Mark Waid

Born March 21, 1962 (Hueytown, Alabama)
American author

"I take great joy in a career dedicated to the simple notion that it's okay to make comics fun again."

Young readers coming to the superhero comics of the 1990s and 2000s could not have avoided the impact of author Mark Waid. Not only has Waid had his hand in writing an amazing number of superhero stories, from Flash to the Fantastic Four, Superman to Batman, and many more, he has infused his superhero tales with some of the magic of the early years of the genre. In story after story, Waid has updated the meaning of the superhero for contemporary readers, without turning toward the irony and cynicism that defined the comics of the late 1980s and early 1990s. His Kingdom Come (1997) was widely praised as an allegory (symbolic representation) for the continuing importance of the classic comic heroes, and his Superman: Birthright (2004) brought renewed complexity to the story of Superman's origins. With his engaging characterization and his fast-paced plots, Waid has more than accomplished his goal of making comics fun again.

Gravitates toward superheroes

Waid was born on March 21, 1962, in Hueytown, Alabama, on the outskirts of the city of Birmingham. His love for comics began at age four when he obtained a copy of Batman #180, the cover of which he later framed and kept above his desk to remind himself of his lifetime love of comics. He hasn't stopped collecting comics since. Waid was a solid student who finished high school and pushed on to college at the age of sixteen. At Virginia Commonwealth University he changed majors three times, from journalism to English to physics, but after three years he eventually dropped out to pursue his dream: to become a writer in the comic book industry.

Waid got his foot in the door writing freelance stories for the fanzines, or fan-created magazines, Amazing Heroes and Comics Buyers's Guide. An editor at Amazing Heroes liked his material, and in the mid-1980s he joined the staff of that magazine as a writer and editor. From there, Waid jumped to the big time, joining industry giant DC Comics as an editor in 1987. Waid served as editor for a variety of writers on such titles as Legion of Superheroes, Secret Origins, Doom Patrol, and a wide range of other works. He also had a hand in creating stories or suggesting plot lines, and thus gained a valuable apprenticeship in the craft of creating comics. By 1989, Waid decided that he was ready to become a full-time writer on his own and he left DC to pursue a freelance career. (Freelance writers have the freedom to write stories for a variety of publishers, rather than for a single employer.)

Best-Known Works

Graphic Novels

The Flash 6 vols. (1992–2000).

Captain America 2 vols. (1996, 1998).

Kingdom Come (1997).

Impulse: Reckless Youth (1997).

(With others) JLA 7 vols. (1998–2002).

Kingdom (1999).

Ruse 2 vols. (2002–03).

Crux 2 vols. (2002).

(With others) Edge (2002).

Fantastic Four 6 vols. (2003–05).

Empire (2004).

Superman: Birthright: The Origin of the Man of Steel (2004).

In his first years as a freelancer, Waid earned the reputation as being one of the hardest-working writers in the business. He wrote about major characters such as Superman and Batman, and he wrote about minor characters such as the Legionnaires and Ka-Zar. What characterized his work was the obvious passion he had for superhero stories. In an interview on the Fanzing Web site, Waid admitted that he was deeply invested in his stories: "I'm here to tell you that, like it or not, I would be absolutely incapable of producing the work I produce if I weren't personally attached to it. The up-side to the process is that I'm invested, that my work carries genuine emotion because it carries a small piece of me in it."

No Flash in the pan

In 1992, Waid was offered the opportunity to take a turn at writing stories for a long-established DC Comics character, the Flash, best known for his lightning-fast speed. The Flash that Waid inherited was the alter-ego of Wally West, and the third and most powerful character to bear the name. Waid retold Flash's origin story, introduced some new powers for the character (including the "speed force"), involved him in a long-term romance, and led him in a series of battles against villains Abra Kadabra, Savitar, and Cobalt Blue. Waid remained the main writer on the series for one hundred issues, from 1992 through 2000; he was joined over this time, however, by a number of artists and, for a time, by co-writer Brian Augustyn (1954–). In the midst of his run on Flash, Waid was wooed by DC's arch-rival in the superhero business, Marvel Comics, to write for one of its long-running series, Captain America. Waid worked on the series in two bursts of creativity, realized in the publication of two graphic novel collections in 1996 and 1998. Together, his work on Flash and Captain America proved Waid's skill at handling some of the biggest superheroes in publishing history.

