David Michelinie

David Michelinie (; born May 6, 1948) is an American comic book writer best known for scripting Marvel Comics' '' The Amazing Spider-Man'' and ''Iron Man'' and the DC Comics feature Superman in '' Action Comics''. Among the characters he created or co-created are Venom, Carnage, Scott Lang/Ant-Man and War Machine.

Early career

Michelinie grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and worked at a commercial film production company before moving to New York to take part in an apprenticeship program started by DC Comics.

Some of Michelinie's earliest work appears in DC Comics' '' House of Secrets'' and a run on '' Swamp Thing'' (#14–18 and #21–22), the latter illustrated by Nestor Redondo. Michelinie and artist Ernie Chan created ''Claw the Unconquered'' in 1975. Michelinie did a run on Aquaman in ''Adventure Comics'' which led to the revival of the Sea King's own title in 1977. In the Aquaman story in ''Adventure Comics'' #452, Black Manta killed Aquaman's son Arthur Curry Jr. by suffocation. The infant's death has affected the character ever since. While writing the ''Karate Kid'' series, Michelinie used the name "Barry Jameson" as a pseudonym. With artist Ed Davis, he created Gravedigger in ''Men of War'' #1 (Aug. 1977). The Star Hunters were created by Michelinie with editor Joe Orlando and artist Don Newton, debuted in '' DC Super Stars'' #16 (Sept.–Oct. 1977), and featured in their own short-lived series. The original storyline for Madame Xanadu in ''Doorway to Nightmare'' #1 (Feb. 1978) was developed by Michelinie and Val Mayerik.

Marvel Comics

Among Michelinie's best-known work are his two runs on ''Iron Man'' with co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, in the late 1970s and early 1980s which introduced the character's serious problem with alcoholism and his specialized power armor variants. He introduced two of Stark's closest comrades, Bethany Cabe and Jim Rhodes as well as new enmities with Justin Hammer and Doctor Doom. His most noted cliffhanger was when Tony Stark was thrown out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier and had to don his armor completely to use its flight function before he hit the ground. After leaving the title in 1981, Michelinie reunited with Layton on the book late in 1986, and along with penciller M. D. Bright, closed out preceding writer Dennis O'Neil's Advanced Idea Mechanics arc and launched the " Armor Wars"; during this time he and Layton introduced the Ghost. Michelinie left ''Iron Man'' again after issue #250, closing his second collaboration with Layton with a sequel to their Iron Man-Doctor Doom time travel episode from issues #149–150.

Michelinie was one of the writers of ''The Avengers'' from 1978 to 1982 and worked with artists John Byrne and George Pérez. During this time he and Byrne created Scott Lang in ''The Avengers'' #181 (March 1979), and he created the Taskmaster with Pérez in ''The Avengers'' #195 (May 1980).

From 1987 to 1994, Michelinie wrote '' The Amazing Spider-Man'' series, which featured the art of Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, and Mark Bagley, while introducing the supervillains Venom in issue #298 (March 1988) and Carnage in #361 (April 1992). Michelinie had planned to introduce Venom earlier and included a "teaser" scene in ''Web of Spider-Man'' #18, in which Peter Parker is pushed by an offscreen Venom into the path of an oncoming train, the symbiote being unsusceptible to Spider-Man's "spider sense" that would have normally warned him of the attack. This was the first of what was to be several clues leading to the reveal of Venom. Michelinie left ''Web of Spider-Man'' shortly after and was not able to continue the introduction of Venom until his time writing ''The Amazing Spider-Man''.

Behind Stan Lee, Michelinie had the second longest run on ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' as a writer.

He also wrote the limited series '' Venom: Lethal Protector'' in 1993, where Venom was the main character and acted as an antihero instead of villain for the first time.

Valiant, return to DC and Future Comics

In the early 1990s David Michelinie worked at Valiant Comics on the titles '' Rai'', ''H.A.R.D. Corps'', ''Turok: Dinosaur Hunter'' and '' Magnus, Robot Fighter.''

He began working for DC again with the launch of the '' Justice League Task Force'' series in 1993 with artist Sal Velluto. In 1994, Michelinie became the writer of '' Action Comics'' which he stayed on for three years. As one of the five principal Superman writers at that time he co-wrote '' Superman: The Wedding Album'' in 1996. David Michelinie and artist Paul Ryan are the only comic book creators to have contributed to the wedding issues of both Spider-Man (Peter Parker marrying Mary Jane Watson in ''The Amazing Spider-Man Annual'' #21, 1987) and Superman (Clark Kent) marrying Lois Lane in '' Superman: The Wedding Album'' (Dec. 1996). He also wrote issues of ''Superman Adventures'' and ''Steel'' as well as the miniseries ''Legion: Science Police'', ''Superman's Nemesis: Lex Luthor'' and '' Superman vs. Predator'', his last credited work for DC Comics in 2000. The same year, he joined forces with Bob Layton again for the miniseries ''Iron Man: Bad Blood'' for Marvel Comics.

