I’m all for metatext in comics. You know, those moments where the comic step outside of itself to offer commentary on itself, or other people’s reactions to it. That might be why the first couple of pages of New Avengers #16 – see the preview here – are just so jawdropping to me:
It’s not revealed within the preview, but I believe the actual title of the story in the issue is “Hey, Fanboys! Stop Complaining About My Choice Of Avengers Already! Signed, Brian Michael Ben – I Mean, Hawkeye.” (The subtitle is “No, I’m not overreacting to some internet criticism by devoting two pages of my comic to it, what are you talking about?”)
On the plus side, now that we know that Bendis has chosen Hawkeye to be his fictionsuit/Mary Sue for the Avengers books, that issue with Wanda becomes a lot more interesting.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Bendis is so damn clever. I can’t wait until Cyclops is on the Avengers.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
This is dumb. Obvious fill-in pages are obvious. I cannot believe people would waste their money on this drivel
September 9th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
or an athlete…
or a basket case…
or a princess…
or a criminal…
Does that answer your question?…
Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Heh-heh, IMHO that is epically epic.
September 9th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
man bendis was a good writer when he was edited now he just writes all evrybody in his book’s the same and pretends it’s a tarintino movie.
September 9th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
haha Steve
September 9th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
I haven’t read an Avengers title in a long, long time. But it’s always seemed like the Avengers haven’t had particularly steep standards. If fans are complaining now, they’ve never paid much attention to things before, have they?
September 9th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Hey, that’s pretty funny!
September 9th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
I don’t think people are complaing moraly who’s a avenger,there complaining they don’t want to read a avenger book with wolverine,spider-man in it.
September 9th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
…when did the Avengers become ‘The Office’?
Can’t wait for the issue when Spider-Man puts Tony’s helmet in Jell-O
September 9th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
@Kevin
But imagine the hi-jinx that ensue when Tony finds out his helmet’s full of Jell-O shots…
September 9th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
so bored with talking heads and multiple panels of the same artwork passing for “mood” or “suspense”
September 9th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Some people go wild over metatextual material simply because it’s metatextual and it’s more interesting, to them, than the rest of the story. They’re fetishists.
In the case of Bendis’s material, though, he’s taking dialogue that could have been written for his “Oral History” pages and putting it where regular story pages should go. In other words, he and Brevoort are ripping off the readers and you hardly noticed.
If a job doesn’t entail actual work, is it really a job?
SRS
September 9th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
man i wish they would bring back jim shooter.
September 9th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Bendis doesn’t like Hawkeye. Fug, he’s still bitter as fug that he was made to bring him back to life in House of M due to the insane backlash regarding his death!
The only reason Bendis use Hawkeye as his voicebox to attack his critics is because Bendis is a petty little asshole who will never forgive the fact that a good chunk of Avengers fans told him what a horrible, over-rated writer he was and who point blank refused to kiss his ass, like all of his jerk-ass syncophant fans (and the cowardly fan press, who lack the balls to call out big name writers like Bendis).
As for Wanda, I think New Avengers Annual #1 showed a bigger picture for why he has such a hard-on hatred of the Scarlet Witch: he’s still bitter as hell that Wanda didn’t permanently stay possessed/become a villain during Avengers #185-187 (the Knights of Wundagore Saga, which had Wanda be possessed by Cthlon; a moment Bendis singles out when he has his author avatar Wonder Man sociopathically proclaim that Wanda was evil incarnate and that she has never been “punished” for her crimes).
September 9th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
And the biggest reason why the whole “Oral History of the Avengers” thing is a rip-off is that Bendis outright omits Scarlet Witch from the testimony even though Wasp and Vision, both of which who are in no condition to be participating in the whole thing, are in the middle of it. If Wasp can contribute, why not Wanda?
September 9th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Blame Pietro. Why not? He’ll claim credit for “protecting my sister’s dignity and privacy” anyway(and he’ll use that exact phrasing).
September 9th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
As to the whole sequence? This is a response to something that’s been going on for generations of readers, all the way back to that first change-up of the roster. Look at the letter-columns of the day.
September 9th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
@JesseBaker Says:
Fug, he’s still bitter as fug that he was made to bring him back to life in House of M due to the insane backlash regarding his death!
