For an extra 45 minutes of this episode, including Bendis's behind-the-scenes commentary on how Marvel approaches producing comics events, how Secret Invasion came about, Roy Thomas's underrated contributions to the concept of a "shared universe," the fundamentals of good collaboration, the pros and cons of the Marvel Method, and NEAL FREAKIN' ADAMS' pitch for a Secret Invasion follow-up, in his OWN WORDS, subscribe at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth for just $4/month and get access to our bonus feed of more than 50 extended and exclusive bonus episodes, with more being added every week!

As for our guest: we're pretty sure that the Venn diagram of "listeners of this podcast" is completely encircled by "people who know who Brian Michael Bendis is," but here's the TL;DR just in case — he's the second-most important writer in Marvel Comics history after Stan Lee.

Here's the slightly longer version: Brian Michael Bendis is a five-time Eisner Award-winning comics creator who spent 18 years writing virtually every character in the Marvel Universe, with critically and commercially successful runs on Jessica Jones: Alias, Daredevil, Avengers (Dark, Mighty, New, and original flavor), Moon Knight, X-Men (Uncanny and All-New), Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man (Invincible, International, and Infamous), and Defenders. 

He was one of the chief architects of Marvel's Ultimate Universe, writing story arcs for Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Power, Ultimate Origins, and every single issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. His 111-consecutive-issue run on Ultimate Spider-Man with Mark Bagley holds the record for longest continuous writer/artist partnership in Marvel Comics history.

Bendis was also the driving creative force behind Marvel's biggest events of the 21st century, including House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege, Avengers vs. X-Men, Age of Ultron, X-Men: Battle of the Atom, and Civil War II. With his artistic collaborators, he's responsible for co-creating some of Marvel's most significant new characters of the last two decades, including Miles Morales, Jessica Jones, Maria Hill, Ronin, Riri "Ironheart" Williams, and Daisy "Quake" Johnson.

That doesn't even include his creator-owned work, currently being published by Dark Horse Comics, which includes Joy Operations, Pearl, United States vs. Murder, Inc., Scarlet, Cover, Powers, and the Jinxworld line of crime comics (Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, and Torso).

He's also writing some "detective comics" about a league of justice or superhero legion or something, but we weren't able to find any information about that. Sorry! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Issues Covered in this Episode: 

"This Beachhead Earth" - Avengers #93, written by Roy Thomas, art by Neal Adams and Tom Palmer, ©1971 Marvel Comics

"More Than Inhuman!" / "1971: A Space Odyssey" / "Behold the Mandroids!" - Avengers #94, written by Roy Thomas, art by Neal Adams, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer, ©1971 Marvel Comics

"Something Inhuman This Way Comes..!" - Avengers #95, written by Roy Thomas, art by Neal Adams and Tom Palmer, ©1971 Marvel Comics

"The Andromeda Swarm!" - Avengers #96, written by Roy Thomas, art by Neal Adams, Tom Palmer, and Adam Weiss, ©1971 Marvel Comics

"Godhood's End!" - Avengers #97, written by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, art by John Buscema and Tom Palmer, ©1971 Marvel Comics

"Marvel by the Month" theme v. 3.0 by Robb Milne, sung by Barb Allen. All incidental music by Robb Milne.

Visit us on internet at marvelbythemonth.com, follow us on Instagram at @marvelbythemonth and Twitter at @MarvelBTM, and support us on Patreon at patreon.com/marvelbythemonth.