Which writer uses Marvel Continuity as a creative tool?

[Themanofbat]

... obviously, in the ASM thread, there's a mini debate about writers who use continuity and those that could care less...

Therefore, I'm making a thread... with a poll.

I've got Dan Slott & Brian Bendis on the list because the main point of contention was between those two...

If you think it's somebody, then pick "other" and explain...

Have fun... keep it clean.

Mike

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

I have to say Dan Slott.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Um.

Wow, I mean is this even debatable?

 

[SpideyInATree]

Dan Slott, hands down. Read his She-Hulk run. Read his Thing series. Read Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries. Read Avengers The Initiative. Just a few examples of how awesome he is with Marvel's continuity.

And anybody who thinks it's Bendis. I say read the first story arc of New Avengers...you'll see how continuity friendly Bendis is.

 

[random_havoc]

Dan Slott, hands down. Read his She-Hulk run. Read his Thing series. Read Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries. Read Avengers The Initiative. Just a few examples of how awesome he is with Marvel's continuity.

And anybody who thinks it's Bendis. I say read the first story arc of New Avengers...you'll see how continuity friendly Bendis is.

I have. Tell me exactly what you think is so wrong about its continuity.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Spider-Woman flies for no apparent reason. He filled in reasons later, but at the time, I remember that was a big one that irked people.

Spider-Man got his arm broken by Jigsaw, which wasn't technically Bendis' fault because it was Finch who mixed up the characters (it was supposed to be Piledriver, I think).

Iron Man deciding the Avengers needed a killer was railed on a bit, I believe. This was back before heroes killing people became the norm (although you could look at it as one of the starting pushes toward that current status quo).

Those are the ones that I recall most clearly from the reactions to New Avengers' first arc.

 

[Obi-Ron]

Dan Slott, hands down. Read his She-Hulk run.

Good call.

 

[Themanofbat]

Not to mention the fan reaction when Bendis decided that the Hulk had killed hundreds of people over the years... boy, that got the older readers' panties in a bunch.

 

[Dread]

Dan Slott, easy. The recent continuity error in MIGHTY AVENGERS #27 with Karnak (which he co-wrote with Gage so it could be Gage's error for all we know) notwithstanding, Bendis has made so many continuity errors or complained about it that this isn't even a debate. Slott sees continuity as a useful creative tool to extend a story from; a foundation for what he wants to build. Bendis has a more "burn bridges behind you" approach, for better or worse.

With 12 votes in, I am hardly surprised that Slott is ahead 11-0.

 

[Blader5489]

Bendis is pretty creative at making up his own continuity.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Not to mention the fan reaction when Bendis decided that the Hulk had killed hundreds of people over the years... boy, that got the older readers' panties in a bunch.

Who are "older" readers? That pissed me off and I've been reading comics for about 16 years--considerably less than some people around here.

 

[Franklin Richards]

I miss Byrne.

 

[DACMAN]

All you did was make yourself look like a jackass. This wasn't even the debate. The debate was who is an overall better writer. Who has better dialog, who has better character development, who can write Spider-Man better as a character? I don't know where the heck you picked up this "who can use continuity better" thing from but it wasn't our arguement. Talk about a "straw man arguement" to a T. Your a real piece of work.

 

[DACMAN]

And it's "couldn't care less".

 

[DACMAN]

Oh wait. Are you talking about the fact we're mad that they erased years of continuity? Is that what you're talking about? Because that was never an arguement. That's what they did. And that wasn't what I was saying made Slott a bad writer. It's the fact his dialog sucks "You...you..you suck!" And his villains suck, and plotting sucks. BMB is amazing at all those. Yes, including villains. He took old villains and made them great. His Doc Ock was 100x better than Slotts. And I think it is much harder to take an old villain and make them interesting again, then just coming up with a new villain all together. JMS also did a good job of giving us great new villains. Slott is a subpar writer any way you cut it.

 

[Obi-Ron]

Not to mention the fan reaction when Bendis decided that the Hulk had killed hundreds of people over the years... boy, that got the older readers' panties in a bunch.

When did all this happen?

 

[Harlekin]

Kurt Busiek.

 

[Themanofbat]

When did all this happen?

I think it was the first "Illumati (sic)" special... when they talked about their decision to send the Hulk into space... I think.

 

[Themanofbat]

Who are "older" readers? That pissed me off and I've been reading comics for about 16 years--considerably less than some people around here.

I think anyone who was reading the books (and still are) from say.... 1988 and before would be considered an "older reader"... though I would take it down another 6 years to 1982 myself.

You're not a n00b, but not quite "old"... you're in the middle.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Aw, the middle children are always the f***ed up ones. I guess I better go find myself some used syringes and a couple ounces of heroin.

 

[BrianWilly]

Seeing as how there's no "For what possible reason is this a thread?" option...I'm going with Other. Specifically, Greg Pak has basically been doing nonstop continuity playbacks for years now, ever since Phoenix: Endsong as far as I can tell.

Bendis is genuinely atrocious with continuity, though.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Oh wait. Are you talking about the fact we're mad that they erased years of continuity? Is that what you're talking about? Because that was never an arguement. That's what they did. And that wasn't what I was saying made Slott a bad writer. It's the fact his dialog sucks "You...you..you suck!" And his villains suck, and plotting sucks. BMB is amazing at all those. Yes, including villains. He took old villains and made them great. His Doc Ock was 100x better than Slotts. And I think it is much harder to take an old villain and make them interesting again, then just coming up with a new villain all together. JMS also did a good job of giving us great new villains. Slott is a subpar writer any way you cut it.

What makes Slott a superior writer to Bendis in my opinion is that Slott doesn't stray away from his strengths.

Slott writes books that are meant to be fun and enjoyable with Mighty Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man and he sticks to those books. His only weakness in my opinion is that he apparently can't write more than two books a month and with those two books he has the Spidey Brain-Trust and Christos Gage so he's not even writing them all by himself, hopefully it will lead to him writing another monthly because he would be great on books like Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hercules, etc.

Bendis' strengths on the other hand are stories about street level heroes like Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias/the Pulse, etc. With that stuff he's given free reign, can do what he wants, and he not only does it excellently, he does it perfectly. But his writing is rather sub-par when it comes to stuff like the Avengers and event titles. He's writing other people's characters like the Spidey Brain-Trusts' Spider-Man, Brubaker's Captain America, Aaron/Way's Wolverine, and Reed's Ms. Marvel, and yet he treats them as if they're his own ignoring a lot of stuff that makes them awesome, especially in the case of Captain America. And what he's doing with Clint Barton is utterly atrocious. He doesn't recognize his weaknesses and keeps plowing away.

 

[roach]

All you did was make yourself look like a jackass. This wasn't even the debate. The debate was who is an overall better writer. Who has better dialog, who has better character development, who can write Spider-Man better as a character? I don't know where the heck you picked up this "who can use continuity better" thing from but it wasn't our arguement. Talk about a "straw man arguement" to a T. Your a real piece of work.

um...still Slott

 

[Kitsune]

um...still Slott

Having read New Avengers, yes. Bendis should never be allowed to write 616 Spider-Man again.

 

[DACMAN]

um...still Slott

Um..... have you even read Ultimate Spider-Man?