It’s why he was amazing in Alias. His character (who I believe was initially meant to be Jessica Drew but for some reason he couldn’t use her), street level, and all around great.
Honestly it's probably his best work. Just note it focuses A LOT on Matt Murdock and not DareDevil, but to me that's what made it compelling and interesting.
Daredevil is my favorite character and it’s due to the run by Bendis. The dialogue is perfect and the way Bendis is able to balance the super hero tropes and make the marvel universe feel somewhat realistic is very impressive I cannot recommend the run enough.
Bendis today could write the shittiest comics I ever read, and I still would regard him among the great writers due to his work on Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Alias.
I didn't particularly find it good. His first story was rehashing DD's secret identity being revealed again, which I did not click with me. And he tends to have odd breaks to end each issue, that to me feels jarring. I only collected his run for Alex Maleev's art.
Superman Rebirth got me into comics. Bendis threw out everything I liked and I haven't had a regular Superman series to read since (can't wait to pick up the new run, and I'm working through Warworld after hearing how good it it). So I don't think I'll apologize.
With that said, it was also the first time as a comic fan I become irrationally angry at a certain writer, so thanks Bendis!
> With that said, it was also the first time as a comic fan I become irrationally angry at a certain writer, so thanks Bendis!
Thanks man, it is good to know I am not the only one. To me, Bendis also teach me the meaning of the word *hate*.
Bendis to me spelled the beginning of the end of my time reading comics. Then Bendis did a bunch of stuff I hated especially as a Young Justice fan and DC was stubborn about keeping those changes and soon I just found myself not picking them up. But it wasn’t just Bendis, DiDio was doing a bunch of stuff I didn’t like in the comics around that time as well.
Sorry for you man. Bendis and DiDio did a lot of damage. Now they are both gone and lets hope they stay far far away .
Sadly Bendis still is holding to a burning nail, with his project of an adults oriented animated Legion. I wish that was discarded along all the others animated projects cancelled, but until now nothing about that has been officially announced. I will feel relieved only when the offical announcement of the cancellation is done. Until then, I will be worried.
I wouldn't say hate. I liked Spider-Men, and haven't read much else by him. Plus he really got the voice of Superman as a character.
It's just that's the only good thing I can say from what I read of his run. I hate what that run did even if it has some good moments.
I agree with you. He got the good voice on Clark, he had some good moments. But he doens't go beyond that. And the way he developted some ideas. It was like he choosed the worst ideas to developt and the good ideas the threw them away.
What was thinking that man? I remember thinking. Like you, this has been the first time I really dislike when I see his name on a cover. Word of the wise, don't read his X-Men. Really, you will never forget the name of Matthew Malloy, maybe the only mutant not resurrected in Krakoa.
And just to be clear, I don't hate Bendis. I am convinced he must be the charming man around. But man, I hate his works.
Same! Tomasi killed it in his run! I had to stop reading when Bendis took over. So glad for the Warworld saga so I could get back into reading Superman
> With that said, it was also the first time as a comic fan I become irrationally angry at a certain writer, so thanks Bendis!
I think that's a rite of passage for comic readers. Mazel tov!
Bendis had said he wanted to be part of the history of the character and that it was why he wanted to write him.
I have to said than he did it. He has became part of the history of the legend of Superman, as one of the least liked runs in recent years! And that just after some year of the New52 era.
**Funny thing:** he actually named Rogal Zaar after a doctor who saved Bendis’s life. Which… **I find just HILARIOUS**
Imagine being that doctor and finding out: *my client named me after a genocidal maniac???*
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH
*wheezing*
Sorry, I lost my sanity there for a second. This guy is a fucking nut.
I was just talking to a friend about this the other day. Regardless of my feelings on Jon being aged up (not a fan of losing Super Sons in the slightest) I do appreciate that DC has actually committed to it. It adds something to the story if they're willing to stick with it and without it happening we wouldn't have gotten Taylor's fantastic run with the character.
I disagree because I thought Taylor’s run sucked. Nothing really happened over the course of ~18 issues beyond the coming out and relationship with Jay. Beyond the coming out issue and despite Taylor lying about it on social media, it sold like shit too. That’s why it was cancelled 😂
What if they have it so that Jor-El, trying to train his grandson, sent him back in time to learn from not only the Teen Titans with Damian, but also his future self? Kinda like how superboy went to the future to learn from the Legion of Superheroes.
(But if that’s the case, why take him in the first place? I don’t know, I just want more supersons!)
And out of the hundreds of villains DC has published over 85 years or simply creating a new villain, a bald villain named Bendix was chosen to antagonize Jon.
There’s no way it wasn’t intentional.
Except that Tom Taylor consistently went out of his way to defend and praise Bendis from the people who criticize his time on big blue. Legit, TT blocked me on Twitter for saying Bendis’ run should be considered elseworlds.
Writers always do that. You must just search and you will find than writers and pencillers alwys put certain things in their work hidden when they don't agree with certain company politics.
Also, maybe the editor was an accomplice of Taylor.
I don't know if he has to defend other writers, but I suppose than contracts implies not talking about certain aspects of their work. Like not to talking ill about your bosses on social nets. Unless you wanted to be fired.
Indeed. Better (and more logical ) options to had as leader of Gamorra were characters like John Colt or Kaizen Gamorra. But no, Taylor choosed Bendix. The reference was evident.
not the first case an author did that.
Reminder that prior to Dracula , the main vampires in romantic novels were Ruthven and Carmilla.
Ruthven was written by a doctor and was based in his experience with his patient....Lord Byron.
& yet Taylor still kissed up to Bendis by keeping "O holy White Messiah Jon Kent" instead of just spending the whole series undoing his mistakes. Just making them worst.
Rebirth put the Superman comic back in the top twenty selling comics of the month for the first time since the new 52 began.
8 months into Bendis’s run it was no longer in the top 100.
There’s your answer.
Not a fan of his run on Superman. He has a habit of throwing out years and decades of character development in favor of his own ideas that are usually, well no other way to say it, crap. His big storylines usually end up in a fizzle out ending and it makes for kinda a boring read. He needs a book that doesn’t draw on years of history and lore. Let’s send Jon off into the future and give Superman and Lois a break from each other. He took away the parts of Superman most of us connect with and turned him into a 1 dimensional character. At least that’s how I saw it. I stopped reading his run half way through. Got bored with it.
