In an exclusive interview with Comic Book Resources, writer Brian Michael Bendis, who has had a pretty big run with the X-Men since 2012's, especially with ALL NEW X-MEN, is coming to an end of his time with the iconic Marvel team.

May is when Bendis' final run starts to take shape with the giant-sized and renumbered UNCANNY X-MEN #600 featuring a recognizable art team and back-up stories from past X-Men creators. While Bendis is known for doing long runs on books, and two years doesn't feel that long, he says that in the past couple of years, he's written almost 90 issue of X-Men. He started with AVENGERS VS X-MEN and his run is ending at SECRET WARS.

Bendis goes on to say that May's #600 issue of UNCANNY X-MEN will conclude the stories he's been writing and there's a big shift coming up in UNCANNY X-MEN #31 which will change the status quo for the team. The issue will revolve a bit around what happened to Hank McCoy throughout this ALL-NEW X-MEN run, with bringing the younger X-Men to the future and things that have happened since then.

[UPDATE]: A few hours after this announcement, Marvel has yet another announcement regarding the future of Bendis with the company.

Marvel Entertainment is excited to announce a renewed exclusive agreement with legendary comic writer Brian Michael Bendis!

The multiple Eisner award-winning writer has come to be one of the premier voices in the comic industry with iconic runs on many of Marvel’s most popular titles including Guardians of the Galaxy, Daredevil, Uncanny X-Men, All-New X-Men, and more. Bendis also boasts two of the longest comic runs in American comic book history with his eight year stretch as writer of Avengers and over 200 consecutive issues of Ultimate Spider-Man – which saw the introduction of hit character, Miles Morales, to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe.

Reflecting on his lengthy career at Marvel, Bendis says, “There's been some speculation that I will be leaving comics because of other cool things going on in my life but I wanted to let everyone know that isn’t the case. I get it, sometimes when people have something going on in other media they tend to drift away from comics. But that is the opposite of what my life's goals are.”

“I want to bring people into comics so they can see the original wonderful magic we have to offer every single week,” Bendis continues. “My partnership with Marvel, since the first day they hired me, has been a continuous dream come true and I'm honored that I get to continue this partnership for many years to come.”

The writer’s lengthy stint at the House of Ideas is set to continue with a new exclusive agreement and a wealth of new stories in 2015 including the cataclysmic closure of the Ultimate Universe with Secret Wars: Ultimate End and a soon-to-be announced Secret Wars series that will have all Marvel fans keeping their eyes on Battleworld!

In addition to Brian’s Marvel Universe work, he will continue with his critically-acclaimed creator-owned series under Marvel’s ICON imprint, POWERS. The first issue of POWERS, by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, returns to comic shops for a brand new jumping on point in POWERS #1 and, debuting March 10^th, POWERS will now be a live-action drama available only on the Playstation Network.

Once again, Marvel is pleased to welcome Brian Michael Bendis back for his unique blend of action, humor, and heart, exclusively to the Marvel Universe and beyond in 2015.

UNCANNY X-MEN #600 hits stores in May.

Let the praises begin

Bendis leaves a book?! WOOOOO PARTY TIME UP IN HERE LET'S ALL BURN BENDIS TO THE GROUND WOOOOO.

Oh sorry, that's what everyone else will be doing while I amusingly chuckle at comic book fans.

fixed

Praise and dread...where is he going next?!?!!?

This. ^^^

It's probably too much to hope that Bendis will return to Daredevil, but maybe we could get a solo Luke Cage book by Bendis.

Thank you about time.Now I can pick up a X-Men comic again.

This bendis hate makes no sense to me. I really like this run. infact some of the characters he created are the best X characters in years. i'm really upset about this announcement.

It is days like this where I am glad I no longer read nor can post on CBR, I can just imagine the bashing and raining going on in that forum at the moment.

For me, I am sad to hear he is leaving as he has injected the most energy and inability for readers to guess the next move as has been done in a long time for the X-men but his pacing has killed a lot of the momentum. Historically he has wrapped up runs poorly so if there truly is soooo much to do in the next few issues I have a feeling we will go from 15mph to 80 with some luggage left on the curb.

As for the future, I really they have 1 or 2 titles for the X-men only, pull versions of the characters from multiple worlds and create a group from that (Ultimate Storm, Current Cyclops...) and start fresh. With the current state of fandom I wish the new writer the best of luck in the world as no matter what they will become the new Bendis.

Wooooooooooooot hell yeah he is leaving

Bendis is leaving the X-Men? The Dark Age of inconsistent characterization and drawn out plots are finally over.

