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52-682: The Fantastic Five first appeared in What If #105 (February 1998), an issue that focused on Spider-Girl , the daughter of Spider-Man . Spider-Girl became popular and was given her own series, along with the other characters in the MC2 universe (including the Fantastic Five). The Fantastic Five's series lasted only five issues, but they remained recurring characters in the Spider-Girl title, which lasted for 100 issues in its first volume. In

104-537: A point of divergence in that event and then describing the consequences of the divergence. Some stories diverge from another divergence, such as What If Vol 1 #43 ( Conan the Barbarian remains in the modern era), which diverges from #13 (Conan travels to then returns from the modern era). Uatu was used similarly in the second series (1989–1998) until a point where, in the Fantastic Four comic book, Uatu

156-618: A #-1 issue) the second series revisited and revised ideas from volume 1. In volume 2, stories could span multiple issues (every issue of volume 1 contained a complete story). Also, sometimes, the volume 2 stories would offer multiple plots and endings and the reader could decide which one to adopt. For example, in What If the War Machine had not destroyed the Living Laser ? , three endings were offered. The humorous aspect of volume 1

208-897: A Bow and Arrows? Collected in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol 9 What If? Daredevil Had a Dishonest Tailor? What If? the Punisher Got Funky? What If? Ghost Rider Hit a Puddle? What If? Daredevil (untitled) What If... Namor Worked As a Stunt Double for Mr. Spock? Collected in Giant-Size X-Men 40th Anniversary What If? The Human Torch and Iceman were Partners? (humor special with 23 stories) Collected in X-Men: Alterniverse Visions What If? Wolverine Was

260-670: A Real Job? Collected in Secret Wars Omnibus Collected in Marvel Universe by Rob Liefeld Omnibus What If... Captain America Hadn't Been Thawed Out? What If... the Punisher Didn't Use Guns? Collected in Giant-Size X-Men 40th Anniversary What If? The Thing's body kept mutating? What If... The Thing Were an Elvis Presley Impersonator? What If... Hawkeye Used Golf Clubs Instead of

312-613: A book about comics published by Random House . Brian Michael Bendis was born on August 18, 1967, in Cleveland , Ohio to a Jewish-American family. Bendis grew up in University Heights where, despite rebelling against a religious upbringing, he attended the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland , a private, modern Orthodox religious school for boys. He decided he wanted to be a comic book industry professional when he

364-529: A college-aged Peter Parker, and was written to tie-into the then-unreleased 2002 film Spider-Man . The pilot episode that Bendis wrote became the third episode aired. His dismay at being credited for something written by someone else, and the multitude of corporate and legal departments involved in the animation process soured him on the show. Bendis was one of the writers on the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, which debuted in 2012. He

416-564: A new Moon Knight series with Maleev, which concluded with issue 12. In 2012, in conjunction with Marvel Studios' feature film The Avengers , Bendis began writing a new Avengers comic, Avengers Assemble . Bendis wrote the first eight issues of Avengers Assemble , a series that premiered in March 2012 that featured a new incarnation of the Zodiac, as well as the return of the Guardians of

468-461: A period within that of "nine years" living as a stereotypical 'starving artist'. In 1996–1997, Bendis moved from Caliber to Image Comics , where Jinx and his other previous crime comics were published by Image's Shadowline arm in trade paperback . At Image, he also produced five more issues of Jinx . Impressed with A.K.A. Goldfish , Image founder Todd McFarlane sought out Bendis, which led to his writing Sam and Twitch . Although set in

520-404: A planned, but ultimately unproduced, Nick Fury story. Marvel Comics President Bill Jemas , on the recommendation of Quesada, hired Bendis to write Ultimate Spider-Man , which debuted in 2000, and was targeted at the new generation of readers. Bendis adapted the 11-page origin story of Spider-Man from 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15 into a seven issues story arc, with Peter Parker becoming

572-437: A prelude to Secret Invasion . After Marvel's 2006 " Civil War " storyline, Bendis helmed another Avengers revival, launching Mighty Avengers with Frank Cho in 2007. Post-"Secret Invasion", Bendis left Mighty Avengers with issue #20 and wrote Secret Invasion: Dark Reign , a one-shot that preceded another ongoing Avengers series, Dark Avengers . In 2009, Bendis and former Daredevil collaborator Maleev launched

