Brian Michael Bendis talks Leviathan

Quaintance: In order to get to a place as a writer where you can write a villain who’s making an argument like that, is there an emotional state you need to reach to get in their mindset?

Bendis: Yeah, empathy. Like, I haven’t punched anyone in years. Even that, even having Superman throw a punch and getting into the mindset of that being the answer to the problem is something you’re constantly doing as a writer. With villains, you get to really go, why would someone go this far?

When people do these things, they’re pushed to the edge, so finding a character that has been pushed this far and has been inspired to do this is just so much fun to write. It’s getting out of everything you think you know about a character like this and diving into the other things. Every character is the hero of their story, the star of their book, so just staying on that premise for each character can get you very far in a story. He believes in what he believes. They believe what they believe. I keep saying he, like it’s a he. I’m not saying it’s a he, that’s crazy!

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Zack Quaintance: First off, with DC’s Year of the Villain coming, can I ask who are some of your favorite DC villains and why?

Bendis: Scott Snyder, Tom King, Geoff Johns….no, I must say I just had the best time playing [Lego DC Super-Villains] with my son. My feeling on the DC villains has completely been warped by my son lecturing me about the power and awesomeness of Solomon Grundy, who is not in any of my work this coming year. But when I told my son I wasn’t actually writing any Solomon Grundy, he looked at me like I had no value. So, I must say that the game really opened my eyes to some of the cooler villains that I haven’t played with yet. You’ll see the answer to that in the next year or two.

My mandate since I’ve got to DC has been as cool as the classic villains are is that we need new villains and villains that speak to what’s been going on in the world now and what’s been going on in the heroes’ lives now. I’ve been adding new villains to Superman’s books, and Leviathan is among them. What I’m excited about is that we’re all hunkering down and doing our big stories with our villains, and we realized we’ve got a lot of cool villain stories going on at the same time, so here we are.

Quaintance: About Leviathan…what makes Leviathan such a cool villain and such a pressing threat for the heroes?

Bendis: Right away you’re going to see in the the 25 cent [Year of the Villains #1] issue that there’s a way that the heroes and villains interact that is very much like cops and robbers. What Leviathan is offering is another thing. Again, they’ll pitch it in the 25 cent issue, but it’s a third thing and that third thing disrupts both what the heroes and the villains have been trying to accomplish for themselves.

But at the same time, like some of the best villains—Magneto, Lex Luthor—you’re going to understand very clearly where they’re coming from and why they want what they want. It’s a pretty good argument he’s making, it’s a pretty sexy argument he or she is making, and that’s going to be part of the problem for the detectives. It’s not playing by the rules that have been setup in the DC Universe.

Why can't these ever be Brian Michael Bendis talks his retirement?

Quaintance: Well, you know, if I was trying to find out who Leviathan is, any hints you could give me on where I should be looking for clues?

Bendis: It started in Action Comics #1006. I’ll say that’s where the clues flat out started, but you’re really going to have some big ones starting in the next two issues of Action Comics and in the [Superman: Leviathan Rising] 80-page special coming by myself and Yanick Paquette. It is gorgeous. Yanick posted a piece from it last night, and it is stunning. That Superman special will be a very big piece on who Leviathan is and how they’ve gotten where they’ve gotten. Also, how they’ve accomplished so much so quickly right under the noses of the Justice League and everybody else. That’s all going to be answered.

On top of that, the Superman special will also debut the first work by Matt Fraction on his Jimmy Olsen book with Steve Lieber, and Greg Rucka’s Lois Lane chapter that he did with Mike Perkins will setup the Lois Lane book that’s coming. This is a very special time in the Superman office, on top of it being a time for this giant Leviathan story that we’re telling.

Quaintance: Absolutely. All of those books look really exciting…

Bendis: I got to say, last night I saw the last pages coming from Yanick, and they were better than anything he’s ever done before. Like, oh my god. It’s a Superman special, and he made it special.

Quaintance: I’ve started to see some guesses online about who Leviathan is. Are you getting many and has anyone actually gotten close yet?

Bendis: Let me talk about this for a second, because it’s funny. Greg Rucka actually mentioned this years ago. The hardest thing to do in any kind of fiction now is mystery fiction, because everyone is online and everyone is guessing. It’s fun, that’s what you want, but I can’t respond to any of it. Even if someone said something crazy like, I know Leviathan is really Jessica Jones. Well, no that’s not true, that’s not going to happen, but if I say, ‘Oh no, that’s not true,’ I’m now crossing things off of people’s lists and I can’t do that. I have to let the story do it.

