Brian Michael Bendis Talks Marvel Heroes and the Chronicles of Doom

It might sound like an Indiana Jones movie, but Marvel Heroes and the Chronicles of Doom is [...]

By Russ Burlingame

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It might sound like an Indiana Jones movie, but Marvel Heroes and the Chronicles of Doom is actually the ambitious, in-game story shepherded into being by superstar Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis and a host of other talent. The game features over a full hour of motion comics that tell the story in place of cut scenes. "They were all written by me and all drawn by legitimate Marvel Comics artists so it's as close to an actual Marvel Comic for a game as you can get and it's all original material, all brand new stuff," explained Bendis. The writer recently joined a small group of reporters for a roundtable, discussing the game both from a gameplay and a storytelling point of view. Below, find his comments about the story itself (and check back later for a bit of a more technical look at Marvel Heroes).

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Can you describe the story?This is a very cool opportunity and the reason I was so excited to do it is that it seems the Marvel Universe and the way it's interacted with its audience from the earliest days of Stan Lee seems like the perfect thing to have as an MMO. Also, on top of just the way that the fans and the universe interact with each other also because of all the levels that the Marvel Universe offers from the dirtiest Daredevil street corner all the way up to the most cosmic. That in itself is perfect game fodder. I was really excited about it. I thought this opportunity to create this Marvel Universe where fans from any of the media--be it comics, films, television now--could gather, come and do what they want to do in the Marvel Universe. that seems to be the things that all the fans want; they have a very specific idea of what the Marvel Universe should be like or what the Marvel Universe should feel like and now they can go and make it in their own image. I'm very happy about how the game came out and very excited to see what I kind of on some level think is going to be the next level of how fans interact with the characters. I pitched this story that does start us on the street level of the Marvel Universe and then builds and builds and builds all the way to the cosmic and found a way to stitch all those elements together through the machinations of Dr. Doom already having a Cosmic Cube in his hands and The Chronicles of Doom will show us that Dr. Doom is a character of high intelligence who has been stung by failure over and over and over again and now is making hopefully a concerted effort toward a smarter plan and that smarter plan is to find that power which he had never actually had his hands on--that power is the Cosmic Cube or as fans from the movies know it as the Tesseract. In the comics, it's always been called the Cosmic Cube, even in the Hostess Twinkie ads. But this is an immeasurable amount of power that because of his very specific expertise in both technology and the magic arts, he feels he will be able to wrestle that power and control it and by doing so, he is wreaking havoc all over the Marvel Universe.

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Why did you choose Dr. Doom as the main villain?It just seemed that Dr. Doom's reach is a reach that could hit the whole Marvel Universe. His actions could create a domino effect or butterfly effect all the way down and all the way up to Thor. He seemed perfect for it. He's also like the quintessential Marvel villain. He's the A-list guy, as we were discussing that this storyline of the game really feels legitimate, not that the Leader or something wouldn't be cool, but it doesn't get more bad ass than Dr. Doom.  And also he has a very good motivation; his motivations are very excellent for a villain, it's not just that "Oh I want to rule the world.' He has a very specific agenda that is a lot of fun to write. There a lot of levels to it and a lot of layers. You can kind of see why he has gone crazy or what makes him tick and it just seemed perfect.  There wasn't even a, I don't even remember having a discussion on anyone who would fit the bill. He just seemed absolutely perfect. Can I tell a funny story from PAX? This is so funny, they were nice enough to invite me up to PAX. My daughter wanted to come to the convention because she had never been to a game convention, and so we come up and my daughter was sitting up in the first row. I was up on stage, and the people were filling in. My daughter hears behind her this guy saying to his girlfriend, "I know they are announcing a new character today, and if it's Squirrel Girl, I am out of here." The girlfriend goes, "What?" He goes, "I don't want Squirrel Girl; I don't want it. If we see Squirrel Girl, everyone will be happy and I'll be mad." And so my daughter is like, "Wow this guy's mad." This guy is in the second row and waited in line, waiting to get into the panel, and I don't know any of this is going on at the time. Then they announce 'Squirrel Girl' and they put up the thing and the whole place goes crazy. All this applause and this guy behind my daughter goes, "That's it. I'm out of here," and stood up and left. The girlfriend says, "Well I want to watch the rest of the panel." He says "Nope, we're leaving," and they left. My daughter goes, "What was that?" I go, "Sweetie, that was your first introduction to nerd rage. You're going to find it eventually in the life we lead, and that's what it was." She goes, "But he left. He waited to get into the panel, then he left. He didn't get to see all the cool stuff." I go, "Yeah, that's it." So I just thought that's what this game has brought to my family. Thank you. Then I had to explain to my daughter that the guy, whoever he is, is probably on the beta for the game. He's probably already played it. You know as mad as he was, he's probably playing the game, playing every character but Squirrel Girl. I've noticed that you've made some really emotional stories, like House of M, Spider-Men, and The Death of Spider-Man. Will there be any of that emotion brought into the game and into the motion comic? THAT is a very good question. You know that is something that you want, or at least I want. As a story teller you want the people to really feel it, to really care. As the motion comics go along and as the stage is set, hopefully you will feel the threat of Dr. Doom and what the sacrifices that need to be made for him. It's up to the player whether or not they are going feel the connection that I want them to feel, but that is certainly part of why you would do a Marvel story. The characters aren't just puppets. On their best day they live and breathe, and their quests and desire they have as characters are very relatable. So yeah absolutely, hopefully as the stories continue with the expansions, you'll really feel some stuff. Thank you for saying that by the way. That is one of the most important things to me.

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