Brian Michael Bendis Will Be Writing SUPERMAN and ACTION COMICS Titles For DC Comics
A couple months ago, fan-favorite Marvel Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis left Marvel for DC Comics. After a couple months of speculation about what Bendis would be working on at DC, now we know. Thanks to Forbes, it's been revealed that he will be taking over the writing duties for three Superman titles, resurrecting Jinxworld, and launching an all-new imprint.
According to the report, Bendis will take on the Last Son of Krypton, which officially kicks off with a new story to be included in Action Comics #1000 coming out in April. After that DC will release his 6-issue miniseries Man of Steel starting May 30th.
Man of Steel will be published on a weekly basis and it will include art from Ivan Reis, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Ryan Sook, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, and Jason Fabok. Above you will find a first look at the original pencil art for four of the six covers for the comic.
Man of Steel will focus on the last days of Krypton’s existence and reveal an unknown villain who’s hiding a “terrifying secret” about Krypton's destruction. When talking about the set up for the miniseries that will start with Action Comics #1000, Bendis said:
"In that first story, it's not just some random backup story or flight of fancy. It is a major chapter in what we're doing, with some really big bombs we’re dropping in Superman’s life — and two of them happen right there in Action Comics #1000. So it's a huge tease of what we’re doing and what’s coming up in Superman's life."
It's going to be really interesting to find out what exactly these big bombs in SUperman's life will be. He went on to talk about the following six-issue miniseries saying:
"It's a big weekly Man of Steel event. It’s six issues, and I’m writing all of them. They’re telling the giant new story that’s the status quo, what’s going to be going on with Superman and Metropolis and everything around him. Again, it’s following up on the big bombs we drop not only in Action Comics #1000, but following up all of those beats and digging in even deeper."
He then goes on to offer some details on the story and mysterious villain saying:
"The Man of Steel story will debut a huge new villain, a blockbuster villain who connects deeply to Superman’s origin story and to his birthright. We’re going to dig in very hard, this is one of my goals, to be a additive to Superman as possible. The characters we debut right away, including this new villain, will send ripples of horror across the entire Superman family and beyond!"
That sounds pretty damn exciting! I'm actually really excited about reading this Superman comic, and I haven't been excited about Superman in a long time.
After Man of Steel, Bendis will take over Superman with a new first issue renumbering the series and he’ll also write Action Comics #1001 which is said to lead into a focus of more character-driven stories including more of Clark Kent’s day to day life as a reporter for the Daily Planet.
The comic book writer is also going to bring the characters from his Jinxworld universe along for the ride. Comic series like Powers and Scarlet will continue with new characters and stories. He says:
"DC is going to be hosting Jinxworld as a whole. So everything I've ever done in the creator-owned world will be coming to DC. And on top of that, we’ll be debuting brand new material, brand new series that I think will be exciting for the marketplace and for fans, stuff I haven't tried before and stuff people have been begging us for. We'll be debuting that all this year."
As far as Bendis custom imprint that he will be working on, he explained:
"I will be hosting and curating an imprint, a custom imprint not unlike what Gerard Way is doing with [DC imprint] Young Animal. It's going to be a select series of special comics, and we'll debut what those are later in the year. I'll be writing some of those and curating the others, but they'll all be under this imprint and add a very special flavor to the DC Universe. I'm happy to say it will star some of my all-time favorite DC characters in unique situations, and that I could not be more excited for."
Bendis comes off as being very happy and excited about working with DC Comics and it looks like there are going to be some great things to come from it. As a fan of Bendis' Marvel Comics work, I'll definitely be following his DC Comics work.
What do you think about all of the things that Bendis is doing with DC Comics?