Matt Fritchman, nom de plume Matt Fraction (born December 1, 1975), is an American comic writer, mostly known from his works at Marvel Comics and Casanova. A lifelong comic fan, he worked at Charlotte, North Carolina comic shop Heroes Aren't Hard to Find in the late 1990s before deciding to follow his dream of being a writer. While having his share of fans and haters, he is considered one of the most friendly people in the industry.
Married to fellow creator Kelly Sue DeConnick, and they have a son and daughter. He and DeConnick have formed their own production company, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, and have recently signed a production deal with Universal Pictures.
Notable works by Matt Fraction:
- Casanova
- Fear Itself event
- The Five Fists of Science
- Immortal Iron Fist #1-16, plus one-shots and annual (with Ed Brubaker)
- Invincible Iron Man #1-33, 500-527 plus a .1 issue and an annual
- The Mighty Thor #1-22, Thor #615-621, Thor: Ages of Thunder one-shot.
- Uncanny X-Men #500 (with Ed Brubaker), #501-529, #530-534 (with Kieron Gillen), including a crossover with Dark Avengers.
- Hawkeye #1-22 one of the last series debuted before Marvel NOW!, critically acclaimed, with issue #11 winning an Eisnernote for Best Single Issue.
- The Defenders a book that debuted after Fear Itself with art by Terry Dodson and Jamie McKelvie. Finished after 12 issues.
- "To Have and to Hold" (Sensational Spider-Man Annual #1 with art by Salvador Larroca). One of only a few Spider-Man stories to ever be nominated for the Eisners and celebrated as one of the character's best of the last two decades.
- Fantastic Four and FF (takes over as part of the "Marvel NOW" restructure). Fantastic Four sees Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, Franklin and Val venturing on a family vacation for parts unknown when something goes wrong. FF revolves around Ant-Man (Scott Lang), She-Hulk (Jen Walters), Medusa and a new character named Miss Thing, who are house sitting while Reed and co. are away. And Scott's plans against Doctor Doom for killing his daughter, Cassie "Stature" Lang, at the end of Avengers: The Children's Crusade.
- Satellite Sam, a Noir Murder Mystery revolving around a television studio that's thrown into turmoil when the star of the title Flash Gordon-esque TV series is killed, leaving his son both stuck with his father's role and investigating his death.
- Sex Criminals, critically acclaimed and based on the admittedly ridiculous premise of a young couple who stop time when they orgasm and (naturally) use this ability to rob banks and save their ailing local library. Won an Eisner in 2014 for Best New Series.
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, a live-action television series in the MonsterVerse franchise featuring Godzilla.
Tropes Embodied by Matt Fraction:
- Creator Couple: With fellow comic writer Kelly Sue DeConnick.
- Lying Creator: While advertising a crossover between X-Men and Dark Avengers, Fraction said that Colossus will have important role, being their major power-up in a fight against a team featuring Sentry and Ares, strongly suggesting that Colossus will have to fight one of them. He hasn't met either. Fraction also promised interactions between Noh-Varr and girls from New X-Men, possibly of romantic subtext, but he hasn't appeared anywhere near any of them.
- Nice Guy: In a very short time, he befriended basically everybody at Marvel, from Brian Michael Bendis to Jeph Loeb to Warren Ellis (although he'd actually made contact with Ellis years before as a regular poster on Ellis' webforum), and many writers admit they enjoy spending time with Fraction and sharing their story ideas with him. And this also extends to fans: at one San Diego Comic-Con, he apparently bought a fan a copy of Batman: Year One, after hearing that the fan had never read it.
- Take That!: Fraction made it clear that his celebrated Eisner-nominated story "To Have and to Hold" was one to One More Day which he knew was coming:"It was sort of dirty pool because I knew One More Day was coming. But I took the shot and it was great. I don’t know if Peter Parker was the best marvel character to be married, and I understand both sides of the argument. When his marriage with MJ worked, it worked very well, but sometimes it seemed like people didn’t know what to do with MJ. Way too often MJ would be relegated to hostage or obstacle. Too seldom did she play the role of supporter, friend or nurturer. I thought it was possible to do all of that, and maybe it’s a cheap shot, but I took it."
