COMICS: Brian Michael Bendis On The Future Of The Avengers; Awesome Preview Art Unveiled!

Talking to Comic Book Resources recently, writer Brian Michael Bendis has dropped a ton of new details about what the upcoming months have in store for Earth's Mightiest Heroes, as well as teasing Marvel's big plans for the characters in 2012 to coincide with the highly anticipated movie from Joss Whedon, The Avengers. For the full interview, and even more fantastic preview art, be sure to click on the link below to head on over to the site.

On Daredevil's Decision To Join The 'New Avengers':

Daredevil doesn't set out to join the New Avengers. He get's dragged into working with them. He makes a big splash with the New Avengers during 'Fear itself.' He comes in and has a really great moment that gets everyone feeling like he should be part of the team. The wounds of Shadowland are still a little raw, but the friendships between the characters are that much stronger. Matt's not asking for a second chance or even believes he needs it, but once he's given it, he realizes how much he needed it. The fact that the invitation to join the Avengers comes after Shadowland makes it that much more emotional. It's like, 'You guys really are my friends.' I think that's what makes the invitation impossible to turn down."

"The biggest shake-ups are coming to the 'Avengers' title. There will be some surprises that we're not showing people yet," Bendis said. "In 'New Avengers,' we'll be sharing Iron Fist and Doctor Strange. Matt Fraction, the writer of the new 'Defenders' series, is one of my closest friends in comics. He's over my house quite often, so we can share these characters. I already share Wolverine, Spider-Man and the Thing."

What a great thing that I'll be able to say that I got work with Neal Adams once and it was a very nice experience! He could not have been more gentlemanly and cool. At first I asked him, 'What do you want to draw?' and he said, 'I want to draw your best scripts.' I just thought, there are some artists where you write to their strengths, you let them draw stuff they're very comfortable drawing. And there's other artists where you go, 'You know what? I've never seen him draw Iron Fist. I don't think I've ever seen him draw Spider-Man.' So I called up my editor Tom Brevoort and asked him if Neal had ever drawn Spider-Man outside of a pin-up or things like that.

Then I went through my cast, and I don't think he's drawn any of these characters. I think he's drawn the Thing in a couple panels here and there, but I don't think he's drawn pages of the Thing kicking ass. I was like, 'Has he drawn Wolverine?' I decided I was going to fill the page full of characters and things I don't think I've seen him draw. I thought he would love that, and he did. He went nuts. Paul Mounts' colors look great and it begins our next 'season' for both of my Avengers books, which is the return of Norman Osborn, H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Dark Avengers.

Last year, Simon made it very clear to the Avengers that from his outside looking in perspective, he now sees the Avengers as a mistake. He holds them responsible for quite a few sins against mankind and he's pretty much told them, 'Shut it down or I'll shut it down for you. Obviously they weren't going to shut it down, so he's here to shut things down for them. To help him, he's created a team of Revengers that is composed of ex-Avengers and people with ties to the team. It's going to be a beating so big, it will continue over into the pages of 'Avengers Annual' #1 in a couple months. Both issues will be drawn by Gabriele Dell'Otto.

"I don't know if you heard, but there's an Avengers movie coming out. A very big movie starring very big movie stars, and Marvel has asked me to think about what I could do to capitalize on that. I have quite a few things on my plate, including some things that haven't been announced yet. Some of these things are going to be very exciting for a lot of people. We're going to break some molds. We're going to do things very differently coming up through the spring and summer. The fallout of the H.A.M.M.E.R. story is going to set up a great deal of what is coming forward; a season that I see as the Summer of the Avengers."