Brian Michael Bendis Leaving Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis has officially announced his departure from the Marvel book Guardians of the Galaxy sometime in 2017.

The writer has stated that before his writing term is done, he would be putting the intergalactic team through its paces with plans of ending his run in the book either on a double-sized or even triple-sized issue!

Bendis recounts during his Comicbook.com interview that he’s just got so much projects on his plate for 2017 that it would be impossible to write stories for Peter Quill and the rest of the Guardians.

He adds:

I’m actually getting really brassy and ballsy at the end here with the way we’re telling our stories in the last few issues,” Bendis said. “Each issue is very different, giving [artist] Valerio [Schiti] a big send-off with a lot of challenges and then we’re going to end on a big jam issue coming in the spring.

When asked why now instead of doing so around the release date of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the former ‘Avengers’ and ‘X-Men’ writer commented that he’d rather have the new creative team bask on the spotlight and help get the book more traction with both old and new fans.

It was like, “Well, I could leave Guardians, and I could leave Guardians the month the movie comes out or the month before, giving the new creative team the opportunity to really blow the roof off the place,” and that’s cool,” Bendis said. “The new creative team is one that I like. I want to tee them up in a good way, but at the same time, I really want to land my ending in a big way.

Brian Michael Bendis’ last ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ story arc entitled ‘Grounded’ will start with GOTG # 15 and will have interior art by Valerio Schiti and a cover by Arthur Adams