Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer is a comic book writer and former politician best known for his Image series Morning Glories, his collaborations with artist Steve Lieber on the comedic series Superior Foes of Spider-Man and The Fix, a three-year run on Marvel's The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as his controversial Captain America storyline that began with Captain America: Sam Wilson, continued with Captain America: Steve Rogers, and culminated in the 2017 company-wide crossover "Secret Empire". While in college, Spencer wrote three pitches to Marvel soon after the launch of the Marvel Knights imprint in 1998. According to Spencer, "Joe [Quesada] didn’t like the first two but the third one was a Black Cat pitch that was a Jackie Brown kind of Tarantino-esque thing. He said he liked that one but they weren’t going to do anything with anybody new at the time." After another pitch was rejected, this time by Oni Press, Spencer went on to work in politics, running twice for the Cincinnati City Council as a candidate of the progressive Charter Party and working for a Democratic politician. After Spencer moved to New York City, he successfully pitched a series to Jim Valentino at Image Comics. The first issue of Existence 2.0 was released in July 2009 under Valentino's Shadowline imprint, while its follow-up, titled Existence 3.0, launched in November. In January 2010, Newsarama named Spencer one of ten creators to watch for the coming year. Two months later, Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to Existence 2.0, to be developed through Platinum Dunes with Miles Millar and Alfred Gough as executive producers. Meanwhile, Spencer followed up on the Existence duology with three new titles launched in 2010: Forgetless, Shuddertown and his first ongoing series Morning Glories. In September 2010, Spencer made his Big Two debut with a Jimmy Olsen serial that ran in Action Comics and featured the comic book debut of the character Chloe Sullivan from the TV series Smallville. In 2011, he wrote the modern revamp of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and was announced as the new writer of the Supergirl ongoing series, although he was taken off the title shortly thereafter. At the 2011 Emerald City Comic Con, it was announced that Spencer had signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, one that would allow him to continue writing his existing titles at both DC and Image. Spencer's first work for Marvel was the Iron Man 2.0 ongoing series which debuted in February 2011. That same year, he wrote a short arc tying the Secret Avengers series into the company-wide crossover storyline "Fear Itself" and was one of three writers that worked on the relaunch of the Ultimate Marvel line, along with Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis, writing Ultimate Comics: X-Men. In 2016, Spencer became the writer of the Captain America: Steve Rogers ongoing series, in which Captain America was replaced by a version of himself loyal to the villainous organization Hydra. The storyline culminated in the company-wide crossover "Secret Empire", with Spencer writing the eponymous mini-series that acted as the centerpiece. In March 2018, it was announced that Spencer would be writing a relaunch of The Amazing Spider-Man series set to debut that year, replacing long-time writer Dan Slott, as part of the Fresh Start relaunch that July. Spencer's run concluded in 2021, with issue #74. In June 2021, it was announced that Spencer was working in an undisclosed leading capacity for Substack's new comics publishing initiative. The following month, it was reported that Spencer led a group of creators, which included Scott Snyder, Jonathan Hickman, Saladin Ahmed, Molly Ostertag, James Tynion IV, that formed a deal with Substack to publish creator-owned comics stories, essays, and instructional guides on that platform.