In his 30+ years in comic books, Brian Michael Bendis has become a mainstay of the industry with the creation of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe introducing the likes of Miles Morales – who became a superstar in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, creating Alias, which would be adapted into Jessica Jones, and plenty of other achievements that would take paragraphs and paragraphs to list out.

Popverse spoke with Bendis about what’s coming next in his comic book career including his new partnership with Dark Horse for his Jinxworld line of comics, if he’ll continue work with DC following his run on Justice League and Superman, and if he had any regrets not working on a Fantastic Four flagship book during his time at Marvel.

Popverse: Brian, let us jump right in. Tell us about the origins of your team-up with Dark Horse for your creator owned titles.

Brian Michael Bendis: It goes waaaaay back. One of my heroes and mentors in comics is legendary Dark Horse editor, Diana Shutz. Moving to Portland 20 years ago, I have had a growing relationship with Mike Richardson and others over there. Plus, some of my best friends had hung their hats over there. David Mack’s Kabuki and much of Mike Oeming’s great library of stuff live happy and healthy at Dark Horse.

How has that experience been for you so far?

Dark Horse, on every conceivable level, really is the perfect fit for us and our content. In fact, we just heard word that we’re getting a sequel to our debut book Joy Operations.

Dark Horse was founded just as I was entering comics. I used to pine to be a Dark Horse creator. And most our comics felt like Dark Horse books to me - even back then.

Shifting gears to your Big Two work, following your wrap up on Justice League, do you have more plans with DC Comics?

Yes. We’re still working on Naomi Season Two and the epic Justice League Versus Legion of Superheroes: the Gold Lantern Saga. And we’re very excited about the surprises coming in both.

Also, Naomi is a TV show on the CW, and I’m hard at work on the Legion of Superheroes tv show for HBO Max!

But I too, like many of my peers, have been focused on new ideas, creator-owned and challenging projects outside of the shared superhero universes.

How does Jinxworld work behind the scenes? What do you do outside of writing, what does Alisa Bendis do, what is the set-up like?

Alisa runs the business. She’s the publisher and the president of the company. I don’t know how to do any of that. I don’t know how to pay people. I don’t know how to talk to lawyers and publishers. She does all of that. I’m clear to create stuff and write stuff and collaborate with our partners.

Alisa makes it all happen.

Is there someone in the comic book industry that you haven’t had a chance to work with that you’d like to collaborate with?

Absolutely! So many! What’s great about comics is that there’s always new people coming in too. So even though there are heroes of mine who I have never even met or had the chance to even ask if they wanted to collaborate, there are always new voices that are so exciting to me.

I’ve been trying to be mindful of that and reach out to people that I really like what they’re doing.

My new collaborations with people like André Lima [Araújo] and Jacob Edgar are a result of that.

What was your experience like creating the Wonder Comics line for DC? Will there be more in the future?

It was a pop-up imprint. It popped up and it popped back down :)

It was only supposed to go for a couple of years, and it got extended because of the initial success of the launch titles. All of those were supposed to be six issue titles, and they ended up being 12 issue titles. Naomi succeeded beyond all of our expectations.

I was so honored to be given a line to curate, and I am so happy that all of those books were so well received.

All of our imprint energy focus is now and forever on Jinxworld.

You have done extensive work on adapting specific comics, and comics in general, to film. You're currently working on HBO Max's Legion of Superheroes, as well. What are your goals in terms of film writing?

Like everybody out in Hollywood, it’s a mixture of trying to make your own way and taking the opportunities when they come.

Writing the Legion of Superheroes TV show is a great deal of fun. I am on draft two now, and I’m really enjoying the challenge.

There were teases you’d write Fantastic Four for Marvel. What happened there? Do you consider this unfinished business?

The comic book? I did. I wrote Ultimate Fantastic Four for a bit. The Fantastic Four were always front and center during my years of event planning. From the 'Illuminati' all the way to 'Secret Invasion,' Reed Richards was right there. I feel between that and the Thing being on Guardians of the Galaxy and Johnny Storm being such a big part of Ultimate Spider-Man that I really did write a lot of Fantastic Four.

