Jason Aaron (born January 28, 1973) is an American comic book writer, known for his creator-owned series Scalped and Southern Bastards; his work on Marvel series Ghost Rider, Wolverine, PunisherMAX, Thor and The Avengers; as well as his work for DC Comics on Absolute Superman. In 2019 he wrote the eponymous central miniseries of the Marvel company-wide crossover storyline "The War of the Realms". As part of his Marvel work, he co-created the character Gorr the God Butcher and introduced the concept of Jane Foster becoming Thor in the main Marvel Universe.
The film Thor: Love and Thunder was based on and influenced by his work on Thor.
Early life Jason Aaron was born in Jasper, Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers (1979), on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket (1987) was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase comic books from spinner racks, some of which he still owned as of 2012.
Aaron graduated from Shelby County High School. He then attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
Career
Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors. In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC Comics's imprint Vertigo, which became his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side. The Other Side was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and Aaron regards it as the "second time" he broke into the industry. Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to Scalped, a creator-owned series with artist R. M. Guéra set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation.
In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. In July of that year, he wrote the Penguin issue of Joker's Asylum.
After a four-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre." In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with the relaunch of The Incredible Hulk in 2011 and Thor: God of Thunder in 2012. Aaron and artist Mike Deodato collaborated on the Original Sin limited series in 2014. In 2018, Aaron relaunched Thor with Mike del Mundo and The Avengers with Ed McGuinness. In addition to his work on Marvel characters, Aaron wrote a year-long run on the Conan the Barbarian series after Marvel regained the licensing rights to the character in 2019.
At the 2019 San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that Aaron's Thor storyline which depicted Jane Foster acquiring the mantle of the Thunder God would be the basis for the 2022 film Thor: Love and Thunder.
In 2022, Aaron would write a new creator-owned book at Boom! Studios entitled Once Upon a Time at the End of the World. The 15 issue series began publication in November that same year with three artists, Alexandre Tefenkgi, Leila del Duca, and Nick Dragotta, being employed every 5 issues to highlight the passage of time.
In March 2023, Aaron announced that he was no longer under exclusive contract with Marvel. In August 2023, it was announced that Aaron would be writing a project for DC called Batman: Off-World, a six-issue limited series drawn by artist Doug Mahnke and inker Jamie Mendoza. The series would focus on a young Batman's first adventure in space. In October 2023, it was announced that Aaron's next DC project would be a three-issue story arc on Action Comics focusing on the character Bizarro to be drawn by artist John Timms. The story arc is part of a new Action Comics initiative called "Superman Superstars" where rotating creative teams of writers and artists write short story arcs focusing on Superman and his villains. Aaron's arc will start on Action Comics #1061 in January 2024 and end in March 2024 with Action Comics #1063.
In June 2024, Marvel published a one-shot story, written by Aaron in collaboration with other artists, featuring Disney's Uncle Scrooge character for the first time ever in a Marvel comic book. The story, named Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime, introduced Scrooge and the Duck Universe to the Marvel Multiverse concept. 2025 saw the birth of the four issue Uncle Scrooge: Earths Mightiest Duck, also published by Marvel.
Personal life Aaron moved to Kansas City, Kansas in 2000, the day after the first X-Men feature film was released.
Aaron is a passionate and well known fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.
Commenting on the religious themes that run through his work, Aaron says he was raised Southern Baptist, but has since renounced religion:
Awards and nominations Nominated: 2007 Eisner Award for Best Miniseries for The Other Side. Nominated: 2015 Eisner Award for Best Writer for Southern Bastards, Original Sin, Thor: God of Thunder and Men of Wrath. Nominated: 2015 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series for Southern Bastards. Recipient: 2015 Harvey Award for Best New Series for Southern Bastards. Nominated: 2015 Harvey Award for Best Writer for Southern Bastards. Recipient: 2016 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series for Southern Bastards. Recipient: 2016 Eisner Award for Best Writer for Southern Bastards, Star Wars, Doctor Strange, Thor and Men of Wrath. Recipient: 2016 Inkpot Award
