John Romita Jr

JRJr. began his career at an early age. He's the son of John Romita Sr., one of Spider-Man's most famous artists since the 60s and at the age of 13 he proposed the creation of a character to Stan Lee, who later presented Prowler with John Buscema for The Amazing Spider-Man #78 in 1969.

At Marvel UK (the British division of Marvel Comics), he first drew sketches for reprint covers, until his debut with a six-page story in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11 in 1977.

He became popular the following year by participating in Iron Man stories with writer David Michelinie and comic artist Bob Layton, who were responsible for bringing several characters into the plot, such as the girlfriend of Stark's bodyguard, Bethany Cabe, and his rival Justin Hammer. During this phase, he drew the Iron Man classics: Armor Wars and Demon in a Bottle.

In the 1980s, he was a regular in Spider-Man magazines. Alongside writer Dennis O'Neil, he presented the characters Madame Web and Hydro-Man, and co-created Hobgoblin with comic novelist Roger Stern. He also drew Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, the first limited series published by Marvel Comics featuring all major Marvel characters. On his first period as a regular artist for Uncanny X-Men, he co-created the character Forge.

From 1988 to 1990, Romita drew the Daredevil magazine, then with Ann Nocenti's stories and Al Williamson's artwork, and took part in the creation of Typhoid Mary. In the 1990s, he continued in various Marvel titles, such as: the second arc of the Iron Man story Armor Wars; The Punisher War Zone; the first mutant Cable miniseries; and the Punisher and Batman crossover. Romita Jr. also collaborated with Frank Miller on Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, an origin story for the character. He was one of those responsible for relaunching Thor with Dan Jurgens in 1998 and Peter Parker: Spider-Man with Howard Mackie in 1999.

In the 2000s, the artist returned to Spider-Man stories, contributing to a comic book in honor of the victims of the 9/11 attack, showing that even the superhero was disturbed by such destruction. Another prominent work at the time was on the regular series of Wolverine - a character co-created by his father - together with comic book writer Mark Millar.

In 2004, his first comic book story of his own, The Grey Area, was published by Image Comics. He also illustrated Black Panther, The Sentry and Ultimate Vision stories.

In 2008, Romita worked again with Mark Millar and co-created Kick-Ass, a character that had two films released in theaters.

After 30 years at Marvel, John Romita Jr. was invited by DC Comics to be one of their exclusive artists, working on Superman with writer Geoff Johns in 2014. Together with Scott Snyder, he was involved in the 2016 relaunch of DC Rebirth with All-Star Batman. In the same year, he illustrated Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, a Joker story written by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello which is part of the classic The Dark Knight chronology.

The following year, he and writer Dan Abnett released The Silencer series as part of DC Comics' Dark Metal collection. He is now working with Frank Miller on Superman: Year One, a series that showed the origins of the Man of Steel. The artist returned to Marvel Comics in 2021 where he is the present artist on one of Spider-Man's titles.