Len Wein = A Class Act (Rest In Peace & God Bless)

[topdog1]

We lost a great one today... Wolverine and Swamp Thing Co-Creator Len Wein Has Passed Away.

God Bless him and his loved ones. Every interview I ever saw or read of his he came across as truly humble and a true class act. A "fan's fan" and a genuinely good guy. Rest in Peace and Soar With The Angels!

Wein's first professional comics story was "Eye of the Beholder" in 1968's Teen Titans #18. Wein co-wrote the story with soon-to-be-Titans legend Marv Wolfman, and co-created the male Starfire, later known as Red Star and the son of Constantin Kovar, who appeared on Arrow last season.

Creating characters was something that Wein would do a lot throughout his long comics career. He is best known for two original creations of his that have forever altered the landscape of superhero comics, both of which have had successful screen adaptations: Wolverine was just portrayed in Logan, one of the most critically-acclaimed superhero movies ever made, wrapping a solo trilogy following three X-Men films where he was the de facto main character. The other is Swamp Thing, originally created for DC’s anthology title House of Secrets; Swamp Thing was a key property in the evolution and exposure of Watchmen co-creator Alan Moore as a mainstream, American superhero writer.

In the 1970s, Wein wrote regularly for Marvel Comics, beginning with a one-and-done story in Daredevil #71 co-written with writer/editor Roy Thomas.

Wein would eventually succeed Roy Thomas as editor-in-chief of Marvel's comics line in 1974, but turned the job over to Wolfman a little over a year later and return to writing, with runs on Marvel Team-Up, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor and Fantastic Four.

Wein and artist Dave Cockrum revived the X-Men in 1975, creating an army of new characters to populate the book, including Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and Thunderbird; this is when Wolverine, created earlier by Wein with artists John Romita Sr. and Herb Trimpe, joined the team. Wein and Cockrum plotted out the next few issues, essentially priming the pump for writer Chris Claremont, who scripted the issues and began a legendary run on the title.

After Wein's relationship with Marvel management soured in the late '70s, Wein went to DC as a writer and eventually editor. He wrote long runs on Batman and Green Lantern, where he first collaborated with Watchmen's Dave Gibbons. He also worked with John Ostrander to co-write the Legends event miniseries, where the modern-era Suicide Squad was introduced.

Besides Watchmen, Wein worked Camelot 3000, The New Teen Titans, Batman and the Outsiders, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and All-Star Squadron as an editor.

Following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wein wrote the Ted Kord Blue Beetle series, as well as providing scripts for the start of George Perez's groundbreaking reinvention of Wonder Woman.

After leaving DC, Wein was editor-in-chief of Disney Comics for three years in the early 1990s.

Next, he headed to TV, serving as a writer and story editor on X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man, Street Fighter, and more. In 2001, he and Wolfman wrote the screenplay "Gene Pool" for the production company Helkon, and later adapted it for a one-shot comic book for IDW Publishing. In 2005 and 2006, Wein appeared frequently as a panelist on the Los Angeles theatre version of the TV game show What's My Line?.

In the latter part of his comics career, Wein and Wolfman wrote a one-shot titled Gene Pool for IDW, based on an unproduced screenplay the two had developed; he also worked on Conan: The Book of Thoth, The Victorian, The Simpsons, Futurama, and most recently a return to Swamp Thing and a run on Metal Men in the Legends of Tomorrow miniseries.

In recent months, Wein has undergone a number of surgeries, with the final tweet on his official account indicating that he came through surgery, "which went very well," on September 7.

Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

One of the true, true greats. A great talent who made huge contributions to the CB world. I posted on the general RIP Celeb thread but I'm glad to see he's got his own thread here too. He deserves it.

RIP Mr Wein and thank you for those many hours of CB enjoyment.

 

[fancyarcher]

Really enjoy Lein’s runs on Blue Beetle & Green Lantern (he brought Jordan back to earth at the time). Plus his X-Men issues aren’t bad either, and he just a wrote a recent Swamp Thing story too, which makes all the more tragic. What a loss for the comic industry. RIP!

 

[Gabe99]

NERDIST COMICS PANEL #117: REMEMBERING LEN WEIN

Len Wein was the creator of dozens of characters, the writer of hundreds of comics, and the editor of even more. He was also our friend. In the wake of Len’s passing this past Sunday, Ben Blacker, Adam Beechen, and Heath Corson return to the studio where they spent so many hours listening to Len’s stories and talking comics to reminisce about what Len meant to comics and to them personally.

NERDIST COMICS PANEL #49: WOLVERINE: THE MOST DANGEROUS MUTANT PANEL WITH CHRIS CLAREMONT AND LEN WEIN

Chris Claremont! Len Wein! They’re two of the best there is at what they do… and what they do makes for a great Wolverine podcast from the 2014 Phoenix Comicon! They join Marc Bernardin (The Authority), Heath Corson (Batman: Assault on Arkham), and Adam Beechen (Batman Beyond) to discuss the character’s origins, how Wolverine squeezed Colossus out of the spotlight, and how he took over the comics world. Don’t miss it, bub!

Recorded at the Phoenix ComicCon on June 7, 2014.

NERDIST COMICS PANEL #58: CHRIS CLAREMONT

Len Wein (Wolverine), Marc Bernardin (Genius), Heath Corson (Justice League: Throne of Atlantis), and Adam Beechen (Hench) probe the mind and imagination of X-genius Chris Claremont (The Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past). Recorded at the Phoenix ComicCon on June 7, 2014.