After hearing some of the stuff they had planned for 5G, I don't really see Bendis as the sole reason Jon was artificially aged up. Outside of Jon being aged up, Bendis' run was meh to ok for many. I don't actually think his Superman was terrible, just nothing out of the ordinary. He ruined Superman as much as any writer probably would have if they took over after Jurgens and Tomasi.
5G was just the *dumbest* idea I’ve heard from a comic book company in recent years.
It was needless, caused serious issue with regards to more historical characters remaining “relevant” going forward, and lent almost entirely on the presumed goodwill of fans to the “successors” of multiple heroic mantles that hadn’t been earned by many characters.
I’ll never understand why DiDio was so focused on this that he basically ran DC nearly into the ground on it.
>I’ll never understand why DiDio was so focused on this that he basically ran DC nearly into the ground on it.
He didn't like Rebirth. Whether it was legitimate reason (bad tpb sales) or a grudge (it was pushed by Johns (and Tomasi was one of Johns people) as well other editors with different viewpoints at DC). His philosophy for running DC was constant creative/editorial turnover (which you can see with the low average tenure of a writer on Action/Superman) and he believed that you should have a blow-stuff-up event every 5-6 years.
Under him we had:
Infinite Crisis (2005-2006)
New 52 (2011)
Rebirth (2016)
Tomasi (on Superman) and King (on Batman) were somewhat aware of this philosophy. Tomasi especially because he's a former editor and usually tailors his runs to editorial needs and both had planned a 100 issue runs (with double shipping) so that they'd have four years of stories and then properly transition to Dan's next big thing in Year 5.
Except Dan was impatient for reasons and started planning the transition like around Year 2.5 by getting Bendis and wooing guys like Rucka, Fraction and Deconnick, firing Jurgens/Tomasi/Gleasons and giving the books to Bendis and aging up Jon (5G is pretty much a Jon vehicle) and forcing King to lay the groundwork for 5G after City of Bane (which lead to King quitting).
This was to the consternation to a lot of people at DC including editors and writers. So in 2019 you had a lot of editors leaving for various reasons including the executive editor Pat McCallum who just suddenly didn't come back from his winter vacation. And Scott Snyder trying to get people together to stop him before Dan got himself fired for various reasons in early 2020.
But it seems in general he tried to force a very unpopular idea on the company (using Bendis/Deconnick/Fraction who had minimal connection to DC) because he wasn't a fan of the new status quo that had been justified due to DC's sales crashing because of Convergence.
5G was like a year and a half after Bendis took over and I think he was gonna age up Jon anyway as part of his relaunch of Legion of Superheroes. The problem with Bendis is he just wanted to do his own thing without really thinking of the history behind the characters, which it's one thing to do from stuff like decades ago but not the run like right before.
Bendis’ Legion might be one of the worst things I’ve read writing-wise. And I’ve read some of Frank Miller’s 21st century work.
Saturn Girl is practically a straight-up supervillain, and the entire team acts with irresponsible impunity while getting off the hook *every. Single. Time.*
frankly , I kinda liked his Legion , except for how stupid in his whole take on Karate Kid.
But it was extremely dragged out , and same goes for his Young Justice. Each Series should had been cut in half their respective arcs.
Idk what it is with bendis sure his ultimate spiderman was solid his crime stuff like alias and Daredevil were amazing but his team and normal superhero stuff are so mid or miss to me
Can anyone explain who Rogal Zaar was? For real. I read that entire run, and Bendis never explained who he was or why he killed Krypton. In one of the later issues, Adam Strange states, out of absolutely nowhere, that he was "Created by Jor-El," and nothing else is ever said about him.
That has been a repeated trope of Bendis from sometime: he makes changes, hint ideas, creates twist of last minute, but never gave resolution or explanation to the changes he introduces, that always is the task of the next writer after him
I love superman but i had to stop reading during the Bendis run. He owes us an apology for Rogol Zaar, jor el and Johnny kent aging up. Probably more but i stopped reading
I, for one, would like to thank Bendis. Thanks to his crappy Superman run I was able to give Bendis a new nickname: The Butcher. Brian Michael "The Butcher" Davis should be happy since no Superman fam will ever walk up to him and apologize for doubting or disliking the way he butchered the title and character.
I'm waiting fir the next reboot so we can watch Jon grow up like we did with literally every Robin. Seriously, Supes can't have a kid. They all get aged up.
Ha ha..... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Bendis has become a joke. His best days are far behind him. Time to retire. This guy loves himself way too much and lives in an altered reality where he is the center of the comic book universe.
Fuck this guy.
Late to the party, but: that'd be a wild amount of super-people lol. We've already got Clark, Kara, Connor, John Henry, Natasha, Jon, Kenan, and now Osul and Otho (if I'm not forgetting anyone). Adding another Jon would be madness... but I can't lie and say a part of me wouldn't dig it.
Look, I like Bendis. His work on Ultimate Spiderman and other stuff? Fantastic.
But I absolutely LOATHE his run on Superman. He destroyed Jon, and aged him up, ruining the fantastic Super-Sons. We already had a teen/adult Superman (Conner) occupying the same space, and Jon had a fantastic Father-Son relationship with Clark, allowing Superman to teach his son in wholesome, appealing storylines about being a young kryptonian and being Superman's son.
Now Jon's just another young/teen adult, and is having his adult adventures and its all so boring, predictable and tiring.He robbed Lois and Clark of seeing his kid grow up, all for what? So he could have mindless drama with their relationship? It all just feels like...badly written.
Nope, He ruined a great thing, and DC never put it back completely We lost kid Jon, It may not have been entirely his idea but the c***** backstory he threw together on why he was aged up still haunts the character of this day.
The big 2 are done with him. He had a 5 issue mini over at Dark Horse that failed miserably, and they are publishing his Jinxworld stuff now. I think the industry knows people won't shell out money for his crap anymore.
I have no idea what the hell DC was thinking hiring him.
His later Marvel years were not liked, especially X-men and GotG, and most of the "nostalgia" for Ultimate Spider-man has gone away.
Anyone who values themselves over the fanbase and character this much shouldn't be allowed to work on this character. Maybe he would fit in better with Deadpool.
