| Fabian Nicieza | |
|---|---|
 Nicieza in 2025 | |
| Born | (1961-12-31)December 31, 1961 (age 63) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Area | Writer, Editor |
Notable works | New Warriors Thunderbolts Nomad X-Men X-Force Gambit Deadpool Cable & Deadpool Outrage |
Fabian Nicieza (/niːsiˈɛsə/;[1] December 31,[2] 1961)[3] is anArgentine-American comic book writer andeditor who is best known for his work onMarvel titles such asX-Men,X-Force,New Warriors,Nomad,Cable,Gambit,Deadpool andThunderbolts, for all of which he helped create numerous characters, among themAdam X,Deadpool,Domino,Feral,G. W. Bridge,Kwannon,Shatterstar, andSilhouette. He also created and wrote theWEBTOON seriesOutrage.
Nicieza was born inBuenos Aires, Argentina, the son of Omar and Irma Riguetti Nicieza.[4] He was four years old when his family moved to the United States. Growing up inNew Jersey, Nicieza learned to read and write from comic books. He lived first inSayreville, New Jersey and moved toOld Bridge Township, where he attendedMadison Central High School, from which he graduated in 1979.[5] He studied atRutgers University, interning at theABC television network before graduating in 1983 with a degree in advertising andpublic relations.[6] His brother is Mariano Nicieza, also a comic book writer and editor.
Until 1985, Nicieza worked for theBerkley Publishing Group, starting in the production department and becoming a managing editor.[7]
In 1985, Nicieza joined the staff atMarvel Comics, initially as a manufacturing assistant,[citation needed] later moving to the promotions department as an advertising manager.[8] During this period he began to take his firstfreelance work for Marvel, writing shortarticles for Marvel's promotional magazineMarvel Age.
Nicieza's first published comics story came withPsi-Force No. 9 (July 1987), a title in Marvel's short-livedNew Universe imprint. This led to his becoming that title's regular writer from #16 (Feb. 1988) until #32 (June 1989), the final issue. This led to fill-in work on titles such asClassicX-Men, for which he provided backup stories, and in the MarvelAnnuals' 1989 summer crossover "Atlantis Attacks".
AfterTom DeFalco, then Marvel's editor-in-chief, created thesuperhero team theNew Warriors, using existing characters, inThor No. 412 (Dec. 1989), he selected Nicieza to write the spin-off series. Nicieza recalled "I took the assignment for two reasons. First, I saw a lot of potential in these characters that had already been deemed useless. And secondly, I really wanted to write a monthly book."[9] Collaborating withpencilersMark Bagley and laterDarick Robertson, primarily, Nicieza went on to write the title for most of its first 53 issues (July 1990 – November 1994). Years later, Nicieza said that he considers the first 25 issues ofNew Warriors to be the best work of his career.[8]
Also in 1990 Nicieza began short runs on comics such asAlpha Flight (#87–101),Avengers (#317–325) andAvengers Spotlight, as well as theminiseriesNomad, which in turn led him to write the ongoing seriesNomad vol. 2 in 1992. That year, Nicieza became editor of Marvel's children's imprint,Star Comics. Shortly afterward, he left the Marvel staff and beganfreelance writing for the company.
Nicieza's projects in this period included the first four issues ofNational Football League-approved superheroNFL SuperPro (Oct. 1991 – Feb. 1992), and, with pencilerKevin Maguire, the four-issue miniseriesAdventures of Captain America (also known by its cover-logo treatment,The Adventures of Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty) (Sept. 1991 – Jan. 1992), an origin-story retelling set in the 1940s.
In 1991, Nicieza joined with artistRob Liefeld in co-plotting and writing the final three issues of theNew Mutants. In those issues Liefeld and Nicieza created the charactersDeadpool andShatterstar as well as the super team,X-Force. Liefeld and Nicieza then produced an ongoingX-Force title. Nicieza initially worked on the title as scripter. After the departure of Liefeld in No. 12, Nicieza became the title's full writer, which he remained until 1995. By the end of 1992, Nicieza became regular scripter forX-Men vol. 2, beginning with No. 12 (Sept. 1992), working primarily with pencilerAndy Kubert throughout his run. For the next three years, Nicieza was among the writers and editors of one of Marvel's most popular superhero franchises during a time of such popular, multi-seriescrossover story arcs as "X-Cutioner's Song", "Phalanx Covenant" and "Age of Apocalypse".
During this period Nicieza wrote the firstCable miniseries as well as the first few issues of the character's subsequent ongoing series. He also wrote the first solo Deadpool series,Deadpool: the Circle Chase in 1993. These series expanded the characters' personalities and established key background information for both characters, all things which were later used by other writers on those characters' subsequent ongoing books.