It’s fun to be online and interacting with fans all day, but it’s a bummer because I have big mysteries going on in the DC Universe right now—not only with Event Leviathan, but Naomi is a mystery that really took off. People are constantly throwing out awesome theories and really enjoying their comics—and it makes me so happy—but if I interact at all with it, other than in a tongue-in-cheek way, I’ll ruin it for everybody. So, I have to be very careful with how I interact, but keep the guesses coming. In the end, I promise those who guess right or those who guess close will be lauded by me.

But may I say…a lot of people? Flat out wrong. They’re projecting a lot of stuff onto me and the characters that may not be there, but I enjoy that as well and I think the audience does, too.

I've been out for a while.
Does Yea Forums love or hate Bendis right now?

Quaintance: You’ve said Leviathan is a story that you and Alex Maleev wanted to do for a long time, going back years, can you tell us about the genesis of this idea?

Bendis: Back when Alex and I were on Daredevil and things were really working out for us creatively, we got a call from DC. Not to be bragging, but we got a blank check, a come-do-Batman-and-do-whatever-you-want call. We couldn’t do it. We were under a contract, and also, Daredevil was where we belonged. But when you get a call like that—I don’t think it’s hard to imagine—it stays with you. It’s like, oh my god, when you’re trying to break into comics your whole life and someone calls up and says, ‘Do you want Batman?’ I do want Batman! But, it’s not the time. So, for many years we’d think about what we’d do if we came there and what it would be like. For years, I would say, if I came to DC Comics, I wouldn’t do Batman with Alex, I would do Plastic Man. Everybody thought I was joking, but I wasn’t.

So, when the idea of coming to DC came about, I called up Alex and a couple of my other very close partners from creator-owned stuff. Alex and I had been working on Scarlet the entire time, which is by the way the book where the style for Leviathan was developed, if people want to know. I said to Alex, ‘I think we’re going to do Scarlet at DC Comics.’ And he goes, ‘Oh great, then we can do our Batman epic.’

So, I knew that I would be developing a big storyline for Alex. This storyline from the get go was only to serve Alex, and then all the pieces started falling in and all of it became this big within the DC Universe. Dan DiDio then came afterward with a pretty interesting storytelling challenge, which is that there are an enormous amount of redundant organizations in the DCU, and if we could tell a story that fixed that, that would be interesting.

Quaintance: That art you’ve been sharing by Alex with Batgirl and Green Arrow, that’s just been phenomenal. How many DC characters are we going to get to see Alex draw?

Bendis: That’s what happens, too. When an artist is getting to scratch an itch, it’s the best stuff, no matter what book it is or no matter what company. When an artist is unleashed on something they’ve been dying to do, you get work that looks this beautiful. So you go, ‘Well that’s about the best Lois Lane I’ve ever seen,’ and then you go, ‘Well that’s about the best Batgirl I’ve ever seen.’ Then you go, what else can I give him?

You’re going to see a smorgasbord of characters come on board, because we have a lot of suspects. When people see the 25-cent issue storyline, and hear Leviathan’s pitch, they’re going to realize how big of a pitch it is and how true of a pitch it is and how big the story can get just from there. Also, the last line of dialogue in the 25-cent special may be upsetting to some people and also it will open doors up for a lot of characters in this story.

Quaintance: Is there something drawing this character to Batgirl?

Bendis: Batgirl is one of the few people in the DC Universe that Leviathan is going to pitch to. Leviathan’s pitch to Batgirl is that you’ve been part of seven or eight major things that have happened in the DC Universe, and none of them clicked. Could it be that none of them clicked because what you’re doing is not working? The world isn’t better, you’re not better, so come with me, and I’ll show you how we’re going to make it better. That’s a pretty good pitch for someone like Batgirl, and a lot of people in the DCU. Not only is it a good pitch, but it’s a pretty scary pitch if it’s true. It’s not a villain pitching you a lie, he’s pitching you a truth. That’s so much more dangerous.

Quaintance: One last question…anything you can tell us about the possibility of a certain Legion of Superheroes showing up soon?

Bendis: Long-live the Legion. Hashtag. Keep reading Superman, on sale now.

comicsbeat.com/interview-brian-michael-bendis-leviathan/

Nobody cares about your OC, Brian. They're a generic, faux-mysterious loser who deluded themselves into thinking being a villain is the right course of action. Piss off.

>Brian Michael Bendis talks

There's your problem right there

Remember when DC use to be good?

