Everything Wrong With Bendis' Avengers In One Panel

Well, maybe not everything...but than panel says an awful lot...

From this week's Avengers #23.

Self-Awareness Saturday--Spider-Girl #7

Spider-Man comments on a recent addition to the Avengers line-up:

Thank you, Paul Tobin, for having Spider-Man express the opinion that you would have thought he'd express in an issue of Avengers. Of course, that would have involved characters in the Avengers actually interacting and having characterization beyond comedy routines and such...

Manic Monday--Suprise Crossover!!

And then there was that time that Red Hulk guest-starred on Battlestar Galactica:

It was such a big deal, it was even a 2-parter:

OK, OK, it wasn't Red Hulk (although, the idea of a monstrous Thunderbolt Ross taking on Commander Adama and crew is intriguing, in a fanfic sort of way).

But the beauty part? This wasn't even a Battlestar: Galactica story--at least not originally! Marvel's Tarzan book had been cancelled a few months earlier, and according to GCD, one of the scripts they had intended to use for Lord Greystoke "was reworked into a Battlestar Galactica story when Marvel's Tarzan title was cancelled."

So, really, it was a Tarzan/Battlestar: Galactica crossover. Who the hell needs fanfic??

Maybe Marvel has some leftover ROM scripts laying around that they could make into, oh, I don't know, a Stephen King comic book...

Marvel's Battlestar: Galactica #17 & #18 were from 1980, with covers by Bill Sienkiewicz and Michael Golden, respectively; written by Walt Simonson (plot) and Steven Grant (plot & script), drawn by Simonson & Klaus Janson (#17) & Sal Buscema and Janson (#18). Whew.

Neither Woodward Nor Bernstein

Ben Urich is the worst reporter ever.

See, he agrees with me.

In Hulk #600 (as if), he sits on a major story for at least the fourth time in his career.

Of course, we all know that he uncovered Daredevil's secret identity, but decided not to run the story. It should be noted, though, that given how many others managed to figure out Daredevil's identity, finding Matt Murdock's secret wasn't exactly a stunning journalistic coup.

Urich discovered that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and did nothing with the info. That one's kinda moot now, thanks to Mephisto.

Then, in Civil War: Frontlines #11 (a.k.a. The Worst Comic Book Ever Published), Urich and and Sally Floyd reveal that hey know about the crimes Tony Stark committed during the Civil War, but are going to bury the information because they agree with Stark's agenda (and, apparently, because Captain America didn't have a MySpace page...).

Finally, in Rulk #600, he uncovers a busload of vital information:

Yup...major story, Pulitzer stuff. Stuff you'd think the public might want to know. But oh, sorry, Rulk threatened people, so this story gets buried, too.

(It's unclear if Urich actually uncovers Red Hulk's identity, or what this puzzle he's rambling about is, because Hulk #600 is possibly the worst written and drawn comic or the year. Terrible storytelling...)

So, Marvel editors and writers, if you're going to continue to use Ben Urich as your shining example of an intrepid investigative journalist, well, maybe you want to have him actually publish something he discovers once in awhile...