#Henry Bendix

[thesulkycroissant]

I really think DC is fumbling by not using Henry Bendix more. He could be such a challenging villain if well-written, and since they've integrated Midnighter into the Batfam umbrella via Dick, there are already in-roads. Let Bendix out.

[buds-and-baubles]

He was nameless.

Have I been wiped again?

He was floating in a sea of green.

Wires and tubes stained in green.

[henrybendix]

Waller vs Wildstorm 4 (2023) by Spencer Ackerman, Evan Narcisse & Jesús Merino

Cover: Jorge Fornés

[weathermanone]

Waller vs Wildstorm 4 (2023) by Spencer Ackerman, Evan Narcisse & Jesús Merino

Cover: Jorge Fornés

[dc-tournaments]

Why do they deserve to win?

Henry Bendix

Orm Marius

[thefaeriefeatherdark]

I have noticed twice now at least that Tom Taylor seems to rely on a "This thing wasn't cool unlike my version" thing that's just odd and often annoying in his approach to comics.

Not because you can't criticize pre-existing characters but because the criticism is never... effective?

Like Jon asking Superman why Superman doesn't do stuff to save the world? When Superman does do stuff, and has historically been a political figure (and his politics have been far more radically leftist than Jon's). There's criticisms of Superman, but that one doesn't work.

Taylor's take on the Teen Titans is similar. He flashes back to a story where the JL bursts in to take out Brother Blood and plays it up as a "The New Teen Titans were lame" thing when that was probably the strongest point in TT history where they were most equivalent to the JL because he can hype up his new Titans as their most important versions. At the same time this take is going to fail because his new team is just the New Teen Titans. They've got no new characters, it's just the OG NTT.

I think the worst time he did this was inside his Son of Kal El book when he had Lex Luthor show up immediately murder Bendix and then talk about how he was foolish and a loser. Because that was after most of the book had been spent on Jon fighting Bendix (incredibly ineffectually). So if he was a foolish loser why did we spend so long on him?

I get this plot device in theory. Especially with Lex. It's the "Villain who beats the villain is the best villain" and that's great but you don't need to do this for Lex fucking Luthor? He's already the primary Superman villain. You do not need to convince us of that.

[manyacivilmonster]

wait a minute..... did walker get his hands on bendix's tech to zap the rando into having powers similar to jay's??? capitalistic warmongering at its finest, i see.

[rwpohl]

the dark corner, henry hathaway 1946

[nerds-yearbook]

A singing mechanic got knocked on the head in the year 1912 and woke up in King Arthur’s Court. ("A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court", flm)

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Watching

THE DARK CORNER Henry Hathaway USA, 1946

[thesulkycroissant]

Henry Bendix is so fascinating. Wish they'd put the Stormwatch version of him up against the Justice League fr. He could be a legitimately terrifying villain if they let him.

[buds-and-baubles]

hiii it's florian and welcome back to: i read things i knew i'd hate so others don't have to suffer!

today we are describing stormwatch vol 3 (2011-2014)!

reasons why this was a no-good very bad icky yucky wucky fucker:

• swift and doctor were fucking erased from existence and didn't survive the transfer!

• engineer evil arc (not clickbait)!

• ruined the origins of apollo, midnighter, jack hawksmoor, and engineer! ex; no mention of jack being a result from repeated alien abduction/experimentation, angie becoming engineer was a result of experimentation rather than her choice, alien experimentation rather than u.n. government experimentation for mid and apollo.

• martian manhunter evil arc (also not clickbait)! ruined pre-established martian lore!

• what they had in hellstrike's backstory.

• had mid try to kill jenny quantum and later on say he wish he was successful and should try again!

• killed jenny quantum, brought her back, erased her from existence, brought her back, and erased her again! (i am not shitting you this is exactly what happened)

• tying into the above, nobody seems to fucking care that jenny quantum is gone! they for 99% of this comic were fucking awful to jenny quantum!

• lobo! i just hate him.

• harry tanner! i also just hate him not only as a character but they kept making all of angie's woes about this stupid bastard!

• kept beating into the ground with the first writer and continuing it to the next and next writers that midnighter and apollo aren't together. that they aren't friends, just colleagues. he quote 'hardly knows him at all' but they proceed to somehow queerbait the canon gay married couple they un-married! that's right, they did that! it took until the final issues to illude to them finally dating (again)! it took until 2023 pride to have them married! AGAIN!

• too many fucking batman mentions that show him on panel! if i wanted to read about batman, I WOULD BE READING ABOUT BATMAN.

• one arc fucked with red lantern lore i'm pretty sure

• zealot's appearance in it was not kind to her!

• destroyed stormwatch established lore thereby destroying the lore for all stormwatch members

• literally no wildcats or gen 13 mention.

• how they wrote apollo. his characterization, acknowledging on one hand that yeah he's strong as superman but they keep having him literally keel over from everything and having to be rescued by midnighter again and again, calling him yet again stupid and too emotional, making him bothered by mid killing (despite that this apollo's introduction has him do literally that but that they ignored/suddenly he don't kill no more and condemns it), etc.

