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Radiation Interrogation: Brian Michael Bendis
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Location: Blogs Atomic Fallout |
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| Posted by: Atomic Online |
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 4:43 PM |
Atomic Comics - Many people know you for your work at Marvel, but you had a great run with a creator owned title, Powers. For new readers, can you give a synopsis of what this book is about?
 Brian Michael Bendis - Powers is about homicide Detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim who apprehend criminals in cases involving super powers. Every case peels back a layer of the genre you won't see anywhere else and explores these fascinating characters in new ways. See, Detective Christian Walker is more than just a homicide cop. In our very first story arc it was revealed that Walker is so good at his job because he actually was a superhero who lost his powers. Instead of just giving up he joined the police force and is still out there doing what he can do. What made ‘Powers’ special in a culture filled with superhero stories was that we never left the cop’s point of view. We don’t go flying around with the superheroes. We always stay on the ground. ’Powers’ is not a superhero story. We mention all these cool fantastic ideas but it’s a cop story. It’s ‘CSI’ and not ‘Heroes.’”
AC - It has been gone for a while but now Powers is back with a new ongoing series. Who all is involved in this project?
BMB - The gang is all here: co-creator/artist Michael Avon Oeming and all the rest. It’s Powers back in full force.
AC - Is this going to be accessible to people who have never read Powers before?
BMB - With a new #1 issue we have a very clean jumping on point. I know a lot of people who've read my Marvel work and have wanted to pick up 'Powers' because they keep hearing about it, but they couldn't figure out where to start. This is it.
AC - Do you feel it is a bit more freeing writing a book like Powers, and not having to worry about massive company wide continuity like in a mainstream Marvel book?
BMB - They both have their writing challenges. Both I happen to enjoy immensely. It’s all excuses for creativity.
AC - One of our favorite guest stars of all time in Powers has to be Warren Ellis. Any chance he may show up again to do more research for his Graphic Novels. Or maybe Matt Fraction can show up and talk about baseball, or Ed Brubaker researching beards?
BMB - That became such a legal nightmare (when we sold the book as a movie) that the answer is 1000 percent no! Sony didn’t understand why they didn’t own Warren Ellis. And I was like, “You can’t own him. It’s a real guy.”
AC - What’s new on the Powers TV series front?
BMB - We have a director and a show runner and Sony is very positive. All kinds of good things are going on behind the scenes right now. They’ve just asked for more material and they’re putting together budgets, as well as some other stuff. So we’ll see, but it is an expensive endeavor. This is one of those situations where our imagination and how inexpensive it is to put on the page flies in the face of how expensive it is to put on TV. When you’re only doing tiny bits of super heroics, they’ve got to be great. They’ve got to be something really special and I think we’ve all seen the shitty CGI stuff. I don’t want to see it. I’d rather see nothing.
I’m spoiled in my day job at Marvel. There’s always some really great artist that will make anything I think of come to life and it will look awesome and unique, whereas the people working on ‘Powers’ TV with me remind me that you can’t do that in TV. You have to imagine what the worst version is because that might be what you get. Mike and I have been working on ‘Powers,’ the comic, with the idea that we can do whatever we want, but the TV show is a different language. Having watched ‘Watchmen,’ I don’t want to see a direct verbatim adaptation of ‘Powers.’ I want to see something else. I want to see what the language of ‘Powers’ would be on television.”
AC - With your creator owned material, and the enormous amount of work for Marvel and now your involvement in the Marvel movie stuff … where do you find the time to post 9000 times a day on Twitter, etc.?
BMB - Nah, I rarely post more than five a day. I just pick potent topics. Hey, listen, I got a lot of people on line looking for the fun and the info. I love that. So it’s fun to interact. I’m usually doing it while I am watching iCarly with my kid for the 13234124 time.
AC - Speaking of being busy … you’ve been vocal of late about your work on the Thor movie. Obviously you’re having a great time, but what exactly is your job on the film?
BMB - I am part of the creative committee. Which is a consulting brain trust. It birthed out of the iron man brain trust. We read scripts and watch drafts of the movies and consult directly with the producers and directors. We’re an extra set of eyes. For me it’s a nerdgasm on the highest order but it’s also outstanding film and storytelling school. It’s a very good experience and pretty damn smart of Marvel. And not just because I’m part of it. |
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