We have to correct you on this every time Mr. Dread. Bendis has next to nothing to do with Secret Warriors. He created the team during Secret Invasion but just kinda helped come up with the plot of the first arc. He's admited himself that his name's just on the cover of the first 6 issues as a way to help sell copies. Secret Warriors is Hickman's baby through and through. Give the man the credit he deserves. He's doing an awesome job with it!
If you forget the premise that Nick Fury is the dumbest man at SHIELD, since they were a front for his worst enemies forever. Hickman's awesome on FF but I haven't bothered with SW.
I'll concede that Bendis doesn't really co-write if even he admits minimal involvement. Mark Millar, once upon a time, gained fame as Grant Morrison's funny sidekick, often ghost-writing scripts he couldn't be bothered with investing much effort with. Still, Bendis DID create the characters, and he DOES include them in heavy roles in his events, whether in SECRET INVASION or SIEGE (including build up issues in MIGHTY AVENGERS or NEW AVENGERS). Hence it is the only teen team book that sells within the Top 35. You'll never see, say, Gravity being the big hero of a line wide event and pumped in the books fans accept as "important".
The market that Marvel and DC have spent the past 5 years creating is a market in which they only want fans to pay attention to books that "matter", and the rest is really just bullocks or personal taste. Therefore, it doesn't matter that NEW AVENGERS is often hokum on stilts; Marvel brands it as their most important book, events follow suit, and fans respond. Lord knows that was why I kept buying it at least two years after I lost interest. The problem comes, though, that Marvel and DC want to sell more than one book, or one character, or one franchise. So they try sell the idea that "everything matters", but not only is that very hard to maintain for long, but fans and retailers usually figure things out. To quote THE INCREDIBLES, "Once everyone's super, no one will be". So both Marvel and DC are stuck selling lovely books that may be good or unique, but don't and won't sell no matter how much they push them, like AGENTS OF ATLAS, because the audience has been trained to only flock to "big" books or "proven" franchises.
Many new characters have come and gone over the years, but to play Devil's Advocate, what happens whenever a particular writer pushes a particular new character hard? Fans rarely flock and endorse it. They go, "they're pushing their pet character down our necks!" It call comes down to character and personal taste. For instance, I think Gravity has more to offer than X-23, but X-23 has far more to offer compared to Daken. On the other hand, Jeff Parker's obsession with putting the AGENTS OF ATLAS into everything he writes can at times become self-parody, even for those like me who love the Agents. I imagine Parker could write a short story for TV Guide and somehow put the Agents into it.
To be fair, Bendis has tried to push characters he has liked and make them "matter", whether they were new like Hood, or old like Luke Cage or Spider-Woman. While I like that idea, some of us didn't like the execution. Sadly, because Marvel has branded him as the only writer that matters on the only book that matters, Marvel can publish good material elsewhere and charge $2.99, $3.99, $99.99 per pop and have 100 articles about it at Newsarama and it won't move like it should or they intend. DC has that same problem with any franchise not written by Geoff Johns. I suppose there is a moral that it is never wise to put all eggs in one basket even if it results in short terms gains, but I'm sure industry know it alls know far more about long term consequences than a mere peon like me who is merely in the deep end of it. I mean, Wall Street Masters of the Universe knew it all, right? They were never wrong. Until they were. And then they cashed their chips and fled.
Marvel has to do a lot of work to try to tilt audience expectations back to 2000-2003 when sometimes chances were taken and there was more willingness to try something new. To not put all the eggs in one basket so that other franchises can flourish, rather than have one sell at 6 figures and all the rest barely make 60k or lower. And part of that is coming to the real world idea that if anyone is going to invest in a little known franchise like YOUNG ALLIES with mostly new or little known characters (Firestar's heyday from an NBC cartoon show only ended 25 years ago) starts by realizing that $3.99 is a tough investment now.
I'll buy it, but I would like to see some wise thinking at Marvel about the future, instead of tomorrow. Because the future comes before you know it, and then you're stuck holding the bag, like Greece.
