Great Comic Book Writers

Stan Lee

This list of course begins with Stan Lee, who wasn't the first writer in comics, but he was one of the earliest, beginning his career with a small piece in "Captain America Comics" #3 in May, 1941, published before there even was a Marvel Comics. The company was called Timely Comics at the time, and Lee stayed there throughout his career, becoming Editor, Publisher, and Chairman Emeritus before his death in 2017. Lee's greatest legacy was co-creating the "Marvel Age of Comics" in the early 1960s, primarily with artist Jack Kirby, though the character who came to symbolize Marvel, Spider-Man, was co-created with artist Steve Ditko.

Lee was the initial writer on the books featuring most of his creations, from the Avengers to Daredevil, but his lengthy tenure as writer of "Fantastic Four" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" set records that are still impressive today. Each run saw the introduction of many other characters and villains, such as Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, the Green Goblin, Electro, and the Skrulls. The Lee/Kirby era of "Fantastic Four" in particular set the standard for both the series and for modern comics, introducing complex and legendary characters such as the Black Panther, Wakanda, the Inhumans, Galactus, and the Silver Surfer. These stories are considered some of the greatest ever told in comics.

Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison has been called one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He began his career as many others did, publishing stories in fiction magazines before moving on to pulp novels in the genres of science-fiction and horror. He wrote one of the most celebrated, controversial episodes of "Star Trek," "City on the Edge of Forever," and now and then dabbled in the the arena of comics, where he continued to do things no one else had ever done, primarily this story involving the Hulk and the Avengers, in which the Hulk is shrunk down to sub-microscopic size, discovering himself in a world within worlds where he has the power of the Hulk but the intelligence of Bruce Banner. Accepted at last, he finds love and becomes a warrior-king. This storyline was touched upon by other writers for decades, most recently in the stories "Planet Hulk," and "World War Hulk."

Roy Thomas

One of the things that made Marvel different in the 60s and especially the 70s was that comics were written at a different, more mature level. Readers ages ranged from early grade school to college or even adults, and so stories and concepts were at a different level, referencing current events and classic literature. One of the writers behind that shift in quality was Roy Thomas, who grew up with the comics of the 1940s, before going on to become a teacher. Thomas wrote many of the classic stories of the 60s, taking over several books after Stan Lee had moved on to other projects. One of the most complex and influential was the "Kree-Skrull War" in the pages of "Avengers," in which Thomas and artist Neal Adams envisioned a galactic war, with Earth and the Avengers caught in the middle.

Jim Shooter

Jim Shooter published his first stories with DC Comics at age 14. Shooter had been a DC fan when he was younger, but noticed that the stories being published by then-new Marvel Comics were better, so he tried to write DC stories of Marvel quality. He was assigned regular work, and eventually worked on "Legion of Super-Heroes", where he created a number of characters, including Karate Kid and the Sun-Eater. He also co-created the Superman villain the Parasite, and helped devise the first race between Superman and the Flash.

Eventually Shooter made his way to Marvel, where he had one of the definitive runs as writer of "The Avengers," with art by George Perez and John Byrne. During Shooter's tenure the powerful hero Wonder Man rejoined the team, creating an odd dynamic between him, Scarlet Witch, and the Vision, that would be revisited for years to come. The original Guardians of the Galaxy also met the team, as part of one of the definitive Avengers stories, "The Korvac Saga," in which the Avengers and Guardians battle a man with god-like powers, and in one fateful issue most of the team is killed.

While writing "Avengers" Shooter also became Marvel's Editor-in-Chief, incorporating many new policies at the company, but also bringing about new concepts still in wide use today by all publishers, such as company-wide crossovers and mini-series. Shooter wrote Marvel's first 12-issue limited series, "Marvel Super Hero Secret Wars", which was a massive success, and it also continues to resonate today. Essentially, a god-like being called the Beyonder creates a world in which he pits most of the most powerful heroes and villains against each other so he can learn about humanity. Not only did this take these characters off-planet for some time, but it resulted in key changes, such as Spider-Man's black costume.

Chris Claremont

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the X-Men, but Chris Claremont and artists Dave Cockrum and John Byrne are the creators who made them popular. The original series had already been cancelled due to low sales when Claremont started working at Marvel, but his involvement with the resurrection of the series started early, as he suggested the ending of "Giant-Size X-Men 1", which featured the introduction of new characters Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Thunderbird. Claremont started writing the series with issue 94, dubbed the All-New, All-Different X-Men, and with issue 95 did something no other creator had done before, by killing Thunderbird, a main character of the team. In issue 100, Jean Grey, aka Marvel Girl, historically the weakest member of the original X-Men, was transformed into Phoenix, who had cosmic-level power. This launched the Phoenix Saga, in which Phoenix struggled to retain her sanity as her power grew and those who loved her struggled with the responsibility of stopping her and caring for her as an individual. This storyline has been adapted into films twice so far, but neither film has come close to matching the depth or power of the original comics.

