John Romita Jr. is returning to Marvel Comics after working at DC for nearly a decade. The prolific artist, best known for his work on the house that Stan Lee built to work on new Marvel titles for the company. Romita Jr. announced that his return is set for this July, 2021.
Romita Jr.'s career at Marvel spans almost 50 years, having published his first comic—a Spider-Man title—in 1977. He made headway with his work on Iron Man and The Uncanny X-Men, but he is most praised by critics and readers alike for his work on Amazing Spider-Man in the 1980s along with head writer Dennis O'Neil. During his run, he introduced villains Hydro-Man, Madame Web, the Hobgoblin and other villains to the mythos. He also worked with J. Micheal Straczynski on the Amazing Spider-Man relaunch series, and became a mainstay of the company until his departure in 2013, when he was hired by DC Comics as an artist for Superman alongside writer Geoff Johns.
Now, after nine years of working with the Distinguished Competition, Romita Jr. has made his way to Marvel once again. In a statement released on Marvel.com, Romita Jr. shares his enthusiasm on returning to the company: “I have been very fortunate more than a few times in my life, and now I can add this latest event to that list. I have returned to Marvel, the company that I started my career in, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! I am literally, at this very moment, working on my next big Marvel project, and it’s a blast!!! I am JUST as excited as I was when I first started, and I will do my best to let the work show that again. I hope fans will see that too!”
Romita Jr. was influential in creating some of Marvel's best-known storylines, including Iron Man's Demon in a Bottle, Wolverine: Enemy of the State, and Daredevil: Man Without Fear, which he regards as his best work. He prefers the "Marvel Method" of creating comics, in which the writer will hand a rough outline of a scene to the artist, who then creates art based on the outline instead of specific lines of dialogue. This allows the artist considerably more freedom, and Romita Jr. has utilized it whenever possible: "I think that it should be set in stone that artists should have their hand in the cookie jar, so to speak, or in the cooking process to be able to help stir the sauce. You need the artist's input."
John Romita Jr.'s projects at Marvel remain a mystery for now. The publisher has yet to reveal exactly which books the artist will have a hand in, or how many. Regardless of whether Romita Jr. will be helming a Spider-Man title or not, Marvel readers will discover what the legendary artist has in store when he and Marvel Comics announce more information this July.
Source: Marvel.com
