Avengers Vs. X-Men -- Speculation, Spoilers, and Discussion

[Admiral_Young]

^ I agree on that as well. Too bad they're not using Humberto Ramos or Steve Epting. I know Ramos is not for everyone and I used to hate his art style, but absolutely have come to love his work on Amazing Spider-Man! I don't know what has changed in between his last time with the character but I really adore his current Spidey work and Epting has been fantastic with the FF.

[Turtletrekker]

No complaints from me about the art. I've always loved JRjr's work.

[Praetor_Shinzon]

JRJR's art is hit or miss these days. he used to be really great. last few years its like he just phones it in.

[Admiral_Young]

^ Agreed.

[Hound of UIster]

It's more of a problem because he is paired with Bendis. JRJR's current style really de-emphasizes facial expressions and is really good for action narratives, but Bendis's entire thing is decompression and dialogue that requires an emphasis on subtle emotional expressions and reactions that JRJR can't hope to capture with his style. It's why JRJR does so well with Millar, Millar writing is lots of action and over the top stuff.

The ideal arrangement should have been Kubert for the first few issues by Bendis, but that would have taken them a year to get those issues out.

[DarthPipes]

I'm also a fan of Romita Jr's work on Kick-Ass but not impressed with his recent work otherwise.

[Cap10Kirk]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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but Bendis's entire thing is decompression

Hello everyone. New guy here. I came upon this forum completely by chance because I was doing a little searching on the whole AvX thing. I love the conversation thus far. I have a question. What do you guys mean by "decompression"?

[Mr Light]

Decompression is taking longer to tell a story, thus robbing the spender of their value. While in the olden days stories were often told in a single issue, now stories are spaced out to fit a trade collection of six or so issues, called "pacing for the trade". This often shows up in the form of unnecessary splash pages, silent panels of characters exchanging looks, and banter dialogue that goes on and on without really accomplishing something.

[DarthPipes]

Bendis is the master of that, even going back to his great runs on Daredevil and Captain America. He takes five-to-six issues to wrap up a storyline when he should be taking four.

[Admiral_Young]

It isn't just a matter of decompression though to me right now, as a Bendis fan that is something you are automatically used it. It is more than that. As I mentioned in the Heroic Age/Marvel thread he is becoming like Geoff Johns on Green Lantern, complacent with his work. He has been with these characters for so long that he has no fresh ideas or seemingly any passion for them. At least with Johns, he is able to focus on one particular character and you know automatically that he LOVES writing that character. I don't see that in Bendis' work at the moment with any character. That is the frustrating part for me. He is capable of good writing, but not in his 616 work. For example, that passion has been directed and refocused to Miles Morales and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. Most of the book has been brilliant so far, as was the Death of Spider-Man. Just his 616 work has been suffering due to this though. It's like he's bored with these characters.

[Mr Light]

Well, this is his last Avengers year, maybe he's recognized that he's getting tired with them.

[Hound of UIster]

No he is just not changing. He is become too rooted to one narrative style.

[Nerys Myk]

Bendis's Peter Parker is the character who sounds the most off to me. Hopefully he will stick with Miles and never get near Peter again.

[Admiral_Young]

While I'm excited for "Spider-Men" in June, I'm wary over how he is going to write 616 Peter. It's probably going to be the same as he writes him in Avengers, which is as comedic fodder. I agree with House of UIster he is too rooted now to change or evolve as a writer.

[Cap10Kirk]

Mr Light wrote:

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Decompression is taking longer to tell a story, thus robbing the spender of their value. While in the olden days stories were often told in a single issue, now stories are spaced out to fit a trade collection of six or so issues, called "pacing for the trade". This often shows up in the form of unnecessary splash pages, silent panels of characters exchanging looks, and banter dialogue that goes on and on without really accomplishing something.

Yeah, I can see that. I often felt frustrated with the Siege storyline. I felt it went on way too long. Now I understand it was probably for the trades. Crazy.