EXCLUSIVE: Brian Michael Bendis Teases Big Changes In Iron Man, The Ultimate Imprint’s End

At Saturday’s comics-focused Special Edition NYC on Saturday, writer Brian Michael Bendis was present for Marvel’s “Next Big Thing” panel, where he announced his next major book with the publisher, Invincible Iron Man. Joining him are artists David Marquez and Justin Ponsor, re-assembling entire team of Miles Morales, Ultimate Spider-Man.

The team comes onto the book “tasked with taking the crown jewel of the Disney/Marvel empire,” Bendis said at the panel. “We’re doing a new armor, a new girlfriend, and we will find out who Tony Stark’s birth parents are,” the writer continued.

After the panel, we managed to catch Bendis before his day-long (literally) signing schedule for an exclusive one-on-one chat about Iron Man, the end of the Ultimate Universe, and more.

Brian, your big announcement for the day was Iron Man. What was it like having the first post-Secret Wars announcement?

Brian Michael Bendis: Very nice. We’ve been talking about it for a long time. This is the book I left the X-Men for. What was charged to me was, Iron Man may be the most famous superhero in the world now. That wasn’t the case when we were kids, but now he is! He’s the biggest movie star in the world. It’s like, him and Batman, right?

So, what can we do in publishing to reflect that? I thought a lot about what characters like Spider-Man have that Iron Man doesn’t have. There’s always been great creators on the character, but he didn’t have the deep bench of antagonists, and that bigger world around him. Tony’s world sometimes feels so insular because he’s literally inside the armor, and that makes it smaller. But sometimes it should actually be gigantic! He has a global, futurist look at the world, so let’s reflect that.

I found it interesting when you said in the panel that you wanted “new villains for Tony.” Was that a deliberate choice of words, that you want Tony Stark to have his own villains, not just Iron Man?

BMB: We’re going to shy away from the armor being this protective cocoon of who he is, and be more out, more outwardly. I think that’s what people liked about Iron Man 3, was Tony Stark adventuring and inventing, you know? I did, too! I just want to focus on Tony the inventor, Tony the futurist. Tony is a futurist, he can see what the world might need, but there are so many things, so which is the right one to focus on? Both as a futurist and a superhero, all these things, when you ask that question there are so many answers that you can’t wait to dig in and try to figure out what Tony’s point-of-view would be.

I would imagine to that end, there would be things like Corporations and even Governments that might question him even more so than just supervillains.

BMB: Yeah, even at the level he’s at as corporate genius, a lot of enemies come with that. You can’t be this successful and this rich and this … without having serious adversaries.

You took a long hiatus from conventions. Why was it important for you to be here and for you to come back into the convention scene in general?

BMB: Well, in general, it’s not that I’m blowing off conventions or anything like that, but I have four little kids, so I have to pick my time very wisely. Then Powers happened, the TV show, and that takes up a lot of time. I’m literally leaving here tomorrow and going right to Powers! I’ll be in LA tomorrow night!

So you’re full speed ahead on Season 2?

BMB: Season 2, we’re off and running. So I just have to manage my time correctly, and no one can do that but myself. Because of my online presence, it doesn’t seem like conventions are quite as important. You (the fans) can talk to me anytime you want! I’m on twitter, I’m on tumblr, I’m right there, and you can talk to me there. But I do love this – this is an amazing thing, when you come to a convention, and you saw at the panel, people have a very emotional reaction to your work. Who wouldn’t want to hug a person that wants to hug you because of what you wrote? That’s a lovely thing!

We did New York Comic Con last October, where they were nice enough to help us debut Powers. They gave us the big room and the whole thing; they couldn’t have been cooler. When I heard about this comics-focused show they were doing, and they invited me to do it, I said, “Yeah, let’s celebrate a truly comics-focused show!” I know it sounds a little “bull-shitty” when I am also working in television, but I’m comics first by a mile! Sometimes, the bigger conventions get co-opted by movies and TV in such a big way that comics get literally shoved into another room, when they should be at the front! So I’ll always support shows like this.

Looking at your comics, you and Bagley have re-teamed to put a close to this crazy thing you started, the Ultimate Universe. That has to be an emotional experience for you…

BMB: It is and it isn’t! The reason it isn’t, as I said in the panel, is I can’t help but look back and go, “What a gigantic win that was!” I was hired for six issues, and pulled into a fifteen-year gig! You can’t look at that and not go, “whew!” It’s a huge relief. And there are elements of the Ultimate Universe that are not going to pass away, that are going to be put into the 616, and that’s insanely flattering!

Right. Do you think that the Marvel Universe has just evolved and grown to the point where the Ultimate Universe isn’t really necessary then, as far as its view of the world?

BMB: There’s been a lot written about it in the last couple of weeks. Someone just pointed out that so much of the language of the Ultimate Universe and vantage point of the Ultimate Universe had found its way into the Marvel Universe, like you’re saying. Basically, when I came onto the Avengers and Mark Millar came onto Wolverine, we took our Ultimate sensibilities with us, and it started to spread. The recap pages that they started in Ultimate moved into the Marvel Universe – things from the Ultimate books, and I couldn’t help but look at that and go, “that’s part of it.” We, like a virus, just wormed our way in. And I’m hard-pressed, other than Vertigo, to think of an imprint that lasted more than a couple of years, especially one that lasted as long as the Ultimate Universe. And again, the stuff that we’re most proud of is going to be sticking around!

All right, give me a quick random tease to one of your Secret Wars books, or Iron Man, or whatever you want…

BMB: Well like I said in the panel, there is a whopper in Iron Man #1. The last page of Iron Man #1 is a whopper. A doozer! I’m very excited about it. I said I was going to do this, and I did, when I handed in the script, I was waiting for the call, and they said, “we’re going for it!”

So, I’m excited. It’s a game-changer.