Bibliography DC Comics The Other Side #1–5 (with Cameron Stewart, Vertigo, 2006) collected as The Other Side (tpb, 144 pages, 2007, ; hc, Image, 2017, ) Scalped (with R. M. Guéra, John Paul Leon (#12), Davide Furnò (#18–20, 36–37, 44), Francesco Francavilla (#27), Danijel Žeželj (#35) and Jason Latour (#43), Vertigo, 2007–2012) collected as: Book One (collects #1–11, hc, 296 pages, 2015, ; tpb, 2017, ) Book Two (collects #12–24, hc, 320 pages, 2015, ; tpb, 2018, ) Book Three (collects #25–36, hc, 256 pages, 2015, ; tpb, 2018, ) Book Four (collects #37–49, hc, 352 pages, 2016, ; tpb, cancelled, ) Book Five (collects #50–60, hc, 128 pages, 2016, ; tpb, cancelled, ) Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation #1–2 (with Adam Archer, Wildstorm, 2007) collected in Friday the 13th: Book Two (tpb, 160 pages, 2008, ) Hellblazer #245–246: "Newcastle Calling" (with Sean Gordon Murphy, Vertigo, 2008) collected in John Constantine, Hellblazer Volume 21 (tpb, 352 pages, 2019, ) Joker's Asylum: Penguin (with Jason Pearson, one-shot, 2008) collected in Joker's Asylum Volume 1 (tpb, 128 pages, 2008, ) American Vampire Anthology #1: "Lost Colony" (with Declan Shalvey, Vertigo, 2013) Collected in American Vampire Volume 6 (hc, 144 pages, 2014, ; tpb, 2014, ) Collected in American Vampire Omnibus Volume 2 (hc, 928 pages, DC Black Label, 2022, ) Batman: Off World #1–6 (with Doug Mahnke, 2023–2024) Action Comics #1061–1063 "I, Bizarro" (with John Timms, 2024) Absolute Superman #1–present (with Rafa Sandoval, 2024– )
Marvel Comics X-Men: Wolverine by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Volume 1 (tpb, 392 pages, 2013, ) includes: Wolverine vol. 2 #175: "A Good Man" (with UDON Studios, Aaron's first published work — a co-feature, 2002) Wolverine vol. 3: "The Man in the Pit" (with Howard Chaykin, in #56, 2007) "Get Mystique!" (with Ron Garney, in #62–65, 2008) "A Mile in My Moccasins" (with Adam Kubert, in #73–74, 2009) Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1–4 (with Stephen Segovia, 2008–2009) Wolverine: Weapon X (with Ron Garney, Yanick Paquette (#6–9), C. P. Smith (#10) and Davide Gianfelice (#16), 2009–2010) collected as: Wolverine by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Volume 1 (includes #1–5, tpb, 392 pages, 2013, ) Wolverine by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Volume 2 (collects #6–16, tpb, 320 pages, 2014, ) Includes the Dark Reign: The List—Wolverine one-shot (written by Aaron, art by Esad Ribić, 2009) Includes the "Get Mystique (Slight Return)" short story (art by Jock) from Dark X-Men: The Beginning #3 (anthology, 2009) Wolverine by Jason Aaron Omnibus (collects #1–16, Wolverine vol. 3 issues, Wolverine: Manifest Destiny and all the one-shots and short stories, hc, 688 pages, 2011, ) Wolverine vol. 4 (with Renato Guedes, Jefte Palo (#5.1), Daniel Acuña (#6–9), Goran Sudžuka (#15–16), Ron Garney (#17–19) and Steven Sanders + Billy Tan (#300–304), 2010–2012) collected as: Wolverine by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Volume 3 (collects #1–9 and 5.1, tpb, 456 pages, 2014, ) Includes the "Falling" short story (art by Renato Guedes) from Wolverine: Road to Hell (promotional one-shot, 2010) Includes the 6-issue spin-off limited series Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine (written by Aaron, art by Adam Kubert, 2010–2011) Wolverine by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Volume 4 (collects #10–20 and 300–304, tpb, 408 pages, 2014, ) Wolverine Goes to Hell Omnibus (collects #1–20, 5.1, 300–304, Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine and the short story from Wolverine: Road to Hell, hc, 984 pages, 2018, ) X-Force Special: Ain't No Dog: "Hunters and Killers" (with Werther Dell'Edera, co-feature in one-shot, 2008) collected in X-Force by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost Volume 1 (tpb, 384 pages, 2014, ) X-Men: Schism #1–5 (with Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuña, Alan Davis and Adam Kubert, 2011) collected as X-Men: Schism (hc, 168 pages, 2012, ; tpb, 2012, ) Wolverine and the X-Men (with Chris Bachalo, Nick Bradshaw, Jorge Molina, Mike Allred (#17), Steven Sanders (#20), David López (#24), Ramón K. Pérez, Giuseppe Camuncoli (#36–37) and Pepe Larraz, 2011–2014) collected as: Volume 1 (collects #1–4, hc, 112 pages, 2012, ; tpb, 2012, ) Volume 2 (collects #5–8, hc, 104 pages, 2012, ; tpb, 2013, ) Volume 3 (collects #9–13, hc, 112 pages, 2013, ; tpb, 2013, ) Volume 4 (collects #14–18, hc, 128 pages, 2012, ; tpb, 2013, ) Volume 5 (collects #19–24, tpb, 136 pages, 2013, ) Volume 6 (collects #25–29, tpb, 112 pages, 2013, ) Volume 7 (collects #30–35, tpb, 136 pages, 2014, ) X-Men: Battle of the Atom (includes #36–37, hc, 248 pages, 2014, ; tpb, 2014, ) Also collects X-Men: Battle of the Atom #2 (of 2) (written by Aaron, art by Esad Ribić, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Chris Bachalo, 2013) Volume 8 (collects #38–42 and Annual, tpb, 152 pages, 2014, ) Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron Omnibus (collects #1–35, 38–42 and Annual, hc, 936 pages, 2014, ) Amazing X-Men vol. 2 #1–6 (with Ed McGuinness and Cameron Stewart (#6), 2014) collected as Amazing X-Men: The Quest for Nightcrawler (tpb, 136 pages, 2014, ) Wolverine: Japan's Most Wanted #1–13 (co-written by Aaron and Jason Latour, art by Paco Diaz and Alé Garza (#8–9), 2014) collected as Wolverine: Japan's Most Wanted (hc, 136 pages, 2014, ) Ghost Rider vol. 4 (with Roland Boschi, Tan Eng Huat and Tony Moore (#33–35), 2008–2009) collected as: The War for Heaven: Book One (collects #20–32, tpb, 392 pages, 2019, ) The War for Heaven: Book Two (includes #33–35, tpb, 336 pages, 2020, ) Also collects the 6-issue spin-off limited series Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire (written by Aaron, art by Roland Boschi, 2009–2010)