Jason Aaron (born January 28, 1973) is an American comic book writer, known for his creator-owned series Scalped and Southern Bastards, as well as his work on Marvel series Ghost Rider, Wolverine, PunisherMAX, Thor, and The Avengers.
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.
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:
I’ve been an atheist for many years, but I’ve remained fascinated by religion. If anything, I’ve become more fascinated by religion and faith after I lost mine.”
[Latest Update: May 28, 2022]
