I agree that Bendis is best enjoyed in long reads (and I went on at length about it in a past column), but I have come to terms with his work. Bendis is the best writer working at Marvel right now — his dialogue and characterization are first-rate — and I am happy to give him the time and space he needs to tell his tale. BUT … I never buy him in paper, preferring to wait for his long or complete runs to roll onto my Marvel Digital Unlimited sub, where I can binge them out without concern for the slow pace or high cost of the story on a page-by-page basis.

This review, of course, is of a paper comic, one of the first new paper comics that I’ve bought in decades (!), but it is a one-time thing. I’m only collecting the #1 issues of this Marvel re-launch. After that, I’m back to digital … so where I say in a review that I’d read the #2, what I’m really saying is that I’ll read the #2 half a year from now when it pops up in my sub.

With those caveats in mind … I stand by my review of Bendis’ Iron Man. This issue is a good start to what I’m sure will be a typical Bendis story, which means it will take its time to get to wherever it is going, but will serve well as a long-form binge-read, at least until it is interrupted by the invariable artist change or blind-sided by some compulsory line-wide editorial crossover. But those are outrages for another day!

Thanks for reading and commenting!

LikeLike