WIZARD UNIVERSE: We got the first sequence here, on the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier out in the Bermuda Triangle. Any particular reason you chose that location?
BENDIS: As has been reported in other places, I've been hired by Fox to write a Bermuda Triangle thriller with Zak Penn, so I've literally read every book on the Bermuda Triangle. I have the Bermuda Triangle on my brain, and I did write down, "Why hasn't anything ever happened in the Bermuda Triangle in the Marvel Universe?" I just thought, what a great little bit of business just to put it in the Bermuda Triangle, because there's so many alien theories and stuff about it. It also goes to the screenwriters' credo: always put your characters in the place they least want to be. If you crashed into the ocean, wouldn't you not want to be in the Bermuda Triangle?
Was this line your own call-out?
BENDIS: Yes. Because I dropped it a couple times, and Mark dropped it once, and I know that everyone else loves to drop it because it's cool and scary. If you crashed in anything once, and then it happened again, you would comment. Even if it was your bicycle, you'd be like, "Man, this f—king bicycle!" You would comment, you know?
What is the initial reaction of Maria Hill to seeing Jarvis?
BENDIS: Clearly, that's not who belongs there, and he stands there like nothing's going on in a creepy "Shining" sort of way. You don't know what you're going to see, and you kind of hope to see Dr. Doom or Madam Hydra, but then you see Jarvis and you're like, "Okay. That's fifty times worse. I don't know what he's going to say or do or what this is about, but this is the last thing I expected to see and that's not good."
And you know he's not going to be there to do laundry or press your clothes
BENDIS: Yeah, exactly. No tea and muffins.
We cut to Thunderbolt's Mountain, another follow up from issue #1.
BENDIS: Yeah. For those who wanted issue #2 to be more of a round robin, going through all the different scenes and picking up all the loose change from the first issue, this is that, as promised. This takes us on a bit of a world tour—a Marvel Universe tour—and takes us to all the places and sets up where we're going to go or reveals things we didn't know before. What happened to the helicarrier? Well, it crashed, but Jarvis was there. What happened to Thunderbolt's Mountain? Well, Venom lost a tooth.
[Laughs] Venom got hit pretty hard. Once again, this is Leinil Yu doing what he does with a great image.
BENDIS: Absolutely, and definitely having read Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts—and enjoying them tremendously because he's my favorite comic writer—there isn't a person on the planet who hasn't wanted Venom to get punched in the head. Head-punched it is.
What's up with Captain Marvel in this? The Thunderbolts didn't even stand a chance, did they?
BENDIS: No. It was a perfectly executed plan, except for the hint here that, though he is programmed and in place, the identity of Captain Marvel may not have been the best choice for this and there might be an out here for Norman to do some of his mojo.
Speaking of Norman's mojo, we see him coming out and being diplomatic in this. Norman's always been an intelligent person, so what is his thought pattern when he's confronting Marvel like this?
BENDIS: It's a very smart tactic. He knows he can't win in a fistfight, and he sees that there's a moment—someone wrestling with themself. I think there might be a little there for Norman to respond to, really understand from his personal point of view. Everyone knows that there are two Normans. There's the very savvy, very intelligent, very charismatic Norman, and then there's that s—t-crazy juiced-up Goblin Norman. It's fun when you get the one you least expect. Or, it could be him just pretending to be the regular Norman, and he's about to shove a goblin bomb down his throat.
We have the Initiative here—Dan Slott's little team of people here. Out of curiosity, how do you and Dan deal with this, when you're using the Initiative team?
BENDIS: I say, "Hey, guess what, Dan?" and he says, "Oh, come on, man!" No. Dan and I have a very good working relationship. He is great, and we've been great with this. Not to be braggy, but I was actually the one who suggested they call the book Avengers: The Initiative and not just "Initiative," to his delight, because I said, "It'll sell and identify itself better." Since then, we've been aces together. I did tell him that the Initiative has to fail, for the Skrull thing to work, and they have to be infiltrated, and this is who's infiltrating. So he's been on board the whole time. I even said, "Listen, some of these guys are going to have to get their ass kicked or really die, and are you okay with that? I don't want you to have worked hard on these new characters and then have me just kill them." And he handed me the list and said, "Here. Kill these guys. They're ready to go. I've got new guys waiting." I am a big believer—a big, big, big believer—in "Do unto others." I don't want anyone coming around and going, "Hey, guess what? Luke Cage is dead! Suck it!" You treat people the way you want to be treated, and I'm also very aware of when you write a book that you really care about, it's not just a job. Hank is the biggest thing that we had to share. As you can tell now going back, in some earlier stuff Dan was digging on the Hank thing big time. He was having fun with it. Having a reveal that involves Hank Pym doing all this stuff and knowing that there's an endgame to it...it's kind of cool. |
