Bendis Or Millar?

[Stu]

Hey,

In the past couple of years, these two have really come to the front of the comics scene, and both have been the recipitents of a helluva lot of praise and bashing. These 2 basically kicked off Marvel's Ultimate universe, with Bendis on Ultimate Spider-Man and Mark on The Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men, and both adding thier take on the revamped origin of The Fantastic Four.

They've both had thier own takes on The Avengers, both have revamped Spider-Man and thier currently writing thier takes on Wolverine.

Who do you prefer? Are both worthy of the praise they get or can't you stand either of them?

[DarkHawk]

Millar does great action in his books. His runs on Spidey and Wolvie were action packed and full of surprises. I enjoyed his runs a lot! I really don't know what to say about Bendis....part of me loves him for bringing Moonie into the Ult universe, but I can't stand the issues that he packs with just conversations. He needs to have a good mix of talking and action. Bendis's New Avengers is pretty good though......

[Condiment King]

I find that Brian Michael Bendis can be off and completely unoriginal (except for his excellent Daredevil run of course) while Mark Millar is pretty consistent.

[Quazerdale]

I like Millar more because of The Ultimates.

I think his writing on The Ultimates is great, I bought the hardcover of the 1st volume because I was so impressed with the most recent story, and it just blew me away. He's really got a handle on the characters and he's working with a terrific artist.

I know he's done the Authority and was wondering how his run on that title was.
Worth another hardcover?

Bendis is good too, but I don't really like his take on Spider-Man. I bought the first issues he wrote and it was okay. I also got the first issues he did of Daredevil, which to me was a lot better than the stuff that came before it, but I just got bored with it after a while. Maybe if I took a look at the Avengers title he's writing, I might change my mind about him.

[InfinityBlade]

I've yet to read anything of Millar's that I actually... well... liked all that much.

On the other hand, I've read a hell of a lot from Bendis that I love to death. Sure he's not perfect and has written some things that could have been better, but the good far outweigh the bad for me.

[wonderfly]

I've yet to read anything of Millar's that I actually... well... liked all that much.

On the other hand, I've read a hell of a lot from Bendis that I love to death. Sure he's not perfect and has written some things that could have been better, but the good far outweigh the bad for me.
Ditto for me. Both men are far from perfect, but Bendis's good work outweighs his bad, and Millar's bad work outweighs his good...

I guess I'm just a bigger fan of Bendis's work overall...

[Razor]

I'll never be able to look past what Millar did to Hornet in Wolverine.

Bendis all the way.

[Clayface]

Ditto for me. Both men are far from perfect, but Bendis's good work outweighs his bad, and Millar's bad work outweighs his good...

I guess I'm just a bigger fan of Bendis's work overall...

Ditto. Except exchange the two names. :p I don't think either of them is particularly amazing. I've read things from both I like, and I've read things from both I dislike. But overall I think Bendis' bad work outweighs his good, and Millar's good work outweighs his bad (but just barely).

[randomguy]

I think they've got very complementary strengths, so it's a bit of a peculiar comparison. Outside of their popularity, and a shared affinity for superheroes, they don't have all that much in common.

The key to enjoying Mark Millar stories, as near as I can tell, is to turn your brain off, sit back, and enjoy the fireworks. His characterization is paper-thin and probably his weakest area. He's gotten a little better recently, namely in The Ultimates, but for the most part, all his characters sound the same and lack unique personalities or internal character traits. This hurt Ultimate X-Men in particular, since the X-Men has always been about the various interactions and relationships between the team members. There's also the little problem that in addition to his characters being rather one-note, they're also very often completely unlikeable. There's not a single person I actually like in his work on Ultimate X-Men or The Authority, and while the Ultimates are all entertaining, they're also all terrible people. In team books, which Millar tends to do a lot of, there's usually at least one character for the audience to latch onto, but none of the aforementioned books have a single member in their cast who you can really root for.

There's also the matter of restraint, which Millar has none of. Most of the time it's not an issue, since Millar's work can be read as satire or dark comedy quite easily. But he made Ultimate Magneto into such a ridiculous caricature that he completely missed the mark.

Still, he's one of the best action writers in the business, and he can deliver a fun, explosion-packed read better than pretty much anybody else. He's also a pretty dense writer. With the exception of Marvel Knights: Spider-Man, which was kind of padded, I usually walk away from a Millar book feeling nice and full, and that really counts for something in this day and age.

It's worth noting that I haven't read any of his Millarworld titles, though. I figure his best work is his underappreciated run on Superman Adventures, with Superman: Red Son and The Ultimates in a close second.

Bendis' strengths are totally different. When he puts his mind to it, he can write some of the best characterization and dialogue in the business. He can be wickedly funny, particularly when he's writing Spider-Man, and he does a nice job of bringing superhero tales down-to-Earth. I think he has some pretty major structure problems, though, as evidenced by the slooooooow pace of many of his stories. He also has a tendency to make vast changes to the status quo which often strike me as unwise, namely on Daredevil and The Avengers.

In fact, I gotta dock major points if only for the "Chaos" arc that disbanded the Avengers. It's not just the changes it made, but the fact that as a story, it was really very awkward.

Still, when he's on he's on. New Avengers has been fun, Ultimate Spider-Man has been largely solid, and a lot of his old underground work, like Fortune and Glory and Jinx, is quite good.

I happen to like 'em both in moderation, even if neither one has really done anything that lights my world on fire or anything, so I don't think I could choose between them.

[Terminatah]

Millar did "Red Son" and "Wanted," so I'm gonna say Millar.

-Terminatah

[Matt Hazuda]

Millar easily wins this.

Bendis' Daredevil is the only thing by him that has been mostly consistent and good. Millar did Wanted, Red Son, Ultimates (2), UFF and Chosen.