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Multiple Eisner Award-Winner Brian Michael Bendis is a creator, writer, artist, and one of the biggest names in contemporary comics. He's worked on self-published titles and watched his Powers series go from under-the-radar to mainstream. He helped create Marvel's successful Ultimate Universe and wrote its long-running series Ultimate Spider-Man, all while planning and writing a few of Marvel Comics' biggest events. His latest crossover, Secret Invasion, was a game-changing series, spanning over 20 titles, and its lasting effects are still taking shape at Marvel.
On the final day of Emerald City ComiCon, Mr. Bendis was candid and animated as we talked about his crossover events and the intricacies of planning one. In true comics fashion, however, we were surprised by a special guest appearance from another superstar comics writer, and the interview spiraled into end-of-convention hysterics.
Amazon.com: Now that Secret Invasion is finished and the series and all its tie-ins have been collected, how did you approach a huge crossover event like this?
Brian Michael Bendis: It stemmed out of the fact that I'd signed a long-term contract with Marvel. One of the downsides to being a freelancer is that, as much as you'd like to plan a giant epic, you don't know if you're going to be on the book for more than five months, because they could fire you for any reason. That's the name of the game of freelancing. But once I was signed on and I was given Avengers--and it took off--what I did was roll up my sleeves and tell Tom [Brevoort, Marvel Executive Editor] that what I'd like to do is go the distance on a Skrull story. I said I'd like to keep it as under lock-and-key as possible, so a total of four people, including Joe Quesada [Marvel Editor-in-Chief], Tom, and my wife, knew about it. I didn't even tell the artists drawing it, as I didn't want it to alter their presentation of the pages"”like, Spider-Woman is a Skrull, and I didn't want them to telegraph it at all.
While we had the event itself in the Secret Invasion book, we were able to go into and Mighty AvengersandNew Avengers and rewind the clock and flip all of our cards over. The one thing I'm not happy with"”I love alien conspiracy, but what I don't like is when they don't flip over their cards and tell you everything, a laThe X-Files. [Like when] Chris Carter's telling us every three months, "This is the one! We're going to show you everything!" And they never show you everything. At one point, it's not clever anymore to not show everything, so I thought, "Let's use the tie-ins to show you everything." I don't know if I've ever seen that before in comics, at least the attempt of it in comics. And that's very exciting.
By the time it was all put together, I was very personally satisfied and was ready for the Internet S---storm that comes with whatever you do in comics"”and it wasn't too bad. There are people who want to boil my milk and whatever, and even they were enjoying the attempt and the fact that so much had gone into it. It was a huge relief, honestly. A gigantic relief.
Amazon.com: When you have an event that's this large, where you're writing the main book plus the Mighty Avengers and New Avengers tie-ins, how do you handle all the peripheral books that also tie into the story but are written by other writers? Do you simply set it free, so to speak?
Brian Michael Bendis: Personally, I'm a little "tie-in phobic." I like a great tie-in, but I hate a bad one. I hate a cheap one. I hate one that feels like "This writer or this editor just wants the bump or whatever"”or the perceived sales bump." We put it out there, and Joe Quesada, particularly, is not a giant fan of the alien invasion genre"”so he was really pushing for anything that was really different and new. And he said, "Listen: we're not doing Skrull-Reveal-of-the-Week. That's the same joke over and over again. I don't care how clever you think you're being, it will be old by May and we still have six more months of stories. You have to come up with a different pitch."
All of a sudden, [writers] Greg Pak and [Fred] Van Lente came up with their greatHercules tie-in, and in a great tie-in, it shouldn't even matter that the event is happening. I don't need the event to enjoy Hercules or what [writer] Jason Aaron did inBlack Panther. It's just, here's a great story being told, and those are the pitches that were approved right away and the ones we stuck with, and I was really, really proud of that, actually. I thought, "This is a company learning from mistakes, coming together, doing the right thing, and not just getting horny trying to stick a logo on everything."
Amazon.com: Secret Invasion nicely led into the next big series, Dark Reign. What's coming up in this crossover?
Brian Michael
Bendis: What's going to happen in Dark Reign is that the heroes are going to continue to feel the weight of the world being turned upside-down on them, and some heroes are going to be able to handle it"”like Peter Parker could handle that. Maybe Luke Cage can't. Maybe Clint Barton can't. We're going to see what they do under the pressure as Norman Osborn's rise to power becomes more and more bulletproof. But Norman is crazy"”when will he snap? He himself is a ticking clock. I think that's what I love most about the concept and what I see as the reaction from people even this weekend at the show. The lead character is the ticking clock. It's very exciting. Any book--Dark Avengers, New Avengers"”could be the book where Norman loses it!
Amazon.com: Brian, you've had the longest lines that I've seen at the convention this weekend. I don't want to take up any more of your time"”
Brian Michael Bendis: Oh, you're sick of me? [To mysterious character off-panel]: He's sick of me!
Mysterious Character: What's going on here?
Brian Michael Bendis: It's Ed Brubaker, horning in on the Amazon.com interview. (Laughs.)
Ed Brubaker [directly into mic]: You should really read Tom Piccirilli.
Brian Michael Bendis: I was just going to say, "Buy Incognito." [Brubaker's comic series.]
Ed Brubaker: Oh, that would be good, too. Or Criminal. [Another series by Brubaker.] Those Criminal books are really good.
Brian Michael Bendis: He's not going to run any of this.
Amazon.com: No, of course not. Why would we talk to the guy who killed Captain America?
Brian Michael Bendis: Ed killed Captain America!
Ed Brubaker [deadpan]: I just wrote a book. He wasn't a real person. It was OK to kill him, just like Lincoln.
Brian Michael Bendis: (Laughs)
Ed Brubaker: Or JFK, he was an alien.
Brian Michael Bendis: He's been running that Lincoln joke for about a year now.
Ed Brubaker: I know. I'm here all weekend, folks!
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