When I was considering staying at Marvel that was one of the projects I was thinking of doing, but then I realized that I had done a great deal of work with the characters on the various projects. At the moment, writing Superman was the bigger challenge.

Over the years, you have talked about the possibility of a second volume of Fortune and Glory chronicling your years since the original volume. Have you had any serious thoughts about it, and if so, what would it explore?

Fortune and Glory. Yes. I’m actively working on a Fortune and Glory sequel right now. It will be out this year. I’ve already said on social media that it will focus on my short time working on the Spider-Man Broadway musical. But really that’s a flimsy excuse to talk about my favorite moments in comics.

From my understanding, the books Goldfish and Jinx all exist in a shared universe - would you ever consider writing something else in that universe?

Goldfish and Jinx are very connected in narrative though they take place a few years apart from each other. AND some of the books we're working on right now have a connection to those older books. These connections are more like Easter eggs for people who are invested in these stories. But there’s a connection between Pearl and Goldfish that we will reveal very clearly in the third volume. So that’s a 30-year shared universe. Not bad :-)

You and Mark Bagley recently spent the weekend in a Portland hotel room together signing comics for fans via CGC. In all that time, was there talk about working together again?

I am happy to report that Mark Bagley and I have had the most delightful collaboration. Happy, friendly and inspiring. We never had an off moment. Hanging out with him here in Portland last week was absolutely delightful.

BUT he is very exclusive to Marvel at the moment and I am very much not, so there is no new work coming from us at the moment. We are putting together a collection of our creator-owned book from a few years ago called Brilliant. We are repackaging all the material through Dark Horse.

In the world of comics as a freelancer, who you work with changes over time - different editors, different publishers, different creators. In all this change, how important is it for you to have friends who are talented who you can work with together long-term like Michael Avon Oeming and Alex Maleev?

So important. I’m so, so, so lucky in this regard. These are outstanding friends and collaborators. We’ve been working together for a very long time and every day has been delightful. On top of that, separate from their amazing character and friendship, they are some of the best artists that have ever worked in comics.

Now that there are generations of creators both before and behind us it’s fascinating to see little pockets of friends come together to make comics just like we did. It’s the best part of comics.

How has teaching writing, and getting response from Words for Pictures, changed you as a writer?

Completely. It keeps me thinking about the basics of story, which sometimes can get lost during your more hoity-toity moments as a growing creator. It keeps me in touch with some campus cultural conversation. We get to help people who are already on their way. At the end of the semester, we get to read a bunch of brand-new comics that were literally made just for us. Some of them end up being my favorite comics of the year.

You helped reinvigorate the crime genre in comics. Are there other lesser-used genres you are thinking about exploring?

Yes, but I can’t stop thinking about new genre.

Why is the comic book medium so special to you? What continues to get you excited about writing?

Everyone who’s ever read one knows that special feeling only a comic book story can bring. It called to me as a kid, and it completely fills me as an adult. I wish even more people could experience what it feels like to connect with people through story. It’s really magical.

Outside of comics, what other media are you enjoying? Any recommendations?

Severance on Apple Plus- Finely constructed bit of madness

Fly on the Wall - a very funny and ramshackle podcast hosted by David Spade and Dana Carvey about SNL.

Wonder Woman Historia by Kelly Sue Deconnick, Phil Jimenez Gene Ha and Nicola Scott. Wow.

STARHENGE by Liam Sharpe at Image comics!

To borrow an idea from Michael Rianda, what are the biggest lessons you learned from the people you look up to in entertainment?

Finish what you start.

I don’t even want to say any other lessons because that one is so important on so many levels.

And to wrap, what’s next for you?

We continue to produce new material at Dark Horse. We just finished the first volume of Joy Operations. Up next is the third volume of our Yakuza comic, Pearl, which comes to you from the creators of Jessica Jones.

Also, we are very excited about the announcement of Phenomena at Abrams ComicArts. This is a new graphic novel series that I’m doing with André Lima Araújo. It’s a brand-new creator-owned universe designed by André, who I think is one of the great voices in all of comics. I am very excited to share this ride with everybody.

All that, and we have some surprises coming all year long on Substack.

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Are you a fan of DC Comics? Check out Popverse's article on DC's big summer event Dark Crisis.