[4] These, in turn, led him to discover the documentary Visions of Light, which taught him the visual "rules" of film noir, an important influence on him creatively.

[4][10] While in high school, he submitted a "Creative Writing assignment", a novelization of Chris Claremont's X-Men and the Starjammers story, which gained him an A+ grade for imagination and inventiveness.

[7] Between the ages of 20 and 25, he sent in a large number of submissions to comics companies, although he ultimately abandoned this approach to breaking into the industry, considering it too much of a "lottery.

Although he did not enjoy caricature work, it paid well and funded his interest in writing crime fiction for graphic novels.

[10] Through Caliber, he met many of his longtime friends and collaborators within the comics industry, including Mike Oeming, Dave Mack and Marc Andreyko,[12] and began the first in a series of independent noir fiction crime comics when he published two issues of Fire in 1993 and five issues of A.K.A.

[13] Bendis's best-known early work, Jinx, starring the titular bounty hunter in a crime noir version of the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, began publication in 1996, and ran for seven issues from Caliber.

Goldfish, Image founder Todd McFarlane sought out Bendis, which led to his writing Sam and Twitch.

[13] In 1998, Bendis co-wrote and illustrated the Eliot Ness-starring Torso with Marc Andreyko, again for Image, and in 2000 he produced three issues of the autobiographical Fortune and Glory for Oni Comics.

[13] That same year saw the debut of the superhero police/noir detective series Powers, co-created with and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming and published by Image.

Based on Bendis' work on Jinx, Quesada invited him to pitch ideas for Marvel Knights, which included a planned, but ultimately unproduced, Nick Fury story.

[9] Marvel Comics President Bill Jemas, on the recommendation of Quesada, hired Bendis to write Ultimate Spider-Man, which debuted in 2000,[9] and was targeted at the new generation of readers.

[14] Bendis adapted the 11-page origin story of Spider-Man from 1962's Amazing Fantasy #15 into a seven issues story arc, with Peter Parker becoming the titular hero after the fifth issue, making the book a bestseller, often surpassing in sales those of the mainstream Marvel universe title, The Amazing Spider-Man.

In 2011, Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli created the Miles Morales character as the new version of the Ultimate Spider-Man.

Also in 2001, Bendis helped launch Marvel's non-Comics Code-approved, adult MAX imprint with Alias, featuring former superhero Jessica Jones operating as a private investigator.

[27][28][29] In 2009, Bendis and former Daredevil collaborator Maleev launched the long-delayed Spider-Woman, following up on her role in the "Secret Invasion" storyline.

In February 2011, Icon released the all-ages graphic novel, Takio by Bendis and his Powers collaborator Mike Oeming,[31][32] and in mid-2011 a maxiseries called Brilliant with artist Bagley.

Bendis wrote the "Age of Ultron" crossover storyline, which included an eponymous 10-issue miniseries, that was published between March and June 2013.

[44] On December 21, 2021, Bendis announced that he was developing an adult animated Legion of Super-Heroes series for the streaming service HBO Max.

His dismay at being credited for something written by someone else, and the multitude of corporate and legal departments involved in the animation process soured him on the show.

[47] He was credited as a developer and wrote several episodes for the TV adaptation of his comic, Powers, which starred Sharlto Copley and ran on PlayStation Network for two seasons from 2015 to 2016.

[51] In 2024, Bendis signed a first-look deal with Amazon Prime Video to develop television shows based on Jinx, Murder Inc., and Pearl.

In 2013, he was named on IGN's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", in part for his frequent Twitter posts highlighting the work of other creators.