Mark Waid

Mark Waid (born March 21, 1962) is an American comic book writer best known for his work on DC Comics titles The Flash, Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright as well as his work on Captain America, Fantastic Four and Daredevil for Marvel.

Other comics publishers he has done work for include Fantagraphics, Event, Top Cow, Dynamite, and Archie Comics.

He has stated that his comics work was heavily influenced by Adventure Comics #369–370 (1968), the two-part "Legion of Super-Heroes" story by Jim Shooter and Mort Weisinger that introduced the villain Mordru.

Waid has stated that the story is "a blueprint for everything I write."

Waid entered the comics field during the mid-1980s as an editor and writer on Fantagraphics Books' comic book fan magazine, Amazing Heroes.

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, which was first introduced in The Kingdom.

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 imprint.

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 character known as Impulse in The Flash (vol. 2) #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 center of a company-wide crossover storyline.

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.

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.

Waid also wrote the short-lived spin-off series Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty from 1998 to 1999, having written 10 of the 12 issues (skipping issues #7 and 10).

Waid collaborated with artists Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary on JLA and the JLA: Heaven's Ladder (Oct. 2000) one-shot.

In 2000, Waid co-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.

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.

Empire was completed under the DC Comics label in 2003 and 2004.

Waid wrote the first year of Crossgen's Ruse series.

From August 2007 to December 2010, Waid served as Editor-in-Chief and later Chief Creative Officer of Boom! Studios, where he also published his creator-owned series Irredeemable and Incorruptible.

In October 2018, Waid joined Humanoids Publishing as Director of Creative Development before being promoted to Publisher in February 2020.

Waid was born in Hueytown, Alabama.