• apollo's short blond hair and midnighter's awful chin spike.

• every single plot in this i am fairly certain an infant could do better writing. they could do it with actual quality writing without any racism or homophobia that stormwatch vol 3 very fucking much has and i cannot begin to tell you how much that pisses me off. i am sick of seeing racism in comics for fuck's sake. i am sick of seeing homophobia in comics.

[peejayee]

hello there noble tumblr artist !!! your art (specifically the gorgeous silver woman and midpollo) has bewitched me and i am here to humbly request comic recommendations

ill talk normally now- uhm yeah ive NEVER read anything about any of them and i know nobody that reads about the authority so anything would help 🙏

Hey how you doing. I'm so sorry for the super late reply— school's been kicking my balls for the past 3 months.

About the Authority, unfortunately, I can't in good coincidence recommend Wildstorm comics without a disclaimer. A lot of WS media is really, really, REALLY dated and I don't want to set the wrong expectations going in.

If you find yourself stuck, treat the process like it's media archaeology.

I love Wildstorm is because it the perfect time capsule of the 90s- 00s. You can see the birth of the modern culture war, the death of class analysis, and the consequences of Reagan-era policies. It's really fascinating.

Oh and the silver woman is the Engineer aka Angela Spica. She shows up in Authority 1, 1999.

And heads up, the main architect of the Authority is Warren Ellis, a man accused of and admitted to sexually coercing multiple people.

Reading order—Ill do my best:

Stormwatch:

tbh you can skip most of this. Stormwatch is an Image comics property that didn't sell well. It's a UN sponsored super human team. Stormwatch Jul #37, Warren Ellis was brought onboard to turn the ship around.

Stormwatch #37-#50: Jenny, Swift, Jack introduced to Stormwatch. If you don't read it, it's fine dw. Although, check out issue #44— really, really cool homage to comics. SW ends with everyone dead in an Aliens crossover event.

Authority 1999/Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch 1-12: Jenny's arc begins in Stormwatch #37, and ends in Authority #12.

#1-12 reads as a stand alone as a y2k disaster story, end of the world etc. etc. The engineer is introduced issue one without much explanation— basically, she's a scientist who gained access to Stormwatch tech and becomes superhuman.

Authority #13-29/ Millar, Quitely: It's a hard read... Very controversial but series/genre defining run. To put it succinctly, it is the spiritual precursor to the Boys. To make reading more bearable, look at the date of publication and try to recall what happened that year (9-11, George Bush election upset, war on terror). If you read the Ultimates (Marvel), a lot of its... quirks? Were tested here

IMO, there is one line in the final arc that makes this worth it.

Authority 2003-2004/ (Grant) Robbie Morrison: A lot of people don't like this run, I thought it was fine. It's introduced a lot of cool high scifi concepts but didn't do too much with them. Dunks on scientology before dunking on scientology was cool.

the Authority Coup d'etat—>Revolution/ Ed Brubarker, Dustin Nguyen: Another series defining run— btw Henry Bendix, if you skipped Stormwatch, is the old leader of the organization. This pre-dates Marvel's Civil War (written by Mark Millar).

Authority Lost Year, Grant Morrison: Things happen. the team gets trapped in space. Wrestle with the consequences of Revolution.

Authority World's End 2008-2011: ill keep it 100 with you, I don't remember why the world ended. This was a big Wildstorm comic crossover event and sets up the N-52 merge.

Dog, I'm gonna sound like a dick.

Heres a pretentious tangent:

I've been trying figure out what this story intends to say since reading it 7 years ago. IMO, Stormwatch #37–The Authority #12 functions as an accidental rejection of Francis Fukuyama’s End of History—the idea that humanity has reached the endpoint of political evolution. All forms of governance inevitably will converge toward neoliberal democracy. Jenny Sparks embodies the listless final years of the 20th century: her life was marred by unimaginable suffering, insurmountable geopolitical conflict, and the ideological drift into neoconservatism and neoliberalism. I thought Jenny Sparks' last hurrah reads as a dying struggle against the void—a desperate struggle against comfortable complacency. She sober up (slightly) from her consumerist slumber to see there is no rapture. There is no revolution. To wait for John Cumberland is akin to waiting for Godot.

Hindsight 2025, we look back at Fukuyama and scoff but, in 1999, a lot of people genuinely thought that Clintonomics, neoliberal democracy was it. And I say accidental refutation because I'd argue Ellis, in 1999, was squarely a liberal. I'd point to Transmetropolitan as evidence of his then politics. Transmet contained the underlying belief that the truth mattered. That we live in a system where justice will prevail when bad apples are exposed as frauds, cheater, liars, fascists.

20th century end on a triumphant note, but not without with a warning: Change is inevitable, progress is not.

There is a lot more I can say about this series. I got 7 years worth of showers monologues to pen on paper.

I'm so sorry for dumping this on you. IDK ab N-52 very much. The DC merge is not for me so idk the deets.

