Mark Waid is a well known comic book writer hailing from the U.S., but more specifically,
Alabama. His experience is mostly with
DC Comics, with some of his most popular runs being on
The Flash and
Justice League of America as well as many other series. However, he is known in most circles as the man that scripted the iconic
Kingdom Come series, which has gone on to become one of the classic templates for the superhero reconstruction story ever. His most recent work is his own independent series,
Irredeemable, focusing on the Plutonian, a Superman-esque hero who out of the blue becomes a sheer psychopath towards his own ilk as well as the rest of the planet. He's also launched a companion series,
Incorruptible, which stars a supervillain who decided to turn good after Plutonian went insane. He's also writing an ongoing sequel comic to
The Incredibles.
Waid came into his own in the mid-90's, a time when comics were obsessed with making things
Darker And Grittier. Waid made his name by bucking this trend, penning light-hearted but emotionally gripping stories which hearkened back to the optimistic tales of the 60's,
starting with his acclaimed runs on The Flash and
Captain America. He also co-created
Impulse, a Flash spinoff which at the time was just about the only humor-based superhero book being published.
note Its pre-publication history is an excellent example of just how pervasive the Dark Age was; apparently one of the editors at DC was fuming at the fact that it was primarily humorous and Slice of Life, rather than typical superhero fare! Its success helped inspire other humorous series such as
Young Justice and
Deadpool, and helped bring an end to what many fans consider comics' biggest
Dork Age. Recently, at Marvel, Waid has been writing
Daredevil in a
Lighter and Softer series that seeks to reverse the unrelenting
Darker and Edgier take on the character that has made up nearly the past 30 years of his history. So far, the results have been well received. Issue 7 received the Eisner Award for best single issue.
Ironically one of his most infamous (though generally well-regarded) stories is
Unthinkable and its following
Story Arc, which took the normally more lighthearted
Fantastic Four and made it (briefly)
Darker and Edgier via having nominal
Anti-Villain Doctor Doom cross the
Moral Event Horizon in spectacular fashion,
kicking about a million puppies on the way. Waid disliked the popular view of Doom as a
Noble Demon Jerk with a Heart of Gold and wrote him as evil with delusions of grandeur. This didn't last beyond his run, but it did give Doom some of his best moments, all of which are still canon. He does consider his run on the 90s
Justice League America a bit of an
Old Shame because he killed off Ice.
Of course, as his
Kingdom Come writing credit suggests, Waid can do dark, as well.
He's known for a tight writing style where characters often speak in hurried sentence fragments in order to emphasize action. He's also famous for knowing nearly every last tiny scrap of DC Universe trivia there is, to the point that DC sometimes holds "stump Mark Waid" trivia challenges at comic conventions.
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