Home > COMICS > 'SECRET INVASION' #7 DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY WITH BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
'SECRET INVASION' #7 DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY WITH BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
The Skrull scribe leads a tour through each issue of Marvel's mega-event as he takes a panel-to-panel look at the wrinkly-chinned invasion!
By Kevin Mahadeo
Posted 10/25/2008
Part seven in a regular series, Wizard Universe catches up with Secret Invasion scribe Brian Michael Bendis for an SI Director's Commentary every day after an issue of the event comes out. Check in each time for insight from the writer on the inner workings of numerous scenes from Marvel's mega-event.
BE WARNED, KIDDIES! THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD! Go read Secret Invasion #7 and come back and see us!
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WIZARD UNIVERSE: This issue picks up right where the last left off: with a huge ass fight.
BENDIS: In the last issue a fight scene was promised, so a fight scene will happen.
How did you put this all together? It's a giant fight, but there are so many scenes and so many people.
BENDIS: It's a lot of typing. It's one of those issues where there's not a lot of words on the page, but there's a lot that goes into it. I expressed to [artist] Leinil [Yu] the idea behind it, what's going on. It's a big "Lord of the Rings," "Braveheart" type of battle, but with superpowers. And there's certain beats that are very important to hit.
It opens up with the holy trinity of Avengers launching out together and goes from there. You swing the camera around the fight to hit a lot of the little bits that are little payoffs or moments. You have a laundry list of things that you hope to see, and then you whittle down what works and what doesn't work. On top of this you're trying to inspire Leinil and Mark [Morales] and everyone to do their best work. It can't be a fight scene with obvious art cheats. There are ways to cheat drawing something like this—lots of silhouettes and smoke. I said that this could be one of those moments in your career where people look back and go, "Jesus." There have been a lot of fight scenes that we remember as kids that felt like this, but when you look back at them now, they're not. You just remembered them a certain way.
So, I thought it'd be great to create this Secret Wars type of battle scene, but where when people look back they go, "Wow. That's a lot of drawing." I wanted to get the reader physically into the fight and into the battle. I told Leinil to fill the background and think about how many powers are being used, what the feeling of having all those powers going off at once would be, how quickly the Earth would scorch, how quickly the sky would turn red, and things like that. Also, to please show Howard the Duck in as many panels as possible. No, I didn't really say that, but he did it anyway. I say it every commentary but I'll say it again: I have never in my life, to this day, typed the word Howard the Duck, but he's now appeared in seven very top-selling books of mine.
You mentioned that this issue contains a lot of beats. Let's pick up on some, starting with the one you mentioned: the holy trinity of Avengers.
BENDIS: Yeah. After setting the stage with the moment after the clash, you have the three of them launch. I think consciously or even subconsciously, it empowers all of them even though it's not the Cap they know and there's an estranged relationship here. They do feel like the band is back together. A band that normally hates each other, but once you get on stage, it doesn't matter. There's a clear point of leadership and even the most scared or inexperienced heroes and villains of the group would be inspired by it. How bad can it be if Thor's behind you?
I love this exchange between Nick Fury and Norman Osborn here.
BENDIS: There's a lot going on there. There's a payoff to it next issue. It actually has a double meaning.
Here we see the Wasp going after the one person we'd expect her to chase down: Hank Pym.
BENDIS: Jan's been a supporting character throughout the series. She's been in every issue, but she's only had a few lines. She's an important founding member of the Avengers and we wanted to reintroduce her to the story for the payoff later in this issue. Also, this is a thing I like to do——take a character who flies and fly them through the battleground. Then I turn the scene by having Hank grow right in front of her so you really get a real sense of scale of something overwhelming in front of her. Then we back up the camera to show how big he got and how overwhelming it is.