After a hiatus Michelinie returned to comics by teaming-up with Bob Layton and Dick Giordano to form Future Comics, where he wrote the series ''Freemind'', ''Metallix'' and ''Deathmask'' from 2002 to 2003. The company closed in 2004.

Later career

In 2007, Michelinie wrote '' Kolchak Tales: The Frankenstein Agenda'' #1–3 for Moonstone Books. Also for Moonstone, he wrote several prose short stories which appeared in the anthologies ''The Phantom'' ''Chronicles'' (2007), ''Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising'' (2007) and '' The Avenger: The Justice Inc. Files'' (2011).

In 2008, he and Layton collaborated again on a four-issue ''Iron Man: Legacy of Doom'' miniseries and in 2009 on the one-shot ''Iron Man: The End'' for Marvel Comics. It was followed by the one-shot ''What If? Iron Man: Demon in an Armor'' in 2011 and a four-issue-follow-up on the " Armor Wars" storyline published as ''Iron Man'' #258.1–258.4 in 2013. He returned to his creation Venom with stories for ''Venom'' #150 (2017), ''Venom Annual'' #1 (2018) and ''Venom'' vol. 4 #25 (2020), all penciled by Ron Lim, who had also worked on ''Venom: Lethal Protector''. After the success of the two ''Venom'' films, in 2021 Marvel commissioned Michelinie to write a new five-issue-miniseries: ''Venom: Lethal Protector'' vol. 2, with art by Ivan Fiorelli, that will be published in March 2023.

As screenwriter, Michelinie worked on two episodes of the animated series '' Iron Man: Armored Adventures'' (with Bob Layton as co-writer) and wrote the short films ''Hellevator'' (2011) and ''Nobody's Tomorrow'' (2018).

Bibliography

DC Comics

*'' Action Comics'' #702–722, 724–736, #0, ''Annual'' #7–9 (1994–1997)
*''Adventure Comics'' #441, 443, 445, 450–452 ( Aquaman), #456–458 ( Superboy) (1975–1978)
*'' Aquaman'' #57–61 (1977–1978)
*''Army at War'' #1 (1978)
*''Cancelled Comic Calvacade'' #1 (Claw the Unconquered) (1978)
*''Claw the Unconquered'' #1–12 (1975–1978)
*'' DC Comics Presents'' #3 (Superman and Adam Strange) (1978)
*'' DC Super Stars'' #16 (Star Hunters) (1977)
*''DC Universe Holiday Bash'' #1 (1997)
*''Doorway to Nightmare'' #1 (1978)
*''Hercules Unbound'' #7–9 (1976–1977)
*'' House of Mystery'' #224, 232, 235, 238, 248, 252, 257–259, 263, 286–287 (1974–1980)
*'' House of Secrets'' #116, 122, 126–127, 130, 147 (1974–1977)
*'' Jonah Hex'' #13–15 (1978)
*'' Justice League Task Force'' #1–3 (1993)
*''Karate Kid'' #2–10 (1976–1977)
*''Legion: Science Police'' #1–4 (1998)
*''Men of War'' #1–4 (1977–1978)
*'' Phantom Stranger'' #35–36 (1975)
*'' Plop!'' #7–8, 19 (1974–1976)
*'' Secrets of Haunted House'' #5 (1975)
*''Sgt. Rock'' #311, 315 (1977–1978)
*'' Shadowdragon Annual'' #1 (1995)
*'' Starfire'' #1–2 (1976)
*''Star Hunters'' #1–7 (1977–1978)
*''Star Spangled War Stories'' #183–192, 194–203 (Unknown Soldier) (1974–1977)
*''Steel'' #17–19 (1995)
*''Superman Annual'' #8 (1996)
*''Superman Adventures'' #32, 44, ''Special'' #1 (1998–2000)
*''Superman's Nemesis: Lex Luthor'' #1–4 (1999)
*'' Superman: The Wedding Album'' #1 (1996)
*'' Superman vs. Predator'' #1–4 (2000)
*'' Swamp Thing'' #14–18, 21–22 (1975–1976)
*''Tales of Ghost Castle'' #1 (1975)
*'' Unknown Soldier'' #254–256 (1981)
*'' Weird Mystery Tales'' #15–16 (1974–1975)
*'' Weird War Tales'' #30, 72 (1974–1979)
*'' Wonder Woman'' #218 (script consultant to Martin Pasko) (1975)

