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MIKE DEODATO ON NEW AVENGERS
by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean (Newsarama)
Change is in the air at Avengers Tower.
Though it was previously announced that Steve McNiven would be the artist on the next New Avenegrs story arc after Frank Cho's Spider-Woman story (#14-#15), McNiven will draw only issue #16, and penciler Mike (Amazing Spider-Man) Deodato will step in with issue #17 (due in March) and draw the arc from there - and possibly remain on the title for the foreseeable future.
In an exclusive to Newsarama, the Brazilian artist also revealed that he's now exclusive to Marvel until 2010. "My agent at Glass House Graphics, my good friend David Campiti, came to me having negotiated a fantastic contract renewal, keeping me secure and exclusive at Marvel until well into 2010! I just signed it. I'm a happy guy," he said.
While the change of titles may come as a surprise to readers, it was also a surprise to the artist as well. Prior to New Avengers, Deodato was planning on moving to Wolverine in January of 2006. "Then out of the blue, Marvel tells me I'm the new artist on New Avengers, their #1-selling book," the artist said. "I can live with that."
As for Deodato's collaborator on the title? "I've been waiting in line to work with him," Brian Bendis told Newsarama. "I thought his work on Spider-Man was fantastic, and I'm a big fan of his moody, black-spotting storytelling that has that cinematic feel. He's the Michael Chiklis of comics - you're rarely going to find an artist who so completely reinvents himself so boldly. Look at his work from the mid '90s, and look at his work today. Heck, look at his Hulk work, and his stuff today - it's hard to believe it's the same guy. I'm very impressed with the direction he's taken."
Bendis, adding that he's tailoring the script to Deodato's strengths, noted that he's been wanting to work with the artist for years. "He first got my attention as someone I really wanted to work with a couple of years back when he sent me a Daredevil pinup out of the blue, just to say hey. It was great, and I've been waiting ever since."
Deodato is eyeing a full year on the title, and that would be fine by Bendis. "The arc Mike's on is our biggest arc to date on the series as far as length goes. It comes out of House of M, and runs from #17 at least to issue #22 - it may go a couple more issues, though. A character I didn't think was available for me to use, it turns out, is, so it changes my story a little, and will have an effect on what I had planned for the ending. Steve McNiven will be drawing issue #16, which will be a prelude issue to the arc."
Deodato, of course, is no stranger to Marvel's Avengers family of titles, having drawn the tail end issues of the first volume of Avengers in the 90s as well as Avengers Icons: Tigra. Most recently, in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man (#519-#524), he's also tackled the New Avengers… and Hydra-created doppelgangers of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and Hawkeye. "Would you believe I've never seen the New Avengers book? Maybe Marvel will send me the run of issues before I get started."
Despite this, he said that while it'll be harder to draw the whole team in the New Avengers monthly series, "but not a lot harder, since I've been drawing lots of characters in Spidey recently. I've done one New Avengers drawing for myself, just to get a handle on the approach I'm gonna take."
Bendis: "That piece that's being shown here - that's just a practice piece - that's just Mike stretching his legs. He just gave it a try. Don't worry that the Sentry's not there - that image was just Mike letting his pencil run free."
And finally - any hints about the arc from Bendis? Just look at the last page of one of last week's books.
"The story deals with what Hank Pym was talking about at the end of House of M #8 and that energy signature that was seen on the last page - it wasn't the sun coming around the earth - it was something…different.
"And no, it wasn't Iron Fist.".
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