| Brian Michael Bendis | |
|---|---|
 Bendis atMidtown Comics in 2019 | |
| Born | (1967-08-18)August 18, 1967 (age 58) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Area | Writer, Artist |
Notable works | Jinx Torso Powers Ultimate Spider-Man Alias Daredevil New Avengers House of M Secret Invasion Siege All-New X-Men Age of Ultron Civil War II |
| Awards | FiveEisner Awards including:
|
| Spouse | Alisa |
| Children | 4 |
Brian Michael Bendis (/ˈbɛndɪs/; born August 18, 1967)[2] is anAmericancomic book writer and artist.
Starting withcrime andnoir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstreamsuperhero work. While atMarvel Comics, Bendis worked withBill Jemas andMark Millar as the writer on the first book of theUltimate Marvel imprint,Ultimate Spider-Man, which debuted in 2000. He relaunched theAvengers franchise withNew Avengers in 2004, wrote the Marvel storylines "Avengers Disassembled" (2004–2005), "Secret War" (2004–2005), "House of M" (2005), "Secret Invasion" (2008), "Siege" (2010) and "Age of Ultron" (2013), and co-created the charactersRiri Williams,Miles Morales, andJessica Jones.
Bendis has won fiveEisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on variousMarvel Comics books.[3]
Though he has cited comic book writers such asFrank Miller andAlan Moore, Bendis' writing influences are less rooted in comics; drawing on the work ofDavid Mamet,Richard Price, andAaron Sorkin, whose dialogue, Bendis said, was "the best in any medium."[4]
In addition to writing comics, Bendis has worked in television, video games and film. He has also taught courses ongraphic novels atThe University of Oregon andPortland State University. In 2014, Bendis wroteWords for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels, a book about comics published byRandom House.[5][6]
Brian Michael Bendis was born on August 18, 1967, inCleveland,Ohio to aJewish-American family. Bendis grew up inUniversity Heights where, despite rebelling against a religious upbringing, he attended theHebrew Academy of Cleveland, a private,modern Orthodox religious school for boys.[7] He decided he wanted to be a comic book industry professional when he was 13, working on his own comics, including aPunisher versusCaptain America story that he revised several times. A fan ofMarvel Comics in particular, he emulated idols such asGeorge Pérez,John Romita Sr.,John Romita, Jr.,Jack Kirby,Klaus Janson andFrank Miller.[8][9][10][11] He later discoveredcrime comics byJim Steranko andJosé Muñoz, which he traced back viaJim Thompson's work to the source novels of both Thompson andDashiell Hammett, which helped cement his love forcrime stories.[4] These, in turn, led him to discover the documentaryVisions of Light, which taught him the visual "rules" offilm noir, an important influence on him creatively.[4][10]
While in high school, he submitted a "Creative Writing assignment", a novelization ofChris Claremont'sX-Men and theStarjammers story, which gained him an A+ grade for imagination and inventiveness.[10] At 19, Bendis began attending theCleveland Institute of Art, while working at a downtown comic book store where he eventually sold some of his early work.[7] Between the ages of 20 and 25, he sent in a large number of submissions to comics companies, although he ultimately abandoned this approach to breaking into the industry, considering it too much of a "lottery."[9]
Best known as a writer, Bendis started out as an artist, doing work for local magazines and newspapers, includingcaricature work. He worked atThe Plain Dealer as an illustrator. Although he did not enjoy caricature work, it paid well and funded his interest in writingcrime fiction forgraphic novels.[4] He eventually moved into both writing and illustrating his work, before he began producing work forCaliber Comics, includingSpunky Todd.[10]
Through Caliber, he met many of his longtime friends and collaborators within the comics industry, includingMike Oeming,Dave Mack andMarc Andreyko,[12] and began the first in a series of independentnoir fiction crime comics when he published two issues ofFire in 1993 and five issues ofA.K.A. Goldfish in 1994 with Caliber. In 1995 he illustratedFlaxen from a script byJames Hudnall, with David Mack providing inks to the story featuring formerPlayboy PlaymateSusie Owens as mascot of theGolden Apple Comics chain [of comic shops] inLos Angeles.[13]