Claremont's era on X-Men was extensive, but arguably greatest with Byrne and Cockrum. During that time they introduced the villains Proteus and the Shadow King, the Hellfire Club, Dazzler, Kitty Pryde, and Arcade. They also provided a grim future for the X-Men in their final story, "Days of Future Past," which introduced Mystique and the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

After the departure of Byrne and Cockrum, Claremont would go on to write other great X-Men stories, including the first Wolverine mini-series, with Frank Miller, the Brood Saga, and the Mutant Massacre, featuring Mister Sinister and a new team of villains, the Marauders. Before his initial run on the X-titles ended, Claremont would co-create many other memorable characters, such as Gambit, Jubilee, the Morlocks, and Bishop. He also co-created a new team of mutants, aptly dubbed, "The New Mutants," and at the same time was writing "Marvel Team-Up," providing some of the great stories in that title's history.

Neil Gaiman

"The Sandman" isn't the first title Neil Gaiman worked on, nor is it the only thing he's ever done. But if it were the only thing he had ever worked on, he'd still be a legend. The series started in 1989 when Gaiman was asked to do a modern adaptation of the Golden Age character Sandman - a crime-fighter who used a gas gun to put criminals to sleep. What he did instead was create a mythology with a loose connection to the classic character, and at the same time, take comics to a new level, sufficient for DC to create an imprint around "Sandman" and other titles such as "Animal Man," "Doom Patrol," and "Swamp Thing." That imprint, Vertigo, gave creators more freedom to do what they wanted, and titles were typically recommended for mature readers, as they might include language, nudity, and other elements not suitable for children.

This was true of "Sandman," in general, as the core story is that Morpheus, Lord of the Dream Realm where all beings go when they sleep, is inadvertently captured earlier in the 20th century by a would-be sorcerer. This leaves Morpheus' realm without a ruler, and the nightmares escape into the waking realm. After he escapes, Morpheus' first task is to reclaim his kingdom and bring the nightmares back. Afterward, we learn of his past, and issues with other cosmic beings, all told at a level of depth, and with incredible character development.

One of the amazing things about the series is that Gaiman set out to write it as a whole, and if you re-read it, there are hints all the way through of where things are going. It is a masterpiece.

Gaiman has gone on to write other things, including a celebrated mini-series of "The Eternals" for Marvel, while also advising on other comics, and writing other series, such as the epic "Books of Magic" series, also for Vertigo.

Alan Moore

Like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore started out working on British comics before coming to work for DC, where he did groundbreaking work on "Green Lantern," and the limited series "Camelot 3000." Then Moore revitalized the 1970s character Swamp Thing, reinterpreting the book for a more adult audience, starting what would be known as the Vertigo line of books, and resulting in a film adaptation by horror master Wes Craven. While on "Swamp Thing," Moore co-created the character John Constantine, aka Hellblazer, who would go on to have a successful title of his own and a film starring Keanu Reeves.

At this point Moore began trotting out the truly legendary work, writing things that would become massively popular comics series, and then film adaptations, for decades to come, including "V for Vendetta," "Watchmen," "From Hell," and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."

Famously eccentric, Moore always wrote poignantly, rebelling against authoritarian control or censorship of any kind. While his work has been adapted into many films, he has refused to watch any of his adaptations, stating that when he's done with something, he's done with it.

Denny O'Neil

Working for both Marvel and DC, Denny O'Neil became widely known working on "Batman" with artist Neal Adams. During that run, they tried to return Batman to his roots of being a detective who fought criminals, getting away from the campy sci-fi stories of the 1950s and the just-as-campy stories of the 60s that matched the tone of the super-popular TV show. During their run, Adams drew what many think of as the definitive Batman, and the two decided to do something no creative team did before - they had Robin get older, go to college, and have an identity of his own. At the same time, Robin was shot and nearly died in one adventure, showing repercussions of crime-fighting. Together, Adams and O'Neil introduced several recurring characters for Batman, primary among them, criminal mastermind Ra's al Ghul and his assassin daughter Talia whose role as a love interest for Batman continues to this day.

Already working with more mature themes on Batman, O'Neil went on to Green Lantern, where he revitalized the series by pairing the hero with long-time Justice League teammate Green Arrow, who had never had his own series. Again working with Adams, the pair's time on the title would introduce social relevance to DC, as the heroes would still occasionally battle aliens, but more often, as they undertook a road trip through America in 1971, torn apart by war protests and culture change, they were fighting racists, crooked politicians, and other criminals who were a more relatable threat to daily life for most Americans.

This social relevance was never more clear than with Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85, in which Green Arrow's longtime sidekick Speedy was revealed to be addicted to heroin. This was the first time the issue was addressed in a comic book ever, and the point was made that it wasn't because Speedy was weak or stupid - he had been largely abandoned by Green Arrow, who had gone on to pursue his own interests and just assumed Speedy was fine.

O'Neil went on to an editorial position at DC, staying as group editor for the Bat-titles until his retirement, overseeing many great storylines for Batman, but also seeing Green Arrow finally get his own celebrated title and adapting the Charlton Comics character The Question into the DC Universe in a title that blended martial arts, philosophy, and detective work.

Gail Simone

Gail Simone first came to prominence writing a blog criticizing the writing of female characters in comics, noting that they're used typically to promote the storylines of the male characters, making them tragic figures, opponents, or objects of pursuit, rather than as independent, equal characters. She cited the girlfriend of 1990s-era Green Latern Kyle Rayner as the prime example, since the character only existed to be killed by a villain, giving Rayner tragic and vengeful motivation to be a hero.

