What's Brian Michael Bendis' best current book?

USM by far, although New Avengers isn't as bad as the rap it's gotten (among Bendis-haters). Powers has become too repetetive and boring. Haven't read any of MA.

Mighty Avengers.

I'm way behind on Powers (I've read up to about issue 12 of volume 2) but the others, in order from best to worst would be Ultimate Spider-Man, Mighty Avengers, and New Avengers, though I like them all. I'm looking forward to Spider-Woman (supposed to ship the week after Secret Invasion finishes) because Bendis is strongest on single character crime/espionage books, and it re-teams him with Alex Maleev.

USM, no question. I'm behind on Powers thanks to a delayed trade, never really cared for New Avengers, and the first three issues of Might Avengers left me very, very cold. Meaty-ocre.

Really? I would argue its not as good as people think it is...

..and, yes, I am a sucker for continuing to buy it.

USM all the way, by the way.

NA is the pits.

I like pre-Civil War New Avengers a lot more than post-Civil War New Avengers. I think Yu's a bad fit, and some of his work has looked really rushed. I also think it feels a bit too much like The Defenders than the Avengers for my taste.

Hmmm, I should note my NA experience is only pre and during CW, so no idea if it's any good now or not.

It's worse.

Yep.

I'm about done with every title in the list except for USM, so I guess that's getting my vote.

Powers is the only thing I'd consider buying from him at this point. I think smaller, more personal stories are his strong suit, not these epic, mega event books he's been doing lately.

I voted USM, though I still at least kind of like all these. Powers might have once gotten my vote, but hasn't held my interest for awhile. New Avengers... well the thing I like least right now is the art, which isn't Bendis' fault. The story still interests me. I like Mighty more than New - with Mighty the main problem has been the pathetic lateness of the Cho issues, again not Bendis' fault. I don't understand the problem so many have with the thought baloons.

Still, thinking back to how much I liked early Powers and Alias a few years ago, Bendis seems to have gone downhill in his rise to power.

Bendis on Powers, Alias, Daredevil, and Ultimate Spider-Man was probably his peak.

Hey Hanzo, you might actually like Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man. It's much better suited to his strengths than his other superhero stuff.

USM for sure, I hated Bendis for destroying the Avengers, it was the first work i read from him. but i have to recognize that he is making a good job in USM and during more than 100 numbers.

I rewad USM for over 50 or so issues and it got to the point where I'd buy them, but couldn't care enough to read them. I had to drop it at that point. Then I gave most of them away.

Agreed completely. Much as he tries, Bendis is just not suited for epic superhero adventure. He's a street level, character-driven writer. I don't think I've liked any of the Big Giant Superhero Action books he's done, but I've pretty consistently liked his smaller, street-level books.

You can't expect to get an accurate picture of a book based on just 50 issues!

I dropped it in the area of issue 60 for the same reasons. Then I've been catching up via trades at the library since then, because it got a lot better again just after I dropped it. Like the next issue. Ah well, money saved, thank god for libraries.