Brubaker was the child of a Navy intelligence officer, and spent much of his childhood in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. From childhood he read comics that included Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes, which were seminal in the storyline he would one day write when creating the Winter Soldier. Describing his affinity for Captain America's sidekick thus, he has stated, "I was a Navy brat, and he was an Army brat." As Bucky had been killed off before Brubaker began reading comics, he assumed that the character had met his demise in an elaborate, dramatic story, only to find that he had been unceremoniously killed in a single page of The Avengers #4, which Brubaker saw as an injustice, commenting, "I was a 9-year-old kid, and I was horrified."[2] His uncle was screenwriter John Paxton.[3]
Career
Early work
Brubaker began his career in comics as a cartoonist, writing and drawing Pajama Chronicles for Blackthorne Publishing, Purgatory U.S.A. for Slave Labor Graphics and several short stories for various small-pressanthologies. His most well-known work of the period is Lowlife, a semi-autobiographical series first published by Caliber and later moved to Aeon Press. For Caliber, Brubaker also co-edited an anthology publication titled Monkey Wrench.[4]
In 1991, Brubaker wrote one of his earliest crime stories for the Dark Horse anthology series Dark Horse Presents, which he would continue to contribute to intermittently throughout the decade. Among those contributions were the three-part serial "An Accidental Death", a collaboration between Brubaker and artist Eric Shanower which garnered the two an Eisner Award nomination in 1993,[5] a Godzilla short story and another tale under the "Lowlife" title, this time a romantic triangle explored through three stories with each depicting a different participant's point-of-view.[6] The latter story was collected by Alternative Comics into a standalone publication titled At the Seams, which in turn was nominated for Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection at the 1997 Ignatz Awards. His other work for Alternative Comics, the humorous and experimental Detour #1, was to be the first issue of a series, though only one issue was published.[7]Detour was nominated for the "Best New Series" Harvey Award in 1998.[8]
Brubaker's last work for Dark Horse Presents was "The Fall", a five-part story illustrated by Berlin creator Jason Lutes about a convenience store clerk who gets involved in a ten-year-old murder mystery after he uses a stolen credit card. In 2001, all five parts were collected into a one-shot by Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly. In 2004, IDW Publishing announced the first creator-owned project by Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips, a pirate-themed series titled Black Sails.[9][10] The creators eventually decided to shelve the series in favor of Criminal (published under Marvel's Icon imprint),[11] and "The Fall" remained Brubaker's last independent comics work until his move to Image in 2012.
DC Comics
In 1995, Brubaker was contacted by DC Comics to write a story about Prez for its "mature readers" imprint Vertigo, after being recommended to the editors by his "An Accidental Death" collaborator Eric Shanower (who was already attached to the project as the artist).[12] The result—Brubaker's first work for one of the two major American comic book publishers—was a one-shot titled Vertigo Visions: Prez, a broad political satire revamping the obscure 1970s Joe Simon creation. Brubaker continued to pitch various ideas to Vertigo but kept getting rejected until Shelly Roeberg asked him to pitch "something [he] didn't think Vertigo would publish", which ended up being Scene of the Crime.[12] The 1999 series marked Brubaker's first collaboration with two artists who would frequently work with him in later years: Michael Lark and Sean Phillips (who joined the project as the inker for issues #2–4). A slacker detective story set in San Francisco, Scene of the Crime was critically acclaimed and brought Brubaker to the attention of Hollywood producers for the first time.[13]
In late 2000, Brubaker signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics.[14] That same year, he wrote his first mainstream superhero work, taking over Batman with issue #582 (Oct. 2000).[15] Brubaker would continue writing various series starring Batman and his ancillary characters until late 2003, including contributions to inter-title crossover storylines such as "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?"[16] and "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive",[17] as well as a stint on Detective Comics[18][19] that was cut short due to an unspecified dispute with the editors.[20] Also in 2000, Brubaker launched his second creator-owned property at Vertigo, the science fiction series Deadenders with artist Warren Pleece, which lasted 16 issues before its cancellation in 2001.[21] Brubaker's last work for Vertigo was Dead Boy Detectives, a four-issue The Sandman spin-off limited series illustrated by artist Bryan Talbot.[22]