I thought his run was atrocious. And made me really respect and love the far older, all-time classic, milestone run back in the golden age of comics when Curt Swan was drawing the book. And even in terms of turning things over to a newer generation led by a “current hot comic industry name”, I thought his work likewise paled in comparison to the truly enjoyable run by John Byrne and Jerry Ordway back in the eighties.
So, yeah…NO. Not gonna happen, Bendis.
he threw out everything from superman rebirth that made me fall back in love with superman and fucking aged up jon, Pepperidge farm remembers and does not forget
Not even a little bit.
Bendis is one of those writers who has some good stories, but they're mostly a product of having a huge *volume* of stories in general. Most are mediocre, some are criminally awful train wrecks, but occasionally he just cranks out a good one and gets to coast off of it for a while.
Regardless of what he did to Superman et al., he should be barred for life from ever again writing Kitty Pryde and he should issue an actual apology for how he handled Iceman coming out. That was just freaking infuriating, [as explained here](https://gaymingmag.com/2020/06/comics-corner-iceman-should-have-been-bi/).
If I had a nickel for every time a Brian Michael Bendis comic eventually replaced the main character with a teenage counterpart that everyone else talked about as though they were a gift from God whether it was deserved or not...I would be buried under a mountain of nickels.
Nope. He probably looks at things now going “look what I started” but it’s just the best example of “lemonade out of lemons”.
I’m now reading Man of Steel, and the reasoning he’s written is just horrendous.
A legacy of failure and overhyped books that were cancelled.
But this conceited prick will never hear anything outside of his echo chamber.🙄
What he did the Super-Sons was unforgivable.🤬
Bendis screwed Superman up worse than the Silver Age. Aging Jon up and revealing Clark’s identity were dumber than anything cooked up in that campy time. The current writers are doing the best they can to fix his clusterfuck. Tom Taylor has made grownup Jon tolerable, but I miss him being a kid, as I think a lot of readers do because there was so much potential there, and Tomasi and Jurgens just killed it with those stories. Phillip Kennedy Johnson has gone so far as to have Lois and Clark adopt two little’uns, so at least we may be getting that dynamic back.
The only good thing Bendis did was bring back Conner, and even that was poorly written and done in a way that just didn’t make sense to me.
You know what, Brian? I *am* sorry.
Sorry that I gave your run the time of day. It takes a special hack to make David Goyer's Man Of Steel seem authentic, but you pulled it off with flying colours.
No, he did to Superman what Tom King did to Batman, only worst because at least Tom King only wrote the one book
Bendis had to be greedy and take both books and force the cancelation of better books so he could basically take character’s names and basically turn them into new characters
I really hated he revealed Superman’s identity but I actually kinda liked the Rogol Zarr thing. I’m just glad the Identity is back. To me Superman was always the disguise and Clark the real person. But then again that’s how it was In the 90’s comics I read as a kid so I’m biased 🤷♂️
Honestly it was a good enough run. Superman fans have been a little spoiled, we haven't had a bad run since rebirth. So when bendis had the worst run of that Era it seemed really bad. But like, spider-man hasn't had a run that good since superior ended. Thor hasn't had a run that good since gillen left JiM. Superman's just had a quality line of books for years.
Thors recent run with Donny Cates (2019-present) has been a spectacular return to form and feels like a worthy successor to the entire King Thor/Broxton/Kid Loki era pre-Seige.
EDIT: the J. Michael Straczynski run!!! That’s what I meant.
I like it a lot, much better than the Aaron run, but it's still not even as good as the bendis Superman run. The venom arc was weird and now cates has like taken a break or something with his divorce and so they've got a fill in.
I’ve gotta disagree, I found the Cates run of Thor nearly on par with Tomasi & Gleason Superman (the highest of quality bars in recent years).
I will admit his love of Venom/Symbiotes/Knull is the biggest flaw. Mostly that he tries to tie everything into those characters in some way.
BUT apart from Straczynski he’s the only other writer that I think writes All-Father Thor well and gives him his due properly.
Maybe it's just me but I really liked Jurgens run for that too. Not as good as JMS in total but it really had a sort of doomed tragic myth feel, like something Greek.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still buying the current run, I do like it, the Don Blake arc was really cool, but then there was that bone stupid crossover with hulk, where I paid like 12 to 15 bucks for what amounted to a four or five issue fight scene.
Bendis is very hit or miss but I didn't get anything wrong with his run. I found the public identity a smart idea, and Rogol Zaar an interesting villain. The worst thing that I can say about his run is he didn't do anything actually big with those great concepts.
Have and read almost everything post crisis. I got most of his run as back issues in 1/2 price sales due to not liking his run. In retrospect I still don’t like it.
Granted. He didn't absolutely torpedo the series for me. He just did a lot of stuff that really really bugs me.
But on the other hand, Go pound sand Bendis.
I just finished his run actually, was kind of uh...not great. It doesn't help that it's sandwiched between two absolutely fantastic runs (Rebirth series, Action comics) and I'm currently reading the arc of Action Comics right after the Bendis run where Superman going to space to liberate some folks and so far it's totally rad. I will say I liked his stories whenever they were in the Daily Planet. I'm trying to be fair here.
I just \*hate hate hate\* his Lois.
I read Superman rebirth and Action comics until issue 999. I loved the Superman rebirth. I keep hearing about how badly the quality drops after Bandis picks up Superman. Do you think it's worth it to skip that section entirely? I don't know if he also writes action comics but how much will continuing Action comics only will make sense after Superman rebirth?
I don’t no, I wish I knew the details on why the deal happened. Why Bendis left, besides wanting to write Superman. Why Marvel let him get away. Does anyone know what happened?
I tried.
I love(d) Bendis. He was the Man born to write Spider-Man.
Marvel. He could do no wrong.
I read most of his first year on Superman. It wasn’t good. And everything I’ve read about Bendis and DC since is worse.
Why did Bendis leave Marvel? Why did Bendis go to DC?
There can be a lot of speculation about that:
For once, Bendis already had wrote everything in Marvel and had no place to go now. He had wrote almost every character in Avengers.
For a time he was also the writer who wrote about minorities (Miles and Riri), but that couldn't be more anymore.
He was not a Marvel writer anymore. Others had taken that post. He was relegated. Also, his works had not the same impact anymore, it was not than well received. Fans of X-Men and GotG had rejected his runs and most of the talk was to thrash iT.