Simone has since made a career of writing strong female characters, most notably the Birds of Prey team, as well as Batgirl, though she also had a notable and hilarious run on "Deadpool" and has worked on other books. The quality of Simone's writing is so high, and her engagement with fans so positive, that when the editorial decision was made to fire her from "Batgirl," fans demanded that she be brought back. While she did not create the Birds of Prey, many believe her tenure was the title's peak of quality, and the reason it became a fan favorite. (As one fan noted upon release of the film, the movie has little to do with the comics. If you hated the movie, don't think less of fans of the comic, they didn't like it either.)

Ed Brubaker

While Brubaker has worked on many titles at multiple publishers, it could be said that his specialty is gritty stories. Detective and crime stories, police stories, stories of intrigue that could be called noir. Growing up in a naval family, he was well-versed in the classic Captain America comics, and was distraught that Cap's sidekick, Bucky, was killed before Cap was reintroduced in the 60s. Thus, when he became writer of "Captain America" himself, Brubaker broke one of the unwritten rules at Marvel, which was, "Only two characters will never be resurrected - Uncle Ben and Bucky." But Brubaker did, in the monumental story, "Return of the Winter Soldier," as it's revealed that Bucky survived the incident in World War II where he was thought to be killed, and while he lost an arm, it was replaced and he was brainwashed, used for decades as an assassin for the Soviet Union.

While that storyline alone, and Brubaker's other work on "Captain America" and related titles such as "Secret Avengers' should be enough to qualify him to be on the great writers list, he also did solid work on "Daredevil," "Batman," and "G.C.P.D.", combining solid writing with gritty atmosphere for outstanding results.

Grant Morrison

Scottish writer Grant Morrison became well-known working under the Vertigo imprint on titles such as "Animal Man" and "Doom Patrol" as well as his co-creation, "The Invisibles." With "Animal Man," Morrison was given a similar task that Alan Moore had with "Swamp Thing," with similar results - taking a character that had been unsuccessful and reintreprting it, turning it into something much more. In fact, Morrison tied Animal Man in Swamp Thing, making them both avatars of Earth's overall mystic biosphere.

Morrison later took on more mainstream titles, including a landmark run on a revamped "JLA," which made the title more popular than it had been in years. He was also the mastermind behind the DC mega-event "52."

One of the characters Morrison has been involved with most, and best, is Batman, making him a key player - and shocking casualty - of "52" while having great success with the core Batman titles, where Morrison created the team of Batman Dick Grayson and Robin Damian Wayne.

Walt Simonson

Walt Simonson, like a few others on this list, is both an artist and writer, kown first as an artist, but he came to do both duties on his 4-year run on "Thor," which redefined the title. Thor was his favorite comic book when he was young, and he had a lifelong interest in Norse mythology, so when Simonson came onto the title, he increased the amount of mythology involved, while also continuing to put Thor in adventures in space, or with his frenemy Hercules. Several key stories took place during Simonson's tenure, including Thor's transformation into a frog, in which he had to rely on his enchanted goats, and the introduction of characters Kurse and Beta Ray Bill, an alien who gains the powers of Thor.

After he left the title, Simonson went on to other projects, notably the new title "X-Factor", which he worked on with his wife, Louise (Jones) Simonson. During that run, the team introduced the character Apocalypse and transformed Angel into the Horseman Death, later renamed Archangel.

Kurt Busiek

The 90s were a terrible, terrible time for comics, where titles such as X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, and Justice League were spread across multiple spin-offs, limited series, and one-shots, plus crossovers were almost continual. Writing tended to be bad, as even better writers struggled to explore any plot lines or character development in the midst of all the crossovers, and some writers just didn't care enough to know the details about the books and characters they were writing.

In contrast, Grant Morrison's "JLA" and Kurt Busiek's writing on "Avengers" vol. 3 turned things around. Busiek is possibly the most detailed, character-driven comic writer working today, with an extensive knowledge of comics history. While he notes that in a book, with the right reasons, any character can defeat any character, he writes stories that are true to the characters, where things happen. Stories readers can relate to.

Busiek first came to prominence writing "Power Man and Iron Fist," but his major breakthrough was on the landmark mini-series "Marvels", with art by legend Alex Ross. Busiek's run on "Avengers" is essentially definitive, restoring the title to greatness, plus he created the team "The Thunderbolts", which in itself a major creative development and breakthrough.

Frank Miller

As with Walt Simonson, Frank Miller started in comics primarily as an artist, but he went on to both write and draw some of his most well-known work, particularly his run on "Daredevil" in which Miller co-created the characters Elektra, Stick, and the Hand, and his work on "Batman," in which Miller re-told Batman's origin with the landmark "Batman:Year One" storyline, and essentially providing Batman's final storyline with the legendary "The Dark Knight Returns."

While he continues to do work with DC, particularly with Batman, Miller has made his mark with creator-owned properties, notably at Dark Horse Comics with his "Sin City" titles, and as the creator of the history based "300", both of which have been made into two films each.

Steve Gerber

Marvel in the 70s was far different than in the 60s, or in the decades after. At that point, the company realized the kids who read their comics in 1962 were now in college, and still reading the comics, and the comics should grow up with them. Also, they were still #2 in sales behind DC, so they were going to try harder, by doing other things. Thus writers like Steve Gerber had a chance, working on super-hero titles like "Defenders," in which he could write stories with main characters like Dr. Strange and the Hulk, but also introduce weird new villains like the Headmen, or cosmic teams like the original Guardians of the Galaxy. But where Gerber really shone was in working on horror titles, namely "Adventure into Fear," where he was able to branch out with two characters who would earn their own titles, both written by him - Man-Thing, and Howard the Duck.