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624-467: A vested owner about developing a property as a tangible asset with the future in mind," rather than only working on his own characters under his own terms. In 1998, Bendis co-wrote and illustrated the Eliot Ness -starring Torso with Marc Andreyko, again for Image, and in 2000 he produced three issues of the autobiographical Fortune and Glory for Oni Comics . That same year saw the debut of

676-736: The Golden Apple Comics chain [of comic shops] in Los Angeles . Bendis's best-known early work, Jinx , starring the titular bounty hunter in a crime noir version of the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , began publication in 1996, and ran for seven issues from Caliber. He characterizes much of this period of his professional life in terms of working as "a graphic artist for almost twelve years", undergoing

728-520: The Spawn universe, Bendis approached Sam and Twitch primarily as a crime comic. He wrote Sam and Twitch for twenty issues, as well as most of the first ten issues of Hellspawn , another Spawn spin-off title. This non-creator-owned work allowed him to, in the words of Rich Kriener in The Comics Journal , "[add] the responsibility of caretaker to his resume, in that he would answer to

780-535: The Starjammers story, which gained him an A+ grade for imagination and inventiveness. At 19, Bendis began attending the Cleveland Institute of Art , while working at a downtown comic book store where he eventually sold some of his early work. Between the ages of 20 and 25, he sent in a large number of submissions to comics companies, although he ultimately abandoned this approach to breaking into

832-582: The What If comics premiered on Disney+ , set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe 's multiverse . The stories of the inaugural series (1977–1984) feature the alien Uatu , the Watcher as a narrator . From his base on the Moon , Uatu observes both Earth and alternate realities . Most What If stories begin with Uatu describing an event in the mainstream Marvel Universe, then introducing

884-417: The " Heroic Age ". Also in 2010, Bendis launched Scarlet through Icon Comics , his first new creator-owned comic book in over a decade, re-teaming once again with Maleev. In February 2011, Icon released the all-ages graphic novel , Takio by Bendis and his Powers collaborator Mike Oeming, and in mid-2011 a maxiseries called Brilliant with artist Bagley. Bendis's other 2011 projects included

936-542: The Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol 5 Collected in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol 6 Following the cancellation of the original series, Marvel published a one-shot What If? Special (June 1988) with the story "What If Iron Man Had Been a Traitor?". It is collected in What If? Into the Multiverse Omnibus Vol 1. From July 1989 to November 1998, Marvel published 115 monthly What If issues (114 issues plus

988-560: The Fantastic Five, including Super-Storm (Torus Storm, son of Lyja and Johnny Storm, who possesses the powers of both parents), Grim (Jacob "Jake" Grimm, son of Ben Grimm, stuck in a rock-like form like his father), and Rad (Alyce Grimm, daughter of Ben Grimm, sister of Jacob, appears to have radiation-oriented powers, including flight). Doom, aka Kristoff Vernard , is also a member of the "young" Fantastic Five; he wears armor similar to Doctor Doom 's. A new Fantastic Five mini-series

1040-557: The Galaxy , which teamed with the Avengers against Thanos. Bendis concluded his stint on Avengers and New Avengers in 2012 with the "End Times" arc. His final issue of Avengers , released September 2012, was a "jam issue", featuring splash pages by Marvel artists including Walt Simonson , Jim Cheung , and Leinil Yu . Following Marvel's "Marvel NOW!" relaunch of its titles, Bendis took on writing duties on All New X-Men , which saw

1092-561: The Marvel Universe . These stories explained the origins of some of Marvel's superhuman species. The initial 47-issue series ran from February 1977 to October 1984. The first What If story was "What If Spider-Man had Joined the "Fantastic Four?". It presented an alternate version of events seen in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963). What If #24, which is titled "What If Gwen Stacy had lived?" and focuses on

