CLEVELAND, Oh -- It was a shock, and a surprise, when longtime Marvel writer / creator Brian Michael Bendis was announced to be taking his talents to DC Comics.
A shock because Bendis has been with Marvel comics for 17 years and he is one of the main creators who ushered in Marvel's Ultimate Universe, plus many more titles since, mega-events, and new characters. The Ultimate Universe is what got me back into reading comics in my early 20s with titles like Ultimate Spider-Man.
Bendis is from Cleveland and myself, and the website, are based here. I've spoke to several locals who had contact with him way before the Marvel comics spotlight was on him. I've spoke with those who own and work at Carol & John's Comic Shop in Cleveland's west side at Kamm's Plaza and those at the east side's shop Comic Heaven, in Willoughby. I've talked with some who remember Bendis when he worked behind a comic shop counter... and nobody ever said a bad thing about him.
This is probably why and how he endeared himself to Marvel for so many years during a time when creators usually jump ship after they're established names to creator-owned publishers, like Image Comics. Bendis stayed with Marvel but now he's moved on and it has been revealed that a big reason Bendis has moved from Marvel to DC is due a visit to his hometown of Cleveland, the birthplace of Superman.
Recently speaking with Cleveland.com, Bendis confirmed his switch was mostly due to visiting the Superman Exhibit at the Cleveland Public Library, which made him realize he had not yet wrote about one of the world's most iconic and popular superheroes ever. A hero who was created in Bendis' hometown.
"I was in town for my brother's wedding and I went to the library, which was so important to me growing up, and I saw the Superman display," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Portland, Ore. "It was a flood of impressions and Cleveland connections. While looking at the Superman artifacts, I realized that I had not climbed the DC mountain and I needed to."
"I just had a landmark (50th) birthday and I had lost a lot of weight and I was thinking about what else I could do to scare myself," he said. "What could I do next? DC was coming at me pretty hard with offers that were hard to resist. But it was not until I walked into the library that everything came together. I remembered how much I connected with Superman, how I was an artist during the 1988 Superman convention in Cleveland (The Neverending Battle celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Man of Steel.)"
"Somehow, I did not know about the exhibit," he said. "When I walked in and saw it, I felt like the library was my own personal museum that I needed to see and walk through. I then realized I had to take DC up on their offer, it was so head-turning that I really could not refuse."
While he won't offer up any hints or clues as to what his DC Comics portfolio will consist of, you can bet that Superman will be a big part of whatever he does right away.
Written by Daniel Wolf, DailySuperHero.com Founder & Publisher
[Images: Skottie Young, Marvel; cpl.org]
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