Writer Brian Michael Bendis kicked off his almost decade-long run on Marvel's Avengers titles in 2004. One of the central characters of that run was founding Avenger Tony Stark, AKA the Invincible Iron Man. Bendis said good bye to Tony's comrades in 2012, but the armored Avenger came with the writer over to "Guardians of the Galaxy" where he served a brief tour of duty with the intergalactic team. In other words, Bendis has a very firm grasp on the role Tony Stark plays within the Marvel Universe.

Bendis & Marquez to Relaunch "Invincible Iron Man" Under All-New, All-Different Marvel


This fall, the writer will take a deeper dive into the life of the world famous armored Avenger and examine what makes him tick as a solo hero when he and his "Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man" collaborators David Marquez & Justin Ponsor launch a new volume of "Invincible Iron Man" as part of "All-New, All-Different Marvel." The project was announced Saturday at Special Edition: NYC and CBR News spoke with Bendis about his plans for Tony Stark, Iron Man's rogues, and how an iconic image from Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 3" influenced and inspired his upcoming run.

CBR News: After "Secret Wars" wraps, you and your "Ultimate Spider-Man: Miles Morales" collaborators David Marquez and Justin Ponsor will kick off a new volume of "Invincible Iron Man." "Secret Wars" is still ongoing so I understand you can't share too many concrete details, but what elements of Tony Stark's life are you examining? Which elements of the character are you excited to explore?

Brian Michael Bendis: Iron Man was a highly requested project for me from Marvel over the years, but there wasn't really ever a time or a place for me to do it. Now though David Marquez and I are done on ["Ultimate] Spider-Man" and we wanted to try something new that was almost completely different. We wanted to do this with [colorist] Justin Ponsor, too. So it's the entire creative team of "Miles Morales" coming to Iron Man with a very specific idea of embracing the fact that Tony Stark is probably the most well known super hero in our world and the Marvel Universe.


And with that there's certainly room to build his rogues gallery up. When compared to other heroes of his ilk, his rogues gallery is a little shallow. So David and I have spent the year developing brand new villains, a new armor with new powers, a new love interest, and really building the world around him in a very substantial way.

Nothing that takes away from anything that went before, but we'll have all these new ideas, plus thank god for Kieron Gillen! He dropped this huge bomb about Tony Stark being adopted and didn't even give a hint as to who his biological parents are. So that's a giant piece of Tony that we will be developing.


Also there's a whopper at the end of the first issue that will set the tone and the story for what our first year on the book is, and it's a doozy! It's a big "Secret Wars" spoiler so I'm going to have to keep it under wraps, but it's certainly a thing that people are going to be talking the most about, who shows up at the end of the first issue.

You mentioned you're interested in Tony's past as an adopted child -- does that mean you'll be playing with his brother Arno as well?

All of that will be played with, so yes.

Iron Man is a character that has lived on both coasts of the United States and that some times influences the types of stories being told with the character. Can you reveal if Tony will be based in New York in this new volume of "Invincible Iron Man" or will he be headed to the West Coast?

He'll be in Portland. All of my characters are moving to Portland. Let's write the creative team into the comics. So all of the super heroes will be living in Portland! And all the people in New York will be wondering what the hell is going on over here. [Laughs]

No, he'll be in New York for now. Tony's got a different lifestyle than the other super heroes, though. So just because he's in New York in this story line doesn't mean that's where he'll be in six months.

The other large looming question I can't imagine you can touch on until "Secret Wars" is over is what sort of Tony Stark will readers be getting in this new volume of "Invincible Iron Man." After all, the final issue of "Superior Iron Man" left the inverted Tony Stark in place.

I know -- dun dun duh! [Laughs] To say any more is actually spoiling someone else's book and that I cannot do.

That's totally understandable.

I can say, though, that I'm very excited! This is easily the most requested thing I've been asked to do in my time at Marvel. Now I finally have the time to do it. All the stars aligned including the right creative partners on it.


There was this little thing in "Iron Man 3" where at the end of the movie he picks up a little screwdriver and looks at it. I saw different cuts of the movie and in one cut that I saw that was the last shot of the movie. I loved that so much! It was just this shot of him looking at this screwdriver and within this screwdriver is all of his future. He could build anything with this little screwdriver. I loved that scene so much that it's referenced in issue #1. So you can kind of see this as "Iron Man 4" until there is an "Iron Man 4." That was the inspiration that took me through this whole thing.

It must be pretty fun and exciting getting a chance to really dive into Tony via a solo book after spending so many years with him as a member of team books you've written like the Avengers titles and "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Yeah, that was the funny thing. Tom Brevoort has been saying that I should take over "Iron Man" for a while, but I always had a book that scratched that itch. I always had "Avengers" or "Guardians of the Galaxy," so Tony was always floating around in my books which meant I was never eager to do this.


Also Matt Fraction killed on his ["Invincible Iron Man"] run! I didn't want to follow that. Finally though with "Secret Wars" a lot happened and I can do this the way I want to do it, and this is it.

"Invincible Iron Man" by Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez & Justin Ponsor debuts in October from Marvel Comics.