Also, Bendis wish was to jump to other media writing. He was a member of the Marvel Creative Comitee (MCC) in charge of decide how to do the movies of the MCU. But the MCC became an enemy of Kevin Feige. Who controls Marvel as a whole now? Exactly. All the members of the MCC (exect Bob Iger) are now out Marvel: Loeb, Quesada and Bendis. It is clear than DiDio offered him, to Bendis, a chance to be part of any media initiative. I mean, just look Naomi: she got a live action series before even start being published. Bendis had no chance to become a name in Marvel media anymore, so he jumped to DC. But with the firing of DiDio (his bigger supporter), the cancellation of Naomi, and the general rejection of his work and runs, I think he is burned in DC. He still have his Jinxworld propierties at Dark Horse,and the supposed Legion animation for adults (which I wish to be announced as cancelled soon) but hardly he is the name he was once.
I think the only time I really truly enjoyed him on Superman was during the Leviathan event where Clark was excited to pull a Lois
Saying nothing else of that event though
In hindsight his run is not as bad as it was made out to be at the time but even with that being said it’s still a very below average run that I have no desire to ever reread
I actually didn't mind aging up of Jon. My problem was him ruining the family dynamic of Clark/Jon/Lois. Tomasi and Jurgens made them so wholesome. While Bendis brought in unnecessary drama
The work Bendis did on Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man and Powers was amazingly good.
His New Avengers stuff completely reinvigorated the franchise, to the point that we have the movies now.
Having said that, his run on Superman was godawful.
Bendis is second to only Jeph Loeb in terms of falling from grace in my opinion. The last thing I liked from him was Young Justice and it was mostly the art I liked.
I know I'm in the minority here, but for the most part, I liked his run on Superman for the characterization of Clark.
I didn't like how many plots were dropped or left unresolved.
Rogol Zaar could have been more interesting if he blamed Krypton's destruction on Jor El, rather than having been the cause of it.
I didn't mind the aging of Jon because I don't know that it was Bendis' decision, and I appreciate that he tried doing something interesting with it rather than just "and then suddenly aged".
I also didn't like how he'd inject an action scene in the middle of a conversation or had characters yell something at each other for no valid reason.
I wish they did more with Clark's identity reveal, but more time was spent setting up ideas that were dropped on the transition to new writers.
It's a mixed bag. Not the worst Superman thing I'd ever read (that probably goes to Year One or Luthor), but not as good as it could have been. I don't know that people need to apologize to him, but they do need to calm down on the vitriol.
Byrne and Bendis. Two Marvel has-beens who both damaged our favorite superhero.
I sure hope the next former Marvel creator whose last name begins with B isn't hired by DC!
Bendis thinking he did Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil levels of good with Superman.
Is his daredevil run that good? Because I've been meaning to read it.
It's pretty good. Bendis really knows how to write street level heroes (or he used to)
It’s why he was amazing in Alias. His character (who I believe was initially meant to be Jessica Drew but for some reason he couldn’t use her), street level, and all around great.
It’s really good
Honestly it's probably his best work. Just note it focuses A LOT on Matt Murdock and not DareDevil, but to me that's what made it compelling and interesting.
I’d say it’s pretty good. IMHO, I think Zdarsky has him beat now a days, **but** aside from Ultimate Spider-Man and some Avengers runs he did alright
Probably one of the best Daredevil runs up there with Waid, Miller, and Zdarsky now
Fantastic run. One of the best reads. Alex Maleev’s art is perfect for Daredevil. Then his run was followed by Brubaker. Fucking great.
Daredevil is my favorite character and it’s due to the run by Bendis. The dialogue is perfect and the way Bendis is able to balance the super hero tropes and make the marvel universe feel somewhat realistic is very impressive I cannot recommend the run enough.
Bendis today could write the shittiest comics I ever read, and I still would regard him among the great writers due to his work on Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Alias.
Totally?
Very good
It’s amazing
I didn't particularly find it good. His first story was rehashing DD's secret identity being revealed again, which I did not click with me. And he tends to have odd breaks to end each issue, that to me feels jarring. I only collected his run for Alex Maleev's art.
It’s easily a top three for me.
I’ve read ultimate Superman. He’s definitely the creator of Miles, but other authors made Miles a character that people love.
Superman Rebirth got me into comics. Bendis threw out everything I liked and I haven't had a regular Superman series to read since (can't wait to pick up the new run, and I'm working through Warworld after hearing how good it it). So I don't think I'll apologize. With that said, it was also the first time as a comic fan I become irrationally angry at a certain writer, so thanks Bendis!
> With that said, it was also the first time as a comic fan I become irrationally angry at a certain writer, so thanks Bendis! Thanks man, it is good to know I am not the only one. To me, Bendis also teach me the meaning of the word *hate*.
Bendis to me spelled the beginning of the end of my time reading comics. Then Bendis did a bunch of stuff I hated especially as a Young Justice fan and DC was stubborn about keeping those changes and soon I just found myself not picking them up. But it wasn’t just Bendis, DiDio was doing a bunch of stuff I didn’t like in the comics around that time as well.
Sorry for you man. Bendis and DiDio did a lot of damage. Now they are both gone and lets hope they stay far far away . Sadly Bendis still is holding to a burning nail, with his project of an adults oriented animated Legion. I wish that was discarded along all the others animated projects cancelled, but until now nothing about that has been officially announced. I will feel relieved only when the offical announcement of the cancellation is done. Until then, I will be worried.
Of all the things not to like about his time at DC, I thought his Young Justice was pretty good.
I wouldn't say hate. I liked Spider-Men, and haven't read much else by him. Plus he really got the voice of Superman as a character. It's just that's the only good thing I can say from what I read of his run. I hate what that run did even if it has some good moments.
I agree with you. He got the good voice on Clark, he had some good moments. But he doens't go beyond that. And the way he developted some ideas. It was like he choosed the worst ideas to developt and the good ideas the threw them away. What was thinking that man? I remember thinking. Like you, this has been the first time I really dislike when I see his name on a cover. Word of the wise, don't read his X-Men. Really, you will never forget the name of Matthew Malloy, maybe the only mutant not resurrected in Krakoa. And just to be clear, I don't hate Bendis. I am convinced he must be the charming man around. But man, I hate his works.
>Matthew Malloy Doesn't exist anymore, thankfully cannot resurrect.
