Alitha Martinez


Alitha E. Martinez is an American comic book artist best known for her work on for Marvel Comics's Iron Man, the Heroes webcomics, and DC's Batgirl. Over the course of her career she has worked for all the major comic book publishers, including Marvel, DC Comics, Image Comics, and Archie Comics.

Career

For much of the latter half of the 1990s, Martinez worked as a background assistant/inker for other creators, with her earliest known work being her 1993 contribution to the series Cable. Martinez counts 1999 as her big break in comics when she was working as an assistant to Marvel editor Joe Quesada. Via this connection, she became the lead artist on Iron Man, working on the book for the better part of 2000 and 2001.
After a series of short stints and one-shots for the next few years, Martinez became a regular artist on the Season 2 and Season 3 Heroes webcomics produced in 2008–2009 to supplement the popular television show of the same name.
Moving to DC Comics, Martinez co-created the villain Knightfall in Batgirl #10.
In recent years, she helped create the artwork, including cover art, for a special commemorative issue of Riverdale by Archie Comics. Martinez penciled most of the first five issues of World of Wakanda, a spin-off from the Marvel Comics' Black Panther title that was primarily written by Roxane Gay. In 2017, she was a guest artist for the limited series Lazarus X+66 from Image Comics, written by Greg Rucka. She also worked on five issues of Marvel Comics' Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
In 2019, Martinez released the series Omni with writer Devin K. Grayson for the Humanoids Publishing comic line.
In 2020, art by Martinez was included in the exhibit Women in Comics: Looking Forward, Looking Back at the Society of Illustrators in New York City.
Martinez is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts.

Personal life

Martinez is of Honduran and Curaçao heritage. She has a son named Michael.

Awards