Stop the Presses: Bendis Now Exclusive to DC!

Talk about things that I never expected to see happen anytime soon.  After well over a decade of working exclusively at Marvel, Brian Michael Bendis has signed an exclusive deal to write comics for DC.  This is shocking not just because of how long the writer has spent working for Marvel but because whenever he’s been asked about going to work for another company like DC Bendis has always professed loyalty to the company that gave him his shot at the big time.  While he hasn’t said exactly what prompted this move it would appear that the thought of contributing something to the DC Universe trumped that loyalty.

Still, this development strikes me as more of a psychological blow to Marvel rather than a creative one.  There’s no denying that Bendis has written some fantastic comics at the company with great runs on “Daredevil,” “Avengers/New Avengers,” and his stewardship of Peter Parker and Miles Morales over the many versions of “Ultimate Spider-Man.”  In recent years, however, his output has become much more uneven with runs on “Uncanny X-Men,” “All-New X-Men,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” that had lots of interesting ideas but never really came together.  Then there’s the fact that he’s let his creator-owned titles wither and die on the vine while he’s been busy with superhero titles.  What I’m getting at is that four or five years ago I would’ve viewed this as a genuine loss.  Today, I feel like DC offered him an exclusive deal more to get under Marvel’s skin than because of what Bendis can bring to the table.

So what can we expect from the writer at DC?  Given his affinity to street-level heroes the obvious choice would be a “Batman” title.  Except that would likely put him at odds with what Tom King is doing on the main title and I doubt DC would want that.  Bendis has also expressed interest in writing Zatanna in the past and Scott Snyder made a cryptic tweet saying “snalp era ereht” a week ago.  Also, his “Powers” collaborator Michael Avon Oeming has been working on “Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye” at DC for the past year so maybe they’ll deliver the (what is it now…) sixth relaunch of their signature title for Vertigo?  Whatever Bendis winds up doing, I just hope it plays to his strengths with characterization and dialogue and away from team books and big events.  I’d like to see this move as a rebirth *rimshot* for the writer, but I know to not get my hopes up for it just yet.