MARVEL: THE END OMNIBUS JIM STARLIN COVER

Peter David is one of the industry’s most prolific and versatile writers whose record-breaking stint on Incredible Hulk remains a fan-favorite to this day. His similarly long-running — and critically acclaimed — association with X-Factor began in the early 1990s and continued in 2005. His other Marvel work includes Captain Marvel, two lengthy stints on Spider-Man 2099, Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider and the smash-hit Symbiote Spider-Man limited series with artist Greg Land. David is also a novelist and screenwriter. Among his credits are some forty Star Trek tie-ins; original novels such as Sir Apropos of Nothing, Howling Mad and Knight Life; movies Trancers 4 and Trancers 5; and episodes of Babylon 5 and Crusade. He also co-created the TV show Space Cases with actor-writer Bill Mumy.

Jim Starlin introduced not only Thanos but also Shang-Chi and many other memorable characters. After seemingly killing both Adam Warlock and Thanos in one of Marvel’s earlier multi-title cosmic arcs — for which he won two Eagle Awards — Starlin wrote Marvel’s first graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel. Returning to Marvel to write Silver Surfer, he resurrected Adam Warlock and Thanos, both of whom figured prominently in a veritable franchise of miniseries he wrote and/or penciled: Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Infinity Crusade, Infinity Abyss and more, plus the Warlock and the Infinity Watch and Thanos monthlies. Starlin continued to chart the saga of the Mad Titan in a recent series of original graphic novels.

An Eisner Award winner for his work on Inhumans, Paul Jenkins helped reveal Wolverine’s untold history in Origin and introduced a “forgotten” hero of the Marvel Universe in Sentry. In addition to his comics work on such series as Spectacular Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk and Civil War: Front Line, he is a prolific writer of video games, including Radical Entertainment’s Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Jenkins returned to DC Comics in 2011, writing New 52 titles Batman: The Dark Knight and Stormwatch.

Sure, Dale Keown’s first work for Marvel came on the not quite illustrious Nth Man, the Ultimate Ninja – but that wouldn’t be the title for which he would earn his richly deserved reputation as one of modern comics’ most exciting stylists. That honor would go to his run on Incredible Hulk – where, paired with writer Peter David, he would help take the gamma-irradiated character’s title to the zenith of its popular and creative acclaim. Keown left Hulk following a phenomenal three-year run to head to Image, where he created the memorable Pitt comic and character. Since then, he has contributed art to The Darkness (Image) and re-teamed with Peter David on the one-shot Hulk: The End. 

Sean Chen came to fame drawing such titles as X-O Manowar, Bloodshot and Harbinger for Valiant Comics. At Marvel, he illustrated a multi-year run on Kurt Busiek’s Iron Man, as well as Wolverine, Elektra and X-Men: The End. Chen’s later credits include Nova, Mighty Avengers and Avengers Academy.

The career of British-born artist Alan Davis took off like a rocket after his humble beginnings at Marvel UK. Continuing the collaboration that saw Captain Britain become an enduring critical and fan-favorite, the two co-created D.R. and Quinch. Davis broke into U.S. comics with runs on Batman and the Outsiders and Detective Comics. Hired by Marvel U.S. in 1986, Davis launched Excalibur with Chris Claremont, and the book quickly became one of Marvel mutantdom’s most unique and humorous titles. When Davis took over as writer, he continued many plot threads from his Captain Britain run. Davis also created the super-hero family ClanDestine, and wrote and drew the DC miniseries JLA: The Nail. After a lengthy arc writing and drawing X-Men, Davis went on to work on the miniseries Killraven, Fantastic Four: The End and a ClanDestine revival. He has also illustrated writer Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers Prime and contributed to the status-quo-changing X-Men: Schism, later helping relaunch Wolverine with writer Paul Cornell.