BeyondThe Panels #19: We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming To Bring You Breaking News..... Which You Probably Already Know
So, yeah calling an audible here. I'll write about Stan and Jack and writers and artists next time, but right now, it's time to talk about the huge news that broke this week- Brian Bendis has left Marvel for DC.
What's next- liberals and conservatives having respectful conversations? Dogs and cats living in harmony? Other examples of opposites coming together?
So, if you read my post about Mr Bendis, you're probably expecting me to be pissed. As of right now, I enjoy DC comics way more than Marvel ones and Bendis is a big reason for that. His time as the top guy in Marvel has been a time of diminishing returns in quality and sales. Most of the time, his style of writing pisses me off. I could go on, but I already have, a few posts back. Check it out.
However, this is the thing- heading into DC, he's not the top guy. No one is. One of the great things about DC right now is that there is no one main voice. You could argue that Geoff Johns is, but he's more in charge of things than he is the top creator. There's no individual voice controlling DC right now, no one writer or artist or even creative team who is setting the tone for everyone. Sure, there are bigger creators than others and they get to do big things, but the biggest strength of Rebirth so far has been that lack of a centralized voice, of a"flagship" book. My DC flagship book is different than yours and yours is different than the next guy and so on and so forth. It's allowed creativity to flourish and made everything better.
Bendis will be walking into a DC Comics that doesn't really need him. They aren't playing catch up to Marvel. He's walking into an environment full of stars. He's a big acquisition, sure, but he's not being brought in to fix anything or make things better. He's come in because for whatever reason, he's decided to. They don't need him, but he's here, so everyone will have to make the best of it.
I reacted pretty much like you'd expect when I heard the news, but as I sat back and thought about it, I realized something- as much as I heap scorn on the man and his work, there are books of his that I have enjoyed. He is capable of good work. He just has a very specific wheelhouse- street level. Now, one thing DC has in spades is a whole lot of street level heroes. I think Bendis would do a great job reviving The Question or writing something like Green Arrow. There are people who said they would like to see him on Blue Beetle. I think they could relaunch Gotham Central for him and it would be perfect. Hell, I would even say giving him a Wally West led Flash book could be pretty cool- Wally is a funny, quippy guy with a lot of villains to choose from whose life is full of drama.
Keep him the fuck away from Booster Gold or Nightwing, though. Far away. Everybody thinks they want him on Booster Gold or Nightwing, but he would make both characters horrible. And boring. Just so boring.
I think, for me, the biggest shocker is just that Bendis left Marvel. I'm pretty sure that if someone would have come up to me this time last year and told me Bendis would leave Marvel for DC, I'd have laughed at them. Oh, how I would have laughed. It just wasn't really conceivable that they'd let him go. I mean, when you spend years pushing someone and letting them run roughshod over your entire line, allowing them to be the main voice of your company for as long as Marvel allowed him to do that, you keep them around. Promote them. I mean, look at the guy who can considered his opposite number, Geoff Johns. Geoff Johns helps run DC, both at the comics level and the movies. Johns has reached the highest echelons at DC, just by being a a great, loyal creator.
It was easy to think that one day, that would be Bendis. That one day Quesada and Brevoort would put the crown on Bendis and he would be Editor in Chief. He was Marvel's top guy for nearly the entire time he was there. Out of the gate, they trusted him with the high profile Ultimate Spider-Man book. Marvel put a lot of eggs into his basket and only went to reason that one day, he would be rewarded for all of that. Instead, he leaves.
I have a feeling it was for two reasons- he has been at Marvel for 17 years and he's pretty much done everything and every character. Name a big Marvel or character or property he hasn't wrote in the last 17 years. You can't. I know you're thinking it's the Fantastic Four, but he co-wrote Ultimate Fantastic Four with Mark Millar and had Thing join the New Avengers, as well as writing for Reed in Secret Invasion and The Illuminati (co-written by Brian Reed). He's climbed all the mountains and had sex with everyone in the surrounding villages, male and female. He's been everywhere you can go in the Marvel Universe and a change of scenery would do him nice. Maybe it's what he needs. He's been working in one place, with the same people, at the same position for so long, that maybe this is what he needs to get back to being the guy who was writing Daredevil and just fucking killing it every month (and he was, too- I may hate a lot about him now, but back then, he knew how to balance the talking and the action and that book was a treat for a long time, probably until Matt declared himself Kingpin).
