LUCIDMEDIA

Interviews with Brian Michael Bendis

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Monday, 14 April 2008 03:51

Was that shift a conscious decision – not just on your part but others, too – because of the dwindling readership for comics?

BMB: When I first got to Marvel the readership was at its lowest point and we’re on a bit of an uptick right now and I think me and Mark Millar were hired at Marvel because they didn’t know where else to go. We weren’t the obvious choice; things were so bad they were like “let’s try them, why not?” everything else is not working. Now everybody’s working fearless, I think is the word. I’m just going to write the s**t out of something, and if I get fired, I get fired, and that’s been thinking about that while I’ve been working this summer because I don’t want to get too comfortable, and if I fall on my ass, I fall on my ass – I’d rather fall on my ass and try rather than go around and try to make everybody like me because you can’t do it.

You’ve become so heavily entwined in the Marvel superhero books, but you started by doing crime-noir. Do you ever feel that, maybe, you want to go back again?

BMB: Well, I’ve always been doing it as I’ve been going with Alias and Daredevil and the continuation of Powers as well as some other stuff that I do. So you do want to go back and do a black and white comic, but then you go “I get work with the best artists that are working in comics,” and that easily distracts you. I can always go back and do a black and white comic, but I don’t know how long Marvel’s going to let me work with the best artists ever. So when they kick me out, I can always go back.

One of your most well-known crime noir books is Torso, and there was talk a little while ago about David Fincher directing it...

BMB: Yeah that’s happening as far as I know, and I also preface every Hollywood update I ever give with “it’s all bulls**t.” I have no control over it. I hear a week before you do, so… David Fincher read the book, liked it, signed on and he’s such the perfect choice for it. But it’s still two movies away; he’s doing the Zodiac movie, and then he’s doing another one, then Torso, so there’s lots of time for this to fall apart, so we’ll see. I know it’s being written right now.

Do you know by whom?

BMB: Ehren Kruger, who did the Ring remake and a lot of other stuff. He’s a big, Hollywood writer.

Well, getting back to comic books, the Civil War crossover is huge, and you were talking in the panel about how you guys went to a retreat where you hashed things out, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, how do you decide who gets to tell what story?

BMB: Well that’s the delicate balance. First of all it’s Mark’s story, and he gets to tell it his way, but the book that gets the s**t kicked out of it the most is my book [New Avengers] because the characters are split right down the middle. Now, I just came off the House of M where I tore through the X-Men offices like a lunatic, so I certainly couldn’t open my mouth. We would all talk about the story; we knew what the story was, and when Mark handed in the first two scripts, I read them and I loved them and I asked Mark, “Are you not going to deal with Captain America’s first day or Luke Cage?” And he said, “no” so I asked if I could, and he said, “Yeah, go ahead.” And right away it became the greatest thing ever because, if I wrote Civil War, this is kind of what I’d have written; so I get to write all my intimate storytelling stuff and Mark gets to do his glorious ode to war and that works out fantastic.

What do you find easier, taking the lead on a big event like House of M or Civil War or getting to stand back and focus on the ancillary details?

BMB: There are pros and cons for both. It was really a wild experience to do the House of M and it started so small with Magneto and the Scarlet Witch are the worst case scenario for the Avengers and the X-Men. I said, “I think that will be my summer,” and Marvel goes, “No, it’s going to be our summer.” I was really happy with the final product and it was fun because that whole summer, with the Internet and how every word is picked over, and they’re beating the crap out of you, and you’re proud that people are having this kind of response to it. But now, one year later, people are sitting down and enjoying it in the trade paperback, with more normal expectations. I can now also appreciate the fact that people got so angry about the change, but they especially don’t like you lying to them and telling them that change is coming and you don’t deliver. They’ve see that after the House of M, whether they liked it or not, you did change the mutant universe. That being said, I’m enjoying not being in the middle of the what-happened-to-Civil-War tornado?