Marvel Comics

*'' The Amazing Spider-Man'' #205, 290–292, 296–352, 359–388, ''Annual'' #21–26, 28, ''Annual '95'', ''Super Special'' #1 (1980, 1987–1995)
*''The Avengers'' #173, 175–176, 181–187, 189, 191–205, 221, 223, 340 (1978–1982, 1991)
*'' The Bozz Chronicles'' #1–6 (1985–1986)
*''Captain America'' #258–259, ''Annual'' #5 (1981)
*'' Carnage'' vol. 2 #1 (2022)
*''Daredevil'' #167 (1980)
*''Doctor Strange'' #46 (1981)
*'' Further Adventures of Indiana Jones'' #4–18, 20–22, 26–27 (1983–1985)
*''Hero'' #1–6 (1990)
*'' The Incredible Hulk'' #232 (1979)
*''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' #1–4 (1989)
*''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' #1–3 (1984)
*''Iron Man'' #116–157, 215–250, ''Annual'' #9–10 (1978–1982, 1987–1989)
*''Iron Man'' #258.1–258.4 (2013)
*''Iron Man: Bad Blood'' #1–4 (2000)
*''Iron Man: Legacy of Doom'' #1–4 (2008)
*''Iron Man: The End'' #1 (2009)
*''Krull'' #1–2 (1983)
*'' Marvel Fanfare'' #4 (1982)
*'' Marvel Graphic Novel'' #16–17, 27 (1985–1987)
*'' Marvel Premiere'' #47–48, 55–56 (1979–1980)
*'' Marvel Super-Heroes'' #5, 14 (1991–1993)
*'' Marvel Super Special'' #28, 30 (1983–1984)
*'' Marvel Team-Up'' #103, 108, 110, 136, 142–143 (1981–1984)
*'' Marvel Two-In-One'' #76, 78, 97–98, ''Annual'' #4 (1979–1983)
*''Mother Theresa of Calcutta'' (1984)
*''Pro Action Magazine'' #1 (Spider-Man) (1994)
*'' Psi-Force'' #7 (1987)
*''Questprobe'' #3 (1985)
*'' The Spectacular Spider-Man'' #173–175, 220, ''Annual'' #11–12, ''Super Special'' #1 (1991–1995)
*''Spider-Man'' #35, ''Super Special'' #1 (1993–1995)
*''Spider-Man: The Bug Stops Here'' #1 (1994)
*''Star Wars'' #51–52, 55–69, 78, ''Annual'' #2 (1981–1983)
*'' Thundercats'' #1–6 (1985–1986)
*'' Toxic Crusaders'' #8 (1992)
*'' Venom'' #150, ''Annual'' #1 (2017–2018)
*''Venom'' vol. 4 #25 (2020)
*'' Venom: Lethal Protector'' #1–6 (1993)
*''Venom: Lethal Protector'' vol. 2 #1–5 (2023)
*''Venom Super Special'' #1 (1995)
*'' Web of Spider-Man'' #8–9, 14–20, 23–24, 70, ''Annual'' #7–8, ''Super Special'' #1 (1985–1995)
*'' What If'' #38 (1983)
*''What If'' vol. 2 #85 (1996)
*''What If? Iron Man: Demon in an Armor'' (2011)
*'' Wonder Man'' #1 (1986)

Warren Publishing

*'' Creepy'' #84 (1976)
*'' Eerie'' #81 (with Louise Simonson) (1977)

Valiant Comics

*''H.A.R.D. Corps'' #1–16 (1992–1994)
*'' Magnus, Robot Fighter'' #11, 18–19 (1992)
*'' Rai'' #1–8 (1992)
*''Secrets of the Valiant Universe'' #1 (1994)
*'' Turok: Dinosaur Hunter'' #1–3 (1993)

Image Comics/Valiant Comics

*'' Deathmate Yellow'' #1 (1993)

Future Comics

*''Death Mask'' #1–3 (2003)
*''Freemind'' #0–7 (2002–2003)
*''Metallix'' #0–6, ''Free Comic Book Day'' #1 (2002–2003)

Moonstone

*'' Kolchak Tales: The Frankenstein Agenda'' #1–3 (2007)
*'' The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks'' #1–4 (consultant to Mike Bullock) (2009)

References

External links

"DC Profiles #16: David Michelinie"
at the Grand Comics Database

"DC Profiles #27: Barry Jameson"
(a pseudonym used by Michelinie) at the Grand Comics Database

David Michelinie
at Mike's Amazing World of Comics


at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michelinie, David
1948 births
American comics writers
Living people
Marvel Comics writers