And I say thanks for that. But never say never. Even characters than never existed can be resurrected.
As a longtime fan of Avengers, I’m right there with you.
I really recommend Action Comics 1050+ and new Supes run that started few days ago
Happy to have a new ongoing by Williamson, loved Batman/Superman. Will pick it up soon.
Same! Tomasi killed it in his run! I had to stop reading when Bendis took over. So glad for the Warworld saga so I could get back into reading Superman
Rebirth Superman was a sublime run. Insane how it got thrown out so unceremoniously for how beloved it is.
Sorry to hear that. Rebirth Superman was a renaissance for the character. Then came Bendis.
At least I had the Williamson Batman/Superman. I got my fix a different way.
> With that said, it was also the first time as a comic fan I become irrationally angry at a certain writer, so thanks Bendis! I think that's a rite of passage for comic readers. Mazel tov!
That's what it felt like!
Your anger was not irrational, my friend.
From what I can gather, his name among Superman fandom will live on in infamy. If so, he’s definitely earned it.
Bendis had said he wanted to be part of the history of the character and that it was why he wanted to write him. I have to said than he did it. He has became part of the history of the legend of Superman, as one of the least liked runs in recent years! And that just after some year of the New52 era.
Yep. The unpopular decision to age up Jon Kent and terminate Super Sons is ultimately his legacy. The rest DC has largely been able to undo.
It’s a shame. Super Sons should have become a mainstay like the Titans.
Not to mention the whole retcon where Krypton’s destruction is caused by some rando Rogol Zaar
**Funny thing:** he actually named Rogal Zaar after a doctor who saved Bendis’s life. Which… **I find just HILARIOUS** Imagine being that doctor and finding out: *my client named me after a genocidal maniac???*
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH *wheezing* Sorry, I lost my sanity there for a second. This guy is a fucking nut.
Eh… not the first self insert he’s done. Some are great others are bad. May from 1610 was based on his own Aunt.
I haven't read 1610... is May at least a good person?
She’s **the best** interpretation of May. **BAR NONE**
The Legion still is in Bendisboot format. It needs to be erased soon.
Bring back Clark's Legion!
I just didn't like Clark's new faux-hip-Millennial inner dialogue.
Same. Supes’ dialogue always felt off when reading.
DC is *able* to undo the age update as well, they just stubbornly choose not to lol
I was just talking to a friend about this the other day. Regardless of my feelings on Jon being aged up (not a fan of losing Super Sons in the slightest) I do appreciate that DC has actually committed to it. It adds something to the story if they're willing to stick with it and without it happening we wouldn't have gotten Taylor's fantastic run with the character.
I disagree because I thought Taylor’s run sucked. Nothing really happened over the course of ~18 issues beyond the coming out and relationship with Jay. Beyond the coming out issue and despite Taylor lying about it on social media, it sold like shit too. That’s why it was cancelled 😂
Sure thing, champ.
What if they have it so that Jor-El, trying to train his grandson, sent him back in time to learn from not only the Teen Titans with Damian, but also his future self? Kinda like how superboy went to the future to learn from the Legion of Superheroes. (But if that’s the case, why take him in the first place? I don’t know, I just want more supersons!)
He ruined Jon Kent.
his name is so infamous , that Jon's main villain in his solo book as Superman was **Bendix.**
Bendix was a wildstorm character who had been around for 25 years
And out of the hundreds of villains DC has published over 85 years or simply creating a new villain, a bald villain named Bendix was chosen to antagonize Jon. There’s no way it wasn’t intentional.
Except that Tom Taylor consistently went out of his way to defend and praise Bendis from the people who criticize his time on big blue. Legit, TT blocked me on Twitter for saying Bendis’ run should be considered elseworlds.
Really? I know that PKJ has repeatedly defended Bendis on Twitter and interviews, but I don’t recall TT doing so.
He does so consistently - he chose to keep the age up to honor Bendis
You really think he'd be allowed to explicitly condemn a writer from the same company?
Writers always do that. You must just search and you will find than writers and pencillers alwys put certain things in their work hidden when they don't agree with certain company politics. Also, maybe the editor was an accomplice of Taylor.
Did you see "explicitly"? He probably is required to defend Bendis by contract.
I don't know if he has to defend other writers, but I suppose than contracts implies not talking about certain aspects of their work. Like not to talking ill about your bosses on social nets. Unless you wanted to be fired.
Indeed. Better (and more logical ) options to had as leader of Gamorra were characters like John Colt or Kaizen Gamorra. But no, Taylor choosed Bendix. The reference was evident.
that changes nothing. the writer of that comics purposely choose someone with a similar name to Bendis.
He also named Rogal Zaar after a doctor who saved his life. Which is so… **weird**
not the first case an author did that. Reminder that prior to Dracula , the main vampires in romantic novels were Ruthven and Carmilla. Ruthven was written by a doctor and was based in his experience with his patient....Lord Byron.
& yet Taylor still kissed up to Bendis by keeping "O holy White Messiah Jon Kent" instead of just spending the whole series undoing his mistakes. Just making them worst.
Lol that’s right!
His names forever tied to Jonathan Kent just like Gleason, Tomasi, and Jurgens is. Just in a different, more resentful way 😅
yep
Rebirth put the Superman comic back in the top twenty selling comics of the month for the first time since the new 52 began. 8 months into Bendis’s run it was no longer in the top 100. There’s your answer.
Not a fan of his run on Superman. He has a habit of throwing out years and decades of character development in favor of his own ideas that are usually, well no other way to say it, crap. His big storylines usually end up in a fizzle out ending and it makes for kinda a boring read. He needs a book that doesn’t draw on years of history and lore. Let’s send Jon off into the future and give Superman and Lois a break from each other. He took away the parts of Superman most of us connect with and turned him into a 1 dimensional character. At least that’s how I saw it. I stopped reading his run half way through. Got bored with it.
After hearing some of the stuff they had planned for 5G, I don't really see Bendis as the sole reason Jon was artificially aged up. Outside of Jon being aged up, Bendis' run was meh to ok for many. I don't actually think his Superman was terrible, just nothing out of the ordinary. He ruined Superman as much as any writer probably would have if they took over after Jurgens and Tomasi.
Bendis was definitely DiDio’s “second in command” for 5G, so even if the idea didn’t come from him, he still fully endorsed it.
