Brian Michael Bendis has been working with Marvel for the better part of 20 years. He built its well-regarded "Ultimates" universe; his roster of characters includes Jessica Jones and Miles Morales (the latest Spider-Man.)

And now Bendis just shocked the comics world by signing an exclusive deal with Marvel's mortal enemy, DC Comics.

DC announced the deal on Twitter. The company described Bendis' contract as as "multi-year" and "multi-faceted," but did not specify what titles he'll be working on.

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Bendis has worked on a single DC story before -- a single issue of Batman-- so this move will more or less begin his career with the publisher. He cushioned the shock for his fans like this:

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The move begs plenty of questions. For one thing, did something happen between Bendis and Marvel that would lead him to make this kind of decision? What does he have planned for the DC universe -- could it be yet another reboot?

Regardless, Bendis is a prolific and inventive writer -- not just in comics and animated series (Spider-Man), but screenplays and games too. He also wrote Fortune and Glory, a hilarious nonfiction graphic novel all about shopping his screenplay in Hollywood, and Words for Pictures, a book on how to write for comics. He may be about to give us another master class in exactly that.