A Collection of Random Thoughts, Vol 15

For this installment of A Collection of Random Thoughts, I'll be discussing Brain Bendis's writing style, Blackest Night and Secret Invasion, the recent Marvel/Disney and DC Entertainment news, and a little bit about 90s comics. Hit the jump to find out more.

Bendis Speak

Back when I quit reading singles, the comics world was knee deep in Secret Invasion and, at that time, I was reading Secret Invasion and both of Brian Bendis's Avengers books. I was also fed up with Bendis's work at the time and one of the things I was annoyed with was his infamous "Bendis Speak."

Recently though, I got bored one night and reread the Avengers FCBD issue from this year and, to my surprise, I rather enjoyed it, especially the Bendis Speak.

Of course, this shouldn't have surprised me since it was also one of the things I enjoyed when I started reading his books. I think that's because it's something that, if you read too much of it, goes from good to bad, but, when only reading it here and there, it retains its appeal a lot easier. Of course, the fact that Bendis seemingly writes half of the Marvel Universe at this point probably isn't helping with that.

She-Onslaught

I haven't been reading the recent Uncanny X-Men/Dark Avengers crossover, obviously, but I was interested in possibly getting in trades so I followed some of the spoilers. One thing that occurs in the event's finale is that Emma Frost gets a piece of the Void stuck in her and, as such, she has to stay in her diamond form otherwise the Void would take over her mind. Clearly, this is all going to lead to Onslaught II, given the X-Books current obsession with the 90s.

Gimmick Events

It occurs to me that Secret Invasion and Blackest Night share one thing in common that may not seem obvious at first - they are both based on a gimmick that, while it may, I repeat, may, be able to carry an eight issue miniseries, they clearly can't sustain an entire event. Again, nothing overly revelatory, but Kirk's recent Blackest Night related reviews made me think of the similarities since I had the exact same feeling about Secret Invasion.

A Rainbow of Lanterns

Speaking of Blackest Night, if you sit back and think about it for a second, Geoff Johns's various Lantern Corps could have easily been a gimmick from 90s. Seriously, it's like perfect 90s cannon fodder. I mean, think about it, easily modified versions of the main hero, with plenty of room for EXTREME! characters (see the Red, Orange and Sinestro Corps) or female characters in ridiculously skimpy outfits (see the Star Sapphires), a perfectly valid excuse for said knock off character and, of course, ample opportunity for pouches! Not to mention absurdly over compensating guns.

Also, did it really take DC till 2008 to come up other coloured Lantern Corps?

Disney/Marvel And DC Entertainment

A lot has been said, and will continue to be said, about the big, Earth shattering comics books news of late, but, to me, the most important thing to take away is that Marvel and DC are not and haven't been, for a while now, comic publishing companies. That is also something that I think a lot of comic fans either haven't gotten or ignored as best that they could.

Of course, this isn't surprising and shouldn't be given the success of Marvel's recent movies and the revamped Batman movies. Why bother with the comics when other sources of revenue offer a lot more opportunity? People may argue that they could try and expand the comic market, but they are only going to expand so much if comics are basically limited to the Direct Market and continue to have the very poor content to cost ratio that they currently do.

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