As I wrote in another article, Howard the Duck was a cultural phenomenon in the 70s, which may be hard to understand given the quality (or lack thereof) of the subsequent film, and the comics featuring the character since then. But back then, Howard was essentially Gerber's alter-ego, commenting on the insanity of the world in which the President recently resigned, the President after that pardoned him, the economy was in a severe recession, and pretty much every aspect of everyday life seemed weirder than fiction. Thus Howard, like Gerber, was deemed to be "Trapped in a World He Never Made!"

Co-creation of that character alone, and making him hyper-popular, would be enough to include a writer on a list of greats. However, it wasn't as much of a challenge as writing Man-Thing, which Gerber did very successfully, providing the definitive run on the character. Unlike DC's Swamp Thing, who was introduced around the same time, and was a swamp creature with the mind of a scientist, Man-Thing was a monster who was once a scientist, but who had no mind left. Man-Thing could not speak, could not think. He was totally empathic, responding only to strong emotions, or things like evil energy. Essentially, he was a character without motivation, totally passive, while still being the lead character of the book. Thus, the plot was typically driven by the title's supporting cast, with no love interest, no career goals, nothing like money worries or dangers literally every other lead chaacter in every other book out there had. And Gerber did this brilliantly, as no one has been able to do since.

Marv Wolfman

Marv Wolfman made his mark at Marvel in the 70s, starting with their black and white magazines, such as "Rampaging Hulk", aimed at more mature readers, then with artist Gene Colan launghing the legendary "Tomb of Dracula" title, which introduced the character Blade, later the subject of three films in the 1990s. Wolfman worked at serveral other titles for Marvel, notably on "Nova," another character he co-created, before going to DC, where he and artist George Perez took a number of new characters - Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg - and added them to the original team of Robin, Kid Flash, Beast Boy, and Wonder Girl - creating the New Teen Titans. Wolfman would serve as the writer of the series for years, introducing other new characters, namely super-assassin Deathstroke the Terminator, and writing the definitive Titans story "The Judas Contract" before the title ended years later.

Wolfman and Perez teamed up in 1986 for the limited series that would redefine the DC Universe forever, "Crisis on Inifinite Earths," an undertaking the scope of which had never been dreamed before, as the pair rewrote nearly 50 years of DC continuity.

Len Wein

Len Wein didn't write any huge universe-changing comics epics. But for years at Marvel and DC he did solid, well-written work on key titles, introducing multiple key or legendary characters along the way. Notably, at DC, Wein was the co-creator of Swamp Thing, and with legendary artist Berni Wrightson, he provided the character's first appearances and most of the character's original series.

At Marvel, while he worked on a number of titles, including a memorable run on "Marvel Team-Up," Wein wrote a tiny little thing called "Giant-Size X-Men 1," changing the team, and comics history forever, and he plotted the subsequent landmark issues of X-Men 94 and 95, with scripts provided by Chris Claremont, before Claremont took over full writing duties with 96. In these books, Wein and artist Dave Cockrum introduced the brand new characters of Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Thunderbird, while Wolverine, whom Wein previously created in the pages of "Incredible Hulk," also joined the team.

Back at DC, Wein worked on "Batman" and "Detective Comics," creating the character Lucius Fox, and the third villain known as Clayface. He also wrote the meeting between Batman and the Hulk in one of four crossovers between Marvel and DC in the 70s and 80s.

Bill Mantlo

Bill Mantlo first became known for being a fill-in writer at Marvel in the 70s. When other books got behind, which was common, he was brought in to crank out a filler issue fast so that the title could still put out the next issue on time, even if it wasn't the issue planned. He eventually was assigned books of his own, such as the comic magazine "Deadly Hands of Kung Fu," in which he introduced the White Tiger, the first Hispanic hero not just at Marvel but in comics. He also wrote the short-lived but beloved series "The Champions," featuring an oddball assortment of characters from other books, namely Black Widow, Hercules, Angel, Iceman, and Ghost Rider. Finally Mantlo was assigned the titles he became known for, that showed what a writer with skill and dedication could do: "Rom" and "Micronauts."

In the case of "Micronauts," Mantlo looked at the Micronaut toys his son had, and started thinking of what stories could be told about them. He pitched the idea of a series and Marvel obtained the rights to publish comics based on the toys. Comics based on toys do not have a very good track record, as they tend to be more focused on selling toys than telling stories, but Mantlo didn't just write comics. He and artist Michael Golden created an alphabet for the characters, who come from a series of worlds inside our world - the Microverse now seen on the big screen in the Ant-Man films. In short, Mantlo created a mythology that was nothing short of amazing.

To a lesser degree he did this again with "Rom," again a series based on a toy, and this time Mantlo envisioned a race of space-knights, continually seeking out and battling evil shape-shifting Dire Wraiths. Both series were long-lived and popular, and featured crossovers with mainstream characters such as Man-Thing, the Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, and the X-Men.