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1144-552: The New Avengers / X-Men crossover, " House of M ", which would retroactively be considered the second act of a three-act super-event beginning with "Avengers Disassembled" and culminating in the Bendis-written 2008 storyline " Secret Invasion ". Bendis also wrote the storyline " Secret War ", which was published between 2004 and 2005. The series, which was not connected to the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars , served as

1196-608: The Ultimate line, including Ultimate Marvel Team-Up , which Bendis pitched to Marvel as a follow-up to Ultimate Spider-Man , as well as Ultimate Fantastic Four , Ultimate X-Men , Ultimate Origins , Ultimate Six , the first three issues of Ultimate Power , and the Ultimate Comics: Doomsday metaseries . In 2011, Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli created the Miles Morales character as

1248-1065: The Worst There Was At What He Does? Collected in Iron Man 2020 What If... Spider-Man Killed the Lizard? Collected in Death's Head: Freelance Peacekeeping Agent Collected in Avengers: Galactic Storm Vol. 2 Collected in X-Men: Alterniverse Visions Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis ( / ˈ b ɛ n d ɪ s / ; born August 18, 1967) is an American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime and noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero work. While at Marvel Comics , Bendis worked with Bill Jemas and Mark Millar as

1300-732: The character to eventually evolve naturally. His depiction of Aunt May in Ultimate Spider-Man , for example, strongly resembles his mother. Bendis met his wife Alisa in 1995 through the Cleveland chapter of the Hillel Foundation , where Alisa worked and Bendis was a staff illustrator. The two were married within a year. Alisa Bendis manages JINXWORLD, the company through which Bendis produces his creator-owned and licensed comics work. They have four children, of which three are daughters. Bendis's oldest daughter, Olivia,

1352-487: The comics have been published in 14 series as well as occasional stand-alone issues. In 2024, Marvel announced that What If…? would expand to include alternate explorations of continuity within other non-Marvel Universe properties owned by their parent company The Walt Disney Company from its fifteenth volume onwards, beginning with Aliens: What If…? , based on the Alien franchise . In 2021, an animated series based on

1404-437: The comics industry, including Mike Oeming , Dave Mack and Marc Andreyko , and began the first in a series of independent noir fiction crime comics when he published two issues of Fire in 1993 and five issues of A.K.A. Goldfish in 1994 with Caliber. In 1995 he illustrated Flaxen from a script by James Hudnall , with David Mack providing inks to the story featuring former Playboy Playmate Susie Owens as mascot of

1456-1390: The consequences of Spider-Man's secret identity being publicly exposed, is one of the most highly regarded What If stories. Collected in Invaders Omnibus Collected in Conan the Barbarian: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol 4 Collected in The Eternals: The Complete Saga Omnibus Collected in Phoenix Omnibus and Dark Phoenix Saga Omnibus Collected in Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Vol 16 and Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Omnibus Collected in Marvel Masterworks: Dazzler Vol. 2 and Dazzler Omnibus Collected in Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Vol. 16; Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson; and What If: Dark Avengers Collected in Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus Vol Collected in Nova: Richard Rider Omnibus Collected in Conan

1508-561: The first series, "Big Brain" is a drone controlled from the Negative Zone , where Sue Storm is held in stasis, with her powers are holding back a breach in reality. When this problem is corrected, Reed and Sue return to Earth. The team also appears in Last Hero Standing and Last Planet Standing . In Spider-Girl and Last Planet Standing , additional children of the original Fantastic Four are shown as members of

1560-649: The industry, considering it too much of a "lottery." Best known as a writer, Bendis started out as an artist, doing work for local magazines and newspapers, including caricature work. He worked at The Plain Dealer as an illustrator. Although he did not enjoy caricature work, it paid well and funded his interest in writing crime fiction for graphic novels . He eventually moved into both writing and illustrating his work, before he began producing work for Caliber Comics , including Spunky Todd . Through Caliber, he met many of his longtime friends and collaborators within

1612-464: The introduction of the Neil Gaiman character Angela into the Marvel Universe. On July 22, 2014, Random House published Bendis's instruction book on comics, Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels. The day after that book's publication, CBR.com published an interview in which Bendis talked about the course on writing Graphic Novels he had taught for

