Marv Wolfman

Marvin "Marv" Wolfman (May 13, 1946 - ) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on Tomb of Dracula for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.

Wolfman was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York.

Active in fandom before he broke into professional comics at DC in 1968, he often collaborated (particularly in his early years) with friend Len Wein. When asked what a book about the both of them would be like, Wein and Wolfman replied it would resemble the Three Stooges minus one.

In 1974 Wein and Wolfman moved to Marvel Comics as protegés of then-editor Roy Thomas. When Thomas stepped down, Wein and Wolfman took over as editors, the former initially in charge of the color comics, the latter black and white titles. They too stepped down in 1976, while staying on as writer/editors.

During his time at Marvel Wolfman wrote memorable runs on Amazing Spider-Man (where he co-created The Black Cat), Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, and co-created the "teen hero" title Nova, which tried to recapture the sense of fun and wonder of the early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby years of Marvel.

His finest writing, however, was done for Tomb of Dracula, a run-of-the-mill horror comic which Wolfman turned into a rich, complex piece of high gothic, well matched with the moody shade-and-light pencilling of Gene Colan. Taking Bram Stoker's basic story, Wolfman created his own vampire mythology and a slew of new characters, including Blade. This title might have influenced Joss Whedon, a comics fan and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In 1980, Wolfman moved back to DC after a dispute with new Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Teaming up with penciller George Pérez, he proposed a relaunch of DC's band of twice-cancelled teenage sidekicks: the Teen Titans.

The New Teen Titans, which added Wolfman/Pérez creations Raven, Starfire and Cyborg to the old team's Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and Beast Boy (renamed Changeling), became DC's first bona fide hit in years, and its first serious competitor to Marvel since the late 1960s. It was DC's most successful title in the early 1980s, and helped spark the DC revolution throughout the decade which led to the company challenging Marvel for primacy in the industry.

During the early 1980s Wolfman also collaborated with artist Gil Kane on a run on Superman, and rejoined Colan (who had also moved to DC) on the short-lived Night Force.

In 1985 Wolfman and Pérez launched Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 12-issue mini-series celebrating DC's 50th anniversary. Featuring a cast of thousands and a timeline that ranged from the beginning of the universe to the end of time, it killed scores of characters, integrated a number of heroes from other companies to DC continuity, and re-wrote 50 years of history to start over again.

After Pérez left the Titans in 1986, Wolfman continued with other collaborators - including pencillers Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Eduardo Barreto and Tom Grummett - but certainly at least some of the magic was gone.

Like Chris Claremont on X-Men, Wolfman probably stayed on Titans a little too long (and he reportedly suffered an extended bout of writer's block later in his run). Increasingly, Wolfman was doing better writing on other titles (such as Batman), and New Titans (as it was by then known) was eventually cancelled in 1996.

Since then Wolfman's writing for comics has decreased as he has turned to other areas, particularly animation and television. His mid-1990s series The Man Called A-X was an interesting take on the idea of cyborgs and what it means to be human.

Wolfman's major publicity in recent years has come from a lawsuit against Marvel Comics seeking ownership of Blade, by then the subject of two highly successful films. The judge eventually ruled in favor of Marvel.

Recently, he began writing in comics again, as the scribe for Defex, the flagship title of Devil's Due Productions's Aftermath line.

External links

• Marv Wolfman official web site (http://www.marvwolfman.com/)