Gerry Conway

Today, Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers is one of the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe, one of the company's most powerful and popular characters. She's the star of her own best-selling series, she's a high-profile member of The Avengers and The Ultimates, her visage adorns merchandise from apparel to action figures, and she's a major part of the "Phase Three" expansion of Marvel's movie universe. But it hasn't always been like this. Since she made her first appearance in a supporting role to a second-string hero on December 12, 1967, Carol Danvers has walked, flown, and fought her way along a twisting and often-confusing path.

Doctor Strange is a second-tier character in the Marvel pantheon, but he's making the leap to the big leagues thanks to the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. To help get you up to speed with the character, we've compiled a list of ten of the best Doctor Strange stories ever published. These are the stories that will introduce you to his major foes and his main supporting cast, and get you acquainted with all the many great talents that have worked on the character over the years.

On October 30th 1973, Marvel Comics published The Amazing Spider-Man #129, and introduced readers to Frank Castle, The Punisher. Although originally portrayed as an antagonist, The Punisher proved a breakout character for the publisher like few others, and helped launch the enduring popularity of anti-heroes in superhero comics.

The spooky season marches on, and I've been looking for comic book monsters to build movies around. And of course my favorite Marvel monster (at least of the superheroic variety) is Hank McCoy, the Beast. So today I'm imagining a movie based on his solo run in Amazing Adventures back in the early '70s, which was written by Gerry Conway and Steve Englehart, with art by Tom Sutton. This is the story in which he goes from a bouncy human-looking guy with big hands and feet to an actual furry monster.

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1 offers something for those of us who miss the days of Spidey's marriage to Mary Jane, and also anyone who wants to read Gerry Conway's Spider-Man again. Conway is joined by artist Ryan Stegman for a series set on a world where One More Day never happened, and the Parkers have a young daughter named Annie.

I think we can all agree that the single biggest piece of news in comics right now is the shocking return of Colonel Blimp in the pages of Tom King and Ivan Reis's Batman #6, in stores now. But just who is Colonel Blimp? Well, if you read that issue, you already know that he's got a blimp and steals submarines, and really, that's kind of all there is to it.

On this day in 1966, Peter Parker was confronted with the eight iconic words that would change his life forever, as Stan Lee and John Romita finally introduced Mary Jane Watson as a supporting character in The Amazing Spider-Man. Whether it’s as wife, confidante, or a take no prisoners model/actress/nightclub owner, Mary Jane has been one of the most enduring and important supporting characters in comics for half a century.

Marvel’s reveal of its Marvel NOW line of comics set for release in the wake of Civil War II has taken the form of a steady drip of announcements over the past week and a half, but now news is flooding in, and not all from official sources. Leaked scans of this week's Marvel NOW Previews magazine revealing the publisher's line-up for October and beyond have hit the internet via sites such as Reddit and 4chan. We’ve rounded up all the information we could find to give you a sense of the new landscape of the Marvel Universe this fall.

Decades after its release on March 13 1973, The Amazing Spider-Man #121 by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, John Romita and Tony Mortellaro remains one of the most affecting, heartbreaking superhero comics to see publication. What starts off as a traditional superhero versus supervillain battle over the fate of the hero’s love interest takes a tragic turn when Gwen Stacy dies despite the hero's best efforts to save her --- and in that moment, superhero comics grew up in a major way.

At 19 years old, Gerry Conway --- born this day in 1952 --- took over writing duties on The Amazing Spider-Man. If that wasn't enough pressure for a kid, know that he took over from Stan Lee, who co-created the character and wrote over a hundred issues. Within a year of taking over on the book, Conway wrote the death of Gwen Stacy, one of the major turning points in the history of superhero comics. If you were looking for the most auspicious start to a writing career, you'd have a hard time finding a bigger and better one than that. What's amazing is that Conway managed to live up to the standard he set for himself, carving out one of the most influential careers in comics history.