Mantlo was the writer on "The Incredible Hulk" for several years, being the first to give Hulk the intelligence of Bruce Banner, to have the character move forward in development for the first time since his creation. While on that book he also created a character you may have heard of - Rocket Raccoon.

Don McGregor

Similar to the X-Men and Chris Claremont, one could say that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Black Panther. Don McGregor made the Black Panther a legend and a popular character, and wrote the greatest stories ever told featuring the character.

Previously only featured as a guest-star in "Fantastic Four" before joining the Avengers, the Panther had never starred in his own title before, but he was given a chance, with McGregor as writer. Rather than have the Panther appear in New York City, as with almost all other Marvel heroes, McGregor had his adventures set in Africa, primarily the Panther's kingdom of Wakanda, while writing stories people could relate to anywhere. In this series of stories McGregor focused on the character's character and nobility, not his combat abilities, while addressing other issues that were of concern, such as racism and the KKK. Writing the character later, in the series "Marvel Comics Presents" in the 1980s, McGregor continued to address difficult topics when he had the Panther learn his mother was alive and being held in South Africa, which at the time was torn by apartheid.

Brian Michael Bendis

Bendis began his career as an artist, working commercially, but eventually breaking in to the comics industry through independent publisher Caliber Comics, and then Image, where he wrote the Spawn-related title, "Sam and Twitch." Both that series and the series he did for Caliber, "Jinx," showed Bendis' deep knowledge and appreciation of noir literature and films, in particular the authors Jim Thompson and Dashiell Hammett. Bendis' writing is known for his ear for dialogue, which he credits to his noir influence, as well as his tendency to just go to where normal people are gathering and listen to what they're saying. This made his work on mainstream superhero comics titles distinct, in that the dialogue was more realistic and less expository and overblown than it tended to be.

Eventually Bendis was invited to work at Marvel, where he became the writer of "Ultimate Spider-Man," part of the Ultimate universe line of titles designed to represent Marvel's classic characters in a simplified manner and draw in new readers, who wouldn't have to rely on 40 years of backstory to know what was going on. Bendis and artist Mark Bagley stayed on the title for 111 issues, making them the longest-running creative team in the history of Marvel Comics, and one of the longest in comics in general. Bendis worked on other titles in the Ultimate line during this run, including Ultimate X-Men, and while on Ultimate Spider-Man, co-created the Miles Morales version of Spider-Man, who eventually became the primary version of Spider-Man in the Ultimates universe.

Bendis then used his gritty noir style to full effect on a lengthy run of Daredevil and of "Alias," a mature readers title featuring Jessica Jones, a former superheroine turned private detective with a mysterious past. Eventually Jones was moved into the core Marvel Universe, where she would interact with Ant-Man, Ms. Marvel, and other members of the Avengers.

Bendis took over as writer of the core Avengers title, which ended with the "Disassembled" event, making way for the launch of "New Avengers" in which Bendis relaunched the team using DC's JLA model - essentially all of Marvel's best-selling characters on one team - something that had not been considered before, since that meant putting both Wolverine and Spider-Man on the Avengers for the first time.

Bendis stayed on New Avengers for some time, as well as writing a relaunched "Avengers," title, and "Secret Avengers," and "Dark Avengers." All of these titles were tied in to major universe-changing storylines, such as "Civil War," and "Secret Invasion," many planned by Bendis well in advance. By the time Bendis' left Avengers he had written more issues of Avengers than anyone in history.

Garth Ennis

Garth Ennis' writing is fearless, with a unique blend of humor and extreme violence. He's best known for co-creating and writing the series "Preacher," for DC's Vertigo imprint. In it, a preacher from Texas named Jesse Custer, his girlfriend Tulip, and his best friend, who also happens to be a vampire, go on a quest to find God, who apparently has stop overseeing the workings of the universe and just let everything run itself, regardless of the circumstances. This series was later adapted for a live-action series on AMC.

Ennis used his gift for character-driven storytelling to revitalize Marvel's character The Punisher for a mature readers series. Perhaps more than any other character, The Punisher suffered from over-exposure in the 1990s, growing in popularity after his first appearance in the 1970s as a villain/anti-hero until he landed his own series in the 80s, then a second ongoing series, plus seemingly infinite graphic novels, one-shots, limited series and guest appearances in addition to those series. By 2000 the Punisher had been made temporarily black, executed, made an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and resurrected as an angel of vengeance with mystical weapons. It was beyond parody, and more than a little sad.

Ennis brought The Punisher back to his roots, resurrecting him as a man - a very highly-skilled Viet Nam vet who was waging a war on crime to avenge the accidental killing of his family years before. Singularly focused on his task, he had no friends, no real supporting cast, but the stories were excellent all the same. And, as in "Preacher," Ennis managed to tell these highly-violent stories with a bit of humor, as when The Punisher is pursued through a zoo after hours. Accessing the polar bear exhibit by chance, he turns, hits a polar bear, then escapes just as the enraged polar bear lashes out at the criminals who have been pursuing him, tearing them to pieces.

Ennis' work on "The Punisher" was the inspiration for the Punisher film, starring Thomas Jane. After his work at Marvel, he went on to co-create the series "The Boys," which has also been adapted as a live-action series.

