Jason Aaron
Jason Aaron is an American comic book writer, known for his work on titles such as Thor, The Other Side, Scalped, Ghost Rider, and PunisherMAX.
Early life
Jason Aaron was born in Jasper, Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase from spinner racks comic books, some of which he still owns today.Aaron graduated from Shelby County High School. He then attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
Career
Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175, gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side, which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry. Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation drawn by R. M. Guéra.
In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide "Secret Invasion" crossover with David Lapham in 2009.
In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. In July of that year, he wrote the Penguin issue of Joker's Asylum.
After a four-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series ', launched to coincide with the feature film '. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with the relaunch of The Incredible Hulk in 2011 and Thor: God of Thunder in 2012. Aaron and artist Mike Deodato collaborated on the Original Sin limited series in 2014. During his run on Thor, he brought in the new female Thor and wrote the relaunch of the book.
As of 2017, Aaron was writing a Star Wars comic book for Marvel, set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, as well as continuing his work on Thor, Doctor Strange, and the creator-owned series Southern Bastards with Jason Latour and The Goddamned with R. M. Guéra for Image. In 2018, he relaunched Thor with Mike del Mundo and The Avengers with Ed McGuinness. Aaron and Mahmud A. Asrar are scheduled to be the creative team on the Conan the Barbarian series when Marvel regains the licensing rights to the character in 2019.
At the 2019 San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that Aaron's Thor storyline, which depicted Jane Foster acquiring the mantle of the Thunder God, would be the basis for the film , which would be released on November 5, 2021.
Personal life
Aaron moved to Kansas City, Kansas in 2000, the day after the first X-Men feature film was released.Commenting on the religious themes that run through his work, Aaron says he was raised Southern Baptist, but has since renounced religion: "I’ve been an atheist for many years, but I’ve remained fascinated by religion. If anything, I’ve become more fascinated by religion and faith after I lost mine."
Awards and nominations
- Nominated: 2007 Eisner Award for Best Miniseries for The Other Side.
- Nominated: 2015 Eisner Award for Best Writer for Southern Bastards, Original Sin, Thor and Men of Wrath.
- Nominated: 2015 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series Southern Bastards.
- Recipient: 2015 Harvey Award for Best New Series for Southern Bastards.
- Nominated: 2015 Harvey Award for Best Writer for Southern Bastards.
- Recipient: 2016 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series for Southern Bastards.
- Recipient: 2016 Eisner Award for Best Writer for Southern Bastards, Star Wars, Doctor Strange, Thor and Men of Wrath.
- Recipient: 2016 Inkpot Award
DC Comics/Vertigo
- The Other Side #1–5 collected as The Other Side
- Scalped:
- *Indian Country #1–5
- * Casino Boogie #6–11
- * Dead Mothers #12–18
- * The Gravel in Your Gut #19–24
- * High Lonesome #25–29
- * The Gnawing #30–34
- * Rez Blues #35–42
- * You Gotta Sin to Get Saved #43–49
- * Knuckle Up #50–55
- * Trail's End #56–60
- Hellblazer #245–246: "Newcastle Calling"
- Joker's Asylum: Penguin collected in Joker's Asylum Volume 1
Marvel Comics
- X-Men:
- *Wolverine:
- ** Wolverine by Jason Aaron Omnibus collects:
- *** "A Good Man"
- *** "The Man in the Pit"
- *** "Get Mystique!"
- *** ' #1–4
- *** Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3: "Get Mystique "
- *** "A Day in the Life"
- *** ':
- **** "The Adamantium Men"
- **** "All We Want is the World and Everything in It"
- **** "Insane in the Brain"
- **** "Love and the Wolverine"
- **** "Tomorrow Dies Today"
- **** "The End of the Beginning"
- ** Wolverine Goes to Hell collects:
- *** "Wolverine Goes to Hell"
- *** "Scorched Earth"
- ** Wolverine vs. the X-Men collects:
- *** "Happy"
- *** "Wolverine vs. the X-Men"
- *** "Get Mystique: Final Repose"
- ** Wolverine's Revenge collects:
- *** "Wolverine's Revenge!"
- *** "Wolverine No More"
- ** Goodbye, Chinatown collects:
- *** "Goodbye, Chinatown"
- *** "And Then There Was War"
- ** Back in Japan collects:
- *** "Back in Japan"
- *** "One More Round"
- *X-Force Special: Ain't No Dog: "Hunters & Killers"
- *Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #1–6: "Another Fine Mess" collected as Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine
- *' #1–5 collected as X-Men: Schism
- *Wolverine and the X-Men #1–42
- ** Volume 1 collects:
- *** "Welcome to the X-Men! Now Die!"
- *** "Just Another Day in Westchester County"
- ** Volume 2 collects:
- *** "Mutatis Mutandis"
- *** "A Little Impossible"
- ** Volume 3 collects:
- *** "Day of the Phoenix, Dark Night of the Soul"
- *** "Avengers vs. X-Men... vs. X-Men"
- *** "Got Hope?"
- *** "Hounded"
- *** "Born Warbird"
- ** Volume 4 collects:
- *** "My Dinner with the Phoenix"
- *** "On the Eve of Battle"
- *** "The Fires of Hell A-Glowing"
- *** "Wolverine's Secret Weapon"
- *** "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow!"
