Brian Michael Bendis' announcement that he was leaving Marvel for DC in 2018 sent shockwaves throughout the comic industry. Long one of Marvel's main writers, he was handed the keys to DC's biggest character immediately – Superman. The Man of Steel had been through a lot of changes over the years and fans were sure to see more when Bendis took over Superman.

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Superman has faced many threats over the years and Bendis brought all new ones to the table. He started his run with a bang, retconning things about Krypton and changing Superman's status quo. Bendis' run has been full of ups and downs, some that fans loved and some that they didn't.

10 Thing Bendis Did Well: Overcame His Tropes

Superman

Bendis is very much a tropey writer. His stories typically rely more on dialogue & humor than action, and he often doesn't write characters with their voices that decades of creators have honed for them. This made fans a little reticent of him writing Superman, as they weren't sure what kind of character they were going to get.

However, right off the bat, Bendis perfectly captured Superman's disparate personality. While his writing was still as verbose as ever, he balanced it out with lots of great action scenes, something his Marvel books were often lacking.

9 Thing Bendis Didn't Do Well: His Early Treatment Of The Kent Family

Jon Kent

Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, and Dan Jurgens spent DC Rebirth building up the Kent family dynamic and fans loved it. It was one of the most welcome changes to Superman during the Rebirth era... and Bendis torpedoed it pretty much immediately. He sundered the family, leaving Superman on Earth and having Jon and Lois join Jor-El on a trip through space.

Fans were not happy about the change and what makes it worse is that he did away with the whole thing early on in his run. It was a weird detail to change and while he would make it better, it started things off on the wrong foot.

8 Thing Bendis Did Well: Wrote To His Artists' Strengths

Superman 25, page 2

At Marvel, Bendis got to work with some of the finest artists the publisher had to offer. This continued at DC, as he worked with artists the likes of Jim Lee, Ivan Reis, Evan "Doc" Shaner, Kevin Maguire, Ryan Sook, and many more, even reuniting with John Romita Jr on Action Comics.

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Bendis was able to write to each of those artists' strengths, letting each of them do what they did best. Superman's adventures can be pretty hardcore and Bendis wrote his stories in a such a way that every artist he worked with got to shine. This made a lot of difference as his run went and he got better at writing Superman stories.

7 Thing Bendis Didn't Do Well: Didn't Give His Plots Time To Develop

Kryptonian hunter Rogol Zaar

While fans weren't happy with Bendis sundering the Kent family, he pretty much immediately undid it and that wouldn't be the only time instance of undoing. He quickly brought back villain Rogol Zaar, a character fans weren't too big on in the first place. Instead of giving fans time to get used to his new status quo or not throwing Zaar back in the mix right away, he pushed these plots forward.

While it could be said that it was a good that he got details readers didn't like out of the way, these plot points would have been more well liked if he let them breath a bit longer.

6 Thing Bendis Did Well: His Portrayal Of Superman

Superman 26, page 1

Bendis has mischaracterized a lot of characters and fans were worried he would do the same with Superman. Nothing would be further from the truth; Bendis seemed to understand Superman in a way he did with few others. Even when fans weren't happy with what Bendis was doing in the book, one thing everyone could agree on was that he wrote a great Superman.

He captured Superman, warts and all, showing him for what he was – an amazing hero who at his core was still just a man. His Superman spoke in a voice fans were used to. He was the bastion of goodness, always trying to save everyone he could and coming up with solutions that didn't always involve punching.

5 Thing He Didn't Do Well: The Leviathan Crossover In Action Comics

While he was known as an event writer over at Marvel, the closest thing Bendis wrote to an event comic at DC was Event Leviathan. He used Action Comics to build up to the book and while it was a very good book, the fact that he used Action Comics as a lead-in wasn't the best decision. The move put a whole bunch of plots in Action Comics on hold, ones that eventually shaped up to be better than what Bendis did instead.

While building up for a series like Event Leviathan makes sense, the fact that he did at the expense of other plot lines hurt Action Comics in the early going of his run.

4 Thing He Did Well: All New Villains And Supporting Characters

New characters in comics are kind of a rarity nowadays, as many creators would rather save that sort of thing for creator owned work. Bendis went the other way, creating new villains and supporting characters, with varying degrees of success. However, the fact that he was willing to do this and with one of comics' biggest characters was a breath of fresh air.

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While not every character he used was an original creation, he added some very cool ones to the Superman mythos in a time when many creators weren't doing anything similar.

3 Thing He Didn't Do Well: Rarely Used The Classic Villains

Lex Luthor in armor.

While Zod and Luthor both appeared in his run, Bendis' reliance on creating new villains pretty much robbed fans of seeing their favorite Superman villains. In some ways this was a good thing – new villains are always great – but seeing Bendis write some of the classic villains more would have been a treat.

One thing Bendis was always good at was writing villains – as evidenced by Dark Avengers – and it would have been nice to see him handle more of Superman's greatest foes. Superman has some villains that are definitely in need of rehabilitation and Bendis could have done a great job with them.

2 Thing Bendis Did Well: The Invisible Mafia Arc

Bendis' best creation in his time writing for Superman was the Invisible Mafia in Action Comics. Run by the mysterious Miss Leone, this group of criminals had been operating under Superman's nose for years, following strict guidelines that prevented the Man of Steel from finding out about them. Joined by the Red Cloud, the group finally decided to go all out and try and destroy the Man of Steel.

Bendis built this story perfectly and aside for a few missteps, it's the best thing he added to the Superman mythos.

1 Thing Bendis Didn't Do Well: The Beginning Of His Run

An image of Superman leading the Justice League

Not every writer can get every character right away and Bendis definitely had some growing pains on Superman. While he wrote the character very well, his first few stories in both books weren't the greatest. Whether it be because he rushed plot lines or hadn't found his footing writing Superman stories yet, the first few arcs of Superman and Action Comics weren't as good as what would come later.

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