In 1997, Waid penned the work that lifted him into the top tier of comic book authors. Teaming with celebrated comic book artist Alex Ross (1970–; see entry), Waid wrote a story, Kingdom Come, that proved to be one of the most imaginative alternate takes on the DC Comics superhero universe ever attempted. In the future imagined in Kingdom Come, Superman, Batman, and the other DC regulars have "retired" from the hero business, allowing a new generation of superheroes to keep the world safe. As this new generation battles with each other and with villains for control of the world, they create the very conditions that could destroy mankind. Superman and Wonder Woman re-form the Justice League and prove once again to be the champions that humanity needs.

Kingdom Come came at a time when the comics industry needed a reminder of the power that exists in superhero stories. In the late 1980s and 1990s, a number of comics writers had explored the "dark side" of superheroes, exposing their weaknesses and calling into question the very idea that such heroes were truly champions of good. Though these stories enjoyed a brief popularity, by the mid-1990s comics sales were way down, and industry observers felt that this was in part because readers no longer believed in the idealism of the characters they had once revered. Kingdom Come reversed this slide by showing that the classic superheroes still had something to offer: as Superman says to government representatives toward the end of the series, "The problems we face still exist. We're not going to solve them for you, we're going to solve them with you, not by ruling above you … but by living among you." With these words, Waid announced that superheroes were still relevant. (Sadly, however, the successor to Kingdom Come, titled Kingdom, was not nearly as successful.)

To independents and back

Though he had achieved some real success working with the major comics publishers, Waid was one of a number of comics creators who longed for the freedom to create characters and stories that fall outside the established rules of DC and Marvel. In 1999, he joined with several equally well-known peers to form a publishing venture called Gorilla Comics. At Gorilla, Waid began work on a new series called Empire, but the company's financing dried up so quickly that the series died after just two issues (it was later resurrected by DC Comics). Shortly after this failed venture, Waid joined the staff of CrossGen, another start-up publisher that hoped to offer writers and artists more creative freedom. Waid's most notable contribution to the new company was a series titled Ruse, a detective story set in nineteenth-century Britain (he also authored Crux and Sigil). Waid described the main characters in Ruse to Mike Allred of Comic Book Resources as: "Simon Archard, the world's greatest detective, [who] is by this point in his career so good at what he does that he's bored stiff and has begun to withdraw into himself because he sees no more challenges [and] Emma, his assistant (or partner, if you ask her), [who] sees that there is still some warmth and humor buried deep inside him and has charged herself with bringing that out come hell or high water." Despite gaining strong reviews, Ruse ceased publication in 2004 when CrossGen folded. Like it or not, Waid was forced back into the arms of the big publishers—and he made the best of it.

Publishing Upstart CrossGen

Mention comic books and most people think superheroes; mention superheroes and most people think Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and other well-known characters. For comics creators, the absolute dominance of superheroes and the companies that control them, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, has long been perceived as a roadblock to innovation, barring the introduction of new non-superhero works. In the 1990s, soaring comic book sales encouraged a number of comics creators to establish new publishing ventures to try to expand the market. In the vast majority of cases, these startups were a disaster, but Cross-Generation Comics—better known as CrossGen—almost bucked the trend.

CrossGen was founded in 1998 by entrepreneur Mark Alessi. For nearly two years he put in place the building blocks that he hoped would lead to success: he hired both new and established writers (including Mark Waid) and offered them decent salaries; he worked with creative staff to develop a variety of distinct storylines, none of which involved superheroes; and he established solid production and distribution arrangements. The founding of the company—which was far better organized than most of the shoestring operations that came and went in the 1990s—was welcomed by comics industry magazines. Veteran writer Mark Waid told Mike Jozic on the Silver Bullet Comic Books Web site: "As a company, I think CrossGen is poised to be a major force in tackling the problems of being a niche market that plague comics today."

CrossGen enjoyed several strong years, thanks in part to series like Waid's Ruse; Sigil, created by Alessi and Gina Villa; and Meridian, written by Barbara Kesel. Cross-Gen was also an innovator, becoming one of the first publishers to deliver comics over the Internet. But its success soon came to an end, thanks to financial scandal, bookstores backing out of agreements to carry CrossGen graphic novels, and finally, in 2004, bankruptcy. Despite the strong beginnings, another small publisher proved unable to crack the near monopoly enjoyed by DC and Marvel.

