Matt Fraction
Matt Fritchman, better known by the pen name Matt Fraction, is an American comic book writer, known for his work as the writer of The Invincible Iron Man, FF, The Immortal Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men, and Hawkeye for Marvel Comics; Casanova and Sex Criminals for Image Comics; and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen and Batman for DC Comics.
Early life
Matt Fraction was born on December 1, 1975, in Chicago Heights, Illinois. As a child, he developed an affinity for telling stories, and he enjoyed reading comic books and strips. The first comic he remembers buying was Batman #316, and he liked newspaper comics Peanuts and Doonesbury. He became a regular weekly comic-book reader around the time that the 1985–86 DC Comics storyline "Crisis on Infinite Earths" ended, but he found that storyline bizarre and impenetrable and gravitated toward Marvel Comics instead. Spider-Man became his favorite character, and he read other Marvel publications such as Star Wars and G.I. Joe.In the late 1990s Fraction worked as an employee at the Charlotte, North Carolina–based comics retailer Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, and participated in the Warren Ellis Forum under the username "Matt Fraction".
Career
Fraction started in the comics industry by working for smaller publishers including AiT/Planet Lar and IDW Publishing, many of which employed people that he had met on the Warren Ellis Forum; as such, he continued using the "Fraction" name as it was the one under which he had built a reputation. He became known early in his career for his creator-owned work on The Five Fists of Science and Casanova, before taking on a number of assignments for Marvel Comics.Fraction wrote two columns for Comic Book Resources: "Poplife" and "The Basement Tapes", the latter with Joe Casey.
Fraction teamed with Ed Brubaker for a run on Marvel's The Immortal Iron Fist. The pair re-teamed on Uncanny X-Men for a short time, after which Fraction wrote the series solo until leaving it in 2011.
He wrote The Mighty Thor and The Invincible Iron Man, the latter of which led to his consulting work on the set of the film Iron Man 2 and writing the Iron Man 2 video game that tied into that film sequel.
In 2011, Fraction wrote the Fear Itself limited series, which was the central part of the crossover storyline of the same name. In December 2011, he revived the series The Defenders with artist Terry Dodson and, in August 2012, he started a new Hawkeye series with David Aja.
As part of Marvel NOW!, Fantastic Four was relaunched in November 2012 with the creative team of Fraction and artist Mark Bagley. Its spinoff series FF was produced by Fraction and artist Mike Allred. Fraction left both series due to other work commitments.
In February 2013, he was named on IGN's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", which described him as "the premier comics Twitter personality."
In 2013, Fraction and Chip Zdarsky co-created the Sex Criminals series for Image Comics. He and illustrator Christian Ward created the ODY-C series in 2014, a science-fiction retelling of the Odyssey with the characters' genders changed to female.
In 2015, Fraction and Fabio Moon returned to Casanova with a new eight-issue mini-series, Acedia. The series featured backup stories written by Michael Chabon with art by Casanova co-creator Gabriel Bá. Also in 2015, Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick's company, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, signed a two-year deal with Universal Television to adapt some of their comic books, as well as original TV series concepts. They also planned to use Milkfed Criminal Masterminds as a TV launchpad for other comic creators' properties.
In 2018, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds signed another two-year overall deal, this time with Legendary TV to adapt several of their creator-owned comics, as well as produce exclusive, original projects developed by the duo for television across traditional and non-traditional platforms.
In 2019, Fraction and Elsa Charretier co-created the graphic novella crime series, November, for Image Comics. Meanwhile, Fraction wrote his first series for DC Comics, the twelve-issue series Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen which was drawn by Steve Lieber.
In 2020, Sex Criminals concluded with issue #69, volumes 2 and 3 of November were released, and Adventureman, the long-anticipated series from Fraction and Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson began releasing from Image Comics, and his and Lieber's run on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen concluded, with a collected trade paperback entitled Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? being released in October.
Fraction served as a consultant for the Hawkeye television miniseries, which was heavily inspired by his 2012 comic run. He also planned to make a cameo appearance as a member of the Tracksuit Mafia, but was unable to commit to this, due to complications stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2022, Fraction has been working on the Apple TV+ show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, on which he is a co-creator with Chris Black. The series debuted in November 2023 and Fraction wrote episode 9, "Axis Mundi".
In February 2025, it was announced that Fraction would pen the relaunch of Batman in September that same year, with Jorge Jimenez providing the artwork.
In April 2025, it was announced Fraction would be writing a tie-in comic for the MCU film The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The comic, set to be an in-universe comic published by the Future Foundation with the "first-ever authorized retelling of the Fantastic Four's early adventures", will be illustrated by Mark Buckingham with cover art by Phil Noto and set for release July 2 that same year.