Nigga I ain't reading all that shit

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so Bendis just shit entirely on Morrison's Batman/Batman Inc. run by turning the evil anti-Batman group into...a dude who ofters what? Probably a city run by crime.

no

Who cares?

TL;DR version
>He loves DC Villains
>Leviathan is a new villain
>He's offering a third option to the good vs evil dilemma
>He totally believes his bullshit
>He all but says that "Jason=Leviathan" is wrong
>The story was thought specifically to be drawn by Maleev and is a suggestion from Didio.
>Batgirl will be a major player
>He's writing the Legion in the near future.

>Zack Quaintance: First off, with DC’s Year of the Villain coming, can I ask who are some of your favorite DC villains and why?
>Bendis: Scott Snyder, Tom King, Geoff Johns
I agree

Even Bendis's interviews have triple the amount of words required

this sounds like the hood all fucking over again

right down to the red fucking hood

I don't want Bendis on Plastic Man but it can't be worse than Simone and Lemire

Who?

Can't speak for Yea Forums but his Young Justice is good. His Superman is sketchy.

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> third option is offered
> not good or evil
> somehow implying anything but good is an acceptable option, in the DC universe of all places
>will obviously be muh morally grey option
> controls secret spy organization that kills people
> not evil

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Jesus Christ, I knew Bendis was a hack but not this bad.

Yeah. Before New 52.

He wants off the DC ride

The Batman who kills

Nothing he says about Batgirl here makes any sense. This describes Nightwing more given how he can't hold a team, direction or career.

Bendis is unironically the only writer at DC who doesn't want to ruin everything (who cares about Jonsfags)

t. bendis

he's already ruining the superman line, now this leviathian meme will slowly spread to the batline

>Bendis: Right away you’re going to see in the the 25 cent [Year of the Villains #1] issue that there’s a way that the heroes and villains interact that is very much like cops and robbers. What Leviathan is offering is another thing. Again, they’ll pitch it in the 25 cent issue, but it’s a third thing and that third thing disrupts both what the heroes and the villains have been trying to accomplish for themselves.

Wow, Bendis really can't escape his Daredevil run can he?

>>Leviathan is a new villain
But it's not. There was already a group by that name. And he himself mentioned that group in recent issues.

Eh, Johns is harmless nowadays.

Heh, but the thing is, they made a mess of the Hood in Marvel. He went from being a very interesting character to just another thug with no brains.

>In b4 Bendis Leviathan is unrelated to Morrison's

Compared to the other two, with normie bait and clinical depression, Johns is a godsend.

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Johns writes normie bait with daddy issues

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That user yesterday was saying the truth

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bendis made a mess of the hood

leviathan and spyral were nice morrison concepts that bendis will now make a mess of

>there’s a way that the heroes and villains interact that is very much like cops and robbers. What Leviathan is offering is another thing
Jesus it's *that* plot again

So it was Bendis after all. Makes so much sense now.

wait why do people like this art again

>Wow, Bendis really can't escape his Daredevil run can he?
What do you mean?

So Lex really does commit sudoku?
Bravo Luthor.

>The world doesn't work
OK, and what's your solution then wise guy?

Wait, what the fuck? Damian is really jumping to bizarre conclusions, how the fuck could Jason Todd of all people suddenly pull off destroying all of the secret organizations like Leviathan is doing? What logic is he basing this on?

When has this plot been done before?

I think the Hood might've done a "Work with me and i'll give you your deepest desires" thing?

Not that user, but this is starting to sound a bit too much like Dark Reign.

That', for the record, wasn't a really good event. Just meh.

Dark Reign was about an insane super-villain being put in charge of national security and being blatantly evil and making things worse for everyone the whole time, I don't see what that has to do with Leviathan.

Tell me this doesn't remind you what Luthor is doing.

Why the hell does Damian feel the need to remind Bruce that Red Hood is in fact his old partner Jason Todd? As if he didn't already know that?

Oh, I thought you were talking about Leviathan, which as far as I know is unconnected to Luthor.

I suspect both things are linked, to be honest. It's just a matter of time if they concur.

it's all part of the year of villains thing. I think Luthor will have set up Leviathan for whatever they're doing.

also the event analog is Underworld Unleashed you dummies

I hate to defend Bendis here, but I fail to see the similarity.
Hood didn't offer a third option, he was fully on board team evil, he wasn't morally grey at all. His plan was for super-villains to be an organized crime syndicate that would threaten the heroes and their families so that they wouldn't mess with them. And the Hood didn't control a spy organization that kills people, Osborn did.
He has nothing to do with Leviathan.

What was posted yesterday?