J. Michael Strasynski

Essentially getting his start in TV working on animated shows such as "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and "The Real Ghostbusters," Strasynski became famous as the co-creator of the sci-fi series "Babylon 5." Eventually making his way into comics, he wrote "The Amazing Spider-Man," for 6 years, bringing a depth and maturity to the title that it had been missing for years. Key to his run were the storylines, "The Other," which expanded the mythos behind Spider-Man and the related spider-characters, and "Back in Black" and "One More Day." In those stories, the Kingpin sends an assassin to kill Spider-Man, but his Aunt May ends up being mortally wounded instead. After having abandoned his black costume years ago because of an incident that terrified his wife, Spider-Man dons the costume to break into the prison where Kingpin is incarcerated. He then confronts Kingpin in front of the prison population, totally humiliating him physically, in one of the most powerful moments ever depicted in the series. Afterward, in "One More Day," archdemon Mephisto offers Spider-Man and his wife a deal - he will heal Aunt May, but at the price of their marriage. They will no longer be married, nor will they have any memory of having been married. Their marriage and relationship will have been wiped out of time. This theme is later reflected in the film "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Steve Englehart

Starting at Marvel in the early 70s, Englehart started out doing re-writes of issues that editors believed just didn't work. This landed him steady work on series of his own, starting with "Amazing Adventures", in which founding X-Men the Beast launches out on adventures of his own, accidentally mutating himself further into a grey, then blue-furred version of himself. As part of the supporting cast, Englehart including long-time Marvel romance comic star Patsy Walker, who would join Beast on the Avengers during Englehart's long tenure on that title. Walker became the heroine Hellcat on the Avengers, but soon left to join the Defenders, also written by Englehart. Englehart had already put new heroine The Valkyrie on that team with issue 4, changing the dynamic of the team forever. Valkyrie stayed with the Defenders until the end of the series with issue 152.

During his time on Avengers, Englehart wrote some of the most widely acclaimed, critical epics in the book's history, as well as in Marvel in general, starting with "The Avengers-Defenders War" which had the definitive battle between Thor and the Hulk, and "the Celestial Madonna Saga," a cosmic tale that centered around newer Avengers Swordsman and Mantis (more recently seen in Guardians of the Galaxy), but also featured the wedding of Vision and the Scarlet Witch.

After his work on Avengers concluded, Englehart had a celebrated run on "Captain America" and "Dr. Strange," which, as with the Avengers and Defenders, led to momentous changes, namely that Dr. Strange's mentor the Ancient One died, the Captain America seen in comics in the 1950s was revealed to be someone else, and Steve Rogers, disillusioned by American politics, abandons the role of Captain America and becomes Nomad.

Englehart left Marvel for a time, writing "Detective Comics" for DC, on a run that re-established the Joker as a homicidal maniac. His work with the Joker helped inspired the 1989 "Batman" film, in which the Joker is portrayed by Jack Nicholson.

Dave Sim

A common thread among some of the writers on this list is creator-owned properties. Alan Moore advised Garth Ennis to focus on his own characters, rather than writing titles featuring characters he didn't own, and thus couldn't control. Neil Gaiman also followed that advise when he worked on "Sandman." But Gaiman's other inspiration was from earlier than that, with writer-artist Dave Sim and his independent series "Cerebus."

Sim started the series in the 1970s, as a spoof of the series "Conan the Barbarian," which was hyper-popular at the time. He then decided to change the focus of the book periodically, writing stories within the overarching story as books with a theme, pledging that the series would end at issue 300, with the death of the titular character. Gaiman did largely the same thing with his run on "Sandman," noting that when it was over it would be over, and both authors have stayed true to that promise, only revisiting their creations from time to time.

Sim's writing on the series was topical, spoofing comics, but also politics and the world at large, which reflected his inspiration from "Mad" magazine.

J.M. DeMatteis

Some writers are known as gritty writers, some specialize in horror or straightforward superhero comics, but J.M. DeMatteis is rare in being able to write all of these things extremely well.

The work he's most well-known for is what many consider to be one of the best Spider-Man story arcs ever, "Kraven's Last Hunt." The story ran through all three Spider-Man titles (before the line grew to five titles), and it escalated one of Spider-Man's classic foes, Kraven the Hunter, into a serious threat, exploring the psychology of the character for the first time and showing that if he wanted to, Kraven could have killed Spider-Man, as in the first issue he tracks, traps, and attacks Spider-Man, literally burying him and leaving him for dead, then taking his place.

On the lighter side, DeMatteis teamed with writer-artist Keith Giffen to relaunch DC's Justice League as "Justice League International." At a time when seemingly every comic had become gritty, their take was to set the book with a cast of powerful members, who at the same time were misfits, not always getting along, pointing out that the idea of characters in bright costumes running around was inherently absurd.

DeMatteis again showed a flair for writing dark, mystical characters, as he wrote a short-lived "Man-Thing" series, that while not successful, was one of the best portrayals of the character since the initial run written by Steve Gerber. He also relaunched DC's "The Spectre," in a way that for the first time, had the spirit creature bonded to someone else, the recently deceased hero Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan.

As an independent writer, DeMatteis wrote the highly successful graphic novel, "Moonshadow," which made history as being the first fully painted graphic novel ever published.

Geoff Johns

Growing up a fan of classic DC Comics, in particular Green Lantern and the Flash, Geoff Johns first started working in film under legendary director Richard Donner, before coming to work at DC as a writer, where he came to prominence on the title "JSA", working with the golden age versions of Green Lantern and Flash.

