Michelinie grew up in Louisville, Kentucky,[5] and worked at a commercial film production company before moving to New York to take part in an apprenticeship program started by DC Comics.[6]
Some of Michelinie's earliest work appears in DC Comics' House of Secrets and a run on Swamp Thing (#14–18 and #21–22), the latter illustrated by Nestor Redondo.[7] Michelinie and artist Ernie Chan created Claw the Unconquered in 1975.[8] Michelinie did a run on Aquaman in Adventure Comics which led to the revival of the Sea King's own title in 1977.[9] In the Aquaman story in Adventure Comics #452, Black Manta killed Aquaman's son Arthur Curry Jr. by suffocation. The infant's death has affected the character ever since. While writing the Karate Kid series, Michelinie used the name "Barry Jameson" as a pseudonym.[10] With artist Ed Davis, he created Gravedigger in Men of War #1 (Aug. 1977).[11] The Star Hunters were created by Michelinie with editor Joe Orlando and artist Don Newton,[12] debuted in DC Super Stars #16 (Sept.–Oct. 1977), and featured in their own short-lived series.[7] The original storyline for Madame Xanadu in Doorway to Nightmare #1 (Feb. 1978) was developed by Michelinie and Val Mayerik.[13]
Marvel Comics
Among Michelinie's best-known work are his two runs on Iron Man with co-plotter/inker Bob Layton,[14] in the late 1970s and early 1980s which introduced the character's alcoholism and his specialized power armor variants. He introduced two of Stark's closest comrades, Bethany Cabe[15] and Jim Rhodes[16] as well as new enmities with Justin Hammer[17] and Doctor Doom. His most noted cliffhanger was when Tony Stark is thrown out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier and has to don his armor completely to use its flight function before he hits the ground. After leaving the title in 1981, Michelinie reunited with Layton on the book late in 1986, and along with pencillerM. D. Bright, closed out preceding writer Dennis O'Neil's Advanced Idea Mechanics arc and launched the "Armor Wars"; during this time he and Layton introduced the Ghost.[18] Michelinie said that he had thought he would never return to Iron Man, feeling that by the end of his run he and Bob Layton had done everything they set out to do with the series, but when the editor offered him the assignment, he agreed to do it after thinking about it overnight.[19] Michelinie left Iron Man again after issue #250, closing his second collaboration with Layton with a sequel to their Iron Man-Doctor Doom time travel episode from issues #149–150.[20]
Michelinie was one of the writers of The Avengers from 1978 to 1982 and worked with artists John Byrne and George Pérez.[7] During this time he and Byrne created Scott Lang in The Avengers #181 (March 1979),[21] and he created the Taskmaster with Pérez in The Avengers #195 (May 1980).[22]
From 1987 to 1994, Michelinie wrote The Amazing Spider-Man series, which featured the art of Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, and Mark Bagley, while introducing the supervillainsVenom in issue #298 (March 1988)[23] and Carnage in #361 (April 1992).[24] Michelinie had planned to introduce Venom earlier and included a "teaser" scene in Web of Spider-Man #18, in which Peter Parker is pushed by an offscreen Venom into the path of an oncoming train, the symbiote being unsusceptible to Spider-Man's "spider sense" that would have normally warned him of the attack. This was the first of what was to be several clues leading to the reveal of Venom. Michelinie left Web of Spider-Man shortly after and was not able to continue the introduction of Venom until his time writing The Amazing Spider-Man.[25]
Behind Stan Lee, Michelinie had the second longest run on The Amazing Spider-Man as a writer.
He also wrote the limited series Venom: Lethal Protector in 1993, where Venom was the main character and acted as an antihero instead of villain for the first time.
After a hiatus Michelinie returned to comics by teaming-up with Bob Layton and Dick Giordano to form Future Comics, where he wrote the series Freemind, Metallix and Deathmask from 2002 to 2003.[32][33] The company closed in 2004.
Later career
In 2007, Michelinie wrote Kolchak Tales: The Frankenstein Agenda #1–3 for Moonstone Books.[34] Also for Moonstone, he wrote several prose short stories which appeared in the anthologies The PhantomChronicles (2007), Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising (2007) and The Avenger: The Justice Inc. Files (2011).
