Matt Fritchman (born December 1, 1975), 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 (Oct. 1979), 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,Howard, Natalie. "Our Hero", Creative Loafing (May 2, 2007), pp. 24–26.Hargro, Carlton. "Home is for Heroes", Creative Loafing (June 18, 2008), p. 39. 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 (shared with Salvador Larroca) 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" (shared with David Aja and others). "Best New Series" for Sex Criminals (shared with Chip Zdarsky). 2014 Eisner Award "Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)" for Hawkeye #11, "Pizza Is My Business" (shared with David Aja). "Best New Series" for Sex Criminals (shared with Chip Zdarsky). 2016 Inkpot Award
Nominations 2008 Eisner Award Best Single Issue (or One-Shot) for The Sensational Spider-Man Annual (shared with Salvador Larroca). Eisner Award for Best New Series for The Immortal Iron Fist (shared with Ed Brubaker, David Aja and others) 2013 Harvey Award Best Writer for Hawkeye Best New Series for Hawkeye (shared with David Aja and others) Best Continuing or Limited Series for Hawkeye (shared with David Aja and others) Best Single Issue or Story for Hawkeye #1, "Lucky" (shared with David Aja and others) 2013 Eisner Award Best Continuing Series for Hawkeye (shared with David Aja and others) Best Writer for Hawkeye and Casanova: Avarita 2014 Harvey Award Best Writer for Hawkeye Best Continuing or Limited Series for Hawkeye (shared with David Aja and others) 2014 Eisner Award Best Continuing Series for Hawkeye (shared with David Aja) Best Continuing Series for Sex Criminals (shared with Chip Zdarsky) Best Writer for Sex Criminals, Hawkeye, Fantastic Four, and FF 2014 Angoulême Sélection Officielle for Hawkeye, Vol 1 (shared with David Aja)
Bibliography Early work Double Take #6–8: "Rex Mantooth" (with Andy Kuhn, anthology, Funk-O-Tron, 2001–2002) collected as The Annotated Mantooth! (tpb, 96 pages, AiT/Planet Lar, 2002, ) Last of the Independents (with Kieron Dwyer, graphic novel, sc, 104 pages, AiT/Planet Lar, 2003, ; hc, 112 pages, Image, 2020, ) IDW Publishing: 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales #1–8: "Juarez, or Lex Nova and the Case of the 400 Dead Mexican Girls" (with Ben Templesmith, co-feature, 2004–2005) Collected, along with the leading feature, in 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales (hc, 200 pages, 2005, ; tpb, 2005, ) Collected in a separate volume as 30 Days of Night: Juarez (tpb, 104 pages, 2009, ) Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty #0 (untitled five-page story with Ashley Wood, 2005) Collected in Metal Gear Solid Omnibus (tpb, 552 pages, 2010, ) Collected in Metal Gear Solid: Deluxe Edition (hc, 608 pages, 2014, )
Image Comics Four Letter Worlds: "Fate" (with Kieron Dwyer, anthology graphic novel, 144 pages, 2005, ) 24Seven Volume 1: "Static" (with Frazer Irving, anthology graphic novel, 224 pages, 2006, ) The Five Fists of Science (with Steven Sanders, graphic novel, 112 pages, 2006, ) Casanova (with Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon): Casanova #1–14 (2006–2008) Issues #1–7 are collected as Album 1: Luxuria (hc, 144 pages, 2007, ; tpb, 2008, ) A colorized and relettered version of these fourteen issues was published as two 4-issue limited series under Marvel's Icon imprint. Casanova: Acedia (with the Metanauts back-up feature, written by Michael Chabon and drawn by Gabriel Bá, 2015–2017) collected as: Volume 1 (collects #1–4, tpb, 136 pages, 2015, ) Volume 2 (collects #5–8, tpb, 136 pages, 2017, ) Sex Criminals (with Chip Zdarsky, 2013–2020) collected as: Big Hard Sex Criminals Volume 1 (collects #1–10, hc, 256 pages, 2015, ) Big Hard Sex Criminals Volume 2 (collects #11–20, hc, 256 pages, 2018, ) Big Hard Sex Criminals Volume 3 (collects #21–30 and 69, hc, 320 pages, 2021, ) Includes Sex Criminals: Sexual Gary Special (written by Fraction, art by Rachael Stott, 2020) Satellite Sam (with Howard Chaykin, 2013–2015) collected as Satellite Sam (hc, 400 pages, 2015, ) ODY-C #1–12 (with Christian Ward, 2014–2016) collected as ODY-C: Cycle One (hc, 400 pages, 2016, ) Solid State (script by Fraction based on the concept by Jonathan Coulton, art by Albert Monteys, graphic novel, sc, 128 pages, 2017, ; hc, 2018, ) Bitch Planet: Triple Feature #5: "Everyone's Grandma is a Little Bit Feminist" (with Elsa Charretier, anthology, 2017) collected in Bitch Planet: Triple Feature (tpb, 144 pages, 2017, ) November (with Elsa Charretier, series of graphic novels): Volume 1 (hc, 80 pages, 2019, ) Volume 2 (hc, 80 pages, 2020, ) Volume 3 (hc, 80 pages, 2020, ) Volume 4 (hc, 80 pages, 2021, ) Adventureman (with Terry Dodson, 2020–ongoing) collected as: The End and Everything After (collects #1–4, hc, 168 pages, 2020, ) A Fairy Tale of New York (collects #5–9, hc, 168 pages, 2022, ) The Old Guard: Tales Through Time #4: "How to Make a Ghost Town" (with Steve Lieber, anthology, 2021) collected in The Old Guard: Tales Through Time (tpb, 176 pages, 2021, )
Marvel Comics X-Men: X-Men Unlimited vol. 2 #9: "Dead Man Walking" (with Sam Kieth, anthology, 2005) collected in Astonishing X-Men Companion (tpb, 168 pages, 2020, ) Uncanny X-Men (with Terry Dodson, Greg Land, Yanick Paquette (#512), Whilce Portacio, Phil Jimenez (#522), Leonard Kirk (#527) and Harvey Tolibao (#529), 2008–2011) collected as: Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction: The Complete Collection Volume 1 (collects #500–511 and Annual #2, tpb, 384 pages, 2013, ) Includes the "Migas" short story (art by Jamie McKelvie) from X-Men: Divided We Stand #1 (anthology, 2008) Issues #500–503 are co-written by Fraction and Ed Brubaker. Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction: The Complete Collection Volume 2 (collects #512–519, tpb, 368 pages, 2013, ) Includes the "How I Survived Apocalyptic Fire" short story (art by Daniel Acuña) from Dark Reign: The Cabal (anthology one-shot, 2009) Includes the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia one-shot (written by Fraction, art by Marc Silvestri, 2009)