Fabian Nicieza
Fabian Nicieza (born
Buenos Aires,
Argentina,
December 31,
1961) is an
American comic book writer and
editor. He is best known for his work on Marvel titles such as
X-Men,
X-Force,
New Warriors,
Cable and Deadpool,
Thunderbolts and
New ThunderboltsEarly years
When Nicieza was three years old his family moved to the United States. Growing up in
New Jersey, Nicieza learned to read and write from comic books. Later he studied at
Rutgers University, interning at
ABC Television before graduating in 1983 with a degree in
Advertising and
Public Relations. Then from 1983 - 1985 he worked for the
Berkley Publishing Group, first in their production department, then as a managing editor.
Early Marvel Days
In 1985 Nicieza joined the staff at
Marvel Comics, initially as a manufacturing assistant, later moving over to the advertising department into a manager position. During this period he began to take his first
freelance work for Marvel, writing short
articles for Marvel's promotional
magazine Marvel Age.
Nicieza's first published comic story came in 1987 with
Psi-Force #9, a title in Marvel's shortlived
New Universe line. This led to his becoming that title's regular writer at issue #16, which continued until its cancellation at #32 in early 1989.
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Cover to Nomad (Limited Series) #1 (November, 1990). Art by James Fry. |
This work led to some small fill in work for the writer on titles such as
Classic X-Men and in the Marvel Annuals' 1989 summer crossover
Atlantis Attacks. Then in 1990 in the pages of
Thor #412, Marvel's then-Editor-in-Chief
Tom DeFalco created the super-hero team
The New Warriors (using pre-existing characters) and decided to give his new creations their own comic book. Nicieza was selected as writer of the project with artist
Mark Bagley on pencils. He went on to write the book for most of its first 50 issues (initially with Bagley as artist, then with
Darick Robertson and occasional fill-ins) to general critical and fan acclaim.
Also in 1990 Nicieza began short runs on comics such as
Alpha Flight (vol.1 #'s 87-90),
Avengers (Vol.1 #317 â€"325) and
Avengers Spotlight, as well as the
miniseries Nomad, which in turn led him to write the ongoing
Nomad (vol.2) series in 1992. That same year, Nicieza became editor for Marvel's comics line for young children â€"
Star Comics. His time as editor was short, however, as he soon quit to concentrate on his burgeoning freelance writing career at the company.
Projects which Nicieza took on in this period included the
National Football League-approved super-hero
NFL Superpro (1991), and the ambitious miniseries
The Adventures of Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty (1991), in which Nicieza (with artist
Kevin Maguire) retold and reimagined Captain America's
1940s origin.
The X-Men Era
In 1991 Nicieza joined with artist
Rob Liefeld in co-plotting and writing the final issues of the
New Mutants title (vol.1 #'s 98-100). In those issues Liefeld and Nicieza created some key characters and concepts including
Deadpool,
Shatterstar and
X-Force. Liefeld and Nicieza then produced an ongoing
X-Force title, the first issue of which set sales records in the summer of 1991 (though it was quickly surpassed by
X-Men vol.2 #1 later that year). Nicieza initially worked on the title as scripter; after the departure of Liefeld in #12 he became its full writer which he remained until 1995.
Nicieza had been offered writing duties on
Uncanny X-Men in early 1992 but refused citing his heavy schedule, the work eventually going to
Scott Lobdell at Nicieza's suggestion. However by the end of that year Nicieza has been convinced to come aboard the adjectiveless
X-Men title beginning with #12, working with artist
Andy Kubert throughout his run. For the next three years Nicieza, Lobdell (still on
Uncanny X-Men) and editor
Bob Harras steered the fortunes of Marvel's most successful characters through stories such as the
X-Cutioner's Song,
Phalanx Covenant and
Age of Apocalypse crossovers.
During this period Nicieza wrote the first (1992)
Cable mini-series as well as the first few issues of the character's ongoing (1993)
Cable Series. He also wrote the first solo Deadpool series,
Deadpool: the Circle Chase in 1993. These series expanded the characters' personalities and established key background information for both characters, all things which were later used by other writers on those characters' subsequent ongoing books.
