Next week, with Avengers #34, the title will recognize its landmark 800th issue since the title launched in the 1960s. It’s doing so in grand fashion, by bringing back legendary Avengers scribe Brian Michael Bendis and his longtime collaborator Mark Bagley for a backup feature. Ahead of the release on Wednesday, Marvel has shared a first look inside Bendis and Bagley’s return issue with The Beat!
We asked Bendis about his return to the Marvel Universe — where he became one of the biggest writers of his generation, but a place he hasn’t visited in a while — and the importance of stepping back into the world of Marvel with such a landmark issue.
“One of my main philosophies as a writer of Avengers was to treat it like the centerpiece of the entire shared universe,” Bendis told The Beat. “It wasn’t just a team, but it was where all the ideas of the universe could live in harmony. From the most street level characters to the most cosmic. So to me, the Avengers has always been the center of everything. So it’s not just coming back to Marvel after a long break, it’s literally coming back to the center. I treated this new story that way. I treated the collaboration with Bagley that way. And when people see what he did, you’ll see that he very much treated it that way as well. It wasn’t just coming back to marvel characters it was also coming back to some of my favorite collaborators, including Mark Bagley.”
Of course, it’s hardly the first time this has happened — Bendis made his Avengers debut in #500, and his first issue on the Superman titles when he went to DC was Action Comics #1000.
You can see the preview pages for Avengers #34/800, featuring art by the inimitable Bagley, here:
With Powers back up and running at Dark Horse and Bendis returning to The Avengers, it feels like old times for the writer. Still, he told us, he wouldn’t be returning to old stomping grounds if he didn’t have new takes, and something to say about the characters.
“There is quite a few things going on in my life right now that have come full circle like this,” Bendis admitted. “There will be some more announcements shortly. I have taken great inspiration from some of my storytelling heroes who have often returned to themes and scenarios with new ideas and evolved takes that come with practice and age. It’s so fun to come just back to things that means so much to me, but I needed to have new things to say. I think if I didn’t have new things to say, I just wouldn’t do it.”
It might seem a little curious that, with Bendis so heavily involved in both Marvel’s and DC’s biggest titles over the last decade, he wasn’t part of the star-studded Batman/Deadpool and Deadpool/Batman one-shots. But when we asked if he had any thoughts about future crossovers, all we got was a smile and a “Standby.”
