Brian Bendis To Take Over The X-Men Books

[stephenp01]

Yeah it's crazy how many Bendis haters there are, they talk about him like he's the worst writer ever.

[rwsmith]

Like many others around here, I'm really loving Wolverine and the X-men and Uncanny X-Force and hope they remain untouched. Having said that, I just don't see how Bendis would be able to come in and "relaunch/revamp/reboot" the X-books without using their biggest star. I would personally love it if he did, though, and just stuck to the Blue side books like Uncanny X-men and X-men and the characters on Utopia right now. Throw in Cable as the ex-military, grizzled old badass / loose cannon of that group (i.e., their Wolverine) and put some superstar artists on those titles and it could be like Bendis' early New Avengers run where it was selling through the roof. I think having Steve McNiven, for example, doing Uncanny X-men (rotating with Pacheco) with Brian writing and them handling the X-Tinction team (minus Danger and plus Cable) could be great. Have the Blue team branded as outlaws in the aftermath of AvX whereas team Gold gets a pardon due to Wolverine's status as an Avenger or something (plus he'll probably end up on the Avengers' side by the end anyway). The X-men team would continue to act as the Blue side's security/recon team with Cable also on it plus Storm, Warpath, Psylocke, Jubilee and Domino. And I say put Coipel on that rotating with this Mollina guy who did the most recent issue. I'd enjoy both of those.

But I guess that's not much of a relaunch. More like just bringing Bendis on as writer and adding a couple of superstar artists and pretty much keeping the teams intact (but adding Cable).

No, something tells me that if Bendis comes over to the X-books the changes will be more substantial than that and a lot of the current "Regenesis" structure will get completely torn down, as he will want to play with all of the toys and not just those on the Blue side of the fence. Which is a shame IMO, as I'm finding the Gold side books (and particularly WatXM and UXF) to be the most interesting X-titles since Grant Morrison's New X-men run. If there was a way to leave them alone and just have Bendis revamp the Blue side titles I would love it. IMO there are enough interesting characters on that side or not on either side (e.g., Cable) to make for some compelling team books.

[rwsmith]

I'll also add that I like Bendis as a writer, so my not wanting him to touch WatXM or UXF is not a knock on him but rather a testament to how strong Aaron and Remender's work has been on those books.

But if Brian is going to come in and 'Disassemble' everything in the X-verse, then my only request is that he give Wolverine's look an overhaul. His X-Force costume is $$$, but I can understand Marvel not wanting that to be his primary look since the black and grey makes him look a lot like Batman. But the yellow costume has got to go. Never understood why Jim Lee brought it back in the first place. The brown and tan one was vastly superior, and a modernized version of that (i.e., his current costume but in brown and tan instead of blue and piss yellow) would be much, much better for the character. Or black and tan with blue accents if Marvel feels that "brown" isn't a superhero-y enough color.

[Brother Power the Gong]

There's so many balls in the air: the tripods from Cap and Iron Man, the Celestials seem to be all over the place, the High Evolutionary was doing something toward the end of Bru's X-run, Doom is poised to play a major role in something (if that was him Cap's vision), SHIELD needs reforming (I thought that might be Bendis' next project — he has an affinity for Fury), there needs to be a new Sorcerer Supreme/return of Dr. Voodoo, the broken timeline from the first Avengers arc, Wasp needs to come back (I don't read Academy, so maybe that's in the works), as well as the mass return of the X-gene.

I think that's everything.

AvX could deal with the last item — and Doom could swoop on at the end to try to absorb the Phoenix Force, and Ultron War might deal with the broken timeline (which hints at a possible reboot (though please no), but I don't know … just throwing some shit out there.

Maybe it's time to revive the Avenegrs timeline thread?

[Magnum V.I.]

I do remember Bendis saying something on a Word Balloon a couple years ago when I asked a question if there were any other corners of the Marvel Universe he'd like to leave his mark on.

If I remember correctly he said he sort of felt bad for the x-Universe since he basically left a giant turd in there yard with the No More Mutants thing. I also think he said he wouldn't mind writing an X-men book but again, this was a few years ago and I only know he said he felt bad about dumping on the X-Men.

[rwsmith]

There's so many balls in the air: the tripods from Cap and Iron Man, the Celestials seem to be all over the place, the High Evolutionary was doing something toward the end of Bru's X-run, Doom is poised to play a major role in something (if that was him Cap's vision), SHIELD needs reforming (I thought that might be Bendis' next project — he has an affinity for Fury), there needs to be a new Sorcerer Supreme/return of Dr. Voodoo, the broken timeline from the first Avengers arc, Wasp needs to come back (I don't read Academy, so maybe that's in the works), as we as the mass return of the X-gene.

I think that's everything.

AvX could deal with the last item — and Doom could swoop on at the end to try to absorb the Phoenix Force, an Ultron War might deal with the broken timeline (which hints at a possible reboot (though please no), but I don't know … just throwing some shit out there.

Maybe it's time to revive the Avenegrs timeline thread?

Yeah, it really does feel like all of these things are aligning and taking us towards a huge, cosmic style reboot a la the NuDCU. But I feel like the folks at Marvel have denied that strongly enough that it won't happen...at least not a full reboot per se. More likely they'll just streamline everything, try to make it super accessible and shake up the creative teams on the two franchises a bit. Put a fresh coat of paint on the old house, so to speak.

[Patton]

Because it isn't always right.

No, but it's a pretty good track record. I'd say "taking them seriously" isn't the same as blindly believing everything they report. These are definitely rumors, and no one should ever think otherwise.

[artimoff]

Bendis should write a Kitty Pryde solo book.

[BENDIS!]

So, since BENDIS didn't get on and say Rich was wrong again, can we take that has confirmation?

You can take that as me sitting back and laughing my ass off. What I am doing after avx is so much more than this...

[Brother Power the Gong]

Yeah, it really does feel like all of these things are aligning and taking us towards a huge, cosmic style reboot a la the NuDCU. But I feel like the folks at Marvel have denied that strongly enough that it won't happen...at least not a full reboot per se. More likely they'll just streamline everything, try to make it super accessible and shake up the creative teams on the two franchises a bit. Put a fresh coat of paint on the old house, so to speak.

That's what I'm saying. There's no need for a reboot, as there's so many potential ins for people who aren't steeped in MU continuity. Plus, I really feel that very few books are all that inaccessible.