work has been with team-based titles, and I've come to the conclusion that he is better with solo titles. Perhaps he simply enjoys writing "dark and gritty" storylines too much for his own good. It seems like he always tries to make characters edgier, but in 616 team books they just come off as damaged (and not in a good, interesting way). Another example: Disassembled was quite a slap in the face to Scarlet Witch fans, and it lead to a mess for other stories for years, to the extent that any time Bendis or another writers tries to make her progression and rehabilitation make sense, it just doesn't work from a consistency standpoint. Making up deus ex machinas just to get rid of prior writing mistakes is bad policy. It seems to me that he is the type of writer that doesn't really understand how to portray team dynamics or how to get drama from interpersonal interactions that aren't based on loathing, hatred, or anger. It's created a poisonous atmosphere in the Avengers and X-Men, to the point where I don't really like reading either.

I'm not sure if it's "Bendis Hate" so much as hating the direction of team-based series he's been involved with.

@phoenixofthetides: I agree with this. Good post

Bendis is so slow paced especially uxm ans anxm.......ahhhhhhhh(head explodes)

@phoenixofthetides:

Well written, I totally agree.

It's not just X-Men fans that dislike Bendis. It's fans of any series not started by bendis which he takes over writing for after having done little to no research into characters and continuity, rewriting characters and plotlines with total disregard for what came before.

I LOVE bendis on ultimate spider-man. But damn, he has become horrible at writing anything not developed by him/ not street level.

i.e. Age of Ultron (comics)!

I'm o............................k with Bendis. Just not a huge fan. I like Cullen Bunn better.

@cutter: lol that's like comparing Apples to a million dollars. If Bunn took over uxm, I would cry.

lol...

Idk man... I quite like Bendis, I LOVE his UXM run and like where he's taken the X-men, but I get the hate, sorta.

His stories are really slow, which gives a "money trap" feel to the comics. Plus he's been known to not always respect continuity and character personality. I think the problem with B.M Bendis is that he's doing too much at once.

Isn't he going to also be working on the Powers show?

This guy HAS to be a robot of some sort. Does he not sleep?

@starwatcher: he's on 5 books and has creative input on at least 2. But the weird thing is when you reread a book like All New X-Men you don't realize how much information he gives out over the internet as opposed to in the story.

(With regard to Uncanny X-Men)

Way too decompressed. With nearly two years on the book, it feels like almost nothing has happened. I want some sort of pay-off by now. It's a shame because he has some great, great ideas and his voice for the characters is largely very good.

Is this as big as Cyclops' revolution's going to get? A few run-ins with shield?

@john_valentine: John, long time no see

Hey there!

@john_valentine: how you been man?

He's buying time for the inevitable replacement of the X-Men with Inhumans.

no way dude.....x-men will replace inhumans........also i thought it was going to be the inhumans are an off-shoot of mutants

Marvel-Fox X-Men rights etc etc.

I don't really understand how Marvel get the Inhumans, though? Thought they were Fantastic Four property?

@john_valentine: That is what I thought too. Same with the Kree? I mean, I thought basically all of the space rights were owned my Fox through FF and X-Men

I was reading something on another forum and came across something for those that think Bendis is so creative and is breaking such new ground and is so original. This person pointed out the strangely eerie similarities to what Bendis is supposedly doing with his so-called yet to start revolution and Cyclops to the 90's stuff done in X-force with Cable.

1. The set-up: Cable was originally hiding in and operating out of an old sentinel facility and fought against Weapon X = Cyclops hides in and operates out of an old Weapon X facility and fights against sentinels

2. The Betrayal: Cable was being betrayed by Copycat(posing as domino)= Cyclops had Magneto playing both sides and possibly betraying him

3. The Revolution: Though Cyclops' arguably has yet to begin or if it has it's quie weak, it started with a dead Xavier = Cable was ostracized and framed for killing Xavier

4. The trainer/mentor: Cyclops has recruited young mutants to his cause and is pushing the hard line approach = Cable also took a few impressionable young mutants and tried to make them a harder more militant group

5. The perception: Cyclops is hated or at least on bad terms with the majority of other Xmen at the JGS (main school)= Cable was on poor terms with the main school

6. SHIELD involvement: Cyclops has been wanted by SHIELD= Cable was chased by SHIELD

There may be others but this is what someone pointed out to me that i had actually forgotten about until the discussion started. This is not so original and groundbreaking looking at it that way. I dont always disagree with the destroy and rebuild mentality but the way Bendis is doing things is a bit of a point o aggravation. The dialogue between the characters is not good, the portayal of certain characters is off, the pacing is not good and the story is not original. Plus the guy cares nothing for history or continuity which should be no means stifle a story or a writer but it should be respected. I think Bendis should really just stick to telling alternate reality stories and Ultimate Universe stuff. in fact just give him the Ultimate universe and let him do all his stuff there

Good points

The same thing that's wrong with his Guardians of the Galaxy. I'll do a write up on it later.

Hmm. Very interesting. To be fair, something will always remind you of another thing, but in this instance, I think you're right.

At this point, I just want Bendis to kick it up a bit with the story telling. There is nothing motivating me to read up on the X-Men with the pace he's set.

@ms-lola: I just want his ideas to be actually implemented. I was totally on board for Cyclops killing all the humans, but it just has gone no where.

I don't know about Cyclops killing humans, but at least SOMETHING.

four words: S...lo....w P....a.....c...ed, Ben....dis H....A.....te

lol

It's really weirdly set-up. They couldn't use the Skrulls in Avengers and the Badoon in Guardians of the Galaxy, yet they seem to be able to use every other race provided it's not exclusive to another franchises' villain (such as Venom being the only major symbiote).

@hopesummersforthefuture:

lol nice

No and yes. At least we HALF agree about something. :D