However, in 1995, in a dispute with then editor-in-chiefBob Harras over the future direction of his plotlines onX-Force,[citation needed] Nicieza was fired from the X-titles, leavingX-Force with No. 43 andX-Men with No. 45. He later remarked, "I never wanted to leave [X-Force], and never felt my firing was justified. ... I don't recall being given a reason [for being fired], and I also don't recall asking for one. ... Considering it was a Top 10 selling title at the time, I felt it was a wholly unjustified decision."[8]
After 1995, Nicieza wrote short runs ofCaptain Marvel (vol. 2, 1995),Spider-Man: The Final Adventure (1995) and stories forMighty Morphin Power Rangers before leaving the company in 1996. That year Nicieza did his first work for rival publisherDC Comics, co-writingJustice League: Midsummer Nightmare withMark Waid which relaunched theJustice League as theJLA. He also worked for Twist and Shout Comics writing and pencilling back-up stories inX-Flies Special #1 andDirtbag #7.
Later in 1996 Nicieza joinedAcclaim Comics as senior vice-president and editor-in-chief. He was charged with revamping the companies intellectual properties which had previously formedValiant Comics'Valiant Universe. Nicieza as editor oversaw the new version, dubbed "VH2", which re-imagined characters such asSolar,X-O Manowar, andNinjak.
Nicieza himself wrote theTurok title as well as a new series,Troublemakers.Turok met with success as a video game adaptation, and Nicieza was promoted to president and publisher of Acclaim Comics in 1997. He also wrote aTurok novella during this period. However, after staff cuts and most of the lines' cancellation, Nicieza left Acclaim in 1999.
Returning to freelance work, Marvel and the X-Men, Nicieza co-wrote theMagneto Wars crossover throughUncanny X-Men #366–367 andX-Men vol. 2, #86–87, with artistAlan Davis in 1999. This led to the successiveMagneto limited seriesMagneto Rex (1999) andMagneto: Dark Seduction (2000), as well as an ongoingGambit (1998) series which he wrote for the first 24 issues of its 25-issue run.
Also in 1999, Nicieza began writingThunderbolts with #34. He continued to write the book (initially with old partnerMark Bagley on art, later withPatrick Zircher andChris Batista) up until No. 75 when the title wasrevamped. The revamp was unsuccessful, and in 2004 the original version of the team was resurrected, initially in anAvengers/Thunderbolts miniseries, then later in theNew Thunderbolts series with Nicieza again as writer.
Nicieza also worked on several limited series at Marvel and DC around the turn of the century. At Marvel he wroteCitizen V (2001),Citizen V and the V Battalion: Everlasting (2002),X-Men Forever (2001), andX-Force vol. 2, as well as the short-lived ongoing seriesHawkeye (2003); while at DC, he wrote the six-issue miniseriesSupermen of America (1999) and theElseworlds projectJLA: Created Equal (2000), as well as some issues of the children's comicJustice League Adventures.
In 2003 Nicieza co-created, with artistStefano Raffaele, thehorror miniseriesThe Blackburne Covenant, published byDark Horse Comics. That same year he returned to two of his old characters with the Marvel seriesCable and Deadpool, of which he wrote all 50 issues.
In 2006, Nicieza returned to DC with a three-issue arc inAction Comics #841–843 (July–Sept. 2006), co-written with Kurt Busiek. Nicieza also wroteJSA Classified #28 (September 2007). He is also one of the co-writers forThe 99, an "Islamic culture-based comic book" withKuwaiti Naif Al-Mutawa,[10] Other late-2000s DC work includesNightwing andRobin,[11][12] both titles being cancelled in connection with "Batman R.I.P." and Nicieza then wrote anAzrael : Death's Dark Knight mini-series, part of theBattle for the Cowl storyline which dealt with the "Batman R.I.P." aftermath. AfterDeath's Dark Knight concluded, Nicieza wrote the newAzrael ongoing series from issue #1–13 (December 2009 – December 2010).[13][14]
Nicieza began writing the DC seriesRed Robin from issues #13-26, the final issue (Aug. 2010 - Aug. 2011). DC announced Nicieza would be writingLegion Lost, a spinoff of Legion of Superheroes as part of DC's line wide relaunch initiative in September 2011. Nicieza wrote the first six issues before leaving the title.[15] In 2016, for the comics company Shatner Singularity, he adapted a Stan Lee poem into the graphic novelStan Lee's 'God Woke'.[16] That work won the 2017Independent Publisher Book Awards' Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.[17]
In 2023, it was announced that Nicieza would be returning to the X-Men line of books to write the fifth volume ofCable, as a four-issue mini-series beginning in January, 2024.[18]
In non-comics works, Nicieza co-scripted thedirect-to-DVD animated featureHot Wheels World Race, and the animated DVD featureThe Black Belt Club, based on theScholastic book series. In 2021, Nicieza created and executive produced the animated streaming seriesSuperhero Kindergarten, based on the comic book series of the same name byStan Lee.[19] In 2021, Nicieza's first non-comic book was released:Suburban Dicks, a satirical crime novel set in the New Jersey suburbs.[20] A second book with the same characters,The Self-Made Widow, was published in 2022.[21]
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