- ** Volume 5 collects:
- *** "More Pencils, More Books, More Teachers' Dirty Looks"
- *** "The Search for Something New"
- *** "The Greatest Freakshow on Earth"
- *** "Big Top Hell"
- *** "The Last Frankenstein"
- *** "Ain't No Sin to Be Glad You're Alive"
- ** Volume 6 collects:
- *** "Savage Learning"
- *** "Key to the Future"
- ** Volume 7 collects:
- *** "The Hellfire Saga Prologue"
- *** "The Hellfire Saga"
- ** "Battle of the Atom, Chapter 5"
- ** "Battle of the Atom, Chapter 9"
- ** Volume 8 collects:
- *** "Untitled"
- *Avengers vs. X-Men:
- ** Avengers vs. X-Men #0
- ** Avengers vs. X-Men #2
- ** AvX: VS #1: "The Invincible Iron Man vs. Magneto"
- ** Avengers vs. X-Men #9
- ** AvX: VS #5: "Angel vs. Hawkeye"
- ** AvX: VS #6: "Iron Fist Vs. Iceman"
- *A+X #3 "Black Panther + Storm" collected in Volume 1: =Awesome
- *Amazing X-Men vol. 2 #1–6
- **Volume 1: The Quest for Nightcrawler collects:
- *** "The Quest for Nightcrawler"
- *** "All in the Family"
- Criminal #2: "My Favorite TV Cops and Movie Tough Guys, Flaws and All"
- Ghost Rider vol. 4 #20–35
- *Ghost Rider by Jason Aaron Omnibus collects:
- * "Hell-Bent & Heaven-Bound"
- * "God Don't Live on Cell Block D"
- * "The Former Things"
- * "Last Stand of the Spirits of Vengeance"
- * "Trials & Tribulations"
- *Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire #1–6
- Black Panther #39–41: "See Wakanda and Die" collected as Secret Invasion: BP
- Punisher:
- *The Punisher MAX: X-Mas Special: "And on Earth Peace, Good Will Toward Men"
- *PunisherMAX #1–22 collected as:
- ** Kingpin
- ** Bullseye
- ** Frank
- ** Homeless
- Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular #1: "Just a Little Old Fashioned Justice"
- Deadpool #900: "Close Encounters of the @*#$ed-Up Kind"
- Immortal Weapons #1: "The Book of the Cobra" collected in Immortal Weapons
- Avengers vs. Atlas #4: "My Dinner with Gorilla Man" collected in Gorilla Man
- Captain America: Who Won't Wield the Shield?: "Forbush Man: Forbush Kills!"
- ' #1–4 collected as UC-CA
- The Incredible Hulk vol. 3 #1–15
- *Volume 1 collects:
- ** "Epilogue 2: Saturday"
- ** "Hulk: Asunder"
- ** "Hulk vs. Banner!
- *Volume 2 collects:
- ** "Alone"
- ** "Stay Angry!"
- ** "Hulk: United"
- Thor: God of Thunder #1–25
- *Volume 1: The God Butcher collects:
- ** "The God Butcher"
- *Volume 2: Godbomb collects:
- ** "What the Gods Have Wrought"
- ** "Godbomb"
- *Volume 3: The Accursed collects:
- ** "Untitled"
- ** "The Accursed"
- ** "Days of Wine and Dragons"
- *Volume 4: The Last Days of Midgard collects:
- ** "The Last Days of Midgard"
- ** "The Last Days of Midgard, Epilogue: Adieu, Midgard, Adieu"
- ** "Tales of Thunder"
- Thanos Rising
- Original Sin:
- *Original Sin collects:
- ** "No One Is Watching"
- ** "Bomb Full of Secrets"
- ** "Trust No One, Not Even Yourself"
- ** "Secret Warriors"
- ** "The Secret History of Colonel Nicholas J. Fury"
- ** "Open Your Eye"
- ** "Nick Fury Vs. The World"
- ** "The One Who Watches"
- *Original Sin: Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm collects:
- ** "Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm"
- Thor vol. 4 #1–8
- *Volume 1: Goddess of Thunder #1–5
- *Volume 2: Who Holds the Hammer? #6–8, Annual #1, and What If? #10
- Star Wars vol. 2 #1–37
- *Volume 1: Skywalker Strikes #1–6
- *Volume 2: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon #7–12
- *Star Wars: Vader Down #13–14
- *Volume 3: Rebel Jail #15–19
- *Volume 4: Last Flight of The Harbringer #20–25
- *Volume 5: Yoda's Secret War #26–31
- *Volume 6: Out Among The Stars #32–37
- Thors
- Weirdworld
- Doctor Strange vol. 4 #1–20
- *Volume 1: The Way of the Weird #1–5
- *Volume 2: The Last Days of Magic #6–10
- *Volume 3: Blood in the Aether #11–16
- *Volume 4: Mr, Misery #17–20
- The Mighty Thor vol. 2 #1–30
- *Volume 1: Thunder in Her Veins #1–6
- *Volume 2: Lords of Midgard #6–12
- *Volume 3: The Asgard/Shi'ar War #13–19
- *Volume 4: The War Thor #20–23
- *Volume 5: The Death of The Mighty Thor #24–30
- The Unworthy Thor #1–5
- Generations: The Thunder
- Thor vol. 5 #1-16
- *Volume 1: God of Thunder Reborn #1–6
- *Volume 2: Road To War Of The Realms #7–11
- *Volume 3: War's End #12–16
- The Avengers vol. 8 #1-...
- *Volume 1: The Final Host #1–6
- * Volume 2: World Tour #7–12
Image Comics
- 24Seven Volume 2: "This Mortal Coil"
- Southern Bastards #1–...
- *Volume 1: Here Was a Man
- *Volume 2: Gridiron
- *Volume 3: Homecoming
- *Volume 4: Gut Check
- The Goddamned #1–...
- *Volume 1: Before The Flood
- Men of Wrath
Other US publishers
- Pilot Season: Ripclaw collected in Pilot Season 2007
- Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation #1–2 collected in Friday the 13th: Book 2
Interviews
- Comic Geek Speak podcast interview with Aaron from and
- by Jon Niccum