By no means am I a Bendis hater. His run on DD is one of the best in comics history and I'll even defend his MK series. I don't read Avengers so I didn't experience his writing then but his time with the X-Men has been terrible. As a big X-Men reader I'm very happy to see his departure.

I don't hate Bendis, but I can't read many of his comics because they're way too decompressed. His story arcs drag on with characters doing nothing but talking at each other in a mundane fashion.

Amen

I would describe his time on the X-men as Blah.

YESSSSSSSSS Bendis is gone. YESSSSSSSSSSS

Its been a good run. Dragged at times but I attribute that to ANX and UX going to a once a month (mostly) release period. I feel that if they were still on twice a month (consistently) the arcs would just fly by.

I think he was the best fit to handle all of the Post AvX fallout and bringing in such a weird concept like ANX and successfully selling fans on it. This has been one of the most personal feeling runs on X-Men in a long time, and I really am loving how Old-Scott feels like more of a person. Hopefully we get some Emma, Dazzler, and New Student development in the coming months too.

I wonder if we can expect a GotG leaving announcement soon too?

It's just a thing to hate Bendis now, though I'm sure there are people that just genuinely don't like him. I will admit his work on GotG has been fairly inconsistent, his work on the X-Men titles has been pretty solid. All New X-Men has been awesome honestly in my opinion.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wait... who's Bendis?

Loved All New X-Men at the beginning but it got very dull the past like 5-6 issues... I'm not sure if it's Bendis to blame or if it's something else; I hope he finds something else to work on that will be better for him.

peace out girl scout

Well yea that too....

I'm not going to lie...he will be missed on Uncanny X-Men.....All New X-Men can burn though.

nice cover

Wooo yeah!!

There is no way Marvel is stupid enough to actually do that.

As much as i think that there are too many mutants these days, I still don't want them to go, plus like they are the best sellers...

I completely agree.

If only......

It might be happening because of the upcoming event changing things. I really have to wonder where he's going next. I hope he leaves GotG next. Though I liked some things it really bothers me on some of the things he's changed in that series.

I'm glad I'm not alone.... his run got me back into x-men to the point where every time all new x-men came out it was at the top of my pull list ...people hate to hate...and I bet a lot of the haters didn't even read it ! ...he injected much needed excitement in a series that month to month was stagnant

After the properly thanks, it needs a complet set of amulets against the voodoo.

Now I wonder what will happen to the Original 5?

They will come back without have did anything or there will be another writer that will take in charge the series?

I hope the second hypothesis, because on the contrary the title would be a mockery.

@ec2277 said:

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You sir.....you win.

I really wish this was an announcement that he was leaving Guardians of the Galaxy.

If he was going to write a team at Marvel, I was happy it was X-Men as I don't follow that side of the Marvel U. If he is going to pick up any other titles at Marvel, I hope he goes back to a singular street level character and leave teams alone. Maybe he will go back on Daredevil.

I like this because hopefully there won't be any more Guardians/X-Men crossovers. So silly. I do like Bendis writing Guardians.

I have two words for all the Bendis haters:

Eva Bell

This sucks, I like his run on X-Men.

It's Guardians of the Galaxy he needs to step down from.

I just started getting into Bendis' run on UXM and he is leaving the book.... what a shame.

While in the past I have said some not so nice things about Mr. Bendis, I had just recently finishes reading his entire Ultimate Spider-Man run. Loved the entire book so I will not say anything bad about this.

Now can we get a writer who respects the continuity and the characters????

Thank you!

Anyone else notice that Uncanny X-Men 600 cover features the cast of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men?

With the new agreement I wonder where he will direct his attention to next?

I love Beast's feline style !

Isn't 600 the number of issues this Matthew Malloy arc has lasted?

@koays: Yeah, that's interesting. I would love for them to be the new Uncanny team after Bendis.

I think its mostly the way he handled Cyclops and Emma Frost, who were constantly OoC.

Continuity and canon can feel released now :D

Well that sucks. I've loved his run on both titles. Oh well hope the new team does great with it (if it keeps going).

This. It's especially irrational that people are saying that they can finally pick an x-book up again when Bendis had nothing to do with most of the X-books out now and was only writing 2.

This really sucks. Bendis has that sorta Hickman effect where if you give them a short amount of time it feels like their stories didn't get anywhere, but give them a long about of time and it turns into one of the best stories ever. This is a real shame and my hope for the X-Men after secret wars has gotten even smaller.