What “insane backlash?” The same few dozen dweebs who flood the message boards with complaints every time some B-list character dies? There was more of a backlash when DC tried to give Wonder Woman pants…
September 9th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
Coming Curse, you need to put down your white knight shield. Bendis’s Avengers run pretty much was the beginning of the end of his run as “top guy”. Granted, people were griping about him long before Avengers Disassembled, but Avengers Disassembled was the perfect storm of fail and AIDS that it exposed ALL of Bendis’s flaws as a writer and exposed him as a hack. Fans were pissed off, vocally pissed off and Bendis, who exists in a bubble where he refuses to ever acknowledge that he is wrong, couldn’t freaking deal with it. And moreso, the longer Bendis writes Avengers the more people have come forward to denounce him and his hack writing, as far as realizing that the so-called “haters” were right all along as far as Bendis sucking.
But you and your kind, who kiss Bendis’s boots like good synchophants who go all jihad anytime ANYONE doesn’t treat Bendis like a golden god, refused to even ACKNOWLEDGE the piss poor nature of what Bendis did to the Avengers franchise, effectively plunging the book into a nightmare of Liefeldian proportions. Sure sales went up, but at the expense of permanently turning a large number of fans against the book and at the cost of Bendis’ reputation.
September 9th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Oh and Bendis’s “high sales numbers”? Busiek had higher sales numbers for his run and that was WITHOUT major X-Overs, Wolverine as a member, barely ANY Spider-Man (only making a raw handful of cameos), and without Bendis having editorial making excuses for his mistakes and screw-ups AND pushing the book heavily as they have these last 5-6 years through multiple Avengers-centrix X-Overs.
September 10th, 2011 at 12:55 am
budiek’s run on avengers was great,marvel bring him back!
September 10th, 2011 at 7:29 am
busiek’s avengers run was one of the best avenger’s run’s ever and did indeed outsell bendis trash.
September 10th, 2011 at 10:08 am
A general criticism of Bendis’s AVENGERS material is that his stories aren’t about anything. They lack ideas, structure, themes, and original characters. Bendis relies heavily on retcons, formulas, and manipulation for plots.
Suppose that all the events in Bendis’s material, from “Avengers Disassembled, to the present, were erased. What would be missing? Nothing, because he hasn’t created anything. He’s just torn down things.
SRS
September 10th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Read it and sounds like Bendis talking to himself in every panel. Master ventriloquist extraordinaire.
September 10th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Yeah, it’s kinda weird to me how a guy who clearly thinks fights are boring writes what should be the most action-packed book on the stands. Honestly, the problem isn’t that Wolverine and Spider-Man are on the team (although really, Wolverine? Does that guy need more teams?), but that the Avengers mostly seem to sit around talking and being ineffectual. When Bendis does action sequences, they’re usually artless and over very quickly. No one uses their powers or the environment creatively. At best, it’s just a brawl, and resolutions tend to come as the result of deus ex machina as often as anything. Frankly, I think his vaunted dialogue is painful to read too. You can tell that when anyone isn’t supposed to sound like a Bendis character, like Dr. Doom or Thor, he gets really uncomfortable and the dialogue is extra-stilted.
Clearly, Bendis has fans, I just don’t get why. Normally, even if I dislike someone as a creator, I can still understand their appeal to others. But as far as Bendis goes, I just don’t get it at all. I guess he writes for people who think they’re too smart for superhero comics but want to read them anyway? I wish someone could explain to me what he actually does that is in any way enjoyable that isn’t along the lines of, “You’re an idiotic pleb because you like superheroes to have adventures and be heroic, so I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
September 10th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
jason Says:
busiek’s avengers run was one of the best avenger’s run’s ever
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good one! Avengers Forever was one of the worst comics I ever had the misfortune of reading. Nothing but painfully fanboy-indulgent continuity porn. And don’t even get me started on that crappy JLA crossover. Say what you will about Bendis, at least he’s never stooped to that level of pandering.
September 10th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
if bendis run is not pandering what is it?
just because you enjoy reading talking head’s with your weed doesn’t mean evryone eles does.
September 10th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Steven R. Stahl Says:
Suppose that all the events in Bendis’s material, from “Avengers Disassembled, to the present, were erased. What would be missing? Nothing, because he hasn’t created anything. He’s just torn down things.