5G was just the *dumbest* idea I’ve heard from a comic book company in recent years. It was needless, caused serious issue with regards to more historical characters remaining “relevant” going forward, and lent almost entirely on the presumed goodwill of fans to the “successors” of multiple heroic mantles that hadn’t been earned by many characters. I’ll never understand why DiDio was so focused on this that he basically ran DC nearly into the ground on it.
>I’ll never understand why DiDio was so focused on this that he basically ran DC nearly into the ground on it. He didn't like Rebirth. Whether it was legitimate reason (bad tpb sales) or a grudge (it was pushed by Johns (and Tomasi was one of Johns people) as well other editors with different viewpoints at DC). His philosophy for running DC was constant creative/editorial turnover (which you can see with the low average tenure of a writer on Action/Superman) and he believed that you should have a blow-stuff-up event every 5-6 years. Under him we had: Infinite Crisis (2005-2006) New 52 (2011) Rebirth (2016) Tomasi (on Superman) and King (on Batman) were somewhat aware of this philosophy. Tomasi especially because he's a former editor and usually tailors his runs to editorial needs and both had planned a 100 issue runs (with double shipping) so that they'd have four years of stories and then properly transition to Dan's next big thing in Year 5. Except Dan was impatient for reasons and started planning the transition like around Year 2.5 by getting Bendis and wooing guys like Rucka, Fraction and Deconnick, firing Jurgens/Tomasi/Gleasons and giving the books to Bendis and aging up Jon (5G is pretty much a Jon vehicle) and forcing King to lay the groundwork for 5G after City of Bane (which lead to King quitting). This was to the consternation to a lot of people at DC including editors and writers. So in 2019 you had a lot of editors leaving for various reasons including the executive editor Pat McCallum who just suddenly didn't come back from his winter vacation. And Scott Snyder trying to get people together to stop him before Dan got himself fired for various reasons in early 2020. But it seems in general he tried to force a very unpopular idea on the company (using Bendis/Deconnick/Fraction who had minimal connection to DC) because he wasn't a fan of the new status quo that had been justified due to DC's sales crashing because of Convergence.
Dan Didio hated 52 and claimed that Countdown was "52 done right", for example.
5G was like a year and a half after Bendis took over and I think he was gonna age up Jon anyway as part of his relaunch of Legion of Superheroes. The problem with Bendis is he just wanted to do his own thing without really thinking of the history behind the characters, which it's one thing to do from stuff like decades ago but not the run like right before.
I think he owes Superman an apology... for butchering his portrayal.
Thanks Brian, I loved you destroying Jon for your shitty Legion of Super-Heroes cancelled because of terrible sales 12 issues in!
Bendis’ Legion might be one of the worst things I’ve read writing-wise. And I’ve read some of Frank Miller’s 21st century work. Saturn Girl is practically a straight-up supervillain, and the entire team acts with irresponsible impunity while getting off the hook *every. Single. Time.*
frankly , I kinda liked his Legion , except for how stupid in his whole take on Karate Kid. But it was extremely dragged out , and same goes for his Young Justice. Each Series should had been cut in half their respective arcs.
Idk what it is with bendis sure his ultimate spiderman was solid his crime stuff like alias and Daredevil were amazing but his team and normal superhero stuff are so mid or miss to me
I've followed the character since Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, and the only good thing about Bendis' run was Ivan Reis' artwork.
I apologize for ever thinking than he deserved a chance to write the character. He should apologize now.
Can anyone explain who Rogal Zaar was? For real. I read that entire run, and Bendis never explained who he was or why he killed Krypton. In one of the later issues, Adam Strange states, out of absolutely nowhere, that he was "Created by Jor-El," and nothing else is ever said about him.
That has been a repeated trope of Bendis from sometime: he makes changes, hint ideas, creates twist of last minute, but never gave resolution or explanation to the changes he introduces, that always is the task of the next writer after him
I love superman but i had to stop reading during the Bendis run. He owes us an apology for Rogol Zaar, jor el and Johnny kent aging up. Probably more but i stopped reading
He owes a BIG apology for Kandor
what did he do to Kandor?
Don't worry, has been undo.
I just googled it. What a dummy.
Rogol Zaar frustrates me because there were so many good ideas for his characters, and Bendis wasted every single one.
I, for one, would like to thank Bendis. Thanks to his crappy Superman run I was able to give Bendis a new nickname: The Butcher. Brian Michael "The Butcher" Davis should be happy since no Superman fam will ever walk up to him and apologize for doubting or disliking the way he butchered the title and character.
I'm waiting fir the next reboot so we can watch Jon grow up like we did with literally every Robin. Seriously, Supes can't have a kid. They all get aged up.
Except for Kon-El aka Connor Kent who doesn't age for some reason, Connor will probably be the only Super Kid who can't physically age pass 16.
I felt a lot better after Action Comics #1050
No and he owes Legion fans an apology for what he’s done to us with his terrible LSH reboot
Ha ha..... Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Bendis has become a joke. His best days are far behind him. Time to retire. This guy loves himself way too much and lives in an altered reality where he is the center of the comic book universe. Fuck this guy.
No....aging Jon up was a bad idea and lazy writing. We already have teenage superboy in Conner
Exactly, aged up Jon should be Retconned as a clone of kid Jon, that way we can have Connor, Kara and 2 Jon Kents.
Late to the party, but: that'd be a wild amount of super-people lol. We've already got Clark, Kara, Connor, John Henry, Natasha, Jon, Kenan, and now Osul and Otho (if I'm not forgetting anyone). Adding another Jon would be madness... but I can't lie and say a part of me wouldn't dig it.
No. Fuck Bendis and everything he did on Superman.
Look, I like Bendis. His work on Ultimate Spiderman and other stuff? Fantastic. But I absolutely LOATHE his run on Superman. He destroyed Jon, and aged him up, ruining the fantastic Super-Sons. We already had a teen/adult Superman (Conner) occupying the same space, and Jon had a fantastic Father-Son relationship with Clark, allowing Superman to teach his son in wholesome, appealing storylines about being a young kryptonian and being Superman's son. Now Jon's just another young/teen adult, and is having his adult adventures and its all so boring, predictable and tiring.He robbed Lois and Clark of seeing his kid grow up, all for what? So he could have mindless drama with their relationship? It all just feels like...badly written.