Bendis's best-known early work,Jinx, starring the titularbounty hunter in acrime noir version of theSergio Leone filmThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly, began publication in 1996, and ran for seven issues from Caliber.[13]
He characterizes much of this period of his professional life in terms of working as "a graphic artist for almost twelve years",[4] undergoing a period within that of "nine years" living as a stereotypical 'starving artist'.[9]
In 1996–1997, Bendis moved from Caliber toImage Comics,[9] whereJinx and his other previous crime comics were published by Image'sShadowline arm intrade paperback. At Image, he also produced five more issues ofJinx.[13]
Impressed withA.K.A. Goldfish, Image founderTodd McFarlane sought out Bendis, which led to his writingSam and Twitch. Although set in theSpawn universe, Bendis approachedSam and Twitch primarily as a crime comic.[9][12] He wroteSam and Twitch for twenty issues, as well as most of the first ten issues ofHellspawn, anotherSpawn spin-off title. This non-creator-owned work allowed him to, in the words of Rich Kriener inThe Comics Journal, "[add] the responsibility of caretaker to his resume, in that he would answer to a vested owner about developing a property as a tangible asset with the future in mind," rather than only working on his own characters under his own terms.[13]
In 1998, Bendis co-wrote and illustrated theEliot Ness-starringTorso with Marc Andreyko, again for Image, and in 2000 he produced three issues of the autobiographicalFortune and Glory forOni Comics.[13]
That same year saw the debut of the superhero police/noir detective seriesPowers, co-created with and drawn byMichael Avon Oeming and published by Image.Powers won major comics industry awards, includingHarvey,Eisner, andEagle Awards.
Around the time Bendis beganSam and Twitch, his friendDavid Mack began working forJoe Quesada'sMarvel Knights imprint, which Bendis was a fan of. Based on Bendis' work onJinx, Quesada invited him to pitch ideas forMarvel Knights, which included a planned, but ultimately unproduced,Nick Fury story.[9]
Marvel Comics PresidentBill Jemas, on the recommendation of Quesada, hired Bendis to writeUltimate Spider-Man, which debuted in 2000,[9] and was targeted at the new generation of readers.[14] Bendis adapted the 11-page origin story ofSpider-Man from 1962'sAmazing Fantasy #15 into a seven issues story arc, with Peter Parker becoming the titular hero after the fifth issue, making the book a bestseller, often surpassing in sales those of the mainstream Marvel universe title,The Amazing Spider-Man.[15] The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby onFantastic Four.[16] Bendis subsequently wrote other books in the Ultimate line, includingUltimate Marvel Team-Up,[17] which Bendis pitched to Marvel as a follow-up toUltimate Spider-Man,[10] as well asUltimate Fantastic Four,Ultimate X-Men,Ultimate Origins,Ultimate Six, the first three issues ofUltimate Power, and theUltimate Comics: Doomsdaymetaseries. In 2011, Bendis and artistSara Pichelli created theMiles Morales character as the new version of the Ultimate Spider-Man.[18][19] Bendis wrote every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, including its second iteration,Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man.
Quesada offered Bendis the writing duties onDaredevil,[9][20] which he took over in 2001, writing most of the subsequent 55 issues until 2006, collaborating mostly with artistAlex Maleev. As a major Daredevil author, Bendis's name is one of the names used for boxers mentioned by a corrupt boxing manager in the 2003Daredevil movie. Also in 2001, Bendis helped launch Marvel's non-Comics Code-approved, adultMAX imprint withAlias, featuring former superheroJessica Jones operating as aprivate investigator.[21] The series ran for 28 issues before many of the characters moved to Bendis's mainstream Marvel Universe seriesThe Pulse. In 2004Powers moved from Image to Marvel's creator-owned imprintIcon, where it was relaunched asPowers Vol. 2 alongside another ex-Image series,David Mack'sKabuki.
