I never thought White's characters were shitty. They all thought they were doing right. They were all shades of grey and very representative of genuine people.
In regards to Bishop, being serious, I was actually aboard with the idea of bringing the character back. Of all the character revisits, he makes the most sense. He can be rebuilt after all, even if it's not top of the line. And I'm surprised it took until Colonial Marines to revisit the character of Michael Bishop. That all seems like a good foundation to me.
I'm curious to see where the novel does take Michael in regards to his motivation.
But yeah, it was then having a relation of Apone that lowered my enthusiasm. I am getting a little tired of Titan wanting to keep doing these legacy/relations of film characters.