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1664-550: The long-delayed Spider-Woman , following up on her role in the "Secret Invasion" storyline. Spider-Woman was the first comic book to be offered simultaneously on the Internet as a "motion comic" and in comic stores in print form. Bendis re-teamed with Olivier Coipel for the 2009 crossover series " Siege ", which brought the "Dark Reign" storyline to a close, and with-it, Dark Avengers . Springboarding out of Siege , Bendis relaunched both Avengers and New Avengers as part of

1716-498: The names used for boxers mentioned by a corrupt boxing manager in the 2003 Daredevil movie. Also in 2001, Bendis helped launch Marvel's non- Comics Code -approved, adult MAX imprint with Alias , featuring former superhero Jessica Jones operating as a private investigator . The series ran for 28 issues before many of the characters moved to Bendis's mainstream Marvel Universe series The Pulse . In 2004 Powers moved from Image to Marvel's creator-owned imprint Icon , where it

1768-591: The new character was popular enough for a spin-off series. From this, the MC2 line of publications were developed. For a brief period between 1995 and 1996, all What If? stories were labeled as Marvel Alterniverse which included the likes of Ruins , The Last Avengers Story and Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe . What If... Franklin Richards Had Found the Hammer of Thor? What If... Wolverine Got

1820-476: The new version of the Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis wrote every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, including its second iteration, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man . Quesada offered Bendis the writing duties on Daredevil , which he took over in 2001, writing most of the subsequent 55 issues until 2006, collaborating mostly with artist Alex Maleev . As a major Daredevil author, Bendis's name is one of

1872-552: The past few years, initially at Portland State University , and beginning with the Fall 2013 semester, at the University of Oregon . His decision to teach came at the urging of Dark Horse Comics editor Diana Schutz . Among the works he employs as teaching guides are the works of Scott McCloud and Will Eisner . In November 2017, Bendis announced via Twitter that he would be working exclusively with DC Comics . His DC debut

1924-426: The return of the original 1960s X-Men to the present, Uncanny X-Men , whose focus shifts to Cyclops' team of X-Men going rogue after the events of "Avengers Vs. X-Men", and Guardians of the Galaxy , picking up where his Avengers Assemble run left off. Bendis wrote the " Age of Ultron " crossover storyline, which included an eponymous 10-issue miniseries, that was published between March and June 2013. Issue 10 saw

1976-602: The screenplay adaptation of A.K.A. Goldfish for Miramax , and the screenplay adaptation of Jinx for Universal Pictures . In 2014, he wrote the plot of the Disney Infinity 2.0 video game. In 2013, he was named on IGN 's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", in part for his frequent Twitter posts highlighting the work of other creators. When creating characters, Bendis says that he always begins with someone he knows and builds upon that inspiration, allowing

2028-402: The source novels of both Thompson and Dashiell Hammett , which helped cement his love for crime stories . These, in turn, led him to discover the documentary Visions of Light , which taught him the visual "rules" of film noir , an important influence on him creatively. While in high school, he submitted a " Creative Writing assignment", a novelization of Chris Claremont 's X-Men and

2080-509: The streaming service HBO Max . The show is set to be based on his run of the comic book series and will not connect to the original animated series . In addition to his primary work in comics, Bendis has produced written work in several other media, such as video games , TV and film. Bendis was the co-executive producer and series- pilot writer for Mainframe Entertainment 's 2003 animated Spider-Man show, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that aired on MTV and YTV , which features

2132-491: The superhero police/ noir detective series Powers , co-created with and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming and published by Image. Powers won major comics industry awards, including Harvey , Eisner , and Eagle Awards . Around the time Bendis began Sam and Twitch , his friend David Mack began working for Joe Quesada 's Marvel Knights imprint, which Bendis was a fan of. Based on Bendis' work on Jinx , Quesada invited him to pitch ideas for Marvel Knights , which included

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2184-505: The titular hero after the fifth issue, making the book a bestseller, often surpassing in sales those of the mainstream Marvel universe title, The Amazing Spider-Man . The Bendis/Bagley partnership of 111 consecutive issues made their partnership one of the longest in American comic book history, and the longest run by a Marvel creative team, beating out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four . Bendis subsequently wrote other books in

