Storied superhero artist John Romita Jr. is returning to Marvel Comics. Marvel announced the news on Wednesday, marking the end of Romita’s tenure at DC Comics and move back to the publisher he worked for decades prior on titles including Daredevil, The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Uncanny X-Men. His work will begin appearing in Marvel releases again in July (which, perhaps coincidentally, is when the Extreme Carnage event, which has no artist named to it, begins). “I have been very fortunate more than a few times in my life, and now I can add this latest event to that list. I have returned to Marvel, the company that I started my career in, and I couldn’t be more thrilled!” said Romita in a press release. “I am literally, at this very moment, working on my next big Marvel project, and it’s a blast!!! I am JUST as excited as I was when I first started, and I will do my best to let the work show that again. I hope fans will see that too!”
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John Romita Jr. is the son of seminal comics artist John Romita Sr. At age 13, Romita Jr. made his first contribution to Marvel Comics: sketching a villain that would inspire the creation of The Prowler. He made his American comic book debut in 1977 with a six-page story in 1977’s The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11.
Romita Jr. remained at Marvel for decades, beginning a run drawing Iron Man in 1978. He became the artist of Amazing Spider-Man in the early 1980s, co-creating the villain Hobgoblin. He then worked on Uncanny X-Men during Chris Claremont’s celebrated run from 1983 through 1986. In 1988, he joined the Daredevil creative team, working with writer Ann Nocenti to help create Typhoid Mary.
Romita Jr. would return to many of these titles later in his career. He worked on a new origin story for Daredevil with Frank Miller in Daredevil: The Man Without Fear in 1993, the same year he returned to drawing the X-Men. He returned to Amazing Spider-Man in 2001 with writer J. Michael Straczynski. He also co-created the Kick-Ass franchise with Mark Millar when it was first published as part of Marvel’s Icon imprint in 2008.
In 2016, Romita jumped from Marvel to DC Comics. During his time at the publisher, he drew the Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade one-shot and a backup story in Dark Knight III: The Master Race. he also drew the All-Star Batman miniseries, Superman: Year One with Frank Miller, and had brief stints on Superman, Suicide Squad, and Batman.
Who do you hope to see Romita draw in his return to Marvel? Let us know in the comments.
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