In 2001, Brubaker teamed up with artist Darwyn Cooke to revamp Catwoman, redesigning and redeveloping the character's costume, supporting cast and modus operandi.[23] The pair's stint started with a four-part serial "Trail of the Catwoman", published in Detective Comics #759–762, in which private detective Slam Bradley attempts to investigate the death of Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, and continued into the new Catwoman series which launched in late 2001. Brubaker stayed on the series until #37 (Jan. 2005). During this time, Brubaker and Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis discussed co-writing a team-up tale between DC's Batman and Marvel's Daredevil. The two writers were enthusiastic about their ideas, which included a fight between Batman and Marvel villain Bullseye as well as another fight between Catwoman and Elektra. DC editors Matt Idelson and Bob Schreck were also enthusiastic, but DC Publisher Paul Levitz objected to the project due to a prior disagreement with Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.[24]
In 2002, Brubaker did his first work for Wildstorm, another DC imprint, penning the five-issue Wildcats spin-off Point Blank. The series, drawn by New Zealand artist Colin Wilson and starring Wildcats' member Grifter, took existing characters and concepts from the Wildstorm Universe and used them to set up Brubaker's Sleeper series which debuted later that year. A collaboration with artist Sean Phillips, Sleeper starred Holden Carver, a secret agent who goes undercover in a supervillain's powerful organization only to have his only contact in law enforcement fall into a coma. With the authorities believing him a dangerous criminal, Carver is caught between the two warring sides with unclear allegiances. Although Sleeper was a success with critics and fans on the Internet, the series underperformed commercially. In December 2003, in a unique publicity stunt conceived to help promote the first trade paperback collection of Sleeper, Brubaker organized an arm wrestling competition at San Francisco's Isotope Comics. If participants were able to beat Brubaker at arm wrestling, they were awarded free signed comic books. According to Brubaker, he wrestled around 40–50 people and won most of the time, losing only to eight or nine contestants.[25]
During the series' run, Sleeper also took part in the line-wide crossover "Coup d'Etat", with Brubaker scripting the first issue of the eponymous limited series. "Coup d'Etat" featured a series of events that led the Authority, a powerful team of superhumans in the Wilstorm Universe, to take over the United States. Following the crossover, Brubaker and artist Dustin Nguyen produced the 12-issue The Authority: Revolution series which explored the ramifications of the team's actions,[26] while Sleeper was relaunched with the Season Two subtitle under the first volume's creative team.[27]
Brubaker's last major project at DC was Gotham Central, co-created by Brubaker, writer Greg Rucka and artist Michael Lark. The series focused on the activities of the Gotham City Police Department, with writers either co-scripting storylines or alternating between the arcs.[28][29][30] After Brubaker and Lark left the series due to their newly-signed exclusive contracts with Marvel,[31] Rucka decided to discontinue the title, and Gotham Central was cancelled with issue #40 (Apr. 2006).[32]
Brubaker's first work for Marvel was volume five of the Captain America series.[33] Paired with artist Steve Epting, Brubaker introduced new villains and resurrected the long-dead supporting character Bucky Barnes as "the Winter Soldier". The relaunch was a commercial and critical success from its first issue, with its most well-known storyline involving the assassination of Steve Rogers and subsequent passing of the Captain America mantle to Bucky Barnes.[34][35][36] Brubaker wrote Captain America for eight full years, from November 2004 to October 2012, alongside several spin-off titles and associated series based around the character, including the 2009 mini-series Captain America: Reborn, which featured the return of Rogers, the eight-issue The Marvels Project limited series, as well as Secret Avengers, an ongoing series that followed the adventures of the eponymous team formed in the aftermath of the company-wide crossover storyline "Siege".[37]
Brubaker's workload at Marvel increased in 2006. He wrote two limited series, Books of Doom with artist Pablo Raimondi, retelling and expanding on the origin of Doctor Doom, and X-Men: Deadly Genesis with artist Trevor Hairsine, retconning the origins of the All-New, All-Different X-Men team that debuted in 1975. After finishing Deadly Genesis in July 2006, Brubaker became the regular writer of Uncanny X-Men, working with artists Billy Tan and Clayton Henry.[38] In addition to that, he also took over Daredevil, having already planned his run with outgoing writer Brian Michael Bendis.[39] Once again teaming up with his Scene of the Crime and Gotham Central collaborator Michael Lark,[40] Brubaker explored the ramifications of the character's imprisonment which occurred at the close of Bendis' run. Another notable launch of the year was The Immortal Iron Fist, an ongoing series co-written by Brubaker and Matt Fraction which started in November 2006.[41]