2236-424: The work of David Mamet , Richard Price , and Aaron Sorkin , whose dialogue, Bendis said, was "the best in any medium." In addition to writing comics, Bendis has worked in television, video games and film. He has also taught courses on graphic novels at The University of Oregon and Portland State University . In 2014, Bendis wrote Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novels,

2288-552: The writer himself, makes a cameo as narrator. In the early 2006 series, a hacker , whose online alias is "the Watcher", opens each of the six issues. Marvel has given several What If stories official numerical designations to make them contiguous with the Marvel Multiverse and differentiate them from the main Marvel Universe of Earth-616 . Marvel Comics occasionally issued backup features, Untold Tales from

2340-895: The writer on the first book of the Ultimate Marvel imprint, Ultimate Spider-Man , which debuted in 2000. He relaunched the Avengers franchise with New Avengers in 2004, wrote the Marvel storylines " Avengers Disassembled " (2004-2005), " Secret War " (2004–2005), " House of M " (2005), " Secret Invasion " (2008), " Siege " (2010) and " Age of Ultron " (2013), and co-created the characters Riri Williams , Miles Morales , and Jessica Jones . Bendis has won five Eisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on various Marvel Comics books. Though he has cited comic book writers such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore , Bendis' writing influences are less rooted in comics; drawing on

2392-471: Was 13, working on his own comics, including a Punisher versus Captain America story that he revised several times. A fan of Marvel Comics in particular, he emulated idols such as George Pérez , John Romita Sr. , John Romita, Jr. , Jack Kirby , Klaus Janson and Frank Miller . He later discovered crime comics by Jim Steranko and José Muñoz , which he traced back via Jim Thompson 's work to

2444-506: Was credited as a developer and wrote several episodes for the TV adaptation of his comic, Powers , which starred Sharlto Copley and ran on PlayStation Network for two seasons from 2015 to 2016. Bendis's video game work includes Activision 's Ultimate Spider-Man video game , which Bendis wrote. He also wrote an Avengers game, which was never released. He was also a writer of Marvel's MMO, Marvel Heroes . His film work includes

2496-466: Was in Action Comics #1000 (June 2018). Ivan Reis drew the first issue of Bendis's The Man of Steel limited series, and collaborated with Bendis on the relaunched the ongoing Superman series in 2018. Bendis took over writing Action Comics following its 1,000th issue. On December 21, 2021, Bendis announced that he was developing an adult animated Legion of Super-Heroes series for

2548-477: Was published in 2007, after the success of two mini-series events set in the MC2 line. In this series, the titular characters battle Dr. Doom. What If (comics) What If , sometimes stylized as What If…? , is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics whose stories explore how the Marvel Universe might have unfolded if key moments in its history had not occurred as they did in mainstream continuity. Since What If debuted in 1977,

2600-600: Was punished for destroying another Watcher. This made the use of Uatu improbable, so the character was phased out to its last appearance in issue #76. Without a framing device , the stories themselves became the focus. In later series, some writers chose to introduce alternative narrators. For example, in volume 3, in What If Karen Page Had Lived? , What If Jessica Jones Had Joined the Avengers? and in Daredevil (2005), Brian Michael Bendis ,

2652-569: Was relaunched as Powers Vol. 2 alongside another ex-Image series, David Mack 's Kabuki . Also in 2004, Bendis oversaw the closing issues of The Avengers as part of the crossover storyline " Avengers Disassembled ". This led directly to the Bendis-helmed relaunch of one version of the eponymous team in the pages of The New Avengers . Bendis's work on this storyline included the death of Avenger Hawkeye , which proved controversial. In 2005, with artist Olivier Coipel , Bendis wrote

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2704-435: Was retained through volume 2, particularly in issue #34, an all-humor issue containing a number of single-page gags and two complete stories. Starting with issue #87, the issue titles stopped being questions that were answered by the story, and instead the covers were presented as "What If? Starring…" whatever character was being highlighted in the given issue. In issue #105, What If introduced Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker);

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