Eventually Johns wrote on both the Flash and Green Lantern core titles, making comics history there by bringing back Silver Age Flash Barry Allen, who had been dead since "Crisis on Infinite Earths," and Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan. Johns' work on "Green Lantern" would introduce many other types of Lantern-based characters outside of the Green Lantern Corps, including the Red Lanterns, and finally the Black Lanterns, as part of the "Blackest Night" storyline. Similarly, Johns wrote the "Flashpoint" mini-series, which resulted in the rebooting of DC continuity.

Johns' work led to him working on DC's film and TV projects, where he wrote multiple films and tv shows, and was essentially the guiding force behind them.

Jeph Loeb

Jeph Loeb started out as a screenwriter, writing several successful films, including "Teen Wolf," before branching off into comics. While he has written series and mini-series featuring many high-profile characters, Loeb, while often working with artist Tim Sale, is best known for writing specials and mini-series set at an early time in a heroes career. One example is the classic mini-series and related specials, "Batman: The Long Halloween," while others are "Daredevil: Yellow" and "Hulk: Grey." These series tend to be true to continuity and the classic era of the main character, while featuring a selection of villains and supporting characters from the past, told in a modern manner.

Loeb has hopped from Marvel to DC and back, writing the epic "Batman: Hush" mini-series before returning to Marvel to launch the series "Hulk," which introduced the character of Red Hulk. Loeb went on to write the "Captain America: Fallen Son" mini-series in the wake of the "Civil War" crossover, illustrating how different characters dealt with the death of Captain America.

Loeb continued writing and producing projects for the big and small screen while writing comics, co-creating and writing the series, "Heroes" as well as the Netflix Marvel series and WB series such as "Smallville."

Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman has written a number of things over the years, but what you'd know him for is the cultural phenomenon, "The Walking Dead," which started as a series for Image Comics, before being developed into the long-running show on AMC, which launched several spin-off shows.

Staying on the zombie theme, Kirkman also wrote the "Marvel Zombies" mini-series for Marvel, which were highly successful, despite being written as a joke. In the industry, fans who buy anything Marvel regardless of overall quality, and who refuse to buy anything else, are referred to as "Marvel zombies." Using that term, Kirkman wrote a series in which the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe are infected with the zombie virus, with effects ranging from hilarious to horrific (such as zombie Spider-Man shooting out bits of his own veins and swinging on them when he runs out of web fluid).

Outside of the zombie sub-genre, Kirkman also created and wrote the super-hero series, "Invincible" for Image Comics, which has been developed into an animated series.

Peter David

Peter David is an extremely prolific writer, writing novels, screenplays, and comic books across many genres and many characters. He has written for TV series such as "Babylon 5" and "Ben 10" and written many issues of Star Trek-related comic series as well as Star Trek novels. But there are three comic series that demonstrate what a gifted writer he is.

The first is his epic 12-year run on "The Incredible Hulk." He accepted being assigned the title because it was struggling and no one else wanted it, which gave David the freedom to do what he wanted. During his run, he explored the psychology of the Hulk and the background of Bruce Banner, showing that Banner had an abusive childhood that led to a state of multiple personality disorder, illustrated by the different versions of the Hulk. David also made use of existing character Doc Samson, a psychiatrist given super-strength after gamma exposure, to put the Hulk through therapy, merging the divergent personalities into one "merged Hulk" with the intelligence of Banner but the strength of the Hulk (this is definitely not the 'bro Hulk' seen today on the "She-Hulk" series).

One highlight of David's run is "Incredible Hulk" issue 340, taking place during the X-Men's "Fall of the Mutants" series, which features an epic battle between Wolverine and the grey Hulk, with art by Todd McFarlane. The issue shows how the two foes, who hadn't faced each other since Wolverine's debut in Hulk 181, were essentially equally matched, unable to fully defeat the other because each would heal the damage they were dealt too quickly.

The next notable achievement for David was his run on "Aquaman." It may seem unlikely now, when Aquaman is a popular hero due to his appearance in films, but for a very long time Aquaman was mocked as a hero, referred to as "that guy who swims and talks to fish," due mainly to his appearances on "Super Friends" and related cartoons. In his new ongoing series of the 1990s, David first had Aquaman lose a hand, which he replaced with an unbreakable, super-sharp hook, to not only give him more of an offensive advantage, but also to increase his look as a creature of the sea, as the hook looked like, and initially was, the head of a harpoon. Later in the series, David showed how strong Aquaman would have to be even to survive the incredible pressure of the water he moved through easily in the depths of his home in the sea. In one key issue, he had the hero launch an attack on Hawaii, using a number of whales to create a tsunami. Illustrations of the character's power, as well as explorations of his psyche, a retelling of his origin, and a strengthening of his supporting cast helped make Aquaman a respected character a mere 50 years after his creation.