The other reason is this- Marvel just didn't want to pay him. If you know anything about Marvel now a days, you probably know that the man who runs the place, Ike Perlmutter, is notoriously cheap. You can Google it, but there are horror stories about working in Marvel office that have to do with things like office supplies and toilet people and so on. A few years back, a bunch of high profile talent left Marvel as well, going to Image and making waaay more money. If you look at Marvel, who are the superstars, the guys who can ask for a lot of money and get it? Nick Spencer Jason Aaron come to mind talent wise, but they are both guys who I still feel are mid tier on the pay scale, since neither have written a big, much loved event book (I love Original Sin, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one, and Secret Empire was okay, but it gets a lot of shit). Who else? Al Ewing? He's good, but he can't demand big money. Charles Soule? Possibly, although I don't see why. Mark Waid? Yeah, he can. Dan Slott? Yeah, he can. So, two, possibly three.
I think that Marvel got tired of paying for Bendis. Otherwise, why would he leave? Even if it's partly creative burnout, after putting in 17 years at the level he has been in, you'd think they'd promote him. They made Quesada Editor in Chief after two years as chief of the Marvel Knights imprint. Alonso got it after about a decade. Well, right now, Bendis is senior to either of them at the times of their promotions and even if EIC isn't open, there are other positions. In the end, I think it says something disturbing about Marvel- they don't want to reward his loyalty and all the work he's done for them. Now, as they relaunch their whole line, the biggest Marvel name of the last 20 years is leaving. This is exactly the kind of optics they don't need.
Who knows how all this will work out, but hopefully, it will all work out for the best. Maybe Bendis at DC will be a new man and he'll become amazing. Maybe now that he's gone, Marvel will invest in new talent and push through this stagnation they've been stuck in for a few years. We can only wait and see.
Next Issue- Same as last post, unless huge news comes up- we're gonna talk about Stan and Jack and writers and artists. Join us, will you, here at.....
Beyond The Panels!!!!!!!!!!!
What's next- liberals and conservatives having respectful conversations? Dogs and cats living in harmony? Other examples of opposites coming together?
So, if you read my post about Mr Bendis, you're probably expecting me to be pissed. As of right now, I enjoy DC comics way more than Marvel ones and Bendis is a big reason for that. His time as the top guy in Marvel has been a time of diminishing returns in quality and sales. Most of the time, his style of writing pisses me off. I could go on, but I already have, a few posts back. Check it out.
However, this is the thing- heading into DC, he's not the top guy. No one is. One of the great things about DC right now is that there is no one main voice. You could argue that Geoff Johns is, but he's more in charge of things than he is the top creator. There's no individual voice controlling DC right now, no one writer or artist or even creative team who is setting the tone for everyone. Sure, there are bigger creators than others and they get to do big things, but the biggest strength of Rebirth so far has been that lack of a centralized voice, of a"flagship" book. My DC flagship book is different than yours and yours is different than the next guy and so on and so forth. It's allowed creativity to flourish and made everything better.
Bendis will be walking into a DC Comics that doesn't really need him. They aren't playing catch up to Marvel. He's walking into an environment full of stars. He's a big acquisition, sure, but he's not being brought in to fix anything or make things better. He's come in because for whatever reason, he's decided to. They don't need him, but he's here, so everyone will have to make the best of it.
I reacted pretty much like you'd expect when I heard the news, but as I sat back and thought about it, I realized something- as much as I heap scorn on the man and his work, there are books of his that I have enjoyed. He is capable of good work. He just has a very specific wheelhouse- street level. Now, one thing DC has in spades is a whole lot of street level heroes. I think Bendis would do a great job reviving The Question or writing something like Green Arrow. There are people who said they would like to see him on Blue Beetle. I think they could relaunch Gotham Central for him and it would be perfect. Hell, I would even say giving him a Wally West led Flash book could be pretty cool- Wally is a funny, quippy guy with a lot of villains to choose from whose life is full of drama.
