Howard Mackie

Howard Mackie (born January 22, 1958) is an American comic book editor and writer. He has worked almost exclusively for Marvel Comics.

Mackie grew up in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, mostly raised by his mother, as his father having died when he was seven.

Editor

Mackie started his career in comics in 1984 as an assistant editor for Mark Gruenwald. Early in Mackie's career, a running gag in Gruenwald's columns was that Mackie was a mysterious figure whose face no one at Marvel had ever seen. Promoted in early 1987 to Managing Editor of Special Projects, Mackie then oversaw many of Marvel's "New Universe" line.

Writer

Mackie first gained attention as a writer in 1990, when he and artist Javier Saltares launched a new Ghost Rider series for Marvel, revamping the character and introducing a new host, Danny Ketch. Mackie stayed on as Ghost Rider writer until issue #69 in 1996. Mackie authored two Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher team-up one-shots, Hearts of Darkness (1991), and its sequel The Dark Design (1994).

In 1992, Mackie became a regular writer of Web of Spider-Man with #85. He would remain on various Spider-Man titles through the Clone Saga. In January 1999, Mackie became the writer of both The Amazing Spider-Man and the Peter Parker: Spider-Man series when those two titles were relaunched with new first issue. Mackie left the Spider-Man franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2, #29 (May 2001).

Mackie worked for the X-Men line, writing the spin-off title X-Factor from #115–149 (1995–1999) as well as its successor Mutant X title (1999). He wrote several mini-series featuring Gambit, Wolverine, and Rogue.

In late 2009, Mackie teamed with Tom DeFalco to write the six issue miniseries Spider-Man: Clone Saga, whose story was based on Mackie's original notes for the 1990s crossover. It was later collected in the trade paperback Spider-Man: The Real Clone Saga.

On January 12, 2012, it was announced that Mackie would be writing The Ravagers series for DC Comics as part of the Second Wave of The New 52.