Kurt Busiek

Known for his modern, nuanced take on traditional superheroics, Kurt Busiek has put together classic runs on many of both DC and Marvel's core titles, as well as the sword-and-sandal series Conan for Dark Horse. His breakthrough work was the miniseries Marvels with artist Alex Ross, which imagined the Silver Age of Marvel Comics from the perspective of an all-too-human photographer in New York City. Busiek is also known for his back-to-basics run on Avengers with artist George Perez, which revitalized the franchise after the Heroes Reborn era, and for creating the Thunderbolts at Marvel, a team of super-villains able to masquerade as new superheroes to gain the trust of an unsuspecting world. The Busiek/Perez team rejoined in 2003 for the landmark cross-publisher event JLA/Avengers. His creator-owned series, Astro City, presents its own fresh take on superhero archetypes. In December 2005, Busiek signed a two-year exclusive with DC Comics, where he has contributed mainly to the Superman family of titles.

Busiek's gifts as a writer are deceptively simple: Humor, big action, an eye for continuity and characterization. That they seem "simple" surely belies the hard work required to bring them all together. His run with George Perez on Avengers is the stuff great comics are made of, not only hitting long-time fanboy pleasure zones but bringing a fresh energy that attracted new readers as well. More recently, his run on Superman with artist Carlos Pacheco has given the Man of Steel a fresh coat of paint, and his take on Conan demonstrates that his abilites as a writer go far beyond just men in tights. Perhaps his most personal work is also his greatest; Astro City allows Busiek to have free rein in a superhero universe of his own creation, peeling away the myths behind superhero archetypes without robbing them of their wonder or charm.