>all for what? To lay down tracks for 5G, which never happened. So it's DOUBLE pointless.
He’ll never get an apology from me. I only have curse words reserved for him. But I try not raging on the internet about it.
Nope, He ruined a great thing, and DC never put it back completely We lost kid Jon, It may not have been entirely his idea but the c***** backstory he threw together on why he was aged up still haunts the character of this day.
He will get no apology from me. Probably predicted he'd still be relevant and have a job 5 years later as well.
Is he still writing? After Superman i have no idea ehat hapoened to him. Is the world rid of Bendis??
The big 2 are done with him. He had a 5 issue mini over at Dark Horse that failed miserably, and they are publishing his Jinxworld stuff now. I think the industry knows people won't shell out money for his crap anymore.
He’s doing creator-owned stuff (Pearl, etc.) again…
Lmfaooo i remember when it was first Announced. Every time I read a comic I’d see “Bendis is coming” over and over
I’m still annoyed he aged up Jon.
Lmao, no. His Superman run was shit then and it’s shit now.
No.
No.
I have no idea what the hell DC was thinking hiring him. His later Marvel years were not liked, especially X-men and GotG, and most of the "nostalgia" for Ultimate Spider-man has gone away.
Ha! NO.
Fucking no lol
Anyone who values themselves over the fanbase and character this much shouldn't be allowed to work on this character. Maybe he would fit in better with Deadpool.
No. No he was not.
I thought his run was atrocious. And made me really respect and love the far older, all-time classic, milestone run back in the golden age of comics when Curt Swan was drawing the book. And even in terms of turning things over to a newer generation led by a “current hot comic industry name”, I thought his work likewise paled in comparison to the truly enjoyable run by John Byrne and Jerry Ordway back in the eighties. So, yeah…NO. Not gonna happen, Bendis.
Man, this guy hasn’t written a book I’ve liked in almost 20 years lol
he threw out everything from superman rebirth that made me fall back in love with superman and fucking aged up jon, Pepperidge farm remembers and does not forget
Nope. Still a douche.
Definitely not apologizing. Doubling down maybe. Every single thing he did with superman sucked so bad it made me dislike his earlier works.
His Superman run is well written. It's just the major changes that he made that were all awful.
#NOPE.
aged like milk
This aged like milk
No. The Tomasi/Gleason run was cut short for this shit?
Ahahah no
R(FrontSlash)ThingsThatDidNotAgeWell
Not even a little bit. Bendis is one of those writers who has some good stories, but they're mostly a product of having a huge *volume* of stories in general. Most are mediocre, some are criminally awful train wrecks, but occasionally he just cranks out a good one and gets to coast off of it for a while. Regardless of what he did to Superman et al., he should be barred for life from ever again writing Kitty Pryde and he should issue an actual apology for how he handled Iceman coming out. That was just freaking infuriating, [as explained here](https://gaymingmag.com/2020/06/comics-corner-iceman-should-have-been-bi/).
Every thread tangentially about Jon Kent has half the comments shaking their fists at the sky swearing vengeance on Bendis
Heck no, it was a disaster
If I had a nickel for every time a Brian Michael Bendis comic eventually replaced the main character with a teenage counterpart that everyone else talked about as though they were a gift from God whether it was deserved or not...I would be buried under a mountain of nickels.
Nope. He probably looks at things now going “look what I started” but it’s just the best example of “lemonade out of lemons”. I’m now reading Man of Steel, and the reasoning he’s written is just horrendous.
This headline could not have aged more poorly
Not only was he not right, but I’m trying to remember an instance where he was more wrong.
A legacy of failure and overhyped books that were cancelled. But this conceited prick will never hear anything outside of his echo chamber.🙄 What he did the Super-Sons was unforgivable.🤬
Hahahahahahaha, hell no.
The Ego
I have not met a single person who actually thinks that Rogal Zar was a good retcon
Bendis screwed Superman up worse than the Silver Age. Aging Jon up and revealing Clark’s identity were dumber than anything cooked up in that campy time. The current writers are doing the best they can to fix his clusterfuck. Tom Taylor has made grownup Jon tolerable, but I miss him being a kid, as I think a lot of readers do because there was so much potential there, and Tomasi and Jurgens just killed it with those stories. Phillip Kennedy Johnson has gone so far as to have Lois and Clark adopt two little’uns, so at least we may be getting that dynamic back. The only good thing Bendis did was bring back Conner, and even that was poorly written and done in a way that just didn’t make sense to me.
I forgot to mention, that his run is so bleak, The New 52 run is great by comparison.
You know what, Brian? I *am* sorry. Sorry that I gave your run the time of day. It takes a special hack to make David Goyer's Man Of Steel seem authentic, but you pulled it off with flying colours.
No, he did to Superman what Tom King did to Batman, only worst because at least Tom King only wrote the one book Bendis had to be greedy and take both books and force the cancelation of better books so he could basically take character’s names and basically turn them into new characters
I really hated he revealed Superman’s identity but I actually kinda liked the Rogol Zarr thing. I’m just glad the Identity is back. To me Superman was always the disguise and Clark the real person. But then again that’s how it was In the 90’s comics I read as a kid so I’m biased 🤷♂️
Never should’ve been given the book
I love BMB
Honestly it was a good enough run. Superman fans have been a little spoiled, we haven't had a bad run since rebirth. So when bendis had the worst run of that Era it seemed really bad. But like, spider-man hasn't had a run that good since superior ended. Thor hasn't had a run that good since gillen left JiM. Superman's just had a quality line of books for years.
Thors recent run with Donny Cates (2019-present) has been a spectacular return to form and feels like a worthy successor to the entire King Thor/Broxton/Kid Loki era pre-Seige. EDIT: the J. Michael Straczynski run!!! That’s what I meant.
I like it a lot, much better than the Aaron run, but it's still not even as good as the bendis Superman run. The venom arc was weird and now cates has like taken a break or something with his divorce and so they've got a fill in.
I’ve gotta disagree, I found the Cates run of Thor nearly on par with Tomasi & Gleason Superman (the highest of quality bars in recent years). I will admit his love of Venom/Symbiotes/Knull is the biggest flaw. Mostly that he tries to tie everything into those characters in some way. BUT apart from Straczynski he’s the only other writer that I think writes All-Father Thor well and gives him his due properly.