Also in 2004, Bendis oversaw the closing issues ofThe Avengers as part of the crossover storyline "Avengers Disassembled".[22] This led directly to the Bendis-helmed relaunch of one version of the eponymous team in the pages ofNew Avengers.[23] Bendis's work on this storyline included the death of AvengerHawkeye, which proved controversial.[10] In 2005, with artistOlivier Coipel, Bendis wrote the New Avengers /X-Men crossover, "House of M",[24] which would retroactively be considered the second act of a three-act super-event beginning with "Avengers Disassembled" and culminating in the Bendis-written 2008 storyline "Secret Invasion".[25] Bendis also wrote the storyline "Secret War", which was published between 2004 and 2005. The series, which was not connected to the 1984 miniseriesSecret Wars, served as a prelude toSecret Invasion. After Marvel's 2006 "Civil War" storyline, Bendis helmed anotherAvengers revival, launchingMighty Avengers withFrank Cho in 2007.[26]
Post-"Secret Invasion", Bendis leftMighty Avengers with issue #20 and wroteSecret Invasion:Dark Reign, a one-shot that preceded another ongoing Avengers series,Dark Avengers.[27][28][29] In 2009, Bendis and formerDaredevil collaborator Maleev launched the long-delayedSpider-Woman, following up on her role in the "Secret Invasion" storyline.Spider-Woman was the first comic book to be offered simultaneously on the Internet as a "motion comic" and in comic stores in print form.[30]
Bendis re-teamed with Olivier Coipel for the 2009 crossover series "Siege", which brought the "Dark Reign" storyline to a close, and with-it,Dark Avengers. Springboarding out ofSiege, Bendis relaunched bothAvengers andNew Avengers as part of the "Heroic Age".
Also in 2010, Bendis launchedScarlet throughIcon Comics, his first newcreator-owned comic book in over a decade, re-teaming once again with Maleev. In February 2011, Icon released the all-agesgraphic novel,Takio by Bendis and hisPowers collaborator Mike Oeming,[31][32] and in mid-2011 a maxiseries calledBrilliant with artist Bagley.[33][34] Bendis's other 2011 projects included a newMoon Knight series with Maleev, which concluded with issue 12.[35] In 2012, in conjunction with Marvel Studios' feature filmThe Avengers, Bendis began writing a newAvengers comic,Avengers Assemble. Bendis wrote the first eight issues ofAvengers Assemble, a series that premiered in March 2012 that featured a new incarnation of the Zodiac, as well as the return of theGuardians of the Galaxy, which teamed with the Avengers against Thanos.
Bendis concluded his stint onAvengers andNew Avengers in 2012 with the "End Times" arc. His final issue ofAvengers, released September 2012, was a "jam issue", featuring splash pages by Marvel artists includingWalt Simonson,Jim Cheung, andLeinil Yu.
Following Marvel's "Marvel NOW!" relaunch of its titles, Bendis took on writing duties onAll New X-Men, which saw the return of the original 1960s X-Men to the present,Uncanny X-Men,[36] whose focus shifts to Cyclops' team of X-Men going rogue after the events of "Avengers Vs. X-Men", andGuardians of the Galaxy, picking up where hisAvengers Assemble run left off.
Bendis wrote the "Age of Ultron" crossover storyline, which included an eponymous 10-issue miniseries, that was published between March and June 2013.[37] Issue 10 saw the introduction of theNeil Gaiman characterAngela into the Marvel Universe.[38]
On July 22, 2014,[39]Random House published Bendis's instruction book on comics,Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels.[5][6] The day after that book's publication,CBR.com published an interview in which Bendis talked about the course on writing Graphic Novels he had taught for the past few years, initially atPortland State University, and beginning with the Fall 2013 semester, at theUniversity of Oregon. His decision to teach came at the urging ofDark Horse Comics editorDiana Schutz.[5][6] Among the works he employs as teaching guides are the works ofScott McCloud andWill Eisner.[8]
In November 2017, Bendis announced viaTwitter that he would be working exclusively withDC Comics.[40] His DC debut was inAction Comics #1000 (June 2018).[41]Ivan Reis drew the first issue of Bendis'sThe Man of Steel limited series,[42] and collaborated with Bendis on the relaunched ongoingSuperman series in 2018.[43] Bendis took over writingAction Comics following its 1,000th issue.[44]
On December 21, 2021, Bendis announced that he was developing an adult animatedLegion of Super-Heroes series for the streaming serviceHBO Max. The show is set to be based on his run of the comic book series and is not connected to the originalanimated series.[45]
In addition to his primary work in comics, Bendis has produced written work in several other media, such asvideo games, TV and film.
