marvel comics asks you to write the story for a miniseries about bentley-23. any time any age. what are you writing?
Oh, interesting question. I love Bentley, and I think he's so fun, but there's also a lot to explore there that, to be fair, I do think has been touched on, but -- there's always the what does it mean to be a clone of a supervillain aspect. And as Bentley gets older, how is he going to internalize that? So I do think it would be fun to write a future Bentley, maybe in his late teens, with Val (and the rest of the Future Foundation, but especially Val) as a significant supporting character. Something is going on with the Wizard, and Bentley is thrust into a position where he has to solve the mystery while dealing with the whole host of negative feelings it brings up.
I'd also really like to bring Cole back into the equation. For those not in the know, Cole Wittman is the Wizard's biological daughter with Salamandra, who appears in Fantastic Four #514-516. (Content warning: It is explicitly mentioned that Cole was conceived through nonconsensual means.) The Wizard tried to gain access to the Baxter Building by sending Cole to seduce Johnny, but she ultimately turned on the Wizard, and hasn't been seen since #516. I think it'd be really interesting to bring her back as Bentley's "sister," someone else who was abused and manipulated by the Wizard. And I think it would be interesting on Cole's side, too -- your father wants a successor, and you are not good enough, you will never be good enough, so he clones himself instead. Even if you hate him, even if he's never been anything but awful to you, what does that mean to a child?
And like, okay, obvious bias here, but I do think it would be interesting in that context to have him meet Kaine. Kaine isn't a clone of Warren, of course, but he understands what it means to be a clone, and to have this abusive father figure, and he's also just a really good teen mentor despite him kicking and screaming about it. So I think that would be a really fun dynamic. Peter would, as usual, hate it.