However in 1995, in a dispute with Harras over the future direction of his plotlines on
X-Force, Nicieza quit the X-titles completely leaving
X-Force with #43 and
X-Men with #45.
Acclaim: VH2
After 1995, Nicieza's workload at Marvel began to fall dramatically. He wrote short runs of
Captain Marvel (vol.2, 1995),
Spider-Man: The Final Adventure (1995) and
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers before leaving the company entirely in 1996. That year Nicieza did his first work for rival publisher
DC Comics, co-writing
Justice League: Midsummer Nightmare with
Mark Waid which relaunched the
Justice League as the
JLA. He also worked for
Twist and Shout Comics writing and pencilling back-up stories in
X-Flies Special #1 and
Dirtbag #7.
Later in 1996 Nicieza joined
Acclaim Comics as senior vice-president and editor-in-chief. He was charged with revamping the companies intellectual properties which had previously formed
Valiant Comics Valiant Universe. Nicieza as editor oversaw the new version, dubbed
"VH2", which re-imagined characters such as
Solar,
X-O Manowar and
Ninjak using popular comic book writers of the period including
Warren Ellis,
Mark Waid and
Kurt Busiek.
Nicieza himself wrote the re-imagined
Turok title as well as a new concept,
Troublemakers.
Turok met with success as a video game adaptation, and Nicieza was promoted to President and Publisher of Acclaim Comics, Inc. in 1997. Nicieza even wrote a
Turok novella during this period. However his success was short lived and after staff cuts and most of the lines' cancellation, Nicieza left Acclaim in 1999.
1999 â€" Present
Returning to freelance work, Marvel and the X-Men, Nicieza co-wrote the
Magneto Wars crossover through
Uncanny X-Men (#366-367) and
X-Men (Vol. 2 #86-87) with artist
Alan Davis in 1999. This then led into two successive
Magneto limited series â€"
Magneto Rex (1999) and
Magneto: Dark Seduction (2000) as well as an ongoing
Gambit (1999) series which he wrote for the first 24 issues of its 25 issue run.
Also in 1999 Nicieza took over the writing chores on Marvel's
Thunderbolts with #34, following the departure of
Kurt Busiek. He continued to write the book (initially with old partner
Mark Bagley on art, later with
Patrick Zircher and
Chris Batista) up until #75 when the title was
revamped. The revamp was unsuccessful however and in 2004 the original version of the team was resurrected, initially in an
Avengers/Thunderbolts miniseries, then later in the
New Thunderbolts ongoing series with Nicieza again as writer and with
Tom Grummett as penciller.
Since 1999 Nicieza has taken on many writing projects, mostly for Marvel. These include limited series such as
Citizen V (2001),
Citizen V and the V Battalion: Everlasting (2002),
X-Men Forever (2001), and
X-Force (Vol.2) as well as shortlived ongoing series such as
Hawkeye (2003). At DC he has written the six issue mini-series
Supermen of America (1999) and
JLA: Created Equal (2000) as well as some issues of
Justice League Adventures.
In 2003 Nicieza branched out by co-creating with artist
Steffano Raffaele a
horror tinged,
creator-owned mini-series
The Blackburne Covenant which was published by
Dark Horse Comics. That same year he also returned to two characters he had first written over ten years before, in the new ongoing
Cable and Deadpool series for Marvel.
2006 saw the Nicieza-orchestrated mini-series "
I (HEART) Marvel" hit stands around
Valentine's Day. He penned one issue of the mini, which featured 3 characters from his old
New Warriors series.
As a screenwriter, Fabian was a co-writer of the
Hot Wheels World Race animated feature (with
Mark Edens and
Jeff Gomez), and
The Black Belt Club (with
Jeff Gomez and
Dawn Barnes), a computer-animated feature based on the bestselling book series from
Scholastic in development with
Starlight Runner Entertainment.
In 2006 Nicieza's returned to DC with a three issue arc in
Superman #841-843 (September - November, 2006), co-written with Kurt Busiek.
Fabian Nicieza is married with two daughters.
He has received a good deal of recognition for his work, including a nomination for the Comics' Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 2000.
*
Short profile on Nicieza with photos and pics *
The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators*[
1] Comic Book Awards Almanac
