Writer Brian Michael Bendis announced this week that he’s leaving Marvel Comics to join DC Comics. This is a big deal — a huge shakeup that will eventually reverberate through pop culture even for those who’ve never read a physical comic book. Bendis has been with Marvel since 2000, when he launched the company’s "Ultimates" line, and he’s been helping to shape certain corners of popular entertainment ever since.

Bendis has not only been prolific (he wrote seven comic titles for Marvel just this summer alone), but he’s also helped expand the company’s cast of diverse characters by creating icons in the making like Miles Morales, the Afro-Latino teen Spider-Man (who was inspired by Donald Glover’s connection to the Spider-Man universe, and which led to Glover's appearance in 2017’s "Spider-Man: Homecoming"). And he’s created newer offerings, like Riri Williams, aka IronHeart, Tony Stark’s (Iron Man) STEM genius teen protégé, who happens to be a black girl from Chicago. He also helped redevelop Jessica Jones in the early aughts, beginning her transformation into the powerhouse character you’ll now find played by Krysten Ritter on Netflix’s show of the same name. For longtime readers, Bendis’s departure from Marvel feels like the end of a dependable (perhaps stale, but ultimately satisfying) 17-year committed relationship.

Everyday white men in comics, journalism, TV, movies and so on write about lives they’ve never lived

But once the shock abates, it's hard not to see the opportunity here, as well. Bendis did plenty of good work when it came to helping diversify Marvel’s slate of titles, but he was still a white man writing characters many felt could have done even more under the thumbs of writers of color and women. His departure leaves an opportunity for Marvel to purposefully hire writers whose backgrounds more closely align with the characters Bendis created.

"What’s become obvious is that there is such a difference when we’re telling our own stories, because we understand ourselves as full, three-dimensional people," says Chicago-based writer Eve Ewing, whose name has been floated by fans as a possible replacement for Bendis on Riri Williams’ book, "Invincible Iron Man."

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Marvel didn’t hire its first black woman writer for an ongoing series until tapping Roxane Gay to write "World of Wakanda" in 2016 (prior to Gay, writer Nilah Magruder wrote a single story for the company, "A Year of Marvel"). A black woman wouldn’t get to write Storm, Marvel’s most iconic black female character, until 2017. Both books have since been canceled. None of that is Bendis’s fault, but it’s indicative of a larger problem that he represents. When people of color don’t get to tell our own stories — or any stories at all —dimensions of our humanity are lost.

"There are details about the realism of black girlhood ... the little touches that would just make Riri more relatable both to black women who are current Marvel readers," Ewing explains. "It’s ... about the tenderness of seeing a black girl in 360 degrees, and that’s something other people in media still have not shown themselves especially adept at doing well."

To quote Issa Rae, 'I’m rooting for everybody black.'

Bendis introduced Riri to readers as she lost her stepfather and best friend to a random act of gun violence, a backstory that was noted as perhaps being stereotypical of the black experience, especially in Chicago. "It’s complicated because there is this stereotype of Chicago as being a site of horrific gun violence, and that stereotype comes from people who don’t have our best interests in mind or care about us," Ewing explains. When asked what a writer of color with ties to the city or the issue might have considered doing differently: "It’s a dog whistle. At the very same time, gun violence is real and it is traumatic and frightening and that’s the reality of life." With Bendis’ departure, she sees room for Riri to grow.

Riri Williams on the cover of "Invincible Iron Man #2" Marvel Comics

"Think about [other iconic Marvel characters] Spider-Man or Wolverine," she says. "They have experienced terrible loss, violence, and trauma that, in some ways, are crucial to their origins, and we never forget that. At the same time, they get to grow and be so much more than their origins. I think Riri deserves the same."

Some people think that Eve Ewing herself could be the writer to give the character that growth she deserves. She may not be a comic book writer by trade, but that matters less these days than it has in the past. Ewing confesses that she has questions about what being "qualified" to write something really means. "Every day, white men in comics, journalism, TV, movies, and so on and so on write about lives they’ve never lived, and by and large no one questions their ‘qualifications,’" she said via email. "We need to rethink what it means to have a voice that counts, and Marvel has already shown some willingness to do that."

They have. In addition to publishing books like "Ms. Marvel" and "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur" (both by white writers, starring characters of color), the company’s had a fairly successful run of late by taking diverse authors from other genres and landing them on comic titles of their own. Ta-Nehisi Coates famously took on "Black Panther" in 2016. Soon after Roxane Gay took on her own "Black Panther" series, the aforementioned "World of Wakanda." Young adult author Gabby Rivera took the character America Chavez into her own solo series. The company’s recent history dictates that Ewing could be Marvel’s next crossover breakout — and she’s not afraid to acknowledge that. "I’m very moved, and I think I could do it. Oftentimes, black women, and women in general and people of color in general, exclude ourselves from conversations because we undersell our own abilities. [T]he fact that other people thought of [me for this opportunity] speaks volumes, and I’m ready to embrace it and be proud and own it, and say yes, that’s me, I’m really good enough."

Featured, the covers for "Black Panther: World of Wakanda," "America," and "Black Panther." Marvel Comics

One can only imagine what someone like Gay, Coates, author Jason Reynolds (who previously wrote a Miles Morales young adult novel), or Mikki Kendall (another Chicago-based writer whose name has also been floated as a potential Riri writer) could do if given the freedom and opportunities that Bendis had with Marvel. You don’t get to influence pop culture in the way Bendis has over the past 17 years without the thorough backing of a large institution like Marvel, and that’s the type of support that writers of color, especially women, don’t often receive.

"There are so many people of color who have been toiling away in this industry for years without the recognition or platform they deserve … I hope Marvel thinks hard about how to offer them new opportunities," says Ewing. So while Bendis’ departure from Marvel is a massive shift to the industry, it’s ultimately an amazing moment of opportunity for the company to shake things up. It would be amazing to see some fresh blood — some diverse blood — take up his pen.

"To quote Issa Rae," Ewing finishes, "'I’m rooting for everybody black.'"

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