Steve Englehart
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Steve Englehart (born April 22, 1947, Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, particularly in the 1970s.
Biography
Early career
Englehart's first work in comics was as an art assistant to Neal Adams on a story in Vampirella Vol. 1, #10 (March 1971). However, Englehart found his true calling as a writer. Influenced by writer Roy Thomas, Englehart brought a complex, freewheeling style to Marvel's comics,[[Citing sources citation needed]] often dealing with philosophical or political issues in a superhero story, such as a celebrated run on Captain America (with artist Sal Buscema) which reflected the then-ongoing Watergate scandal.Modern Age work
Englehart also wrote The Avengers from 1972 to 1976, and had a brief but potent run on Doctor Strange (originally with artist Frank Brunner, later with Gene Colan), in which Strange's mentor, the Ancient One, died, and Strange became the new Sorcerer Supreme. Englehart, audaciously, also created a multi-issue storyline in which a sorcerer named Sise-neg ("Genesis" spelled backward) goes back through history, collecting all magical energies, until he reaches the beginning of the universe and discovers he is God (Marvel Premiere #14). Although editor-in-chief Stan Lee, seeing the issue after publication, wrote Englehart and Brunner to print a retraction saying this was not God but a god, so as to avoid offending religious readers, the writer and artist concocted a fake fan letter from a fictitious minister praising the story, and mailed it to Marvel from Texas; Marvel unwittingly printed the letter, and dropped the retraction order.Frank Brunner, interview in Comic Book Artist #6, quoted in Comic Book Resources (Dec. 22, 2005), "[Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #30"]Englehart notably reconciled the existence of Captain America and sidekick Bucky in Marvel's 1950s precursor, Atlas Comics, an anomaly no one had previously thought to address despite Cap's 1964 reintroduction to Marvel, in which his newly-retconned history stated that he had been in suspended animation since the end of World War II, when Bucky had been killed.
DC Comics
In 1976, after a dispute with incoming Marvel editor-in-chief Gerry Conway, Englehart moved to DC Comics. There he wrote Justice League of America, with artist Dick Dillin, and a critically lauded eight-issue arc of Batman stories in Detective Comics #469-476, with penciler Marshall Rogers and inker Terry Austin). Englehart temporarily left comics at this juncture, moving to Europe before his first issue of Detective was published. During this time he wrote a fantasy/occult novel, The Point Man (Dell Publishing, Aug. 1981, ISBN 044012378X).His run on Detective Comics was reprinted into trade paperback in 1999 as Batman: Strange Apparitions (ISBN 1563895005). In 2006, Englehart reunited with Rogers and Austin on the miniseries Batman: Dark Detective (reprinted as a trade paperback, ISBN 1401208983).
Return to Marvel
In 1983, Marvel's creator-owned imprint Epic Comics published Coyote, a series he had earlier created at Eclipse Comics with Rogers, in collaboration with artist Steve Leialoha (and later Chas Truog and Todd McFarlane).Englehart returned to mainstream comics later that decade with stints on West Coast Avengers, the second Vision and the Scarlet Witch miniseries (with artist Richard Howell), and Fantastic Four (during which editorial disputes led to his using the pseudonym John Harkness)Steve Englehart official site: ["Fantastic Four III: 304-332 (This page: 326-332)"], and The Silver Surfer.
Night Man
Around this time, Englehart also wrote DC Comics' Green Lantern, and in 1987 wrote the DC crossover series Millennium. In 1992, he co-created the Ultraverse comics universe for Malibu Comics. His Malibu creation Night Man was later adapted for a syndicated television series.Later career
In the 2000s, Englehart has combined occasional comics writing with scripting for TV and computer games and writing books. He has also written a number of series novels under house pseudonyms.[[Citing sources citation needed]]Footnotes
References
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