Steve Englehart’s history-making contributions to the Marvel Universe began with the Beast’s solo feature in Amazing Adventures, in which the eloquent X-Man first assumed furry form. As Avengers writer, he masterminded such major events as “The Avengers/Defenders War” (in both teams’ titles) and “The Celestial Madonna Saga.” In Captain America, he identified and solved the “mystery” of the 1950s Captain America (later revived by Ed Brubaker), and gave the true Cap the alternate identity of Nomad. Englehart’s Dr. Strange storyline in Marvel Premiere established the character as Sorcerer Supreme and covered the creation of the universe itself. At DC, he helped revamp Batman, Green Lantern, Superman and other major heroes for the 1970s. Back at Marvel, he wrote the first few years of West Coast Avengers and Silver Surfer. His published novels include Countdown to Flight, Hellstorm (part of the TALON Force series), Majorca, The Point Man and, with wife Terry Beach, books in the DNAgers young-adult series. Englehart has also written TV episodes and designed video games.
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.
Al Milgrom, A.K.A. “Editori-Al,” is renowned as writer, editor, penciler and inker — and held most of those positions on Spectacular Spider-Man. He also contributed to SSM’s sibling Amazing Spider-Man. He penciled West Coast Avengers for four years and inked X-Factor for eight. His artwork has also appeared in Avengers, Captain America, Thor and most X-titles, including the classic Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. As editor, he oversaw Marvel’s Epic imprint and the sixty-issue run of Marvel Fanfare, where his satirical self-portraits made his face as recognizable as any super hero’s mask. At DC, he co-created Firestorm the Nuclear Man with Gerry Conway.