Industry   legend Chris Claremont is best   known for his epic sixteen-year run on Uncanny   X-Men. Claremont’s focus on the themes of   prejudice and tolerance struck at the hearts of comics fans, and he built an   unparalleled following during the next three decades. Under his pen, the   X-Men franchise spawned a vast array of spin-offs, many of them written by   Claremont himself. His other credits include Iron   Fist, Ms. Marvel, Power Man   and Spider-Woman.   Claremont has returned to the X-Men universe in New   Exiles, GeNext, X-Men Forever, Chaos War: X-Men and Nightcrawler.
Industry   giant Marc Silvestri entered   the upper echelon of comics innovators in the late ’80s during fan-favorite,   record-breaking runs on Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine. Silvestri left Marvel in 1992 to co-found Image Comics; his   imprint, Top Cow, is one of its four longstanding autonomous studios. At   Image, Silvestri created some of today’s most popular properties — including Cyberforce, Witchblade, Weapon Zero and The Darkness. Silvestri has returned   to the world of Marvel’s mutants on New X-Men and X-Men: Messiah Complex.
Jim   Lee is perhaps today’s hottest comic-book artist. Since   the late ’80s, his work for Marvel, DC and Image — the company he helped found — has set trends that survive to this day. After honing his   skills with memorable runs on Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, Lee rose to prominence on Uncanny   X-Men. Lee then revamped the mutant team’s look   and helped launch the second X-Men series, whose first issue remains one of the best-selling   comic books of all time. In 1992, he and other artists formed Image Comics.   Lee’s group of titles, published under the Wildstorm Productions imprint,   included the mega-popular WildC.A.T.s, Stormwatch and Gen13.   Under Wildstorm’s sub-imprint Homage Comics, he published Kurt Busiek’s Astro City and Strangers in Paradise, both of which   became major fan favorites. Lee returned to Marvel in 1996, relaunching Fantastic Four as part of the   “Heroes Reborn” event. Subsequently selling Wildstorm to DC Comics, Lee went   on to pencil Batman, Superman and WildC.A.T.s. Later, as DC Comics’   co-publisher, he helped revamp and reconceptualize the company’s entire   lineup.