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Brian Michael Bendis Talks Spider-Man, Avengers vs. X-Men and More

Brian Michael Bendis writes two monthly Avengers titles and is currently working on not one but […]

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Brian Michael Bendis writes two monthly Avengers titles and is currently working on not one but two major “event” stories for Marvel this summer. While his debut issue of Avengers vs. X-Men hit back in April and the first issue of Spider-Men, the crossover story he’s writing with artist Sara Pichelli which sees Peter Parker teaming up with the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man, Miles Morales, wound its way into comic shops and ComiXology on Wednesday.With all of that on his plate, he still finds time for his ongoing, creator-owned series Powers, which will be relaunched as Powers: FBI next month, as well as writing his second story featuring the creator-owned Takio and even a book on making it in the competitive world of American superhero comics.Bendis joined ComicBook.com for a conversation about Spider-Men, Avengers vs. X-Men and the cyclical, unsteady world of mainstream superhero comics. This is the first half of our conversation, the second half of which will run on Monday.Let’s start with Spider-Men, since it’s out just now. I really dug that first issue, and I think a big part of it was Sara Pichelli’s art.I think it’s a huge part of it. She’s amazing.If nothing else, it has a real kind of Silver Age sensibility without having a throwback feel, and I think it’s a lot of the same feel that you get with books from guys like Mike Cavallaro and Michael Avon Oeming. And your voice, which is very contemporary, seems to really work with an art style like that because it kind of sets off the contrast.It’s interesting you say that because when we first started Powers the biggest criticism on the book was, “That’s not what this book should look like.” And I was like, “No, this the only way this book should look,” but it’s not…traditionally when you see a noir book, it wouldn’t be drawn the way Mike Oeming draws. I was happy that after about two issues people were completely over that. I knew it was an acquired taste but I thought, “Well, I would buy that book.”And it’s not so much a Golden Age or Silver Age feel you’re getting from what we were going for in Spider-Men but more of—I was a big fan of the ’80s crossovers, like X-Men/Teen Titans and stuff like that, so I think that was the bar I was trying to reach. So it was calling back to something, but not fifty years back.

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My thing was that it feels like it’s pre-McFarlane, pre-Bagley. Those two guys put an indelible stamp on Spider-Man. That’s something that I think is very interesting because when you talk to people about like the gendercrunching articles on Bleeding Cool and stuff, and you talk about the low rates of anyone in comics who isn’t a white male, I think there’s a segment of the audience who doesn’t think there’s a difference in the way that a female creator or a nonwhite creator would actually execute their craft. Avengers
It is, but I can see that. One of the things that’s really frustrating is that there are so many people in comics who will just defend the status quo to the death. You get it with any conversation about women or minorities, and you get it with things like Before Watchmen and all that. There are people in comics who are just so entrenched in their status quo that anything you do to challenge it upsets their apple cart and they respond violently to that. Spider-Men I’m skeptical of any big event story and so I went into Spider-Men kind of saying “I’ll give it a chance because Brian did Torso.” Powers
And you write like 8,000 books a month…
love Rachel Rising With Spider-Men, I think it’s very interesting because a lot of the tongue-in-cheek Internet talk has gone back to that old Quesada quote that said this will never happen—
One More Day And you could tell that’s where the issue was heading—it’s not at all what I expected when they were teasing it in March or whatever it was. That’s the kind of thing that takes a story that on the face of it seems a bit silly. If you go back, you can find me poking some gentle fun at the first Spider-Men teaser, mostly because I’m a cranky old bastard. But to me, the emotional core of the story you’re actually telling is what takes it to a level where it’s not just like, “Oh, look, we have the same costume!”
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