Mark Waid

Early life

Waid was born in Hueytown, Alabama. He has stated that his comics work was heavily influenced by Adventure Comics #369–370 (1968), the two-part "Legion of Superheroes" story by Jim Shooter and Mort Weisinger that introduced the villain Mordru, "It's a blueprint for everything I write."

Career

Waid entered the comics field during the mid-1980s as an editor and writer on Fantagraphics Books' comic book fan magazine, Amazing Heroes. Waid's first comic book story "The Puzzle of the Purloined Fortress", an eight-page Superman story, was published in Action Comics #572 (Oct. 1985).

In 1987, Waid was hired as an editor for DC Comics where he worked on such titles as Action Comics, Doom Patrol, Infinity, Inc., Legion of Super-Heroes, Secret Origins, and Wonder Woman, as well as various one-shots including Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. With Gotham by Gaslight, and in tandem with writer Brian Augustyn, Waid co-created DC's "Elseworlds" franchise.

In 1989 Waid left editorial work for freelance writing assignments. He worked for DC's short-lived Impact Comics line where he wrote The Comet and scripted dialogue for Legend of the Shield.

In 1992 Waid began the assignment which would bring him to wider recognition in the comics industry, when he was hired to write The Flash by editor Brian Augustyn. Waid stayed on the title for an eight-year run. He wrote a Metamorpho limited series in 1993 and created the Impulse character in The Flash #92 (July 1994). Impulse was launched into his own series in April 1995 by Waid and artist Humberto Ramos. In November of that same year, Waid and Howard Porter collaborated on the Underworld Unleashed limited series which served as the core story-line of a company-wide cross-over event.

His first major project for Marvel Comics was as one of the writers of the "Age of Apocalypse" crossover. He later co-created the Onslaught character for the X-Men line.

Marvel editors Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald hired him as Gruenwald's successor as writer of Captain America, during which Waid was paired with artist Ron Garney. Waid and Garney garnered critical praise for their run on the title, remaining on it until the title was relaunched with a different creative team as part of the 1996–1997 "Heroes Reborn" storyline. Rob Liefeld offered Waid the opportunity to script Captain America over plots and artwork by his studio, but Waid declined. That storyline ran a full year, after which Waid and Garney returned to the title for another relaunched series, Captain America volume 3, issues #1–23. Waid also wrote the short-lived spin-off series Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty from 1998–1999, having written 10 of the 12 issues (skipping issues #7 and 10).

In 1996, Waid and artist Alex Ross produced the graphic novel Kingdom Come. This story, set in the future of the DC Universe, depicted the fate of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other heroes as the world around them changed. It was written in reaction to the "grim and gritty" comics of the 1980s and 1990s. DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz observed that "Waid's deep knowledge of the heroes' pasts served them well, and Ross' unique painted art style made a powerful statement about the reality of the world they built." Many of the ideas introduced in Kingdom Come were later integrated into the present-day DC Universe, and Waid himself wrote a follow-up to the series, The Kingdom.

Waid and writer Grant Morrison collaborated on a number of projects that would successfully reestablish DC's Justice League to prominence. Waid's contributions included JLA: Year One, as well as work on the ongoing series. The two writers developed the concept of Hypertime to explain problems with continuity in the DC Universe. Waid collaborated with artists Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary on JLA and the JLA: Heaven's Ladder (Oct. 2000) one-shot.

In 2000, Waid wrote a series named Empire with Barry Kitson, whose protagonist was a Doctor Doom-like supervillain named Golgoth who had defeated all superheroes and conquered the world. The series was originally published by Gorilla Comics, a company formed by Waid, Kurt Busiek and several others, but the company folded after only two issues were published. Empire was completed under the DC Comics label in 2003 and 2004. Waid wrote the first year of Crossgen's Ruse series.

Waid began an acclaimed run as writer of Marvel's Fantastic Four in 2002 with his former Flash artist Mike Wieringo, with Marvel releasing their debut issue, Fantastic Four vol. 3 #60 (Oct. 2002) at the promotional price of 9 cents U.S. By June 2003, Marvel publisher Bill Jemas tried to convince Waid to abandon his "high-adventure" approach to the series, and making the book into, in Waid's words, "a wacky suburban dramedy where Reed's a nutty professor who creates amazing but impractical inventions, Sue's the office-temp breadwinner, the cranky neighbor is their new 'arch-enemy,' etc." Waid, who felt that this was too much of a departure from what he had been hired to write, initially declined. After some discussion with editor Tom Brevoort, Waid found a way to make the requested changes, but by then, the decision had been made to fire Waid and Wieringo from the series. The resulting fan backlash led to Waid and Wieringo's reinstatement on the title by that September. Waid and Wieringo completed their run on Fantastic Four with issue #524 (May 2005), by which time the previously relaunched series had returned to its original numbering.

In 2003 Waid wrote the origin of the "modern" Superman with Superman: Birthright, a twelve-part limited series which was meant to be the new official origin story of the Man of Steel. Birthright contained several characters and elements from Silver and Modern Age Superman comics and homages to Superman: The Movie and the Smallville television series.

Waid returned to writing Legion of Super-Heroes in December 2004, teaming again with Barry Kitson. He finished his run on the series with issue #30 (July 2007). In 2005, Waid signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. He co-wrote the 52 limited series with Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Keith Giffen that lasted for one year and covered the events that take place during the year in the DC Universe following Infinite Crisis. Another project for DC was a new launch of The Brave and the Bold with artist George Pérez, and a brief return to The Flash.

Waid's subsequent work includes working on the Spider-Man creative team, writing several issues for The Amazing Spider-Man, including a meeting between Spider-Man and Stephen Colbert in The Amazing Spider-Man #573 (Dec. 2008). He scripted the opening of "The Gauntlet" storyline in issue #612 (Jan. 2010). Waid wrote the Doctor Strange mini-series Strange, and several series for Boom! Studios, notably Irredeemable with artist Peter Krause and its spinoff Incorruptible. In July 2011 Marvel relaunched a monthly Daredevil series with Waid on writing duties. Waid and artist Paolo Rivera garnered positive reviews for their work on the title, and earned multiple 2012 Eisner Awards, including Best Continuing Series and Best Single Issue for issue #7. In addition, Waid won Best Writer for his work on Daredevil, as well as his work on Irredeemable, and Incorruptible. Waid received a "Best Writer" Harvey Award as well for his Daredevil work. In November 2012, Waid and artist Leinil Francis Yu launched The Indestructible Hulk series for Marvel.

Waid has established a free digital comics website Thrillbent with its launch title Insufferable. An essay posted on October 2, 2013 by Waid, titled "An Open Letter To Young Freelancers", generated attention within the comics industry with The Hollywood Reporter describing it as "an important commentary on business practices that are in a state of flux at publishers both large and small." In 2014, Waid launched new series for Daredevil and The Hulk with artists Chris Samnee and Mark Bagley respectively. In December 2014, Waid's S.H.I.E.L.D. title began and it introduced several characters from the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. into the Marvel comics universe. He later wrote All-New, All-Different Avengers, Black Widow, and The Avengers.

BOOM! Studios

On July 27, 2007, at the San Diego Comic-Con International, Boom! Studios announced that Waid would join Boom! as Editor-in-Chief the following month. As his non-creator assignments at DC lapsed, he stated that all his future creator-owned work will be with Boom!. Waid was promoted to Chief Creative Officer in August 2010. In December 2010, Waid announced he would be leaving his role as Chief Creative Officer, and return to freelance work, though he would continue writing for the publisher. Waid and artist J. G. Jones produced Strange Fruit for Boom! Studios in July 2015.