Mark Waid

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 where he worked on titles such as Secret Origins and Legion of Super-Heroes.

In 1991 Waid left editorial work for freelance writing assignments. His first work was for DC's short-lived Impact Comics line where he wrote The Comet and co-wrote Legend of the Shield.

However it was in 1992 that Waid began the assignment which would bring him to wider recognition in the comics industry, when he was hired to write The Flash by then editor Brian Augustyn. The comic starred one of DCs flagship characters, and in an acclaimed eight-year run, Waid and a number of artists, most notably Greg LaRocque and Mike Wieringo and in the final year with Augustyn as co-writer, brought the modern Flash out from the shadow of his predecessors and increased his powers dramatically.

Waid's initial success on Flash was acknowledged by DCs competitor Marvel Comics when Marvel editors Matt Idelson and Mark Gruenwald hired him as Gruenwald's successor as writer on Captain America. Waid's first run on the title, with artist Ron Garney, met with great critical and fan positive reaction, which grew stronger when the stint was ended prematurely after less than a year by Marvel executives to make way for Heroes Reborn, a reinvention of the character by Rob Liefeld.

Heroes Reborn was a critical disaster, with Liefeld being fired halfway through, and a year later Waid and Garney returned to Captain America. Though his second run on the character was not as universally praised as his first, Waid's prestige had been boosted by the whole affair and he went on to be one of the most prolific comic writers of the late 1990s.

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 named Golgoth who had successfully 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 produced. Empire was completed under the DC Comics label but is in its own distinct universe.

In 2002 Waid began an acclaimed run as writer of Fantastic Four for Marvel. Then in 2003, in a striking parallel to the events of 1995/1996 with Captain America, Waid's fan favorite run on the Fantastic Four was threatened when Marvel executives sought to reinvent aspects of the series. When Waid refused to acquiesce to the changes he and artist Mike Wieringo were replaced on the title. However such was the backlash from fans that on this occasion the decision was reversed and Waid and Wieringo reinstated on the title within weeks. The debacle is one of the factors which led to then Marvel Publisher Bill Jemas leaving his position. Waid and Wieringo have since completed their run on Fantastic Four.

In December 2004, Waid teamed again with Barry Kitson and returned to writing Legion of Super-Heroes for DC, a book he has both edited and written at different times in the past.