‘Avengers: Infinity War’: Who Are the Comic Book Creators in The Credits?

It takes a small army of people to make something on the scale of Avengers: Infinity War happen, and hundreds fo names dropped in the credits prove it.

Besides crediting Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for creating The Avengers concept, the first major credit for a comic book creator says, “The producers would like to thank Jim Starlin for his significant contribution to the film.”

Starlin created several of the most important characters in the movie, and wrote Infinity Gauntlet, the event miniseries on which the film is loosely based.

There were also a number of “created by” credits, which Marvel and DC are typically contractually obligated to provide to certain creators (although most, as you can see a little further below, get simply a special thanks). Who were the credited “creators?

• Captain America created by Simon & Kirby
• Star-Lord created by Engelhard and Steve Gan
• Rocket created by Mantlo & Giffen
• Thanos, Gamora, and Drax created by Jim Starlin
• Groot created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby
• Mantis created by Engelhart & Don Heck

And this is where we come to the longest section, which starts with “With special thanks to…”

• Dan Abnett was one of the writers who redefined the Guardians of the Galaxy during a run about 10 years ago, which was principally responsible for the lineup and approach embraced by James Gunn’s movies.
• Brian Michael Bendis, one of Marvel’s most prolific writers for years, had long runs on Spider-Man and The Avengers, among others.
• Robert Bernstein was a golden and silver age comic book writer best known for work at DC and Archie, but who did do early stories featuring Thor, Iron Man, and Doctor Strange.
• Ed Brubaker wrote a long run on Captain America and co-created the character of the Winter Soldier.
• John Buscema is a longtime Marvel artist best known for his work on Conan the Barbarian, who also had long runs on Thor and The Avengers.
• Sal Buscema drew The Incredible Hulk for ten years and also was the launch artist on The Spectacular Spider-Man.
• John Byrne, who had long runs on Fantastic Four and Uncanny X-Men, is likely included here due to some fan-favorite stories he worked on featuring Star-Lord and The Incredible Hulk.
• Jim Cheung has drawn a number of popular Marvel characters, including runs on New Avengers with writer Brian Michael Bendis and Infinity with Jonathan Hickman.
• Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a best-selling run on Marvel’s Black Panther and is about to take over as the writer of Captain America.
• Gene Colan, best known as the writer who co-created Blade, is likely listed here for his role as the co-creator of Falcon.
• Steve Ditko co-created both Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
• Steve Epting is a prolific artist, likely best known for his work on the “Winter Soldier” story in Captain America.
• David Finch was an artist on Brian Michael Bendis’s first arc of New Avengers, a story that dealt with the fallout from Civil War.
• Mike Friedrich, the writer best known for co-creating Ghost Rider, is likely included here becuase of his long run on Iron Man.
• Bob Hall drew issues of Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor. He also drew the movie adaptation of the original made-for-TV Captain America movie.
• Don Heck, besides co-creating Mantis, was also the credited artist in the first appearances of Iron Man and credited with co-creating that character.
• Jonathan Hickman wrote Infinity, one of the two key Thanos stories that the film draws from. Along with Jim Cheung and Jerome Opena, he created The Black Order.
• Kev Hopgood drew Len Kaminski’s influential run on Iron Man in the 1990s.
• Reginald Hudlin is a key figure in Black Panther history, having written comics and also produced the character’s animated series.
• Len Kaminski wrote Kev Hopgood’s influential run on Iron Man in the 1990s.
• Andy Lanning was one of the writers who redefined the Guardians of the Galaxy during a run about 10 years ago, which was principally responsible for the lineup and approach embraced by James Gunn’s movies.
• Bob Layton wrote some of the best-loved Iron Man stories of all time and created James “Rhodey” Rhodes.
• Larry Lieber is the younger brother of Stan Lee and is best known for co-creating Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Thor.
• Ron Lim was the artist on several of Jim Starlin’s most notable Thanos stories, including Infinity Gauntlet.
• David Michelinie was a longtime Iron Man writer.
• Jerome Opena is a frequent collaborator with Jonathan Hickman and co-created The Black Order with Hickman and Jim Cheung.
• Paul Pelletier was the principlal artist who redefined the Guardians of the Galaxy during a run about 10 years ago, which was principally responsible for the lineup and approach embraced by James Gunn’s movies.
• George Perez, one of comics’ most prolific and influential artists, worked with Jim Starlin and Ron Lim on Infinity Gauntlet.
• Sarah Pichelli worked with Brian Michael Bendis on a fan-favorite run on Guardians of the Galaxy which drew heavily from the films.
• Christopher Priest wrote one of the most significant runs on Black Panther.
• Joe Quesada is the current chief creative officer for Marvel’s comics side.
• Don Rico was a golden and silver age comic book writer who co-created Black Widow.
• John Romita Jr. is one of Marvel’s most prolific modern artists, with long runs on The Avengers, Captain America, and Spider-Man. He has drawn nearly every Marvel comic at one point or another.
• Walt Simonson is, outside of Jack Kirby, probably the artist most closely associated with Thor.
• Roger Stern is a veteran comics writer who has written comics and novels featuring, among others, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man.
• Mark Texeira has drawn stories featuring Spider-Man, the Guardians fo the Galaxy, Thor, Hulk, and more. No relation to the baseball player.
• Roy Thomas was a longtime writer and edtior at Marvel, Stan Lee’s immediate successor as Editor-in-Chief, and someone who has worked on virtually every character in the movie in some capacity.
• Brian Stelfreeze worked on Ta-Nehisi Coates’s groundbreaking Black Panther run.
• Alan Zelenetz is a film producer and comic book writer who has worked on Thor, The Avengers, and several Marvel Graphic Novel one-shots.

Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel’s biggest film to date, is set to hit theaters now, one week earlier than its original premiere date on May 4. Marvel will follow the film up with Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, and Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019. The sequel to Avengers: Infinity War is still without a title, and it will arrive next year on May 3.