Waid's first big success following his days with CrossGen came with the Fantastic Four. Introduced in 1961 by Marvel Comics, the Fantastic Four were a group of four scientist/adventurers who gained superpowers after one of their experiments went awry. Genius Reed Richards can stretch his body to incredible lengths; conscientious Sue Storm Richards can become invisible and create force fields; Johnny Storm (Sue's younger brother) becomes the Human Torch; and Ben—who Waid has called the "least complex character in the Marvel Universe"—is made of stone and has amazing strength. In an essay called the "Fantastic Four Manifesto" published in the first graphic novel collection of his work on the series, Waid explained his real affection for the original characters and argued that "All they need is for someone like me to remember why I love them and then, applying that TLC, polishing them up until readers can't help but [see] why they were so damn attractive in the first place." Polish them he did: Waid began a three-year run on the series that boosted the popularity of the Fantastic Four to new heights, thanks largely to Waid's imaginative exploration of what it meant for the characters to live with their powers and to try to continue their work as scientists. Waid produced six volumes of graphic novels, and the success of his series led, in 2005, to the release of a popular live-action film and several video games.

Fresh off his revitalization of Fantastic Four, in 2003 Waid turned his attention to the greatest superhero of all: Superman. Despite Superman's status as the most written-about character in comic book history, DC Comics felt that it was time for a new generation of readers to be introduced to the story of Superman's origins, and they turned to a man with a solid reputation for breathing new life into old heroes. While keeping the basic story intact—Superman still comes from the planet Krypton as an infant; he is still raised by Martha and Jonathan Kent; he still falls for Lois Lane; and he still battles Lex Luthor—Waid looked deeply into the characters and their motivations and found a new story. In the afterword to his Superman: Birthright: The Origin of the Man of Steel, Waid explains that he let two questions guide his approach: "Why does he [Superman] do what he does?" and "How can I possibly identify with someone like that?"

The power of these two questions, teamed with Waid's virtuosity at getting inside the heads of his characters, led to some key new insights into the Man of Steel. Clark finds his motivation for heroism while working in violence-torn Africa, for example, and he consciously adapts his Clark Kent persona as a kind of disguise that frees him to exert his superpowers in the city of Metropolis. Waid digs deeper into the relationship between Superman and Lex Luthor, and he makes important adjustments to the characterization of Lois Lane and cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. These, and a handful of other adjustments and rethinkings, helped make Birthright a huge success both among longtime Superman fans and a new generation of readers.

Reflecting on the fact that writing about superheroes remains meaningful, Waid wrote on the Newsarama Web site: "Long past the point where I believed I had anything left to learn from a simple hero of my childhood, Superman stands revealed to me as a tool through which I can examine the balance of selflessness and self-interest in my own life, which is every bit as valuable a lesson as the ones he taught me years ago." Perhaps it was this sense of personal fulfillment and exploration that kept Waid attached to comics writing. In the early 2000s, Waid was one of a number of prominent writers who signed on to DC Comics's efforts to rethink its superhero line for the twenty-first century. If Superman: Birthright is any indication, Waid may be leading the way as superhero comics undergo one of their periodic revolutions that continue to make them one of the most popular forms of entertainment for young people.

For More Information

Books

Waid, Mark. Fantastic Four. Vol. 1: Imaginauts. New York: Marvel, 2003.

Waid, Mark. Superman: Birthright: The Origin of the Man of Steel. New York: DC Comics, 2004.

Periodicals

"Comics 101." Entertainment Weekly (December 17, 2004): p. 88.

Gustines, George Gene. "Recalibrating DC Heroes for a Grittier Century." New York Times (October 12, 2005): p. E3.

Publishers Weekly (August 12, 2002): p. 278.

Web Sites

Allred, Will. "Mark Waid Interview." Comic Book Resources. http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=969 (accessed on May 3, 2006).

Contino, Jennifer. "CrossGen Comics: A New Kid on the Block." Sequential Tart. http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/may00/art_0500_8.shtml (accessed on May 3, 2006).

Jozic, Mike. "Mark Waid: Getting to the Crux of the Matter." Silver Bullet Comic Books. http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/features/98662205385005.htm (accessed on May 3, 2006).

Lien, Barb. "Comic Books Aren't about Rules, They're about Flying." Sequential Tart. http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/june99/waid.shtml (accessed on May 3, 2006).

"Mark Waid." Fanzing. http://www.fanzing.com/mag/fanzing13/iview.shtml (accessed on May 3, 2006).

Waid, Mark. "The Real Truth about Superman: And the Rest of Us, Too." Newsarama. http://www.newsarama.com/general/SuperPhilCh1Pre.htm (accessed on May 3, 2006).