Having conquered the box office separately, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Daredevil are about to see if they can work together in a comic book.

"The New Avengers" is a revamping of Marvel Comics' 40-year-plus superhero-team book that will feature the company's highest-profile characters. Issue One is out on Wednesday.

The idea to band together Marvel's best-known characters came from writer Brian Michael Bendis.

"They are very successful movie properties because they are so inspiring to people," Bendis says. "They are so intriguing, so interesting, so putting them in a group dynamic is something you'd never get in the movie theaters.

"Hollywood couldn't afford to make a movie with them. It would be too expensive. They are all optioned by different studios."

But that does not affect the comics. The idea of making Spider-Man and Wolverine core members was not based entirely on box-office appeal, Bendis says.

"I said, 'Why can't this book have the coolest members in it? And these are the guys I think are the coolest," Bendis says. "Why can't this team inspire comic-book fans as well as the rest of the world?"

'"The New Avengers' is set up to attract new comic-book readers by featuring several of our characters who have been successfully adapted to the big screen," says Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada.

Spider-Man has appeared in two box-office hits. Ben Affleck played Daredevil, and Wolverine, as portrayed by Hugh Jackman, has emerged as one of the most popular members of the X-Men.

Captain America, Luke Cage and Iron Man will also be members, and are on the drawing boards for their own feature films. Tom Cruise has expressed interest in playing Iron Man.

Bendis' plan isn't being universally embraced. Internet detractors are already complaining that it uses characters that pop up in too many places anyway.

"Wolverine is in like eight or nine books a month. Spider-Man is like in six or seven books a month," says Bill Langford, a Knoxville, Tenn., comic-book proprietor. "So there is a problem with overexposure."

Bendis says he is not concerned that Wolverine is being stretched too thin.

"It is a legitimate argument that he is overexposed," Bendis says, "but he is no more overexposed than Superman, Spider-Man or anyone else like that."

What brings these characters together? "Fate," he says.

Writing a team book is not easy, Bendis says.

"When you write a group book, you have to pick what point of view you have and stick with it for a while," Bendis says. "It's a little more challenging to write that way."

Having Wolverine and Spider-Man work together will allow the characters to "learn more about themselves as well as their teammates," he says.

"Spider-Man has always been a loner, but he is going to find out how respected he is among heroes," Bendis says.

Marvel did not mandate that the book consist solely of comic-book characters that have been in successful movies, Bendis says.

Bendis is not beyond dragging other Marvel movie characters into the mix as needed. "If the Avengers ever face vampires, I can see where Blade might be needed," Bendis says with a laugh.