Bendis’ contributions to the Marvel Universe include the Secret Warriors, the 1950′s Avengers, Quake, HAMMER, Victoria Hand, and the Illuminati. Storylines such as Planet Hulk, Hickman’s Secret Warriors, and Brubaker’s Secret Avengers have spun directly out of storylines helmed by Bendis. Also, he created Maria Hill, who has become an important character in Avengers lore to the point where she was included in the latest cartoon series as well as the upcoming blockbuster Avengers movie from Marvel Studios.
Busiek, on the other hand gave us the Phone Ranger.
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/phoneranger.htm
That’s right. Busiek’s contribution is a guy dressed up as a phone. Named, not so cleverly, “the Phone Ranger”. Thank God all of his characters have fallen into obscurity by now. Busiek is the “Chuck Austen” of the Avenger’s franchise.
September 10th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
busiek contribution was good comic’s kinda thought that was the point,not pointless event’s.
September 10th, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Busiek’s contributions were poorly written comics interspersed with lame Z-list characters like the Phone Ranger and Grenade Launcher.
“Grenade Launcher” is another one of Busiek’s “contributions” to the Marvel Universe. He doesn’t have any superpowers, but he is pretty handy with one particular type of weapon. That weapon, if you haven’t guessed it yet- is the Grenade Launcher. Get it “Grenade Launcher”-”Grenade Launcher.” This horrible character appeared beside two partners; “Smokescreen” and “Boobytrap.” “Boobytrap” was an expert in Boobytraps. Can you guess what Smokescreen specialized in?
All of these three characters were members of the same mercenary death squad. Can you guess what the name of this death squad was? Go ahead, guess.
The death squad’s name was “Death Squad.” Yup. That’s some good writing right there. Do you believe this guy was actually paid MONEY to come up with this crap?
September 11th, 2011 at 7:51 am
Nice try, but “Avengers Disassembled” (A.D.) and Bendis’s constant references to it (see last week’s NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL) invalidate practically everything he’s done since then. Erase A.D. and all its consequences; the result is the pre-A.D. status quo. If you can defend A.D. as a story, have at it — but consider how weak and artificial the retcon is as a device. Want to redefine Captain America as a child rapist? Just say those events are hidden in his past. Want to redefine Dr. Strange as a pawn of Shuma-Gorath? Just retcon hidden mind control into Strange’s past.
The retcon, by allowing a writer to rewrite a character’s past however he pleases, allows him to change the character to fit whatever situation he has in mind, but it also contradicts the character’s theme(s) and the themes of the stories he’s appeared in. That’s why the retcon is used by practically nobody except incompetent writers who can write only about a few situations and, if the characters they have don’t fit them, have to change the characters. Otherwise, they can’t produce stories and won’t get paid.
SRS
September 11th, 2011 at 10:16 am
I just read three reviews of NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL #1. I was struck by how each reviewer strained to excuse the various weaknesses in the writing, focus on the perceived good points of the writing, and praise the artwork. If each reviewer wasn’t writing his review to reach a required conclusion, he was apparently reluctant to deal with the problems crippling the premise and the plot. I wonder how many reviewers fear that if they pan Bendis’s writing systematically and thoroughly, they’ll marginalize themselves to the point that they’ll no longer be able to do commercial reviews?
If Bendis had submitted a typed outline of the story to Shooter, he might have had the page(s) ripped up and thrown back at him. It’s a great example of a story not being about anything. There’s no purpose to what the people do, even if they might look good (not) doing it.
SRS
September 11th, 2011 at 11:44 am
“Busiek is the “Chuck Austen” of the Avenger’s franchise.”
Even despite the fact Chuck Austen was actually writing the book at one point?
September 11th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
I’m becoming increasingly less tolerant of people who defend Bendis’s super-hero work.
And yeah, these comments should have been shut down after Steve Flack. Every comment since has either been redundant or irrelevant. Including mine.
September 11th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Bendis and his fanboys are infamous for declaring jihad on ANYONE who criticizes Bendis and moreso, Bendis and Marvel are quite open that if ANY major website bashes Bendis (or Marvel in general, see how Steve Wacker has openly threatened several websites regarding them not blowing Marvel over Brand New Day), that they will pretty much blacklist them.
So no one is willing to pretty much call them out on their crap, because the website owners pretty much would rather be cowards than be honest about the crap coming out of Marvel these days.