It was in the Batman-Superman thread.
'
Near the bottom

I'm afraid I wasn't reading comics in the middle 90's. Stopped somewhere after '92 and didn't get back until 2000.

Thanks.
For anyone else curious:

Someday, DC will finally get a writer that know how to write murder mystery for writing murder mystery stories. Or in this case, evil mastermind mystery stories. Neither Bendis, not King, not Snyder do know how to writer a proper mystery that doesn't rely on melodrama and shock value to keep going said mystery plot. They know how to write well other genres, but not these.

Well, after a second though, Snyder does know how to write a mystery: he just needs an editor that keeps him into an actual, reasonable track instead of mash up ideas without rhyme or reason.

What the hell even is Leviathan? It's been in Superman, Batman, and Silencer comics correct?

In Batman, it was a criminal organization that Talia was running at the tail-end of Grant Morrison's run.
The one in Superman seems to be a different entity (I'm not too sure since I haven't been keeping up that much).

I just don't understand how DC saw Bendis' work in the years before they hired him and were like "Yeah, that's the guy we want."

But Tiger mentioned Leviathan to Bruce and Lois last month, so it has some kind of link to Morrison's and Spiral.

it's still the same alternative break from good guy fights bad guy directly

bendis does varying degrees of this "3rd way" bullshit. he thinks he's being clever by having other "non-villains" offer an "alternative" to the hah-i'm-being-meta-for-capes-punching-crooks meme. but he reskins it every time

daredevil run, kingpin's son comes in and says, i won't be like wilson. owl comes in and says i won't be like wilson

hood comes in and says i won't be like wilson and other teamups, we'll watch each other's backs this time, it's rEvoLuTiONaRy, trust me it'll work

osborn comes in and says, i won't be like fury or stark, i'm an actual patriot

cyclops comes in, i won't be like xavier, i won't be like magneto, it'll be a REVOLUTION.

every single fucking time. it's the same fucking note. i can't count how many fucking similar pages he has where a character like merlyn is scared and kicks off the mystery and a 3rd party mystery character like leviathan comes in with an "intriguing" offer and guess what. every fucking time it turns to shit because surprise they ARE a villain, whoamg!

jessica drew, with hydra, fury, skrulls, sword
maria hill with fury, stark, every x-interaction
jessica jones, with everything. etc, etc
gotg dealing with spartax

new player ALWAYS comes in and smashes the old regime. fisk gets stabbed, raft breakout, hood gangfucks tigra, osborn taking over, kandor gets destroyed, jor-el breaks up the kent family, leviathan fucks up every intelligence agency in the dcu. get ready for the next 7 years of decompression dcfriends, i wish you well

>Heh, but the thing is, they made a mess of the Hood in Marvel. He went from being a very interesting character to just another thug with no brains.

Most of that was on Bendis.

Because Bendis is a hack.

Wow that reminds me of Mark Twain whose real name is Samuel Clemens

Yup. Ah the good ol Dixon and O'Neil days.

>But when I told my son I wasn’t actually writing any Solomon Grundy, he looked at me like I had no value.
Based son.

And why does Damian refer to Jason as "partner" when Bruce literally adopted him?

It is Jason Todd

>I've been out for a while.
>Does Yea Forums love or hate Bendis right now?
Bendis is Cancer.

>Keep reading Superman, on sale now.
No Thanks.

Didio & Bendis Remain to Kill DC Comics

. Didio, Lee Harras Bendis and Tom King should have been let go. With Didio and Lee still in charge DC will be going out of business in 3-5 years.

watched Bendis destroy nearly every Marvel property he touched for the past decade. Then DC started bragging BENDIS IS COMING and I immediately knew this heralded the end of Rebirth and DC's effective death knell. Comic publishers are so out-of-touch with their readership. Fans don't like Bendis!

Did they fire the staffers to bring in "the Marvel way" of comics? Bendis, Wilson, and Vertigo are a plague and DC has started coughing.

there must be a way to get this cancer out of DC!

I have slowly been dropping books since Bendis came on DC in June of 2018. I did not read comics until December 2017 when I picked up a Superman Rebirth trade for free and that afternoon bought the remainder and all single issues I could. I opened a pull box shortly after and read rebirth versions of almost all DC heroes I could get my hands on. It was all good until Metal was nearing end and then it starting going to crap.

Johns needs to go first, retard

Bendis is a washed up old hack. He should get a job at Walmart!

Or it's Jason because everyone already crossed him out of their suspected list. ;

it is Jason.
DC Send Bendis into the Phantom Zone!

