Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man | Tagged: brian bendis, marvel, neil jordan, spider-man, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark

Brian Bendis, Replacing Neil Jordan on Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark

Brian Bendis reveals his involvement in the Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark Broadway musical flop in a new comic serialised on Substack.

Published Tue, 07 Mar 2023 08:57:12 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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The Substack PRO newsletter for Brian Bendis, Jinxworld, has added a new exclusive series with the introduction of Fortune & Glory: The Musical, a new weekly original comic, a sequel to Bendis' original graphic novel about dealing with Hollywood. Bendis states "Fortune and Glory was a graphic novel I did years ago, pre-Marvel, about my first adventures in Hollywood as a young independent comic book creator. It was one of the books that got me where I am. I always wanted to do a sequel. Many of you have asked for one over the years. I loved doing an autobiographical comic book. I always thought I would do another one, or a bunch of them, but Spider-Man kept getting in the way. :-) " Jinxworld on Substack costs $5 a month, $50 a year, with premium levels or $250 a year, including a Jinxworld message board.

Created by Brian Bendis and Bill Walko, with colours by Wes Dzioba and lettering by Josh Reed to tackle the events behind the curtain of the pre-production of Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and Bendis' previously unknown role in the production. Benid says "I never thought I would have stories crazier than the ones I told in the original Fortune and Glory. Everything happening to me in comics was fun and fun to talk about, but was it autobiography-worthy? Then I got called to be the writer of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a now notorious infamous Broadway musical that you can Google about right now. The story I'm about to tell you happened years before the show's debut. Only my closest pals knew any of this happened at the time. I've only hinted at parts of this in past interviews. Now, it gives me a GREAT excuse to go down memory lane and share my favorite moments of coming up in comics with you."

Brian Michael Bendis says "Years ago I did an autobiographical graphic novel called Fortune and Glory. It was about my earliest adventures in Hollywood as an independent comics creator. I neeeeever thought I would have crazier stories to tell. Then I got a call to write the now infamous Spider-Man Broadway musical. It didn't go great. This is that story… A lot of the stories in this GN mean everything to me. They are the most defining moments in my life. A lot of them happened before the Internet, so there's not a lot of archive about this time in our lives and in comics. I know a lot of people reading these newsletters are creators and writers themselves. I hope my journey, and my pain, brings you some personal solace. If anyone reading this had anything to do with Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, I hope reading this brings you some peace knowing that someone somewhere was trying to stop it from happening years prior. "

In the midst of the success of Brian Michael Bendis's run on Ultimate Spider-Man, and the new Spider-Man films, the writer received a phone call from Marvel Studios President Avi Arad, that Spider-Man was going to Broadway, and Brian Bendis was being tapped by director Julie Taymor to collaborate with Bono and The Edge to write the book for the play.

Bendis confirms "I am also very happy to report to you that this entire graphic novel is completed. Bill, Wes, Dan and I have been working on this aaaaaall year. Ever since we got the call from Substack. In fact, now that we're done with the graphic novel, I am putting the excellent Bill to work on some extra chapters. I have more material about comics that I thought you would enjoy, but doesn't really fit into the narrative of this Fortune and Glory. So, by the time you're done with this graphic novel, we're gonna have a couple extra chapters for you with some surprising revelations."

Fortune & Glory: The Musical will be available exclusively to subscribers of Bendis's Jinxworld newsletter, which in addition offers subscribers a multi-media Creation, which builds upon the lessons taught in his best-selling textbook, Words and Pictures, and The Masterclass, a twice-monthly Zoom class taught by Bendis , alongside occasional guest lecturers and more. But Brian Bendis and Substack have given Bleeding Cool a bunch more pages, for free, than you will have seen elsewhere, ten pages from the first fifteen-page chapter. Including the revelation that Bendis was to have replaced writer Neil Jordan of An Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game and The Borgias in that regard. Apparently, according to the director, the writer of Ultimate Spider-Man was the only one who got the character, and Bendis seized his chance.

Additionally, the original Fortune & Glory returns in an all-new edition from Dark Horse Comics on the 5th of April with an introduction from Paul Dini as well as a wealth of promotional art and interviews straight from Bendis' archives, written and drawn by Bendis and coloured by Matthew Wilson.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is a famous Broadway flop for all manner of reasons. Bendis should not have been surprised about the call, Marvel's original approach to theatrical producers Tony Adams and David Garfinkle and their company Hallo Production in 2003 for a Spider-Man musical about Spider-Man included the assistance that it be based upon Ultimate Spider-Man #1-7, as well as Amazing Fantasy #15. It was they who approached Neil Jordan and U2. The Edge suggested Julie Taymor as a director, and it was with her appointment that Jordan walked, that Naymor would write the book, and the treatment was duly approved by Hello, Bono and the Edge.

We knew that Taymor hired Glen Berger as co-writer, but that the play has strict controls over content from Marvel, giving the comic book studio approval rights over all manner of details regarding the portrayal of Spider-Man on the stage. And Marvel rejected Taymor's treatment (see below), objecting to the tone of the play, far too dark, adult and sexual, as well as seeing Peter Parker being raped, Aunt May being murdered, J Jonah Jameson having his head bitten off and the addition of a new Big Bad for Marvel, Arachne, rather than one of Spider-Man's rogues gallery.

The production company and Marvel agreed that many of their demanded changes could wait until rehearsals or previews, so that Marvel representatives could see how the show would appear on the stage and, after further financial and technical issues, the play was performed and, yes, Marvel still wanted those changes made, the director refused to make them, so the producers rewrote the show behind her back.

Marvel EIC and CCO Joe Quesada was brought in for comments, and Marvel writer and stage writer and producer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, later to be showrunner/creator of the TV series Riverdale was hired to rewrite the play, but rewrites weren't enacted by Taymor. Eventually, Taymor was fired and replaced with Philip Wm. McKinley, and she sued. The show would limp on until it suddenly was no more in January 2014, with estimated losses of $60 million.

And now we get to see more of Brian Bendis' involvement from his own perspective… the graphic novel will be serialised weekly for the first couple of weeks, and then Bendis will shift it to biweekly to make room for Creation and the Masterclass content. New subscribers to his Substack will also get access to previous Jinxworld material, including the Masterclass videos and more.

Jinxworld on Substack costs $5 a month, $50 a year, with premium levels or $250 a year, including a Jinxworld message board.

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