|
Mark Waid is an American comic book writer.
Entering the field during the mid-1980s as an editor and writer with Fantagraphics Books' comic book fan magazine, Amazing Heroes, Waid was soon hired to serve as an editor for DC Comics. Leaving editorial work for freelance writing assignments, Waid was hired to write The Flash for DC in 1992, beginning an acclaimed eight-year run alone and with co-writer Brian Augustyn. During this time Waid and a number of artists, most notably Greg LaRocque and Mike Wieringo, would bring the present-day Flash out from the shadow of his predecessor and increase his powers dramatically.
Waid would be known for much of the 1990s as a very prolific writer, handling a number of series for both Marvel and DC. Marvel hired him to succeed the late Mark Gruenwald on Captain America, breathing new life into the character despite being fired and then re-hired when Marvel tried and failed to re-invent the hero as part of the Heroes Reborn project.
In 1996, Waid, with artist Alex Ross, released his best known work, 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, and while many of the events in the story were intense, a steady optimism filled the series. Many of the ideas introduced here have been integrated into the present-day DC universe, and Waid himself wrote a less successful follow-up to the series, The Kingdom.
Waid also had acclaimed runs on DC's JLA, the Flash spinoff series Impulse and Crossgen's Ruse.
In 2003, Waid re-released a series named Empire (with Barry Kitson), whose protagonist was a Doctor Doom-like supervillain who had 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 produced. Empire was completed under the DC Comics label but is in its own distinct universe.
Waid is wrapping up an acclaimed run as writer of Fantastic Four for Marvel, a run so popular that an ill-conceived decision to fire him from the series in 2003 was reversed in a matter of weeks. In December 2004, Waid teamed again with Barry Kitson and returned to writing Legion of Super-Heroes for DC, yet another book he wrote in the 1990s.
|