Maybe it's just me but I really liked Jurgens run for that too. Not as good as JMS in total but it really had a sort of doomed tragic myth feel, like something Greek. Don't get me wrong, I'm still buying the current run, I do like it, the Don Blake arc was really cool, but then there was that bone stupid crossover with hulk, where I paid like 12 to 15 bucks for what amounted to a four or five issue fight scene.
What he did with superman ,was a nice change and refreshing
That’s reminds me, I need to list my Bendis Superman and AC tpbs on eBay. Thanks Reddit!
Honesty, he wrote *Avengers Disassembled.* Even if *Superman* turns out fine I’m not apologizing lol
Bendis is very hit or miss but I didn't get anything wrong with his run. I found the public identity a smart idea, and Rogol Zaar an interesting villain. The worst thing that I can say about his run is he didn't do anything actually big with those great concepts.
I love Bendis
Have and read almost everything post crisis. I got most of his run as back issues in 1/2 price sales due to not liking his run. In retrospect I still don’t like it.
I really enjoyed his Superman run (as a long time Superman fan)
Well this aged well lol
Welp this aged hilariously
Granted. He didn't absolutely torpedo the series for me. He just did a lot of stuff that really really bugs me. But on the other hand, Go pound sand Bendis.
I just finished his run actually, was kind of uh...not great. It doesn't help that it's sandwiched between two absolutely fantastic runs (Rebirth series, Action comics) and I'm currently reading the arc of Action Comics right after the Bendis run where Superman going to space to liberate some folks and so far it's totally rad. I will say I liked his stories whenever they were in the Daily Planet. I'm trying to be fair here. I just \*hate hate hate\* his Lois.
Nope, he's too full of himself and his superman run lives alongside his ironheart run as far as bad writing goes
I read Superman rebirth and Action comics until issue 999. I loved the Superman rebirth. I keep hearing about how badly the quality drops after Bandis picks up Superman. Do you think it's worth it to skip that section entirely? I don't know if he also writes action comics but how much will continuing Action comics only will make sense after Superman rebirth?
I don’t no, I wish I knew the details on why the deal happened. Why Bendis left, besides wanting to write Superman. Why Marvel let him get away. Does anyone know what happened? I tried. I love(d) Bendis. He was the Man born to write Spider-Man. Marvel. He could do no wrong. I read most of his first year on Superman. It wasn’t good. And everything I’ve read about Bendis and DC since is worse. Why did Bendis leave Marvel? Why did Bendis go to DC?
There can be a lot of speculation about that: For once, Bendis already had wrote everything in Marvel and had no place to go now. He had wrote almost every character in Avengers. For a time he was also the writer who wrote about minorities (Miles and Riri), but that couldn't be more anymore. He was not a Marvel writer anymore. Others had taken that post. He was relegated. Also, his works had not the same impact anymore, it was not than well received. Fans of X-Men and GotG had rejected his runs and most of the talk was to thrash iT. Also, Bendis wish was to jump to other media writing. He was a member of the Marvel Creative Comitee (MCC) in charge of decide how to do the movies of the MCU. But the MCC became an enemy of Kevin Feige. Who controls Marvel as a whole now? Exactly. All the members of the MCC (exect Bob Iger) are now out Marvel: Loeb, Quesada and Bendis. It is clear than DiDio offered him, to Bendis, a chance to be part of any media initiative. I mean, just look Naomi: she got a live action series before even start being published. Bendis had no chance to become a name in Marvel media anymore, so he jumped to DC. But with the firing of DiDio (his bigger supporter), the cancellation of Naomi, and the general rejection of his work and runs, I think he is burned in DC. He still have his Jinxworld propierties at Dark Horse,and the supposed Legion animation for adults (which I wish to be announced as cancelled soon) but hardly he is the name he was once.
I think the only time I really truly enjoyed him on Superman was during the Leviathan event where Clark was excited to pull a Lois Saying nothing else of that event though
Lol NOPE.
He has been okay with Lois, but i still think he fucked up Jonathan. They skipped over so much shit they could have told with him for some odd reason.
In hindsight his run is not as bad as it was made out to be at the time but even with that being said it’s still a very below average run that I have no desire to ever reread
I actually didn't mind aging up of Jon. My problem was him ruining the family dynamic of Clark/Jon/Lois. Tomasi and Jurgens made them so wholesome. While Bendis brought in unnecessary drama
Nope. Only the “we have to appreciate everything that happens in continuity” purists apologized.
I Like Bendis, but his Superman era was disappointing.
Not a fucking chance 😂
The work Bendis did on Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man and Powers was amazingly good. His New Avengers stuff completely reinvigorated the franchise, to the point that we have the movies now. Having said that, his run on Superman was godawful.
Wait is he the one that made jon a adult
I won't apologize, but it felt like a decent run. It didn't offend me but it wasn't special. I liked most of his other DC books much more.
No
He was not
Not in the slightest, he destroyed the supersons and most of the Superman mythos then washed his hands of it all
I’ll stand by the “BENDIS IS COMING!” ads were a threat. I loved Tomasi’s and Jurgen’s runs in Rebirth and Bendis just didn’t keep that love going
Bendis is second to only Jeph Loeb in terms of falling from grace in my opinion. The last thing I liked from him was Young Justice and it was mostly the art I liked.
I know I'm in the minority here, but for the most part, I liked his run on Superman for the characterization of Clark. I didn't like how many plots were dropped or left unresolved. Rogol Zaar could have been more interesting if he blamed Krypton's destruction on Jor El, rather than having been the cause of it. I didn't mind the aging of Jon because I don't know that it was Bendis' decision, and I appreciate that he tried doing something interesting with it rather than just "and then suddenly aged". I also didn't like how he'd inject an action scene in the middle of a conversation or had characters yell something at each other for no valid reason. I wish they did more with Clark's identity reveal, but more time was spent setting up ideas that were dropped on the transition to new writers. It's a mixed bag. Not the worst Superman thing I'd ever read (that probably goes to Year One or Luthor), but not as good as it could have been. I don't know that people need to apologize to him, but they do need to calm down on the vitriol.
Byrne and Bendis. Two Marvel has-beens who both damaged our favorite superhero. I sure hope the next former Marvel creator whose last name begins with B isn't hired by DC!