September 11th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
As for Stahl’s comments about purging AD from canon, I think Heinberg is doing a good job outright undoing AD (especially since the upcoming issue (#8) of Children Crusade is going to be the money shot of outright undoing the steaming pile of dung that was Avengers Disassembled as far as explaining what Wanda was doing during that storyline/who has been manipulating her and offer an actual plot point for why Wanda apparently now can rewrite reality), right down to the “screw you” that was Heinberg resurrecting Scott Lang (who was killed off in AD largely because Bendis was a petty jerk who never got over being told “no”, when he demanded to be allowed to kill Scott, regardless of the fact that Geoff Johns was using him in a high profile role in the pages of Avengers).
September 11th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
And Coming Curse is grasping at straws. REALLY grasping at straws:
Maria Hill was a joke villain, basically an outright rip-off of Henry Peter Gyrich, except female and wearing a spandex military outfit. Yes she reformed, but she’s done nothing of note given that everything she’s done or said could have been done by Gyrich.
Secret Warriors was a crap series; even worse than Bendis’ Avengers since at least there was a sliver of story in Bendis’s Avengers stuff. Hickman’s Secret Warriors was nothing but retcon after retcon that made Nick Fury, SHIELD, and Hydra even more convoluted and unreadable as far as making the history so utterly confusing to new readers, let alone unrecognizable to older readers. Oh and Bendis STABBED Hickman in the back, via Siege, which forced Hickman (who was the REAL brainchild behind the book) to have to hurriedly rush out a conclusion for the series.
the 1950′s Avengers: Done before by Busiek and quite frankly, unlike Busiek’s group (which became Agents of Atlas) NO ONE is going to be rushing to make a spin-off of Bendis’s rip-off team!
Quake: No one knows who Quake is.
HAMMER: A lame-ass plot excuse for “evil SHIELD” and was promptly beaten and now is going to be a 5th rate Hydra rip-off. Or worse, a 5th-rate SCRYRE/GOBLIN CULT rip-off (name of Norman’s other secret organization groups from years past).
Victoria Hand: Generic figure and all-around cipher. She’s Maria Hill, but blander.
The Illuminati: Which did nothing of note, except Planet Hulk and even then, wasn’t really needed since Pak could have just had Reed and Tony shoot Hulk into space on their own.
Planet Hulk, Hickman’s Secret Warriors, and Brubaker’s Secret Avengers
——————-
Planet Hulk didn’t need the Illuminati to work. Hickman’s Secret Warriors was a walking abortion, and you SERIOUSLY think Brubaker’s Secret Avengers owes to Bendis? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Secret Avengers exists BECAUSE people hate Bendis. Because Marvel wants ONE non-Bendis book for his critics to read, after it finally got into their thick skulls that they could make money with an Avengers book NOT written by the hack. Not to mention the factor of Marvel wanting an ongoing Steve Rogers book and with Brubaker not wanting to get Bucky Barnes out of the Cap costume, they decided to give Steve his own team book to serve as a vehicle for those who wanted to read the adventures of Steve Rogers.
September 11th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
well said jessebaker
September 11th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Steven R. Stahl Says:
I wonder how many reviewers fear that if they pan Bendis’s writing systematically and thoroughly, they’ll marginalize themselves to the point that they’ll no longer be able to do commercial reviews?
Yes, I’m sure that’s the issue. It’s not that YOU have some bias against Bendis or his writing. It’s that there’s a widespread global conspiracy where Marvel has someohow found a way to get leverage against virtually every independent internet reviewer. Yeah. Oookaay.
September 11th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
JesseBaker says:
the 1950′s Avengers: Done before by Busiek and quite frankly, unlike Busiek’s group (which became Agents of Atlas) NO ONE is going to be rushing to make a spin-off of Bendis’s rip-off team!
No. Busiek stole his “1950s Avengers” team from an old issue of “What If?” What, did you actually think Busiek had an original idea? Hahaha! And Howard Chaykin IS rushing to make a spinoff of Bendis’s 1950s Avengers group. And you wanna know the best part? NO talking gorillas in this one. What is this, DC comics?
Keep attacking all of Bendis’ ideas. Eventually you might convince someone that the Phone Ranger is actually cool or that Busiek is actually capable of an original idea.
September 11th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Steven R. Stahl Says:
Want to redefine Captain America as a child rapist? Just say those events are hidden in his past. Want to redefine Dr. Strange as a pawn of Shuma-Gorath? Just retcon hidden mind control into Strange’s past.