Yeah, you would want that because you're happy with Bendis

The comic book industry don't (want to) understand it's customers anymore. Seriously, what did DC expected hiring Bendis? Some kind of miracle?

Probably to stick it to Marvel. And to be fair, people thought that editorial at Marvel was part of the problem. Turns out it was only half-right.

Bendis is one of the reasons Marvel turned to complete crap so I was dreading him coming to DC. I dropped Superman when I heard he was taking over.

It reallly pissed me of when that little shit referred to Jason as Bruce's old "partner". Like shit that's his son and Damian's brother goddamn it.

>Bendis: Long-live the Legion. Hashtag. Keep reading Superman, on sale now.
No.

>It reallly pissed me of when that little shit referred to Jason as Bruce's old "partner". Like shit that's his son and Damian's brother goddamn it.
Tumblr pls.

>Jason as Bruce's old "partner". Like shit that's his son
Nobody Cares.

I hope it is Jason Todd.

Almost exactly by Flash vs the Rogues vs Zoom/Abracadabra

I hope DC loses a ton on this as Bendis sales continuously TANK!!! More importantly, I hope DC begs Tomasi and Gleason to return to SUPERMAN before a year since Bendis' arrival!

it is.

On a serious note though if all this bad writing with the Jon situation, was just so he could go to legion Imma be disappointed.
Legion is Shit.

Bendis on Legion ?

Thanks for the warning,
Well, I don't buy it -

Brian Michael Bendis' DC Comics Numbers Don't Look Good At All ...

I hope it's an edgy revamp of Anarchy.

Bendis ruins everything. He lives off his glory days and needs to find a different career.

Bendis helped me hate Iron Man and now Superman. I enjoyed Superman after rebirth and now dropped Action and Superman from my pull. Bendis came...

Why did DC give bendis so much free will? All Superman titles, creator owned books, and potentially an imprint? Come one DC

No one like DC comics anymore.

We all know the sad tale, DC follows Marvel like a sick puppy, even when Marvel messes up. With Rebirth they were poised to overtake Marvel...and now they're throwing it away because they want that Marvel talent nobody loves. Sigh.

>Wait, what the fuck? Damian is really jumping to bizarre conclusions, how the fuck could Jason Todd of all people suddenly pull off destroying all of the secret organizations like Leviathan is doing? What logic is he basing this on?
Bruce bought him Arkham Knight ofc

>ruce bought him Arkham Knight ofc
?

That's honestly not a surprise.

>Bendis: Long-live the Legion. Hashtag. Keep reading Superman, on sale now.
No one gives a shit about the Legion.

Bendis doesn't have any idea what people like about Jon. And frankly, if Legion is the endgame, that's severely disappointing. Jon doesn't need the Legion. That was Clark's thing. Jon isn't Clark. He's his own person and he had his own thing going for him that was effectively ended when Bendis took over the title.

The frustrating thing is that Bendis keeps hyping up what's happening with Jon, and each new development is met with a range of "meh" to "when's he going to be 10 again?" Yet he keeps trying to push this narrative that Jon fans are going to be happy in the end. It feels like that's going to be his line forever.

I don't think Bendis cares why people liked Jon.
Jon is not a black Girl.

I'm sick of the Batman who Laughs, he's the Batman who sucks at this point

So Batgirl is here... Fortunatelly she now looks like a true batgirl and not like one teenager batgirl cosplay..

Jason Todd fans, be worried, be REALLY worried cause you're all about to be Bendis'd.

Hard pass. Make Mine Marvel

I'd say they fit pretty well. Jason heading down the dark path at break neck speed according to the solicits. So far we haven't seen any reasons why Lobdell chose Wingman to be part of Jason's entourage. He didn't need to wear Jason's old alias to make a pitch. That leaves Leviathan as the only explanation for Wingman, and the finale of Batman Inc was Jason/Bruce against Talia so cosmic irony if Damian's suspicion turns true I guess?

Also Woods said last last pages of #36 is gonna change everything. I wonder how that syncs up with Bendis's story.

Because it's a mainstream comics and not everyone know or have read Red Hood. You should be asking why Damian speaks like Tim.

>Like shit that's his son and Damian's brother
Wrong, and you would know that if you had actually read the latest Red Hood issues or the last Teen Titan's annual. Jason was Bruce's ward and was never adopted. He and Damian never grew up together, nor are they particularly close to each other.

>Somehow implying ridding the world out of organizations that profit from chaos isn't good

Bendis deserves cancer, and his kids deserve death

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lol.