NEW AVENGERS MODERN ERA EPIC COLLECTION: THE INITIATIVE

Award-winning comic-book creator Brian Michael Bendis is one of the most successful writers in the industry today. In addition to an acclaimed run on Daredevil, he has helmed a renaissance for Marvel’s popular Avengers franchise and written the event projects House of M, Secret War, Secret Invasion, Siege, Age of Ultron and Civil War II. Bendis wrote every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man from its launch in 2000 before bringing his multiracial Spider-Man, Miles Morales, to the Marvel Universe for continuing adventures. He took on Marvel’s mutants in the pages of All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, and launched Guardians of the Galaxy into the stratosphere. Bendis shook up the life of Tony Stark in Invincible Iron Man and related titles, introducing Riri Williams as Ironheart, and then assembled street-level heroes Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil and his co-creation Jessica Jones in Defenders. His creator-owned projects include Scarlet with Alex Maleev, Brilliant with Mark Bagley, and Takio and the Eisner Award-winning Powers with Michael Avon Oeming.

Springing from the fertile ground of the U.K. comics scene, Warren Ellis came to Marvel during the early ’90s and proved his iconoclastic mettle in the ultra-edgy series Hellstorm and the limited series Druid — followed by fondly remembered extended runs on Excalibur and Doom 2099. After making a name for himself as a premier talent with Wildstorm’s Stormwatch, Transmetropolitan, The Authority and Planetary, Ellis returned to Marvel to pen Ultimate Fantastic Four, the Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, Iron Man and more. His Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. was both a critical smash and a cult favorite. In addition to reviving the 1980s New Universe in newuniversal and writing Thunderbolts, Ellis took over Astonishing X-Men following Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s departure, and penned perhaps the definitive story of the Armored Avenger in Iron Man’s “Extremis.” In addition, he offered a distinctively memorable new take on Moon Knight. His Wildstorm miniseries Red was adapted into a hit movie in 2010. Ellis broke into prose fiction with Crooked Little Vein and his New York Times best-selling novel Gun Machine.

Brian Reed spent a decade designing and writing video games, including Ultimate Spider-Man, before making his way into comics. Aside from helping Ms. Marvel become the best hero she could be during his 50-issue run, Reed has chronicled the return of Captain Marvel, co-authored the secret history of the world’s most powerful heroes in the pages of New Avengers: Illuminati, and told harrowing tales of action, adventure, and espionage in his creator-owned series The Circle. Reed has written several event-related tie-ins such as Secret Invasion: Spider-Man, Secret Invasion: Front Line and Siege: Embedded.

Winning the Russ Manning Award for Best New Talent in 1997, Bulgarian-born Alex Maleev first worked with Brian Michael Bendis on Image’s Sam & Twitch. In 2001, the pair teamed again on Daredevil in a gritty, acclaimed collaboration that earned them a 2003 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series. Furthering his partnership with Bendis, Maleev has illustrated the New Avengers: Illuminati, Civil War: The Confession and Secret Invasion: Dark Reign one-shots; the Halo: Uprising limited series; the Spider-Woman print and motion comics; and the creator-owned Scarlet. The pair turned Tony Stark's world upside down in International Iron Man and its successor series Infamous Iron Man.

A copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way sparked Leinil Francis Yu’s interest in comics when he was 11. Whilce Portacio’s tutelage helped him land his first mainstream comics work on Wolverine in 1997. Following a successful run, Yu took on such titles as Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Superman: Birthright and Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk. After an extended period laying the groundwork in New Avengers, he and writer Brian Michael Bendis turned the Marvel Universe upside down with Secret Invasion, and the Marvel mainstay has subsequently worked on event comics including Avengers & X-Men: Axis and IVX, and such blockbuster titles as Star Wars.

Industry giant Marc Silvestri entered the upper echelon of comics innovators in the late ’80s during fan-favorite, record-breaking runs on Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine. Silvestri left Marvel in 1992 to co-found Image Comics; his imprint, Top Cow, is one of its four longstanding autonomous studios. At Image, Silvestri created some of today’s most popular properties — including Cyberforce, Witchblade, Weapon Zero and The Darkness. Silvestri has returned to the world of Marvel’s mutants on New X-Men and X-Men: Messiah Complex.