Want to retcon a lame “What If?” team into the mainstream Marvel Universe? Write an unreadable mess of a comic to plug them into continuity. Want to pander to Scott Lang’s 6 fans? Use time travel to bring him back to life in Avengers: Children’s Crusade. I see what you mean. Retcons can get really cheesy when used by writers less talented than Bendis!
September 11th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
poor showing curse 2/10,but you are on par with your hero!
September 12th, 2011 at 12:18 am
What about Bendis’ “pandering”, like his obsession with the long forgotten first Spider-Woman? Or his obsession with Luke Cage? Or his unhealthy obsession with Norman Osborn and presenting Norman as his version of Claremont’s Magneto, minus EVERYTHING that made Claremont’s Magneto such an icon.
And for “retcons”, Bendis outright IGNORES crap because he’s a lazy hack or worse, DOESN’T care about pooping on longstanding continuity for crappy stories that scorch earth the character:
1. Wanda regained memories of her children LONG AGO
2. Frog Man is a loving father who has a GREAT relationship with his son, one that enabled him to renounce evil and allow his son to take over the Frog Man identity to fight crime
3. Bendis screwing up so many details about the Secret Wars and Secret Wars II, that even Marvel caved in to the negative fan reaction and declare New Avengers Illuminati #4 non-canon!
4. Having Captain America utterly forget that he vowed that he would never let Wolverine be an Avenger, due to Wolverine’s loose morals with regards to killing and maiming people.
5. Him FUBARing Jessica Drew’s origin…
6. What he did to Grant Morrison’s Marvel Boy….
7. And let’s not forget all of the times that he couldn’t be bothered to keep his OWN continuity straight (characters having multiple names in Ultimate Spider-Man, the debacle where he had the Mighty Avengers appear in New Avengers BEFORE they were even recruited in the pages of their own books!, outright ignoring the fact that he had Norman Osborn MURDER nearly a dozen cops in The Pulse during Dark Reign).
Hell, most of the times, other writers have to do retcons because Brevoort’s too much of a coward and THEY have to clean up Bendis’s mess to retcon things to undo the damage Bendis did and pray Bendis doesn’t try and overrule them (which is why Heinberg left Marvel/Young Avengers BTW, as Bendis was pissed off that Heinberg was undoing the crap he did with Scarlet Witch via having her kids running around as key members of the team and wanted to force Heinberg to declare the characters not to be her kids).
September 12th, 2011 at 6:22 am
“Suppose that all the events in Bendis’s material, from “Avengers Disassembled, to the present, were erased. What would be missing? Nothing, because he hasn’t created anything. He’s just torn down things.”
I have a huge Avengers collection going back to the late 60′s. I’ve pulled everything after Busiek’s run (including the not-that-bad Johns run). My collection doesn’t miss the last 8-ish years of the Avengers but my wallet sure does. You can’t take an Avengers story written by Bendis and compare it to any of the great runs. It pales in comparison. Is the Bendis run an amusing read with his TV sitcom style? Sure. But not worth my $3.99.
September 12th, 2011 at 6:40 am
I have no problem with Benids’ choice of Avengers. I have a problem with the wasting of multiple panels and pages with nothing but talking heads and stat panels. To me, and this is all subjective, he violating the first rule of storytelling, which is show don’t tell. LAtely in the Avengers (and I liked most of his run) we’ve been spoonfed all out information. Bendis’ Avengers comics of late, should be plays not comics.
September 12th, 2011 at 8:14 am
Heinberg’s storyline is a spastic, retcon-riddled disaster, but he’s also praised Bendis’s Avengers material to the skies. If you want to damn Heinberg’s writing, go ahead.
A writer is responsible for each word spoken and every action a character takes in his story. NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL #1 is an example of an idiot plot. Williams and his allies act stupidly by attacking the Avengers instead of the menaces they’re supposedly responsible for — but his list of the Avengers’ fatal blunders is nonsensical as well. Are readers supposed to think that Williams is always an idiot, or is he an idiot only when it’s convenient for Bendis? Or is he both insane and an idiot? And if the New Avengers lose to a bunch of idiots, what are readers supposed to make of that? Are they incompetent heroes, or will Bendis have otherwise competent heroes act incompetently when it serves his needs at the moment?
The obvious alternative to an idiot plot is one that has everyone acting intelligently and rationally, but that is much harder for an unskilled writer to construct.