[weathermanone]

StormWATCH 42 (1996) by Warren Ellis & Tom Raney

[batmanego]

midnighter: you son of a bitch you’ve ruined my life and my husbands life and you’ve made me a monster and a danger to everyone around me and i can’t even be put down or die why the fuck did you do this

henry bendix:

[auberge13]

Since the Jon and Nia friendship is shaping up to be an important aspect of Absolute Power and especially Absolute Power: Super Son (based on some comments by the writers and preliminary sketches from the artist), I wanted to explain why I think the friendship is so strong, despite its minimal appearances. Overall there are 4 major issues for this friendship: Son of Kal-El issue #13 (she's in a few issues after this but this is the big one), Beast World Tour: Metropolis, the backup in Action Comics issue #1060, and the mini story at the beginning of the Pride Uncovered Issue. This post is gonna break down how those issues establish this friendship and how they do so really well.

Starting from their meeting, Nia lets herself into the Fortress of Solitude via dream travel because she had a future vision of Jon and every other superhero being taken down by the big bad of this book Henry Bendix. After warning him about this and therefore preventing it from happening, we get a few moments that show why Jon and Nia hit it off so quickly. For one they are very similar people!

As Dreamer (and soon Super Son) writer Nicole Maines has pointed out, they are both small town farm kids with really big powers and legacies to live up to. I would also add that they both had to figure out those powers and legacies largely without the help of the hero they're trying to emulate, Jon because of his time spent on Earth-3 and the lack of time he's gotten to spend with his dad since returning, and Nia because she wasn't given any of the training she was supposed to get before unlocking her powers because her family didn't think she'd get them, and then her mother died. They are in very similar places in their lives and can relate to each other in different ways than they can with anyone else.

Nia also gives Jon something he really needed at this time in his life- certainty

Some of Jon's big feelings in SoKE and leading up to SoKE had to do with his fear that his father was leaving earth never to return. The records from his time in the future said that Clark would never make it back from Warworld, and, as we see in that first screenshot and also a dozen other places, Jon was not ready to be Superman OR to say goodbye to his dad. This is a huge moment for him.

In return, Jon gives her a confidence boost in the form of 31st century admiration and some help with controlling her powers. In this scene, Jon and Nia give each other the things they look for in their close relationships: tangible, provable support (as tangible and provable as things can be in a world with time travel and future visions).

This transitions smoothly into the next major appearance, Beast World Tour! In this story, Nia has a vision of the future that shows Metropolis' destruction, and therefore needs to evacuate the city. However, no one listens to her because she's a new and unknown hero. So she calls Jon, Superman, for backup. This works, but they still need to deal with Livewire, who Nia foresaw causing all the damage. They have this exchange.

I love this moment in their friendship. I think it's worth noting that Jon just got back from the Injustice universe- his major reckoning with what it means to be Superman and the many ways Superman can be bad. He's once again insecure about how to be Superman in any way that differs from the way his father does it, and therefore resorts to trying to emulate his dad as much as possible. Here, Jon is behaving at his most Superman, but his least Jon. As I mentioned previously, Jon really cares about the provable and the tangible (I could write a whole post about that but to put it briefly it's the whole reason he goes with Jor-El as a kid). His platitudes here are very Superman, but they don't do or mean anything. He's ignoring what Nia is actually saying. Then, Nia does something that really solidifies their friendship- she doesn't treat him like Superman. Nia doesn't put up with his finger waving or cave to his certainty that Superman can handle everything. She treats him like any teammate. She knows this is best and she doesn't care that Jon is Superman, just about how to do the right thing. Tangible and provable. And in response to this-

I love it when the friends respect each other.

This leads directly into the AC backup, which takes place soon after this. The two have succeeded and taken a break in Nia's hometown, Parthas.

If we can take one thing from SoKE, it's that Jon has an immense fondness for anyone who lets him nap on their couch. I joke, but there are actually a lot of parallels between how Jon draws close to Jay and how he draws close to Nia. In both cases it is because they could relate to Jon in ways others couldn't, they could provide Jon with real tangible solutions to his problems (headphones, future vision), and they allow Jon to rest and be just a normal guy. We saw how these aspects led to a close and lasting relationship between Jon and Jay, and because of that we can see how they would create a close and lasting relationship with Nia.

And finally, we have this adorable little moment from the beginning of the Pride Uncovered Issue.

The chemistry here is just so strong. This is a friend group! I believe it! But to go beyond that, Jon hasn't really gotten a chance to like. Chill. Kid can't catch a break. The fact that this nice little hangout exists really does a lot to sell this friendship, at least for me. When a character is constantly embroiled in The Horrors, these little fluffy moments stand out! They matter!

And now, we get to watch this all fall apart! Nia has helped Waller take over Gamorra, the country she helped Jon and Jay liberate in the first place. She has captured and imprisoned Jay for Waller, and is complicit in Jon's kidnapping and Cyborgification. We don't know the role she has to play in Absolute Power: Super Son just yet, but it's sure to be a major one, and no matter what, this friendship is about to get a whole lot more complicated.