We here at Cosmic Book News have been proclaiming the good news since July, and now with Marvel officially confirming that Brian Michael Bendis is leaving Guardians of the Galaxy, Reddit has joined in on the celebration.
Long story short: When news of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie getting green lit became known, of which Bendis was involved with as part of the Marvel Comics Creative Committee (and since fired), Bendis and Marvel Comics had Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning removed from the title that inspired the billion dollar Disney franchise.
Bendis, who had no knowledge of science-fiction or Marvel Cosmic, turned the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book into a bunch of juvenile second-rate wannabe Avengers akin to a Bendis failed attempt at a sitcom.
With sales on Guardians of the Galaxy tanking and dropping below Bendis’ pay grade (which is why his Moon Knight was also cancelled), Bendis’ days on the comic are now numbered.
Here are some reactions:
[Celebration by Kool and the Gang plays in the distance]
Did people not like his run?
He took over after Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning crafted a epic-in-scale grandiose cosmic storyline spanning many comics including GotG and Nova. Then he took that and made it more like a sitcom with a lot of guest appearances like Iron Man and Kitty Pryde that didn’t serve the plot, more like cameos.
He also sh-t all over DnA’s ending with his AWFUL story detailing how Starlord and Thanos got back to Earth.
This is what ultimately prevented me from reading the series any more (until the ANAD reboot which I thought might switch direction but nope). DnA really made me care about Nova. I liked him before, but I loved him after that run, and I think we’re all still hoping that when he comes back it won’t be a marketing ploy or anything, but rather the introduction to a brand new cosmic saga
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA for short)
What makes Bendis’ run that much worse is that DnA’s run is up there as one of the best Marvel stories ever created. We wouldn’t have the Guardians of the Galaxy movie without it. It was epic, it was heartbreaking and it was filled with amazing character moments. It MADE you give a sh-t about Nova a thousand times over.
When Bendis came along, Marvel did their best to sweep it all under the carpet until BMB got his book out as THE Gotg book on the market. It was all levels of f—ed.
It’s pretty despised by everyone who was a fan of the previous run.
I pretty much dislike anything by him at this point.
Thank God. This series was completely squandered by Bendis and his weird Kitty Pryde fetish. Guardians has so much potential for big weird kirby -esque cosmic stories, hope they get someone good on it.
It’s like how many f—ing times did Bendis drag them back to earth? A dozen?
Bendis doesn’t understand how to write space stuff (or really understand the appeal of it), and isn’t that great at team stuff, and clearly never ready the previous run, and is in a bit of slump. Bendis ruined it because he refused to do the proper research.
He also seems to have had little interest in writing it. It was probably one of the series where he would reach the writing stage for an issue and just use as little effort necessary to fill it in with words.
Iron Man was a terrible choice that was obviously meant to pander to the lowest common denominator
Bendis is, or perhaps was, a top ten crime writer in his hayday. He’s pretty good on focusing on gritty characters. He just not built for the high concept space fantasy that is superhero cosmic books.
Make Marvel Cosmic great again!
Kitty Pride, The Thing, Venom, Angela, Iron Man… seriously, what the hell?!?? Guardians of the Galaxy was one of Marvel’s best movies and yet they/he felt that wasn’t enough and had to lump other guys in there. I liked the first 4-5 issues, but it went in the toilet so fast
Maybe I’m just weird, but as someone who doesn’t read much cosmic marvel, the fact that there are a bunch of earth based superheroes running around in the Guardians really doesn’t interest me. The whole reason cosmic has some appeal to me is the fact that it uses characters that are barely used in the bigger earth based titles that I read. It has room for expansion of the marvel universe that I already know and love and using earth based characters that I’m already familiar with and already read only makes me lose interest since there are probably better stories that have previously been written for them based on earth. like I said, maybe I’m just weird but I’m struggling to see the point of taking parts from the X-Men, FF and Spider-Man parts of marvel and making them the main face of cosmic marvel. That, to me, defeats the whole point of the cosmic side.
Dan Abnett would be great
Praise God Doom it’s been made official
I can finally start reading Guardians again!
Oh thank Odin
I generally argue for Bendis, because I honestly believe he’s a good writer who made some of the best comics of the 2000s and he’s still capable of doing so. I am also, however, a huge fan of the DnA run of cosmic Marvel. That’s, for me, the platonic ideal for superhero space fantasy comics. It should be big, it should pull from a wide variety of obscure characters to reexamine them in a epic context. sh-t should blow up, and that its blowing up should matter. Its shouldn’t be set on Earth, or near Earth, outside of brief visits.
Bendis was the opposite of that. He tried to make it grounded–which is silly. Its a book about people literally guarding the galaxy, not guarding the space slightly around one planets orbit. Bendis failed completely as a writer, and should have never even been given the book–nothing in his back catalog suggests he understands how to write this kind of book. It, in fact, points into another direction. I know we, as a collected community, often like to blame the writer for story mishaps but this time I think we can also point to editorial. Its there job the drive the ship, so to speak, and having Bendis on it as he was points to not a failure at his craft but also a failure of editorial to recognize when someone isn’t fit for a book.
All-in-all today Jesus wept.
OH THANK GOD!!!!!!
I don’t have a problem with him or his writing, but I’m overjoyed by this news just because I know so many on /r/comicbooks will celebrate over it. Romans 12:15 up in this sub.
Yeah I don’t really have a bone to pick with him like some do, but his Guardians was god awful in my opinion.
Ugh gosh I really like a lot of Bendis’ work over the years but his Guardians of the Galaxy is so awful.
I would just like to add that the Star-Lord books are god awful. It was pretty bad before Secret Wars when Kitty was dressing as a banana and quoting songs from the Guardians movie to scare off aliens but it got worse with the relaunch with Peter’s god awful new origin where he gets his name from a vacuum cleaner. I would recommend avoiding any Humphries’ Star-Lord books like the plague.
OH THANK YOU MERCIFUL GOD.
Magnificent news!
Now let’s have Dan Slott off Spider-Man and all will be right in my Marvel world.
Rad. I can start reading Guardians again.
So there is a God.
This actually made me smile. Thank you, Marvel. I love Bendis but his GotG wasn’t doing it for me at all.
Thank God.
While we’re at it it would be nice if we could get back the Marvel Cosmic universe where epic storylines were the norm… rather than Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde going on zany/nonsensical adventures. And how did they ever decide that Star-Lord should have a romantic relationship with Kitty Pryde? It’s like practically a name plucked from a hat.
Thank god, finally!
I hope they replace him with someone more competent.
Thank f—.
That’s good.
The damage Bendis did is pretty much irreversible unless they do some secret invasion sh-t and make the real Peter Quill return from the cancerverse and kill his imposter.
AWESOME!
Thank you Jebus! Maybe I will start reading that title again.
Best news I heard all day!
GOOD!
Good. Maybe it’ll be worth reading now.
YES. Stick to Spider-Man
Let’s use this momentum and convince him to leave everything else.
The less books Bendis works on the happier I’ll be.
Bendis ruined it because he refused to do whatever he wants and to hell with what came before.
HOORAY!!
