Brian Michael Bendis Moves From Marvel To DC
News dropped yesterday that comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis made the surprise announcement that he had signed a deal to work exclusively with DC Comics. Surprising, as for the past 20 years, Bendis has mainly been writing for DC’s main competitor, Marvel.
For those of you that don’t know his name, you will have seen his work. Bendis was the creator of Jessica Jones, the Miles Morales incarnation of Spider-man, rebooted the web-slinger in Ultimate Spider-Man, and has been heavily involved in many of the storylines which shape the current Marvel universe. He relaunched the Avengers with New Avengers and wrote event storylines such as Secret War, House of M, Secret Invasion, Siege, and Age of Ultron, which was used as the basis for the Avengers movie. It could be argued he has been one of the most influential writers in Marvel’s stable for the past two decades.
Usually, when these sort of exclusivity deals are signed, they are done with people who have already written or are currently writing for the company. In the case of Bendis, he only has a single DC story under his belt, which was a short tale as part of the 2007 collection Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Volume 2. So this is entirely new ground for him.
The shift seems to come more from a creative choice by Bendis rather than any falling out with his previous employer. In an interview with the New York Times, he said of Marvel “They’re my friends. I’m madly in love with them for their coolness,” but adds he was worried about repeating himself if he stayed where he was. Although he is presenting a positive front to the media, there are reports he wasn’t overly happy about effectively being shut out of the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given DC has been struggling with their films of late, you have to wonder if they might have offered him the opportunity to be the new guiding hand in their movie world.
DC has yet to announce what books the writer will be joining, and Marvel has not announced who with replace him on the multitude of books he was writing for them. You can bet it will be watched with interest by fans, on both Marvel and DC sides, with interest.
