UPDATE 6/7/2015 9:00 PM PT: Brian Michael Bendis reached out via Twitter for a clarification on his comments involving Spider-Man's potential appearance in next year's Marvel Studios film "Captain America: Civil War": "I said the same readers who were upset about spidey in avengers weren't by the time the spidey civil war rumors popped up"


Because of his hugely successful and influential comics career spanning the past 15 years, writer Brian Michael Bendis seemed to get the red carpet treatment at Special Edition: NYC. Not only did Marvel announce one of his post-"Secret Wars" series, but Bendis also received his very own spotlight panel. With a resume including lengthy stints on "Ultimate Spider-Man," "New Avengers," "All-New X-Men," "Daredevil" and more, as well as the PlayStation Network's adaptation of "Powers," fans in attendance had plenty to ask Bendis about.

The first thing Bendis said after sitting down was, "I have it on good authority that we have fifteen solid minutes of good audio before the next panel starts." The audience laughed, and Marvel's Ryan "Agent M" Penagos kicked off his job as moderator. Before the floor opened for questions, Penagos mentioned that he has a few bullet points to work through -- the first one being Bendis' new book "Invincible Iron Man."

"Let's make this the official announcement because yesterday's was terrible," said Bendis. "There were three panels going on at once and you couldn't hear us. Come this October, the entire creative team of 'Miles Morales' will come to Iron Man with new armor, new romantic interest, new villains and a whopper of a last page for the first issue."

Now that we know Tony Stark's parents are not his biological parents, Bendis promised that he will explore that aspect of his past. Penagos asked if Bendis' own experience with adopting will factor into his "Iron Man" run, and Bendis said that he's been approached about doing graphic novels about adoption. "It takes up a lot of my brain space and I have feelings and emotions about it," said Bendis. "Now I get to write about it in a fictional way through Tony's perspective. Now I have all this experience and a place to do it in a way that won't damage my children in the future."

"We've been talking about [doing 'Iron Man'] for years," said Bendis. "[Editor] Tom Brevoort has always liked my Iron Man, but I always have Iron Man in a book that I was doing so it always scratched that itch. He was in 'Avengers' and 'Guardians' and in 'Civil War,' I got to do the best Iron Man stuff because Mark Millar wasn't interested in it at all. After this storyline, it does leave Tony in a great place as far as I'm concerned... Some of you guys know Matt Fraction is one of my best friends and he killed it on 'Iron Man' and Kieron did a great job. When I was on 'Daredevil' it was daunting. I wanted to make sure I had a unique perspective on it."

Penagos asked Bendis when was the first time he wrote Iron Man, to which Bendis said it was an adaptation of an Avengers novelization. "It was an Ultron novel," said Bendis. "They used to do these Marvel paperbacks, they were cheap novels; I would use them as a script to draw from. I drew seventy pages of Iron Man fighting Ultron. If anyone doubts my Iron Man love, I got proof! Professionally, literally the first time Marvel said you can do whatever you want, the third issue of 'Ultimate Marvel Team-Up' was Iron Man. As soon as I could get him in there I did."

Bendis talked about how the films have changed writing Tony, saying that the two actors that have had the most impact on their characters were Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier and Robert Downey Jr. as Stark. "I don't hear his voice, but there's an inflection for how he says shitty stuff about people to him under his breath, that part I think of a lot when writing Tony," said Bendis. "We know people who are that smart and you can see they are done with a conversation. Tony is multitasking while you are eating. There's a book called 'On Intelligence' and it was written by one of the guys that invented the smart phone and it's about why the human brain cannot yet program artificial intelligence. That's a main source for when I write Tony Stark's voice."

Penagos confirmed that the new Iron Man is still Tony, to which Bendis noted that Marvel has done so much with legacy heroes lately that asking if it's actually Stark in the armor is a good question. Bendis also went on to say that the basis of Iron Man is that it's "a boy with his toy, it's a hot rod, it's someone building the coolest thing he can build. The coolest thing would be if one armor was all the armors; the new armor can transform into all of Tony's previous armors. He's got all thirty armors and more on at once."

Penagos asked Bendis about the supporting cast, particularly the new love interest. "There are new characters in the book, and there are other characters from other Marvel books that will be in the book -- and it's not Kitty Pryde," said Bendis. "Kitty is now one of the Watchers or something -- I forgot what we did with her. There are surprise characters in the Marvel Universe that have never been in 'Iron Man' before and they're major players in the Marvel Universe. I'll give you a hint: Tony really likes redheads."

When the topic shifted to the "Powers" TV show, Bendis noted that he will be in Los Angeles in twenty-four hours starting work on the second season of the show. "I don't want to spoilt anything but there was a big death at the end of the firs t season that is actually the title of our first graphic novel, so season two is 'Who Killed Retro Girl.' The murderer isn't the same as the comic; the tone is going to be very 'John Wick'-ish. And we don't have ratings, so we can get as dirty as we want. It's going to be porn now! No but really, we're going to get darker and naughtier. Our lead actor Sharlto Copley read the new issues of 'Powers' where his character is at his darkest and he said that he wants to do it. It's not all the time that you get an actor saying they want to go into the abyss like that." Bendis noted that he will be more involved in the production of season two and will write more episodes. PlayStation also said they want the show to be more like the book, and Bendis said "that's something I can do." Artist Michael Avon Oeming will also be in the writers' room, drawing during meetings and producing storyboard art live during discussions.