Keep him the fuck away from Booster Gold or Nightwing, though. Far away. Everybody thinks they want him on Booster Gold or Nightwing, but he would make both characters horrible. And boring. Just so boring.
I think, for me, the biggest shocker is just that Bendis left Marvel. I'm pretty sure that if someone would have come up to me this time last year and told me Bendis would leave Marvel for DC, I'd have laughed at them. Oh, how I would have laughed. It just wasn't really conceivable that they'd let him go. I mean, when you spend years pushing someone and letting them run roughshod over your entire line, allowing them to be the main voice of your company for as long as Marvel allowed him to do that, you keep them around. Promote them. I mean, look at the guy who can considered his opposite number, Geoff Johns. Geoff Johns helps run DC, both at the comics level and the movies. Johns has reached the highest echelons at DC, just by being a a great, loyal creator.
It was easy to think that one day, that would be Bendis. That one day Quesada and Brevoort would put the crown on Bendis and he would be Editor in Chief. He was Marvel's top guy for nearly the entire time he was there. Out of the gate, they trusted him with the high profile Ultimate Spider-Man book. Marvel put a lot of eggs into his basket and only went to reason that one day, he would be rewarded for all of that. Instead, he leaves.
I have a feeling it was for two reasons- he has been at Marvel for 17 years and he's pretty much done everything and every character. Name a big Marvel or character or property he hasn't wrote in the last 17 years. You can't. I know you're thinking it's the Fantastic Four, but he co-wrote Ultimate Fantastic Four with Mark Millar and had Thing join the New Avengers, as well as writing for Reed in Secret Invasion and The Illuminati (co-written by Brian Reed). He's climbed all the mountains and had sex with everyone in the surrounding villages, male and female. He's been everywhere you can go in the Marvel Universe and a change of scenery would do him nice. Maybe it's what he needs. He's been working in one place, with the same people, at the same position for so long, that maybe this is what he needs to get back to being the guy who was writing Daredevil and just fucking killing it every month (and he was, too- I may hate a lot about him now, but back then, he knew how to balance the talking and the action and that book was a treat for a long time, probably until Matt declared himself Kingpin).
The other reason is this- Marvel just didn't want to pay him. If you know anything about Marvel now a days, you probably know that the man who runs the place, Ike Perlmutter, is notoriously cheap. You can Google it, but there are horror stories about working in Marvel office that have to do with things like office supplies and toilet people and so on. A few years back, a bunch of high profile talent left Marvel as well, going to Image and making waaay more money. If you look at Marvel, who are the superstars, the guys who can ask for a lot of money and get it? Nick Spencer Jason Aaron come to mind talent wise, but they are both guys who I still feel are mid tier on the pay scale, since neither have written a big, much loved event book (I love Original Sin, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one, and Secret Empire was okay, but it gets a lot of shit). Who else? Al Ewing? He's good, but he can't demand big money. Charles Soule? Possibly, although I don't see why. Mark Waid? Yeah, he can. Dan Slott? Yeah, he can. So, two, possibly three.
I think that Marvel got tired of paying for Bendis. Otherwise, why would he leave? Even if it's partly creative burnout, after putting in 17 years at the level he has been in, you'd think they'd promote him. They made Quesada Editor in Chief after two years as chief of the Marvel Knights imprint. Alonso got it after about a decade. Well, right now, Bendis is senior to either of them at the times of their promotions and even if EIC isn't open, there are other positions. In the end, I think it says something disturbing about Marvel- they don't want to reward his loyalty and all the work he's done for them. Now, as they relaunch their whole line, the biggest Marvel name of the last 20 years is leaving. This is exactly the kind of optics they don't need.
Who knows how all this will work out, but hopefully, it will all work out for the best. Maybe Bendis at DC will be a new man and he'll become amazing. Maybe now that he's gone, Marvel will invest in new talent and push through this stagnation they've been stuck in for a few years. We can only wait and see.
Next Issue- Same as last post, unless huge news comes up- we're gonna talk about Stan and Jack and writers and artists. Join us, will you, here at.....
Beyond The Panels!!!!!!!!!!!
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