In 2008, he and Layton collaborated again on a four-issue Iron Man: Legacy of Doom miniseries and in 2009 on the one-shot Iron Man: The End for Marvel Comics.[35] It was followed by the one-shot What If? Iron Man: Demon in an Armor in 2011 and a four-issue-follow-up on the "Armor Wars" storyline published as Iron Man #258.1–258.4 in 2013. He returned to his creation Venom with stories for Venom #150 (2017), Venom Annual #1 (2018) and Venom vol. 4 #25 (2020), all penciled by Ron Lim,[36] who had also worked on Venom: Lethal Protector. After the success of the two Venom films, in 2021 Marvel commissioned Michelinie to write a new five-issue-miniseries: Venom: Lethal Protector vol. 2, with art by Ivan Fiorelli, that was published in 2023.[37] It was followed by Venom: Separation Anxiety, another limited series, drawn by Gerardo Sandoval in 2024.[38]
Screenwriting
As screenwriter, Michelinie worked on two episodes of the animated series Iron Man: Armored Adventures (with Bob Layton as co-writer) and wrote the short films Hellevator (2011) and Nobody's Tomorrow (2018).[39]
^McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 163. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. David Michelinie's pen and Ernie Chan's pencils and inks provided the magic for this fantasy series that introduced Claw the Unconquered, a barbaric outlander with a deformed claw-like right hand.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 175: "The Sea King's fans were thrilled to see their hero resurface in his own title...Scribe David Michelinie and artist Jim Aparo chronicled Aquaman's [adventures]."
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 174: "Writer David Michelinie and artist Ed Davis presented an atypical war hero in Ulysses Hazard."
^DiFruscio, Mark (June 2009). "Star Crossed: Remembering DC's Star Hunters". Back Issue! (34). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 60–67.
^McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 176: "Writer David Michelinie and artist Val Mayerik introduced Madame Xanadu."
^Sanderson, Peter; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "1970s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 187. ISBN978-0756641238. Writer David Michelinie and inker Bob Layton began their classic run co-plotting The Invincible Iron Man with issue #116.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 187: "In December [1978], co-plotters David Michelinie and Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita, Jr....came up with Bethany Cabe, a highly capable professional bodyguard and a different sort of leading lady."
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 188: "Writer David Michelinie and artists John Byrne and Bob Layton introduced James Rhodes Tony Stark's best friend and future super hero War Machine in The Invincible Iron Man #118."
^Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 189: "Tony Stark's billionaire nemesis Justin Hammer made his first appearance in The Invincible Iron Man #120 by writer David Michelinie and artist John Romita, Jr. and Bob Layton."
^DeFalco, Tom "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 233: "Although actually called 'Stark Wars', the story arc that became known as 'Armor Wars began in [Iron Man #225] and ran until June 1988."
^Van Hise, James (January 1987). "With Armor and Shield". Comics Feature. No. 51. Movieland Publishing. p. 33.
^DeFalco "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 197: "Created by writer David Michelinie and artist George Pérez, Taskmaster could mimic any physical skill he had ever seen."
^Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2012). "1980s". Spider-Man Chronicle Celebrating 50 Years of Web-Slinging. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 169. ISBN978-0756692360. In this landmark installment [issue #298], one of the most popular characters in the wall-crawler's history would begin to step into the spotlight courtesy of one of the most popular artists to ever draw the web-slinger."{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Cowsill, Alan "1990s" in Gilbert (2012), p. 197: "Artist Mark Bagley's era of The Amazing Spider-Man hit its stride as Carnage revealed the true face of his evil. Carnage was a symbiotic offspring produced when Venom bonded to psychopath Cletus Kasady."
^Manning, Matthew K. "1990s" in Dolan, p. 259: "Writer David Michelinie and artist Sal Velluto introduced a different type of Justice League in their new ongoing series ''Justice League Task Force."
^Manning "1980s" in Gilbert (2012), p. 164: "Plotted by Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter and written by David Michelinie with pencils by Paul Ryan, this issue wasn't the standard wedding comic fare."
^Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 275: " The behind-the-scenes talent on the monumental issue appropriately spanned several generations of the Man of Tomorrow's career. Written by Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, David Michelinie, Louise Simonson, and Roger Stern, the one-shot featured the pencils of John Byrne, Gil Kane, Stuart Immonen, Paul Ryan, Jon Bogdanove, Kieron Dwyer, Tom Grummett, Dick Giordano, Jim Mooney, Curt Swan, Nick Cardy, Al Plastino, Barry Kitson, Ron Frenz, and Dan Jurgens."
