Perhaps the most popular American comic book writer working today, Brian Michael Bendis joined Seth Meyers on NBC's Late Night to promote his upcoming Powers TV show, and to pitch Marvel's Secret Wars event series to everyone out there in TV land. According to Variety, Seth Meyers' nightly show is seen by over 1.5 million viewers, which is surely the largest number of people to be confused by superhero comics continuity in any one moment -- at least since the original Secret Wars was published in 1984, when there were more people buying comics to be confused.

Eschewing Marvel editor in chief Axel Alonso's unappetizing "smashing two pizzas together" metaphor from yesterday's announcement, Bendis explained as succinctly as anyone could be expected to just how the Marvel Multiverse works, what the Ultimate universe is, what the 616 universe is, and how they will both come to an end as a consequence of the dramatic events in Jonathan Hickman's wonderful Avengers and New Avengers series. Bendis did not get into the whole Battleworld thing, which was probably wise as that dimension (heh) of the event is so complicated as to necessitate an interactive guide (stay tuned for ComicsAlliance's own version).

 

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More successful with Meyers' crowd was Bendis' discussion of Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man. The writer, who is father to a multiracial family, explained to audience applause that it made sense for a modern-day Spidey to be a person of color, and described how the messianic conservative media weirdo Glenn Beck unwittingly helped Ultimate Spider-Man by adding the book to his list of things to make racist sh*theads angry about. Beck's bogus outrage prompted defenses (and free press) from Keith Olbermann, John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, among others, causing sales of Bendis and Sarah Pichelli's Ultimate Spider-Man to soar.

Bendis concluded his segment by wishing for Beck to similarly criticize/publicize the forthcoming Powers series for PlayStation Network, based on the long running and largely excellent comic book of the same name, created by Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. Meyers gifted each member of his studio audience with a free copy of the new Powers #1, published by Marvel's Icon imprint.

 

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