Speaking of criticism, I remember reading the letters page in the second issue of Avengers: Disassembled storyline and some of that hate mail…

BMB: Yeah, I actually asked for those letters to be printed because I don’t want boring letter columns. Every comic book ever published gets people writing nice letters to you, and they’re very good for me, and I really hold them in my heart, but I don’t know how entertaining that is to people. Comics cost two or three bucks, so even that page should be entertaining. And it’s all understandable because it’s that one percent is all mass hysteria, the world’s coming to an end, you’re ruining my childhood, F**k you! But what are you going to do?

You’re starting another Avengers book: the Mighty Avengers. Was that your idea? I read an interview where you said that with the popularity of New Avengers that Marvel was going to want multiple books?

BMB: Well, they were talking about it and I was like, “We’ll deal with it when the time comes.” Whenever they start over they say, “let’s keep it small”, so we decided to wait for a story-motivated reason, and there was already Young Avengers, so there were two Avengers books, plus the Ultimates. But I knew they were looking for a sister book for New Avengers, and when I heard Civil War was coming, even I went “not only is that a great opportunity, that’s a great idea for a book”, and they offered it to me by my surprise.

So the Mighty Avengers is going to take off from the outcome of Civil War?

BMB: Both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers will be different, and they both happen right after the Civil War.

Another thing that ties into this is the Illuminati concept and that was introduced in New Avengers #7, did that come out of laying the ground work for Civil War?

BMB: No, I was sort of laying the ground work for that myself ,and I was shocked how much people were really into the Illuminati, and the one-shot went over really well. But the idea for that was something I’d been working on for a long, long time, and the Avengers finally gave me a place to do it. Initially, we were going to do this story about the Illuminati and what they were doing and how that’s going to affect the Marvel Universe, but instead I got to do the stories I wanted to do and put the Illuminati aside for another time. So we’re going to do it next summer, explain what the Illuminati do and what the Marvel Universe is going to do when they find out about them.

Switching gears to Ultimate Spider-Man, you seemed to have taken a lot of the things that fans hated about Spidey in the 90s, like the over-saturation of Venom, the creation of Carnage, and the Clone Saga and have turned it around. Was that intentional?

BMB: Well when I first took over the book I said things like, “you’re never going to see Carnage and Venom,” and then as I went on, I realized that these ideas are great ideas. The reason that they got popular in the first place was because they were really captivating and imaginative ideas. It was just because there were four monthly comics this thing got run into the ground so dramatically to the point where it was a joke. But then you start thinking about it, and just like the whole idea of Ultimate Spider-Man was to go back to a sixteen-year-old kid being bitten by a spider, so it was like the idea of going back to Venom and thinking about what’s cool about Venom.

Anything else you’re really itching to get into Ultimate Spider-Man?

BMB: No, we’re doing it already; the next storyline is going to be cool. I want to actually adopt the story of the Ultimate Spider-Man video game and put it into the comic proper, and we’ll do that eventually. Mark Bagley’s leaving after 110 straight issues, so you have to give him credit for that, and I’ve got a little thing cooking at the end of the annual with Daredevil and Moon Knight planning to take down the Kingpin.

Do you know who’s taking over for Mark yet?

BMB: I do, yeah, and I’m very excited about it. He can do the workload, he can do it stylishly, and he’s not a rip-off of Mark, and that’s all I’m going to say.

Are there any other Marvel characters that you’d like to work with?

BMB: There are tons: Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, and a ton of people who if I’ve already touched but I haven’t touched enough.

It’s interesting that you should mention Dr. Strange because everybody seems to be on the Dr. Strange bandwagon lately…

BMB: Well, it comes in waves; everybody’s got a Dr. Strange pitch but Brian[ K. Vaughn]’s book will be phenomenal. I can’t wait for it to happen. In fact, I’ll give you a scoop: David Mack was over at my house last week and we’re going to put together a big thing we’re going to do next year for Marvel and it’s got approval already and the artist is locked in, so look for that.

You’re so recognized as a Marvel guy, so could you see yourself at some point doing something DC?

BMB: Well, I’m exclusive for a couple of more years, and I’m very happy where I am. I do look around and think, “Would I do better over there?” or “Is there a story I’m dying to tell over there?” and at the moment, no. This is the first time in my life where I feel that I’m in exactly the right place, doing the right books for the right people, so when it’s time to move on, I’ll know what time that is.