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 1999 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.

Robert Kirkman began his meteoric rise to fame with his self-published Battle Pope. For Image Comics, Kirkman created and continues to write the long-running Invincible and The Walking Dead, the latter of which AMC has turned into a smash-hit TV series. Kirkman’s Marvel credits include Marvel Knights 2099, Jubilee, Marvel Team-Up and Irredeemable Ant-Man. His best-known Marvel works, however, have been the blockbuster Marvel Zombies and Marvel Zombies 2 miniseries, and the Marvel Zombies: Dead Days one-shot.

The co-creator of Marvel’s Runaways, Brian K. Vaughan has written multiple Marvel limited series, including Chamber, Doctor Strange: The Oath, Hood, Mystique and Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure. Vaughan earned a reputation as one of the industry’s brightest talents on projects including Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina and the critically acclaimed graphic novel Pride of Baghdad, and continues to wow readers with Saga. Vaughan has earned multiple Eisner Awards for many of these titles, and for Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight. He also served as a writer and producer on the TV phenomenon Lost.

Artist David Finch got his big break at age 20 illustrating Ripclaw for Top Cow Productions. Later moving to Marvel, his work on The Call of Duty and Ultimate X-Men helped establish him as one of industry’s top talents. “Avengers Disassembled” shot him into the rarefied air of comics’ most popular artists, and he continued the transition to New Avengers with writer Brian Michael Bendis.

An industry veteran, artist Brandon Peterson got his big break penciling Uncanny X-Men. Following a stint at Top Cow, Peterson returned to Marvel — illustrating such titles as Magneto Rex, Astonishing X-Men and X-Men. Since serving as CrossGen’s lead artist, art director and vice president, Peterson’s Marvel credits include such series as Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Extinction and Strange.

After an artistic apprenticeship under famed father Joe Kubert, Andy Kubert got his start on DC’s space-opera variations Adam Strange and Warlord, as well as the best-selling crossover Batman vs. Predator in collaboration with brother Adam. Kubert’s Marvel career began with a six-year stint on X-Men — continuing into Thor, Ka-Zar, Ghost Rider and others. He collaborated with Orson Scott Card on Ultimate Iron Man, Neil Gaiman on Marvel 1602 and Paul Jenkins on Wolverine: Origin.