This is a game changer. Brian Michael Bendis is leaving Marvel! And not only that, but he’s going to DC!!! Now, we’re all (presumably) adults here, so we’re not gonna chastise him or call him a traitor, but I just can’t help but wonder what led to this? Brian Bendis is Marvel’s dude! He’s the go-to guy. It seems like every other Marvel event has been written by Bendis. The Ultimate Universe exists (well… existed) because of Bendis! Miles Morales, Jessica Jones, the reason Samuel L. Jackson is currently Nick Fury, it’s all due to Brian Michael Bendis! So what happened?

Granted, he’s had some missteps, Civil War II gets grilled a lot, and I have to say Disassembled was a bit of a mess. But everyone has a bad day at the office. And when you look at just the sheer contributions Bendis has made to the Marvel Universe over 17 years, it’s unprecedented. Secret Invasion, AvX, Age of Ultron, so, so many more. The movies borrow so much from the Ultimate comics, especially Spider-Man movies. Ultimate Spider-Man lasted an entire run, from 2000 to present, had a very popular video game, and a TV show! This guy literally belongs in the same conversation as Stan Lee.

My theory as to why he left dates back to when Miles took off, then all of sudden they wanted him in everything. Miles legitimately got in, like, three big adventures before Secret Wars (2015) assimilated him into 616. Like, he’d probably be writing Miles, then Nick Lowe or someone bursts in and goes “Brian! Get this: Spider, wait for it, Men!” Then he had stop and do Spider-Men. So then he goes back to the adventures of Miles, then Lowe, or maybe Quesada, bursts in and goes “Brian! Galactus comes to the Ultimate Universe!” Then Brian has to stop and take out half the Ultimate Universe in Cataclysm. Then when he finally goes back to Miles they say “Brian! Guess what? Ultimate Universe: Gone! Secret Wars!” Then he literally has to destroy the entire universe he created and squeeze Miles into 616. I can see how that’d be jarring from a storytelling point of view, and with Marvel doing big events every 30 seconds, and recruiting Bendis to do half of them, maybe he’s overwhelmed?

I don’t know the full story, no one but Bendis does. All I can say is, he was one of the first names I learned in comics, and he’s done a bang up job at Marvel. Whether he’s feeling oversaturated, or maybe he just wants a change of scenery after 17 years, we’ll never know. I’d personally like to know what DC put on the table for him, someone so ingrained in the Marvel Universe, to turncoat. But, for now, I guess all we can say is Face Front Brian Michael Bendis, I hope you find what you’re looking for.

P.S. If Marvel needs someone to write Miles, I’ll gladly do it!