Brian Michael Bendis Explains What Happened to 'Punisher: End of Days'

While recovering from a recent health scare, best-selling comics writer Brian Michael Bendis has taken to social media to answer fan questions -- and unsurprisingly, many of them center around his recent move from Marvel Comics, where he has spent the lion's share of his career and worked on nearly every major property, to DC.

One such project, titled Punisher: End of Days, is one that Bendis admits he was excited about -- but that poor timing seems to have killed it, unless the publisher wants to revive the property without him. If they were interested in doing that, he said, he would not blame them.

"Nothing came of it because the creators involved like myself, David Mack, Klaus Janson or Bill [Sienkiewicz] are very busy or had moved on to other companies and we never could really find the right window or the right creators to get it going again," Bendis wrote on Tumblr. "If Marvel decides to continue the project with David and others I completely support that decision. David had done a lot more groundwork on it and I had. I hope they pursue it…if it fits their editorial plans."

The project would have been a follow-up to Bendis, Mack, and company's Daredevil: End of Days, which ran in 2012 and 2013. The Punisher series was announced back in June.

Mack is no guarantee for Marvel to lure back in: hehas worked on a number of creator-owned projects over the years and has more recently stuck to cover and pinup art on projects like Jessica Jones and Fight Club 2. Janson has worked regularly at Marvel and DC for decades, but as part of DC's recent New Talent Showcase projects, is likely tied up primarily at DC.

Describing his exclusive deal with DC as "long-term," Bendis told his readers that projects he began at Marvel and never completed are unlikely to be picked up again down the line, comparing them to Alan Moore's infamous planned DC event series Twilight of the Superheroes.

"But the good news is in place of those are more than a handful of projects far more exciting to me personally," Bendis promised. "We haven't even begun to describe to you the shape of the things I'm going to be doing a DC and I think a lot of you are going to be pleasantly surprised -- 'crazy ambitious' is [phrase] people keep using."

No word yet on what Bendis might take on next, although there have been some rumors that he may take over one of the Superman titles following the big status quo shake-up promised with Action Comics #1,000. Were that to be the case, fans should learn it soon: Action #1,000 is less than three months away, and the solicitations for #1,001 and #1,002 should be along in three or four weeks.