Also in 2006, Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips launched their first creator-owned series Criminal, published under Marvel's Icon imprint.[42][43] The title received generally positive reviews[44] and its first arc, "Coward", won the 2007 Eisner Award for Best New Series.[45] In 2008, after two volumes of Criminal, Brubaker and Phillips took a break from the series to launch another Icon title, Incognito, which Brubaker described as being "about a completely amoral guy with super-powers forced to pretend he's a normal law-abiding citizen, because he's in Witness Protection, and how that shapes what he becomes. It's also a brutal noir twist on the super-hero/super-villain genre that delves more into their roots in the pulps, and it's going to be pretty over-the-top and action-packed."[46]
In February 2010, a controversy arose around Captain America #602, which depicted a group of anti-tax protesters, understood by some readers to be a Tea Party, which was characterized by the Falcon as exclusively white and racist group. Brubaker and Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada apologized for the matter, explaining that, although Brubaker did not intend the protesters to represent any particular real-life group, one of the signs depicted in the scene read, "Tea Bag The Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!". The slogan was not in Brubaker's script and was instead added by letterer Joe Caramagna, who, under deadline pressures, used messages from signs he found online at the last minute. Quesada further assured that the error would not appear in future reprints of the issue.[47][48][49] In an interview following the controversy Brubaker stated, "I had to shut down my public email because I started getting death threats from, y'know, peaceful protesters."[50]
Image Comics
In January 2012, Brubaker and Phillips launched Fatale at Image. The series was initially announced as a twelve-issue maxi-series but was upgraded to an ongoing title in November 2012.[51] Jesse Schedeen of IGN stated that "You can't go wrong with a Brubaker/Phillips collaboration. Even so, Fatale is making a strong case for being the best of their projects."[52] In October 2013, Brubaker signed a five-year contract to produce comics exclusively for Image. Under the terms of the deal, Image would publish any comic Brubaker brought to them without having to pitch it. Brubaker stated this arrangement was something he has always wanted.[53] The first series released under this contract was The Fade Out, a Hollywood period piece made with frequent collaborator Sean Phillips.[54]
Brubaker's other projects for Image include Velvet, a spy series illustrated by his Captain America collaborator Steve Epting.[55][56]
Batman (with Scott McDaniel, James Tucker + Stefano Gaudiano (#600) and Sean Phillips (#603); issues #606–607 are co-written by Brubaker and Geoff Johns, 2000–2002) collected as:
Batman by Ed Brubaker Volume 1 (collects #582–586 and 591–597, tpb, 320 pages, 2016, ISBN1-4012-6065-9)
Includes the Batman: Our Worlds at War one-shot (written by Brubaker, art by Stefano Gaudiano, 2001)
Batman by Ed Brubaker Volume 2 (collects #598–607, tpb, 288 pages, 2016, ISBN1-4012-6485-9)
Batman: Bruce Wayne — Murderer? (includes #599–602, tpb, 624 pages, 2014, ISBN1-4012-4683-4)
Coup d'Etat #1 (of 4) (with Jim Lee, Eye of the Storm, 2004) also collected in Coup d'Etat (tpb, 112 pages, 2004, ISBN1-4012-0570-4)
Coup d'Etat: Afterword: "Sleeper Prelude" (with Sean Phillips, co-feature in one-shot, 2004) also collected in Sleeper: Season Two (tpb, 296 pages, 2009, ISBN1-4012-2493-8)
Captain America by Ed Brubaker Omnibus (collects #1–25, Captain America 65th Anniversary Special and Winter Soldier: Winter Kills, hc, 744 pages, 2007, ISBN0-7851-2866-2)
The Death of Captain America Omnibus (collects #26–42, hc, 464 pages, 2009, ISBN0-7851-3806-4)
Captain America Lives! Omnibus (collects #43–50, 600–601, Captain America: Reborn Prelude and #1–6, hc, 560 pages, 2011, ISBN0-7851-4514-1)
The Trial of Captain America Omnibus (includes #602–619, 615.1, Captain America: Reborn — Who Will Wield the Shield? and Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1–4, hc, 928 pages, 2014, ISBN0-7851-9272-7)
Return of the Winter Soldier Omnibus (includes #620–628, Fear Itself: Book of the Skull, Fear Itself #7.1 and Winter Soldier #1–14, hc, 752 pages, 2015, ISBN0-7851-9271-9)
Captain America vol. 6 (with Steve McNiven (#1–5), Alan Davis (#6–10), Patrick Zircher (#11–14), Scot Eaton (#15–18) and Steve Epting (#19); issues #15–18 are co-written by Brubaker and Cullen Bunn, 2011–2012) collected as:
Issues #500–503 are co-written by Brubaker and Matt Fraction.
Daredevil vol. 2 (with Michael Lark, David Aja (#88 and 116), Lee Weeks (#94), Leandro Fernández (Annual), Stefano Gaudiano, Paul Azaceta (#103–106), Clay Mann (#111) and Tonči Zonjić (#115), 2006–2009) collected as:
Annual #1 is co-written by Brubaker and Ande Parks; issues #107–110 are co-written by Brubaker and Greg Rucka.
