Fortune and Glory: The Musical

In 2004, while in the midst of writing bestselling, character-redefining arcs of Spider-Man and the Avengers, creator Bendis received an unexpected invitation to collaborate with visionary film and theater director Julie Taymor on a Broadway musical based on Spider-Man. Despite not being the biggest fan of musical theater, Bendis is thrilled and leaps at the opportunity—only to discover himself profoundly opposed to some of what Taymor has in mind, especially her desire to revise the character’s origin so that it’s the mythological Arachne, and not a radioactive spider, that endows Peter Parker with great power. While Bendis’s involvement with what would go on to become the legendarily catastrophic musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark is ultimately more anecdotal than epic, the story is entertaining and filled with insights about the process of creating comic books and musical theater. Bendis rounds out this memoir with memories of how he first became enamored with comic books as a child, his artistic development, and his experience breaking into the industry.