Bendis, the man who has defined the last 15+ years of Marvel continuity, the architect of the architects, is moving to DC.

This morning, DC Comics took to Twitter to announce that they had signed an exclusive deal with comics writer Brian Michael Bendis.

 

Bendis confirmed the choking, stunning, news in his own tweet:

 

To the average reader, Bendis is perhaps best known for his role in co-creating the Marvel character Jessica Jones alongside artist Michael Gaydos. Jones recently had a starring role in her own eponymously named and critically acclaimed Netflix series, where she is portrayed by actress Krysten Ritter.

Beyond Jessica Jones, however, Bendis has worked extensively with Marvel Comics over the last two decades, penning a run on Ultimate Spider-Man which started in 2000 and arguably continues to this day, depending on how you categorize relaunches and similar tide shifts. That run resulted in the creation of Miles Morales, a black and Boricua teenager who donned the Spider-Man superhero identity alongside Peter Parker. He also wrote an enormous run on The Avengers and wrote House of M, a Marvel event comic which had massive, long-standing repercussions on that publisher’s shared universe.

Bendis’ move to DC comes at an opportune time for the writer. Some of his more recent Marvel work has not been quite as highly regarded as his earlier innovations. In particular, he wrote the widely panned Civil War II event for Marvel last year. Bendis himself tacitly indicated that change would be good in his tweet.

Despite having had a career in comics that spans decades, Bendis has almost never worked with DC before. His only previous credit with the publisher appears to be Batman Chronicles #21 (2000), where he and Gaydos told a short story about the Dark Knight which parodied the seminal film Citizen Kane.

There’s no denying that Bendis has been one of the most prolific creators working in direct market comics over the last generation, particularly at Marvel, so Bendis’ move to DC Comics has major implications for both his own career and the big two superhero publishers’ current positions in the marketplace.

Bends’s position at Marvel wasn’t just as a writer – he was a highly influential figure who had major input at retreats and served on the committee that advised the MCU for a while. he also had an impact on the animation at DC.

In its own way, this is like when Kirby left Marvel.

No announcements have been made about the specific projects Bendis will be working on at DC at this time. Stay tuned to the Beat for further coverage.

—Additional Reporting by Heidi MacDonald

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18 COMMENTS

  2. While I do like his Miles Morales and Jessica Jones books, I wish DC had taken him before he ruined Captain Marvel with Civil War II.

  5. “In its own way, this is like when Kirby left Marvel.”

    I think your hyperbolic chambers are going to overheat if you keep that up. It’s almost nothing like Kirby leaving Marvel, except in ways that also apply to dozens of such creative moves in between. A better comparison would be something like Wolfman or Thomas leaving Marvel for DC circa 1980, or Byrne leaving Marvel circa 1986.

    Even those might be a bit too much given where Bendis is in his career. Checking Comichron on his most recent books, it looks like he does five on-going books right now, and they sell an average of 28k an issue (in the North American direct market). So right now he’s a significantly below average seller for Marvel and DC (especially if you just consider mainline titles), who needs five books to sell 140k, which is probably less than Kirby, Wolfman, Thomas or Byrne did with any single one of their books.

    So, the question I have, is Vertigo going to have to take on his terminally late, constantly re-scheduled creator owned books from Icon?

  6. Hopefully, the next writer of Miles Morales and Ironheart are people of color, instead of another white guy.

  7. To Gavin:

    Seeing as how Hulk Hogan jumping to WCW eventually destroyed the company and left pro wrestling as a monopoly, I hope this doesn’t happen to DC/Marvel.

  8. He’s always been best when writing in the YA genre or noir. Especially if it’s a focused, limited run (like the recent International Iron Man series or Moon Knight) If they cast him well, for example a Teen Titans book or perhaps a new Question book this could be fantastic.

  9. Seeing what he’s done at Marvel, he’ll take a swing at everything, strike out a bunch, hit a lot of singles, and have a handful home runs by the time he’s done with the DCU

  10. All hyperbole aside, this is great news for Bendis. I’m not the biggest fan of his current Marvel stuff, but I did enjoy Infamous Iron Man and most of his Guardians stuff. I hadn’t read the Defenders yet, but people seem to really like that book. I think his other more tired work has been the stuff Marvel has been pushing him to do. How many Miles Morales stories can one writer tell? And I don’t hold CW2 against him as that was clearly the product of editorial decisions. Hopefully at DC, Bendis will stretch his creative muscles since it’s a new universe and new parameters for him. And he’s obviously got talent enough to really elevate whatever character he ends up writing. Maybe Nightwing, the Teen Titans, the JSA? I’m curious what everyone else thinks he might write.

  11. “…who needs five books to sell 140k, which is probably less than Kirby, Wolfman, Thomas or Byrne did with any single one of their books.”

    Which is a silly comparison since comics circulations (and market fundamentals) are very different now as compared to when the four individuals you list were very active.

  14. This was an actual shock. After Quesada, Bendis was really the #2 it seemed, and the last real holdout from that exodus of writers over the last ten years (Brubaker, Fraction, De Connick, Hickman, etc). I have liked lots of Bendis’ work, especially the jolt of life he gave the X-titles, but there wasn’t a lot of popular resonance with his work the past few years. All the same, Marvel’s resurgence in the 00’s was founded on writing, and they are short on big idea writers now, either that or editorial has slowly been seizing the reins.

  15. Bendis hasn’t been good in many many years. I don’t see this as a draw for DC. His characters only have 1 voice these days and that doesn’t make a good writer. I just hope he doesn’t write any books I like

  18. Finally Marvel is free of Bendis! He was good on Daredevil, Alias, Ultimate Spider-Man, but he ruined everything else (Avengers, X-Men, Moon Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man). He did whatever he liked at Marvel and didn’t give a crap about the characters or other writers’ work on those characters. Good riddance!

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