Jonathan Hickman

Jonathan Hickman is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for his creator-owned series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as his lengthy stints as a writer on Marvel's Fantastic Four, The Avengers and New Avengers. Hickman's other notable work at Marvel includes the S.H.I.E.L.D. limited series, the creation of the Fantastic Four spin-off title FF, as well as two crossover limited series, Infinity and Secret Wars, both of which acted as centerpieces for the eponymous company-wide crossover storylines.

Between 2019 and 2021, Hickman spearheaded the "Dawn of X", a relaunch of various X-Men-related titles for which he provided the core storyline and concepts. This relaunch began the Krakoan Age of which Hickman was the early main architect. This relaunch began with the dual comic book miniseries House of X and Powers of X written by Hickman.

In 2023, Hickman also helped spearhead the relaunch of the Ultimate Universe, kicked off with the four-issue miniseries Ultimate Invasion written by Hickman, and since 2024, he is writing a rebooted Ultimate Spider-Man.

As part of his Marvel work, Hickman co-created the characters of the Black Order and its members, Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, and Supergiant.

Early life Jonathan Hickman was born and raised in South Carolina. He graduated from South Florence High School in Florence, South Carolina. After high school, Hickman earned a degree in Architecture from Clemson University.

Career Before breaking into comics, Hickman worked in the fields of Web and CD-ROM development and later, advertising. and Pax Romana, both of which he wrote, drew, colored and lettered, through Image. Soon after, he was invited to write for Marvel, and, in 2009, Hickman launched his first ongoing series Secret Warriors which followed Nick Fury and a group of superpowered operatives as they undertook espionage operations in the wake of the company-wide crossover storyline "Secret Invasion". The following year, Hickman wrote the S.H.I.E.L.D. limited series which detailed the secret history of the eponymous spy organization operating within the Marvel Universe. During this period, he continued to publish various creator-owned projects through Image: Transhuman with artist J. M. Ringuet, A Red Mass for Mars with artist Ryan Bodenheim and The Red Wing with Nick Pitarra.

In 2009, Hickman began his run on Fantastic Four with the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four limited series, illustrated by Sean Chen, taking over the series proper with issue #570, drawn by Dale Eaglesham. In the storyline "Three", which concluded in Fantastic Four #587, the Human Torch appeared to die stopping a horde of monsters from the other-dimensional Negative Zone. The series ended with the following issue and was relaunched as simply FF. Hickman finished his run on the Fantastic Four and became the writer of The Avengers and New Avengers as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch in late 2012. Hickman's run on the titles spawned two company-wide crossover storylines, "Infinity" in 2013 and "Secret Wars" in 2015.

After taking a leave from Marvel to focus on his long-form creator-owned titles, Hickman returned to the publisher for "Dawn of X", the 2019 relaunch of the X-Men family of titles, which began with the House of X and Powers of X limited series that laid out the new status quo developed by Hickman that would define the Krakoan Age. He subsequently wrote the core X-Men series while the creators of other titles worked closely under his supervision. Hickman announced his departure from writing X-Men in August 2021.

In August 2021, Hickman was among a group of creators with whom fellow comics writer Nick Spencer formed a deal with the subscription-based newsletter platform Substack to publish creator-owned comics stories, essays, and instructional guides on that platform. Hickman indicated that he would collaborate with artists Mike del Mundo and Mike Huddleston and writer Tini Howard on a new series, Three Worlds / Three Moons, which will give readers a behind-the-scenes look at the process of building a fictional universe.

In February 2023 Hickman wrote the miniseries Ultimate Invasion, with Bryan Hitch doing artwork and the premise revolving around the Maker attempting to bring back the Ultimate Universe, the aftermath of which will lead to a brand new line of Ultimate Marvel comics, which Hickman is helping to spearhead. In September 2023, it was revealed that Hickman would write Ultimate Spider-Man, a relaunch of Ultimate Spider-Man in 2024, with Marco Checchetto serving as artist.

In March 2023, Hickman worked with artist Valerio Schiti on a brand new series at Marvel, entitled G.O.D.S., which involves a new character named Wyn teaming up with Doctor Strange in order to stop a new threat. Hickman mentioned that he wrote the series bible for G.O.D.S. alongside House of X when he first returned to Marvel.

In April 2024, Hickman and Esad Ribić would reunite for the miniseries Aliens vs. Avengers, which pits Earth's mightiest heroes against the Xenomorphs. The first issue debuted in August 2024.

In May 2024, Hickman wrote a new miniseries starring Wolverine which would be drawn by artist Greg Capullo. The miniseries, titled Wolverine: Revenge will release its first issue in August 24, 2024 and will feature a red band version that will contain extra violence.

In December 2024, Marvel announced a new cosmic focused project to be written by Hickman called Imperial. In March and April 2025, more details about Imperial were revealed. It is a 4-issue event limited series, written by Hickman and drawn by artists Federico Vicentini and Iban Coello. The first issue will release on June 4th, 2025. The series focuses on several galactic leaders being assassinated, causing new space empires to arise and a radical reshaping of Marvel's cosmic landscape. The main characters are Hulk, She-Hulk, Amadeus Cho, Black Panther, the Nova Corps, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as featuring Professor X and Lilandra Neramani trying to rescue their daughter Xandra.

Awards and nominations 2008: Nominated for "Best Limited Series" Eisner Award for The Nightly News. 2011: Nominated for "Best Continuing or Limited Series" Harvey Award for Fantastic Four 2013: Nominated for "Best Continuing Series" and "Best Writer" Eisner Award for The Manhattan Projects 2014: Nominated for "Best Continuing Series" for East of West and "Best Writer" Eisner Award for East of West, The Manhattan Projects, The Avengers, and Infinity 2021: Nominated for Best Limited Series for Decorum (shared with Mike Huddleston) and the Best Writer Eisner Award for X-Men, Giant-Size X-Men, and Decorum 2023: Nominated for ″Best Short Story″ Eisner Award for Amazing Fantasy #1000 (shared with Marco Checchetto) 2025: Nominated for ″Best Continuing Series″ Eisner Award for Ultimate Spider-Man (shared with Marco Checchetto)