Personal life
Fraction is married to Kelly Sue DeConnick, a comic book writer and adapter of manga into English, whom he met when they were both participants on the Warren Ellis Forum. They have two children, Henry and Tallulah.Awards
- 2008 Eagle Award for Favourite Newcomer Writer
- 2009 Eisner Award for "Best New Series" for The Invincible Iron Man
- 2010 PEN Center USA Literary Award for "Outstanding Body of Work"
- 2014 Harvey Award
- * "Best Single Issue or Story" for Hawkeye #11, "Pizza Is My Business".
- * "Best New Series" for Sex Criminals.
- 2014 Eisner Award
- * "Best Single Issue " for Hawkeye #11, "Pizza Is My Business".
- * "Best New Series" for Sex Criminals.
- 2016 Inkpot Award
Nominations
- 2008 Eisner Award
- * Best Single Issue for The Sensational Spider-Man Annual.
- * Eisner Award for Best New Series for The Immortal Iron Fist
- 2013 Harvey Award
- * Best Writer for Hawkeye
- * Best New Series for Hawkeye
- * Best Continuing or Limited Series for Hawkeye
- * Best Single Issue or Story for Hawkeye #1, "Lucky"
- 2013 Eisner Award
- * Best Continuing Series for Hawkeye
- * Best Writer for Hawkeye and Casanova: Avarita
- 2014 Harvey Award
- * Best Writer for Hawkeye
- * Best Continuing or Limited Series for Hawkeye
- 2014 Eisner Award
- * Best Continuing Series for Hawkeye
- * Best Continuing Series for Sex Criminals
- * Best Writer for Sex Criminals, Hawkeye, Fantastic Four, and FF
- 2014 Angoulême Sélection Officielle for ''Hawkeye, Vol 1''
Early work
- Double Take #6–8: "Rex Mantooth" collected as The Annotated Mantooth!
- Last of the Independents
- IDW Publishing:
- *30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales #1–8: "Juarez, or Lex Nova and the Case of the 400 Dead Mexican Girls"
- ** Collected, along with the leading feature, in 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales
- ** Collected in a separate volume as 30 Days of Night: Juarez
- *Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty #0
- ** Collected in Metal Gear Solid Omnibus
- ** Collected in ''Metal Gear Solid: Deluxe Edition''
Image Comics
- Four Letter Worlds: "Fate"
- 24Seven Volume 1: "Static"
- The Five Fists of Science
- Casanova :
- *Casanova #1–14
- ** Issues #1–7 are collected as Album 1: Luxuria
- ** A colorized and relettered version of these fourteen issues was published as two 4-issue limited series under Marvel's Icon imprint.
- *Casanova: Acedia collected as:
- ** Volume 1
- ** Volume 2
- Sex Criminals collected as:
- *Big Hard Sex Criminals Volume 1
- *Big Hard Sex Criminals Volume 2
- *Big Hard Sex Criminals Volume 3
- ** Includes Sex Criminals: Sexual Gary Special
- Satellite Sam collected as Satellite Sam
- ODY-C #1–12 collected as ODY-C: Cycle One
- Solid State
- Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #5: "Everyone's Grandma is a Little Bit Feminist" collected in Bitch Planet: Triple Feature
- November :
- *Volume 1
- *Volume 2
- *Volume 3
- *Volume 4
- Adventureman collected as:
- *The End and Everything After
- *A Fairy Tale of New York
- The Old Guard: Tales Through Time #4: "How to Make a Ghost Town" collected in ''The Old Guard: Tales Through Time''
Marvel Comics
- X-Men:
- *X-Men Unlimited vol. 2 #9: "Dead Man Walking" collected in Astonishing X-Men Companion
- *Uncanny X-Men, Whilce Portacio, Phil Jimenez, Leonard Kirk and Harvey Tolibao collected as:
- ** Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction: The Complete Collection Volume 1
- *** Includes the "Migas" short story from X-Men: Divided We Stand #1
- *** Issues #500–503 are co-written by Fraction and Ed Brubaker.
- ** Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction: The Complete Collection Volume 2
- *** Includes the "How I Survived Apocalyptic Fire" short story from Dark Reign: The Cabal
- *** Includes the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia one-shot
- *** Includes Dark Avengers #7–8 as part of Utopia inter-title crossover.
- *** Includes the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus one-shot
- *** Includes the Dark Reign: The List—X-Men one-shot
- ** Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction: The Complete Collection Volume 3
- *** Includes the Uncanny X-Men: The Heroic Age one-shot
- *** Issues #531–534 are co-written by Fraction and Kieron Gillen.
- ** X-Men: Second Coming
- *** Includes Fraction's chapter of the epilogue from X-Men: Second Coming #2
- The Immortal Iron Fist :
- *The Last Iron Fist Story collects:
- ** Civil War: Choosing Sides: "The Immortal Iron Fist"
- ** "The Last Iron Fist Story"
- *The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven collects:
- ** "Men of a Certain Deadly Persuasion"
- ** "The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven"
- *The Book of Iron Fist collects:
- ** "The Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay"
- ** Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death
- ** The Origin of Danny Rand
- ** "The Story of the Iron Fist Bei Bang-Wen "
- ** "Happy Birthday Danny"
- *Omnibus
- *The Complete Collection Volume 1
- Punisher War Journal vol. 2, Leandro Fernández, Cory Walker, Scott Wegener, Howard Chaykin and Andy MacDonald collected as:
- * Issues #19–25 are co-written by Fraction and Rick Remender.
