Time For Another Go?


New Avengers 35I don’t like Brian Michael Bendis.

That’s the conclusion I’ve come to after reading my fair share of Bendis comics. There’s only one thing he’s done that I outright hated (Avengers: Disassembled), but there’s only one thing he’s done that I really enjoyed (The Pulse). Everything else of his that I’ve read falls somewhere between dislike and indifference. So I’ve just stopped buying anything with “Bendis” on the cover.

Problem is, I really like the Avengers. The Avengers was one of my favorite comics for about a decade, but once Bendis took over I hit the trail. I haven’t bought a single issue of New Avengers or Mighty Avengers (although I did read a couple of Jim Doom’s Civil War issues) since they started, but now I’m being tempted to pick up an issue.

Mark Bagley, one of my all-time favorite artists, will soon be taking over the art duties on Mighty Avengers. Leinel Yu’s on New Avengers now and I really enjoy his art, even if I do complain about it from time to time here on Doomkopf.com. Both titles seem to be leading into next summer’s big mega-crossover, Super Secret Skrull Invasion, which I’ll almost certainly end up buying despite it being written by Bendis. And I’ve been hearing very good things about New Avengers lately.

But I’m wondering, is there really any point? Supposedly this Skrull storyline has been building since the very first issue of New Avengers, and there’s not chance in hell I’m going to go back and read Bendis’ entire run. Would jumping onto NA and MA at this point actually add anything to my enjoyment of Secret Invasion? Or would I just get burnt out on Bendis before the crossover even started and end up complaining about it more than I complained about Civil War? Is that even possible?

Don’t get me wrong here, I haven’t ruled out the possibility that I might actually enjoy either or both of these comics. Bendis has been known to throw a story or two out there that I liked. I almost named House of M #8 the best single issue of 2005 (despite the other seven sucking balls), and I did enjoy the Civil War issues of New Avengers I read a lot more than I thought I would (one of which was drawn by Yu, natch). Just because I haven’t read much of anything by Bendis that I thoroughly enjoyed doesn’t mean I’ll never again read anything by Bendis that I thoroughly enjoy.

So what say you, readers of Doomkopf.com and members of the Legion: Is this a good time to give the Avengers books another chance?

[Note: I wrote this before realizing the image above is the cover to the next issue of New Avengers. Now I really need convincing.]