Brian Michael Bendis Reveals Avengers Comic Plans; Comments On Effect Of Movie!

The following excerpts were taken from the in-depth report over at Comic Book Resources. Make sure to click on the link below to visit the site for even more details about Brian Michael Bendis' plans for the Avengers over the next year or so, including his thoughts on working with legendary artist Neal Adams and much more.

Bendis started by announcing a new crossover between the two main Avengers titles. "We're dubbing it 'The HAMMER War' for now. It's the return of Norman Osborn and the return of the Dark Avengers. It sets up a pretty large scale, multi-tiered war for the Avengers," said Bendis, noting that Osborn's new plan for HAMMER will overwhelm the numbers of the heroes currently in the rosters for both the Avengers and the New Avengers.

The big story kicks off when Osborn's release from prison finds him confronting a willing group of followers that fans may not expect. "The plan is that Hydra, AIM and the Hand have all decided to pull together under his banner...they all see the world a similar way, and they want it taken care of. They're working together under Osborn's leadership," Bendis said, noting that characters like Madam Hydra and Gorgon may not be totally trustworthy.

The combined might of those Marvel organizations will allow the new Dark Avengers to contain stand-ins for all the biggest heroes from Thor to Spider-Man and one Iron Man-like character that's beyond "Anything Tony Stark has ever seen."

The story – which falls in the wake of "Fear Itself" – will also see a lineup change for both Avengers teams, particularly the New Avengers where aside from the already announced Daredevil, Bendis will add two characters who are "as classic as classic Avengers as you can imagine." The story will see Steve Rogers calling the shots on how to keep the teams together in the face of the big threat.

While the story will take place both in "Avengers" and "New Avengers," the war will take place on two fronts so each team won't have to meet up necessarily to fight the threat. The New Avengers will face the Dark Avengers while the Avengers will take on new threats born of the new HAMMER's technological team up.

Asked if a team up between Hydra, AIM and the Hand would make for a story that can't be topped, Bendis joked that "That's tomorrow's problem" before saying that he's made even bigger plans for next year to tie in to the "Avengers" film, so it's not too much a worry. The question of how long the Avengers and New Avengers teams would stay separate in the face of the new HAMMER, the writer said they would cross over by the third act of the story, but "Truthfully, like 85% of the people that read these books read both of them. So you want to give them a reward for sticking with it. As for the other people, you don't want to torture them, but you want to give them something cool that says, 'You haven't seen this.' There's going to be a lot going on in the books, and if you're strictly 'I'm only going to buy Avengers' you'll still get cool story."

The writer confirmed that the Ultron hints he's laid in the book are for later on in the project that will be drawn by Bryan Hitch, and he confirmed that several issues of that series are completed so it can ship monthly when it hits.

Bendis wrapped speaking on the "Avengers" film and how it will impact the franchise in comics. "This is the start of a year of what I think is going to be a really tremendous run of Avengers stories," he said, noting that the whole staff have rededicated themselves to telling big stories only Marvel Comics can do to make 2012 "The Year of The Avengers."