Finally, David's work on the Marvel series "X-Factor," which has continued off and on to recent years, showed again David's gift for the psychological exploration of characters who had not been well fleshed-out, despite sometimes decades of being in print. When "X-Factor" initially began, it featured a reunion of the five original X-Men (Cyclops, Angel, Iceman, Beast, Marvel Girl) coming together under the guise of mutant hunters to secretly gather and train new young mutants while fighting mutant threats, as they originally were supposed to do as X-Men. After several years, and as a result of the "Muir Island Saga", the members of X-Factor rejoined the X-Men, and a new X-Factor team of Havok, Wolfsbane, Polaris, Forge, Madrox the Multiple Man, and Strong Guy (Guido) was formed. This team was a government-sponsored team sent to investigate mutant threats. Similar to his run on Incredible Hulk, David was able to do essentially what he wanted with these characters because none of them were A-listers with series of their own. There was no Wolverine or Cable to worry about. So he explored what it was like to be a character whose power was to create duplicates of himself. Or what it was like to be the younger brother of Cyclops, always living in the shadow of the perfect X-Man. And once again, David brought in Doc Samson in a memorable issue to psychoanalize the team, making some of them well-rounded, interesting characters for the first time.

Warren Ellis

As with several other Vertigo writers who came to prominence in the '90s. Warren Ellis tends to skew dark, but at the same time retain considerable humor. Ellis' major breakthrough came from writing the creator-owned title "Transmetropolitan" title for Vertigo, featuring the character Spider Jerusalem, a journalist who is essentially Ellis alter-ego mixed with gonzo journalist and legendary writer Hunter S. Thompson.

Ellis has written and/or co-created multiple other oddball, offbeat, gritty series, such as "The Authority," "Planetary," and "Nextwave" - a Marvel series which in one issue features an amazing sequence in which one of the characters is shoved into pants of the giant dragon Fin Fang Foom.

Ellis has been assigned more mainstream work, such as his groundbreaking run on "Moon Knight," but it's really his work on the darker titles, such as "Hellstorm" where he is able to to shine, finding depths and dark angles of characters that other writers may not have realized were there, or been afraid to investigate. In the case of "Hellstorm," one of the first things Ellis did was look at what would happen when a character known for being "happy go-lucky," such as long-time Defender Patsy (Hellcat) Walker, marries someone who is quite literally the Son of Satan. His answer is, after a time she goes insane and kills herself.

On the big screen, Ellis has had two films released directly based on his work, "Red," and "Red 2," while the "Extremis" storyline he wrote for "Iron Man" was used as the basis for "Iron Man 3."

Fabian Nicieza

There isn't a lot to like about comics in the 90s in terms of quality. There were well-written books, but overall the books that were at the top of the sales charts were over-printed, over-marketed, and watered-down in terms of quality, with sales pumped up by speculators who thought anything with an X on it, or anything featuring the Punisher or Spider-Man, and any first issue, was going to be worth a fortune. However, there were creators working at the time who were doing solid work, churning out good stories even when they were given less than perfect characters to work with. One of those creators was writer Fabian Nicieza, who came to prominence writing "New Warriors," a team of young heroes no one really cared about, (Nova, Firestar, Night Thrasher, Namorita, and Marvel Boy/Justice) but who Nicieza and artist Mark Bagley helped mold into a book with solid sales.

Similarly, when Nicieza was assigned to "New Mutants," a spinoff x-book that needed some help, he and new artist Rob Liefeld used the last few issues to introduce new characters Cable, Domino, and Deadpool, relaunching the title as "X-Force," and making comics history. In the short period that followed, Nicieza wrote the initial mini-series of both Cable and Deadpool, adding to the characters and defining them for years to come.

He would later be assigned to the core X-Men book, which he wrote for several years, producing several major storylines, including the epic "Age of Apocalypse."

Mark Waid

Mark Waid came to prominence as a writer at DC Comics, during his long run on "Flash." During that period, former Kid Flash Wally West was the title character, as Silver Age Flash Barry Allen was killed during the epic "Crisis on Infinite Earths" storyline. Waid used the series to define Wally West as a character and the true successor to the Flash name, but also to explore the full history of all the Flash characters, from the original Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, through Barry Allen and up to West, but also by introducing new characters Max Mercury and Impulse, who would go on to be extremely popular and have a series of his own.

After working on the Flash, Waid would team with then-new artist Alex Ross to create one of the most acclaimed mini-series in the history of comics, "Kingdom Come," which essentially tells the last story of the great heroes of the DC Universe, set years in the future.

Following the success of "Kingdom Come," Waid would work on "The Age of Apocalypse" storyline at Marvel, as well as an acclaimed run on "Captain America," before returning to DC to work on more projects involving the Justice League. Back at Marvel again, he wrote a highly regarded series of "Fantastic Four," bringing that classic team back to a level of prominence and respectability they had not seen for some time.

Matt Fraction

Matt Fraction wrote for multiple series at Marvel, providing a distinctive style for all of them, from "Iron Man" to "Fantastic Four" and the spinoff book, "FF" featuring an offbeat team including She-Hulk and Ant-Man. But the book that really made him shine was "Hawkeye," where he turned the long-time Avenger, who had recently been featured in the MCU films, into an everyman character who had to hold his own, despite being on a team where he was fighting alongside a super-soldier, an invincible technological genius, an incredibly powerful monster, and an actual god. Fraction's Hawkeye series made excellent use of humor, but also deeply explored the bond between classic Hawkeye Clint Barton and Young Avenger Hawkeye Kate Bishop in a way that provided great depth to both characters. This series was then used as the primary basis for the later "Hawkeye" live-action series.