Bendis was the co-executive producer and series-pilot writer forMainframe Entertainment's 2003 animatedSpider-Man show,Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that aired onMTV andYTV, which features a college-aged Peter Parker, and was written to tie-into the then-unreleased 2002 filmSpider-Man. The pilot episode that Bendis wrote became the third episode aired. His dismay at being credited for something written by someone else, and the multitude of corporate and legal departments involved in the animation process soured him on the show.[10][46]
Bendis was one of the writers on theUltimate Spider-Man animated series, which debuted in 2012.[47]
He was credited as a developer and wrote several episodes for the TV adaptation of his comic,Powers, which starredSharlto Copley and ran onPlayStation Network for two seasons from 2015 to 2016.[48]
Bendis's video game work includesActivision'sUltimate Spider-Manvideo game, which Bendis wrote.[3] He also wrote anAvengers game,[citation needed] which was never released. He was also a writer of Marvel's MMO,Marvel Heroes.[49]
His film work includes the screenplay adaptation ofA.K.A. Goldfish forMiramax,[50] and the screenplay adaptation ofJinx forUniversal Pictures.[3] In 2014, he wrote the plot of theDisney Infinity 2.0 video game.[51]
In 2024, Bendis signed afirst-look deal withAmazon Prime Video to develop television shows based onJinx, Murder Inc., andPearl.[52]
In 2025, Bendis served as aconsulting producer on theDisney+ seriesDaredevil: Born Again.
In 2013, he was named onIGN's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", in part for his frequent Twitter posts highlighting the work of other creators.[53]
When creating characters, Bendis says that he always begins with someone he knows and builds upon that inspiration, allowing the character to eventually evolve naturally. His depiction ofAunt May inUltimate Spider-Man, for example, strongly resembles his mother.[54]
Bendis met his wife Alisa in 1995 through the Cleveland chapter of theHillel Foundation, where Alisa worked and Bendis was a staff illustrator. The two were married within a year. Alisa Bendis manages JINXWORLD, the company through which Bendis produces his creator-owned and licensed comics work.[10] They have four children,[55] of which three are daughters. Bendis's oldest daughter, Olivia,[56] is his biological daughter. He and his wife adopted their two younger daughters, one of whom is African-American, and the other of whom is Ethiopian.[56][57][58] Their names are Tabatha[59][60] (adopted in June 2011)[59] and Sabrina.[60] Bendis mentioned in a July 2013 post on hisTumblr account that they had a newborn son,[61] who is named London.[60][62]
Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Mark Bagley, the series built on the original Spidey stories but soon spun off into bold new directions.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Writer Brian Michael Bendis began his impressive run on theDaredevil title with a small character-driven four-part story, teaming with his old friend David Mack.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)This is a long miniseries so I guess the technical term is maxiseries. But it's really something in between.
The issue caps off with the introduction to the incoming writer of bothAction Comics andSuperman, Brian Michael Bendis. "The Truth," written by Bendis and illustrated by Jim Lee, puts readers in the middle of a battle with an unknown foe
This story has extra weight behind it, as it is Brian Michael Bendis's first big story at DC, and a sort of reset for the Superman status quo.
With artist Ivan Reis onSuperman, Bendis will be writing a story he calls 'very big, with big stories and big villains and big goings-on in the DC Universe, the kind of things only Superman can handle.'
| Preceded by | Daredevil writer 2001 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Elektra writer 2001–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Bob Gale | Daredevil writer 2001–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Ultimate X-Men writer 2003–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | Ultimate Fantastic Four writer 2004 (with Mark Millar) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | The Avengers writer 2004–2005, 2010–2012 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | New Avengers writer 2005–2012 | Succeeded by Jonathan Hickman |
| Preceded by n/a | The Mighty Avengers writer 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | Dark Avengers writer 2009–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Spider-Woman writer 2009–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Gregg Hurwitz (Vengeance of Moon Knight) | Moon Knight writer 2011–2012 | Succeeded by Warren Ellis |
| Preceded by n/a | Avengers Assemble writer 2012 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | All-New X-Men writer 2013–2015 | Succeeded by Dennis Hopeless |
| Preceded by | Uncanny X-Men writer 2013–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Guardians of the Galaxy writer 2013–2017 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Iron Man writer 2015–2018 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Cullen Bunn (Fearless Defenders) | The Defenders writer 2017–2018 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Superman writer 2018–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Action Comics writer 2018–2021 | Succeeded by Phillip Kennedy Johnson |
| Preceded by | Young Justice writer 2019–2021 (withDavid F. Walker in 2020–2021) | Succeeded by n/a |
| Preceded by | Legion of Super-Heroes writer 2019–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Justice League writer 2021–present | Succeeded by current |
| Preceded by | Checkmate writer 2021–2022 | Succeeded by n/a |