If A.D. had had limited consequences, readers (and writers) could deal with it, but Bendis has been referring back to it repeatedly. If he insists on chaining stories to it, he’s damning his own work. His insistence on having heroes “feel guilty” because they didn’t realize Wanda was insane is particularly imbecilic because it’s obvious to any thinking person that she wasn’t insane until Bendis wrote the retcon, and wasn’t insane afterwards because the story failed.
Suppose that someone claimed that the Marvel Universe was just a computer simulation with all the heroines created by sex-starved geeks. He could make all the arguments he wanted and be wrong, until some writer — any writer — had Marvel publish a story that retconned the M.U. into being a simulation. And then what? Marvel could just as well shut down, because who would want to read about a computer simulation?
If a retcon can alter things in any conceivable (or inconceivable) way, it’s a useless device. Writing is communication; if a story doesn’t communicate information intelligently and intelligibly, it’s a failed story.
SRS
September 12th, 2011 at 11:22 am
Coming Curse,
Good job. One of the best, objective Busiek critiques I’ve read on the internet ever. His Avengers run was very painful to me to read for all the reasons you describe.
In his defense though, I find him to actually be a good writer when not writing stuff he was a fan of as a kid, like in Arrowsmith and Astro City. The fanwanking gets dialed down and the over the top pandering gets reined in and he stops trying to write like Roy Thomas.
On Avengers though? No thanks.
September 12th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I don’t like Bendis’ Avengers. …Yet, I’m on his side over the needy, know-it-all, whiny, must-have-everything-their-way fans. Creators > Fans.
Also, trashing Busiek? I can only see that as possible if you sent your fanfic to him and he politely responded there was nothing he could do with it. Or maybe he snubbed you at a con or something while he was busy.
Also: THAT was objective, T? That’s no more objective about Busiek’s work than I, a Busiek fan, am. Sorry.
September 12th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
“Good job. One of the best, objective Busiek critiques”
Are you being sarcastic? I wouldn’t even rank that as a mediocre Busiek critique, much less a best/good. Coming Curse’s claims are as bad as Jesse Baker’s.
September 12th, 2011 at 9:04 pm
The rich, drunk guy line is so stupid. It’s amazing that a storyline that relatively speaking was so little of the character’s history (he drank for like, what, 2-3 years out of his near 50 year existence?) has now become Tony Stark’s only defining trait.
September 13th, 2011 at 6:49 am
who’s the alien from outer space?
September 15th, 2011 at 1:26 pm
To Graeme M.:
You might have found out by now that NA #16 was a terrible issue, written for the purpose of making Daredevil an Avenger. The story fails completely as a story because DD’s triumph over the war machines isn’t believable — it could be used in a class as an example of a writer using crude tricks to get around his hero’s limitations.
Bendis loves characters who run, jump, punch, and kick, though. He’ll take them over anyone else. The three pseudotext pages you wrote about could have been replaced by two panels using narration praising Daredevil’s indomitable ______, if the writer actually cared about writing a story.
SRS
September 16th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Wow I just read every comment and they are ALL negative. Bizarre. This was my favourite Avengers issue ever. By a long shot. And also one of my favourite Daredevil stories. Good to see him finally get some respect. Go team!
September 16th, 2011 at 10:38 pm
I would love to defend Bendis and his work on New Avengers, but I can’t. The talking heads formula was interesting the first time, perhaps even the second, but it’s become really annoying in this latest issue.
I want my suspense and action in real time. I want last page cliffhangers. Who the heck are these characters talking to anyway? It’s been dragging on for so long. Yawn. I forgot.
I have been a long time Avengers reader and something is definitely missing from these books now.
Oh, wait, I know what is. It is the underlying feeling that the Avengers are the premiere super group on the planet who train to defend the people of the Marvel Universe as heroes. I always liked new roster changes on the books. But at this point who in the MU has not been an Avenger? The Silver Surfer?
Bucky cap was probably the most exciting addition in the last two years. He was an interesting character who was flawed like most of the Avenger recruits when they first started. His road to redemption and sacrifice was amazingly told in the Cap book. Then they killed him off.
Doctor Strange Lite is boring in IMO. Spiderman is predictable. Wolverine is a marketing gimmick. The worst is probably Miss Marvel. As for the rest, meh, who cares? Perhaps Bendis will pen Daredevil with something new. But these books pale in comparison to the epic stories I remember from just a few years ago.
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April 21st, 2012 at 12:03 am
’m all for metatext in comics. You know, those moments where the comic step outside of itself to offer commentary