- ** Civil War
- ** Goin' Out West
- ** Hunter/Hunted
- ** Jigsaw
- ** Secret Invasion
- Spider-Man:
- *The Sensational Spider-Man vol. 2 Annual: "To Have and to Hold" collected in Peter Parker, Spider-Man: Back in Black
- *The Amazing Spider-Man: Presidents' Day Celebration collected in The Amazing Spider-Man: Election Day
- The Order and Javier Saltares collected as:
- *The Next Right Thing
- *California Dreaming
- The Invincible Iron Man, Kano + Nathan Fox + Carmine Di Giandomenico and Howard Chaykin collected as:
- *The Five Nightmares
- *World's Most Wanted Volume 1
- *World's Most Wanted Volume 2
- *Stark Disassembled
- *Stark Resilient Volume 1
- *Stark Resilient Volume 2
- *My Monsters
- *Unfixable
- ** Includes the Free Comic Book Day 2010: Iron Man/Thor special
- *Fear Itself
- *Demon
- *Long Way Down
- *The Future
- Thor:
- *Thor: Ages of Thunder collects:
- ** Thor: Ages of Thunder
- ** Thor: Reign of Blood
- ** Thor: Man of War
- ** Thor God-Sized Special
- *Secret Invasion: Thor #1–3 collected as Secret Invasion: Thor
- *Thor #615–621 collected as Thor: The World Eaters
- *The Mighty Thor, Barry Kitson, Alan Davis collected as:
- ** Volume 1
- ** Volume 2
- ** Volume 3
- ** The Mighty Thor/Journey into Mystery: Everything Burns
- *** Issues #18–21 are co-written by Fraction and Kieron Gillen.
- Captain America: Who Won't Wield the Shield?: "Doctor America" collected in Secret Wars Too
- Casanova and Gula #4 :
- *Casanova: Luxuria #1–4 collected as Casanova: Luxuria
- *Casanova: Gula #1–4 collected as Casanova: Gula
- *Casanova: Avaritia #1–4 collected as Casanova: Avaritia
- Fear Itself #1–7 collected as Fear Itself
- Shattered Heroes :
- *Battle Scars collected as Battle Scars
- *Fear Itself: The Fearless #1–12 collected as Fear Itself: The Fearless
- The Defenders vol. 4, Mitch Breiweiser, Víctor Ibáñez, Jamie McKelvie and Mirco Pierfederici collected as:
- *Volume 1
- ** Includes the "Shaman of Greenwich Village" short story from Marvel Point One
- *Volume 2
- Avengers vs. X-Men includes:
- * "Chapter Five"
- * "Chapter Seven"
- * AvX: VS #5: "Hawkeye vs. Angel" also collected in Avengers vs. X-Men: VS
- Hawkeye vol. 4, Steve Lieber + Jesse Hamm, Annie Wu and Francesco Francavilla collected as:
- *Volume 1
- ** Includes Young Avengers Presents #6
- *Volume 2
- *Omnibus
- Fantastic Four:
- *Fantastic Four vol. 4 collected as:
- ** New Departure, New Arrivals
- *** Includes the Ant-Man short story from Marvel NOW! Point One
- ** Road Trip
- ** Doomed
- *** Issues #11–12 are co-written by Fraction and Christopher Sebela.
- *** Issues #13–16 are scripted by Karl Kesel from Fraction's plots.
- *FF vol. 2 collected as:
- ** Fantastic Faux
- ** Family Freakout
- *** Issues #12–16 are scripted by Lee Allred from Fraction's plots.
- * Both series along with the short story from the Marvel NOW! Point One one-shot are collected into a single volume as Fantastic Four by Matt Fraction Omnibus
- Inhumanity #1–2 collected in Inhumanity
- * Following these issues, Fraction was supposed to launch an ongoing Inhuman series with artist Joe Madureira but due to "creative differences" the title was handed over to Charles Soule.
Other publishers
- For God and Country: An Illustrated Account of the Raid on Osama bin Laden
- Dark Horse Presents vol. 2 #25: "The Time Ben Fell in Love"
- Spitball: A CCAD Comics Anthology #1: "Three Stories"
- DC Comics:
- *Superman: The Truth Revealed includes:
- ** Superman: Heroes
- ** Superman: Villains
- *Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? collects:
- ** Superman: Leviathan Rising: "One Wild Night in Gorilla City"
- ** Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen vol. 2 #1–12
- *Detective Comics #1027: "Many Happy Returns"
- *Batman vol.4 #1−present: