Pick of the Week Podcast

Pick of the Week #792 – The Me You Love in the Dark #1

Show Notes

It’s a rough week of alright comics, but as always, one shines above, and that one also happens to be dark. It’s in the title! No bell this week, because there weren’t enough books to do it. Also, if your name is Synmar, we’d like to apologize.

Running Time: 01:13:12

Pick of the Week:
00:02:10 – The Me You Love in the Dark #1

Comics:
00:13:46 – Geiger #5
00:19:11 – American Vampire 1976, Book Ten
00:25:06 – Justice League #66
00:36:35 – X-Men #2
00:40:01 – Lucky Devil #1
00:42:00 – Silk #5
00:44:21 – Not All Robots #1

Patron Pick:
00:50:27 – The Me You Love in the Dark #1

Patron Thanks:
00:51:29 – Jason Ziemann
00:52:27 – Aaron Miller
00:54:27 – Matthew Killion
00:55:02 – Jay Batzner

Audience Question:
00:56:20 – Scott H. from Portland, OR is missing Skottie Young’s interiors, and wonders if there’s even been another A-List artist who transformed primarily into a writer.

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Music:
“I’ll Follow You Into the Dark”
Death Cab for Cutie

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Comments

  1. I’m very surprised that Justice League Infinity #2 wasn’t covered honestly or at least mentioned by Conor. When you were both talking about how fun and great Justice League #66 issue was, I feel like that applies much more to Justice League Infinity than the Bendis run. I only gave a shot to Justice League #66 because of the Phil Hester art since the story has been so bland and uninteresting while having great art throughout the run. That continued with the fantastic art, but the story just is not that good. I think the pacing of the story hasn’t been good at all and I don’t think Bendis should be writing Justice League. He should just write a Green Arrow series at this point and his Justice League series with the characters he is using while tying it into other work by him feels like a big vanity project.

    The problem with new Bendis comics is that his DC run has been so disappointing for so many people where most agree his best DC work by far is Batman: Universe. That’s genuinely great, but everything else has been such a bust for most people that his great Marvel work doesn’t really matter now. It’s what you have done for me lately and he hasn’t delivered. I know you two have been much more positive than most about Bendis at DC, however, I don’t think it’s an age thing where it’s just the quality of his work that doesn’t excite people. I would add that James Tynion’s Justice League Dark run was also much better than this current Bendis Justice League run. The show in development with JJ Abrams producing it might not be good if he gets involved in writing it, but we will see. Jason Aaron did put Ghost Rider on the Avengers which seemed to be what Josh was alluding to since it’s not just heavy hitters. Then Blade has been on it, but that’s also a bad run at this point.

  2. Whoa – whoa whoa.
    This whole Bendis is too old or his Marvel work doesn’t count is all bullshit.
    Has his DC work been great- No.
    And it was def over-celebrated here the first year, it wasn’t great then and then turned worse.
    It was Always – ehh from the beginning.
    :Let’s not start taking the tact that Bendis is losing his touch.
    You know what is more likely? The man is an industry now.
    He is involved in how many projects- tv shows- movies – books- etc etc
    I am saying his focus is split- diluted.
    He might now have the hunger or instincts for a monthly book but as someone who isn’t a super Bendis fanboy
    I highly doubt it’s bc he’s lost it.
    You can see the structure is there it feels more like that fire isn’t quite.
    Ifanboy is famous for asking- “Is Bendis Quitting Comics?”
    “Are the Fantastic Four Too Old Fashioned for Modern Audiences”
    Nah- let’s not go down that armchair cliche path.
    Too easy and often just incorrect.

    • I never said Bendis was too old and I said his Marvel work doesn’t matter right now. I have no problem saying Batman: Universe was great, but everything else hasn’t been at DC. I don’t get excited for a Frank Miller comic at this point either, but still love the old work. I said Bendis should just write a Green Arrow series. I can acknowledge his past greatness while also saying he’s not a very good writer at this time. He was falling off quality wise at the end with Marvel which some people brought up. Look at the Miles Morales series after Secret Wars where his last great issue was Ultimate Spider-Man #200. It really took a dive after issue 7 with the return of Peter and Norman. A lot of people thought the change of scenery might help where that didn’t seem to be the case.

      There are plenty of other professions where people were great in the past and they’re not great today. People get that with pro athletes and other writers and directors. Pro athletes obviously have much more finite careers. With his sensibilities, he doesn’t know how to pace a monthly comic at this point. Event Leviathan with the reveal no one cared about in the final issue was terrible. Maybe taking a break would help like Johns stopping writing Shazam to just focus on Stargirl season 1 as the show runner before coming back to it. We don’t know though.

    • Josh proposed he might be too old you basically he just kind of sucks right now.
      I don’t agree with either.
      I do agree his stuff isn’t as compelling right now and stated my theory as to why it might be.
      Comparing writing a comic book to the rigors of a pro athlete isn’t a 1:1 comparison.
      I haven’t heard of too many writers with career-ending injuries but I get your point.
      However again that is saying in your own way that he’s long in the tooth for his career.
      Hemmingway- Scorcese- Georgia O’keefe are all artists producing some of their most compelling works in later years.
      And Bendis is not in his later years.

      The drop-in ‘quality’ I see is from someone who doesn’t seem focused in his comic book work.

    • Writers can write forever and still do well. Thats why I brought up that pro athletes have much more finite careers which is a big difference. I never said this is the end of Bendis where he’s still fairly young by writing standards. That’s not the issue where he just isn’t as good as he used to be. He can always be good again. I strongly disagree with the idea that he isn’t focused on his comic book work since he’s not striking deals like others such as Rick Remender and Jeff Lemire who are also able to still write comics well consistently.

      Brian K. Vaughn just isn’t writing much and keeps making deals which is annoying with the much longer than 1 year Saga wait. James Tynion has sold a couple of shows, but just keeps making comics too. Hopefully Bendis figures it out again. I think scaling back and just telling a more focused story would help. It’s why I brought up doing a Green Arrow series instead and I don’t want him to become the new Batman writer in December. Now if it was like Batman: Universe in tone and quality, I would change my tune.

  3. For my take, I have found Bendis’s work at DC to be very so-so. Batman Universe was great and his Clark and Lois relationship writing has been very good, but the rest has just been average. However, I still find his creator owned work to be strong. All that said, I find Ram V’s work on JL Dark to be much more interesting than Bendis’s run on JL. Sorry to hear that neither Conor nor Josh care for it.

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