AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION: MAXIMUM CARNAGE

After beginning his writing career on DC horror titles, David Michelinie moved to Marvel. He and co-writer/inker Bob Layton established Iron Man’s battle with alcoholism, use of specialized armor variants and vendetta against Doctor Doom, as well as other aspects of the character that endure to this day. Michelinie’s unique blend of action, suspense and humor distinguished not only Iron Man, but also Amazing Spider-Man. With artist Todd McFarlane, he introduced the vicious vigilante Venom; he also wrote the first Venom limited series, Lethal Protector. Michelinie’s run as Amazing writer was second in length only to that of Stan Lee himself, while he also authored tie-in titles Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man and Spider-Man. He moved from Marvel’s flagship character to DC’s with a stint on Superman’s Action Comics, later returning to the world of Tony Stark for writing collaborations with Bob Layton on Iron Man: Legacy of Doom and Iron Man: The End.

After early assignments on Kickers Inc. and Cloak and Dagger, Terry Kavanagh wrote Web of Spider-Man for years — spinning a hero he introduced in those pages, Nightwatch, into his own title. In addition to runs on Marc Spector: Moon Knight, X-Man and various mutant titles, he wrote Avengers, Iron Man and several tie-in one-shots during the controversial “Crossing” storyline. His miniseries work includes Before the Fantastic Four: The Storms, Fury/Agent 13, Black Cat and Rise of Apocalypse. He teamed Marvel heroes with UItraverse heroes in Exiles vs. X-Men and Ultraforce/Avengers Prelude.

Hired on the strength of his Official Marvel Tryout penciling submission, Mark Bagley rose to prominence as the artist of 1990s sleeper hit New Warriors. Following an acclaimed run on Amazing Spider-Man, he worked with writer Kurt Busiek on Thunderbolts. When Marvel launched its Ultimate line, Bagley and Brian Michael Bendis led the way with Ultimate Spider-Man, whose years of success made the pair the longest-running creative team in Marvel history. Bendis and Bagley have also collaborated on Avengers Assemble and the creator-owned Brilliant. His subsequent credits include Fantastic Four, Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand, Hulk, All-New X-Men and Venom.

Alex Saviuk established himself as a major Marvel artist with a seven-year run on Web of Spider-Man. He also worked on the animated-series tie-in Spider-Man Adventures and drew the Amazing Spider-Man comic strip from scripts by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. At DC, he penciled and inked Flash, Green Lantern, Superman and other titles.