Brian Michael Bendis Talks Detective Comics 1000 And Event Leviathan Exclusive

Part Of Something Huge

Detective Comics 1000 is out now from DC and here’s Brian Michael Bendis, who has contributed to the milestone issue, talking about his story and offering a few clues about the next DC epic, Event Leviathan, coming in June, to Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows…

TRIPWIRE: What do you think accounts for the longevity of Batman?

BMB: When I was first coming to DC, I was doing this massive reread of everything. I was finding myself having a little bit of opening-night jitters about writing Batman because Batman has been the focus of so many of my favourite artists’ best art. So many of our heroes have expressed themselves perfectly on Batman and I wasn’t sure where I fit in on all that.

And I found this quote by Frank Miller where he, and I’m paraphrasing, said that Batman is unique to pop culture because it has been proven that you can throw literally anything at Batman and it remains Batman. You can be as silly as Lego Batman and as dark as some of Scott Snyder’s or Grant Morrison’s violent work… and the audience still sees Batman. There’s no other character like that.

TW: You wrote something for Action Comics 1000 which ushered in your career at DC and now you have created a new story for another milestone issue for a DC title. Is there any extra pressure creating something for a significant milestone like this?

BMB: There is always pressure. These anniversary issues that DC does have always been among my favourite comics ever made. Superman 400 and Justice League 200 are the gold standard in which books like this can be accomplished. These jam issues. These high-end anthologies. So yes, personally I feel a lot of responsibility to bring something special. And with Batman short stories that’s an even more daunting task– all the beautiful batman anthologies that DC has done over the decades featuring some of the greatest writers and artists of all time in any generation in any field. You really have to think about what you can say about Batman and his world in just a few pages

TW: What was your approach for creating the story with Alex Maleev for Detective Comics 1000?

BMB: Well, on top of everything else I just explained, Alex and I have been thinking about what we would do if we were given Batman since we were on daredevil. The entire time we were at marvel people would fantasize about us doing Batman together. Including Alex 🙂 

Plus we were secretly offered Batman back in those days and so we really thought about. So I knew how important this was to Alex in particular and I wanted to give him something that he could really dive into.

TW: You have worked a lot with Maleev so did you tailor a story that would flex slightly different artistic muscles for him with this story?

BMB: Well, actually these are the artistic muscles Alex and I have been stretching in our creator-owned book called Scarlet which DC publishes, on sale now. It’s Alex doing his full digitally painted lush world. Alex has been in the forefront of digital comic art since its inception.  so I have been laser focused on writing towards him and his world and his talent all this time.

TW: Have you seen any of the other stories in Detective Comics 1000 or did you deliberately try and avoid seeing any of them?

BMB: Well, I think we were early in. And just because the way that the schedules work out, Alex finished his story before some people have even started. I was more concerned about if someone else had covered this territory somewhere else and I either forgot about it or had never seen it. Because with Batman, it’s some thousands of publications.

TW: You’ve been at DC for over a year now so do you feel settled at the company now?

BMB: It’s been an amazing year. I would usually feel obnoxious saying this but people were witness to it. We got all our books out and they’re all gorgeous. Jinxworld has had its best year ever. DC wonder comics keeps selling out and going back to press. Our Superman books landed on a lot of the end of the year best lists…

DC kept every promise they made us and then some. Just last night, I just had an amazing dinner within Dan Didio and Bob Harras laying out plans for the next couple of years and I have never been more excited. I am so lucky that I get to experience this again after I had it at marvel.

TW: Has it made you want to write more Batman stories?

BMB: Well, I actually HAVE been writing Batman all year. When I first came to DC I was offered to be part of the Walmart exclusive content that DC has been providing. So I have been working on a 12 part Batman epic called Batman universe with the amazing Nick Derington. It’s very different from the story that you’re seeing here because you can throw anything at Batman and it’s still Batman, 🙂

But its letting us take batman all over the DC universe. We’re having so much fun . Its found exclusively in action alley in Walmart stores here in the U.S.

We have been asking for EVEN more, too. Right after this, Alex and I embark on a massive DC mystery epic entitled Event Leviathan. Someone has taken out all the secret organizations in the DC universe and build something very dangerous in its place. 

The major detectives of the DC universe, including Batman, Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Lois Lane, Manhunter and the Question are getting together to solve this big mystery. It’s huge and scary and guest stars everyone in the DC universe but Batman fans are going to be beside themselves with to see who shows up. Batgirl, Robin, the Red hood….

TW: If you had to pick one Batman story or series that you would say was your favourite, what would it be and why?

BMB: That is so difficult. But The Dark Knight Returns was the first thing that popped in my head so I’m gonna go with that.

Detective Comics 1000 is out now and Event Leviathan #1 comes out in June, both from DC Comics.

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