"The whole point of writing comics is not wearing pants, and doing this show and having a writers' room and doing your own show is cool, but it's not as cool as not wearing pants to work," said Bendis. "When I was offered a job at Marvel to be on the editorial staff, I was like, 'It's amazing, but I have to get up and go to work' which defeats the purpose of everything I've been building!"

Penagos shifted the conversation to "Words for Pictures," the book Bendis wrote about writing comics. "I teach writing at Portland State and Random House said they wanted to turn my course into a book," said Bendis. "Everyone in comics lives in Portland, so every week I have a different writer come in and describe their writing process. The book is that, them discussing how they write and also run their business. Basically, it's the class I wish I could have taken and the book I wish I had when I was coming up."

The floor opened up to questions, with an attendee asking if we will ever see the caveman origins of "Powers" on the show. "If we can get to season five, we're doing it absolutely," said Bendis. "We go way back to the earliest dawn of man and do a '2001' riff in 'Powers' throughout time in the issue." Bendis also said that they have talked about doing a Deena Pilgrim limited series, but there are no concret plans for one. Bendis did tease that there will be much more of Deena in season two of "Powers." In addition to more "Powers" issues, Bendis said that more "Briliant," "Scarlet," "Takio" and "United States of Murder Inc." is on the way; he also teased that "Brilliant," his series with artist Mark Bagley, "is closer to being a TV show than you think."

Bendis' early works -- "Torso," "Jinx" and "Goldfish" -- came up next, with Bendis saying that Charlize Theron was attached to "Jinx" before "Aeon Flux" happened. Bendis stated that David Fincher worked on a "Torso" adaptation for a year, which would have starred Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman and Rachel McAdams and was greenlit. Then Fincher had "a big fight with Paramount and it all went away three days later. I spent a whole day with David Fincher and I told him how much I loved him and he told me he had convinced them that the movie was going to be black and white -- but it didn't happen."

Someone asked what Hawkeye saw behind the door in that highly discussed issue of "New Avengers," to which Bendis said he knows what it was but that he wants to leave it up to interpretation. "Some people think it's Agatha Harkness' corpse, some people think it's nothing." Bendis cited the whisper from Scarlett Johansson's character to Bill Murray at the end of "Lost in Translation," stating that there are some things in stories that he believes should be left open.

A fan asked what it would take for Bendis to tear up his Marvel contract and go write for DC. "I think it would entail the collapse of society where contracts don't matter anymore. There's a lot of guys at DC that I like, they're good dudes, honestly -- I look over there and ask if there's anything I want to do. There's nothing over there at the moment that I want to do more than write Iron Man. My contract was up and you can't help but sniff around, but the challenge of [writing 'Iron Man'] is the greatest in the world. On top of my genuine feelings about this, it's Joe Quesada and Dan Buckley who pulled me out of 'Torso' and gave me 'Daredevil' and let me start Spider-Man over from scratch. They didn't know me; they just liked my stuff. That's a loyalty I can only respond back to with loyalty. Loyalty is one of the few things that really matters. A few years ago, Dark Horse came to me and asked if I wanted to do 'Star Wars' or 'Indiana Jones,' and a few years ago I got offered 'Batman,' but I had to turn it down. The twelve-year-old in me is like, 'What's going on?' And I wouldn't do Batman if I went to DC, I'd do Plastic Man."

When asked about Goldballs and where Goldballs' gold balls go when they poink off panel, Bendis joked that there's a page in "Uncanny X-Men" #600 featuring Kang in a room filled with gold balls. Seriously, though, Bendis mentioned that the next issue of "Uncanny" -- issue #35 -- will focus on Goldballs.

Bendis talked about what's in store for the new mutants he created for X-Men and if he worries about their fate after he leaves the book. "It's like they're going off to college, it's a unique feeling truthfully. I've had a lot of luck in this area [which characters I created], with Maria Hill and Jessica Jones. I know who is following me on X-Men and I'm very happy with where they're going to go -- it's Scott Snyder," joked Bendis with a laugh. "I know where they're going and I know what they're doing; I don't give notes or try to goad the new writer into a direction. I'm thrilled. When I took over 'Avengers' years ago, I was destructive when I started; with 'X-Men' I tried to be additive and leave more toys in the toy box. That's what I'm doing with 'Iron Man,' too. I want to be additive to the Marvel Universe."

A fan praised Bendis for starting "New Avengers" and bringing in non-Avengers A-listers into the franchise, to which Bendis said that the initial Marvel retreat where they decided to bring Spider-Man into the team caused some Marvel writers to vehemently argue with the loner character's inclusion. Bendis added, "When some writers heard Spider-Man was going to be in 'Civil War,' the movie -- allegedly -- there was the same reaction." At this surprise name drop, Bendis looked at Penagos, who shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, in regards to Spider-Man being in "Civil War." "Or he's in 'Batman v Superman!" added Bendis, with a laugh. [Editor's note: As seen in the comments above, Bendis reached out to clarify he was comparing reader reaction to rumors.]