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!