Daredevil by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark Omnibus Volume 1 (collects #82–105, hc, 608 pages, 2009, ISBN0-7851-3785-8)
Daredevil by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark Omnibus Volume 2 (collects #106–119, 500 and Annual #1, hc, 472 pages, 2010, ISBN0-7851-4520-6)
"Men of a Certain Deadly Persuasion" (with Howard Chaykin, Dan Brereton and Jelena Kevic-Djurdjević, in Annual, 2007)
"The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven" (with David Aja, Roy Martinez, Scott Koblish, Kano, Javier Pulido, Tonči Zonjić and Clay Mann, in #8–14, 2007–2008)
"The Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay" (with Travel Foreman, Leandro Fernández and Khari Evans, in #7, 2007)
Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death (with Russ Heath, Mitch Breitweiser, Nick Dragotta and Lewis LaRosa, one-shot, 2008)
The Origin of Danny Rand (with Kano, two-page framing sequence for a reprint of Marvel Premiere #15–16, one-shot, 2008)
"The Story of the Iron Fist Bei Bang-Wen (1827–1860)" (with Khari Evans, in #15, 2008)
"Happy Birthday Danny" (with David Aja, in #16, 2008)
Omnibus (collects #1–16, Annual, Civil War: Choosing Sides, Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death and The Origin of Danny Rand, hc, 560 pages, 2009, ISBN0-7851-3819-6)
The Complete Collection Volume 1 (collects #1–16, Annual, Civil War: Choosing Sides, Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death and The Origin of Danny Rand, tpb, 496 pages, 2013, ISBN0-7851-8542-9)
Incognito #1–6 (with Sean Phillips, Icon, 2008–2009) also collected as Incognito (tpb, 176 pages, 2009, ISBN0-7851-3979-6)
Incognito: Bad Influences #1–5 (with Sean Phillips, Icon, 2010–2011) also collected as Incognito: Bad Influences (tpb, 144 pages, 2011, ISBN0-7851-5155-9)
Criminal: The Special Edition (2015) also collected in Criminal: Wrong Place, Wrong Time (tpb, 112 pages, 2016, ISBN1-63215-877-9)
Criminal: Tenth Anniversary Special Edition Magazine (2016) also collected in Criminal: Wrong Place, Wrong Time (tpb, 112 pages, 2016, ISBN1-63215-877-9)
Black Sails (with Sean Phillips, unreleased 3-issue limited series — initially announced in 2004[9][10] but abandoned in favor of Brubaker and Phillips' Criminal)[11]
In addition to this short story, Brubaker provided commentary for the section of Darwyn Cooke's preliminary and promotional art for the Parker series and the section commemorating Cooke.
Friday (with Marcos Martín, drawings, and Muntsa Vicente, colors; digital, Panel Syndicate, 2020–2024). Publisher on-line in English and Spanish, published in print in English, Spanish and Catalan. Collected in print via Image as:
The First Day of Christmas (collects #1–3, tpb, 120 pages, 2021, ISBN1-5343-2058-X)
On a Cold Winter's Night (collects #4–6, tpb, 120 pages, 2022, ISBN1-5343-2459-3)
Christmas Time is Here Again (collects #7–9, tpb, 128 pages, 2024, ISBN1-5343-2459-3)
^Manning, Matthew K.; Dougall, Alastair, ed. (2014). "2000s". Batman: A Visual History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 252. ISBN978-1-4654-2456-3. Ed Brubaker became a regular Batman scribe with this issue, partnering with artist Scott McDaniel.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Cowsill, Alan; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "2000s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 304. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. One of DC's longest running characters got a makeover courtesy of writer Ed Brubaker and artist Darwyn Cooke as Catwoman was relaunched...With Brubaker's tight, noir-like scripting and Darwyn Cooke's stylish artwork, Catwoman's new direction made the character more popular than ever.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "2000s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 325. ISBN978-0-7566-4123-8. When acclaimed writer Ed Brubaker made the switch from DC to Marvel, he brought with him yet another relaunch for Steve Rogers. A critical and financial hit, this new Captain America series featured the art of realistic draftsman Steve Epting.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Manning "2000s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 335: "Surprising an unsuspecting fan base who thought the worst was over for Steve Rogers, Captain America's death captured worldwide media attention."
^Manning "2000s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 331: "Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark had quite a challenge ahead of them when they took over the reins of Daredevil from the popular team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Alex Maleev."
^Manning "2000s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 334: "Ed Brubaker teamed with co-writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja to give Iron Fist another shot at an ongoing title."
