Len Wein was born Leonard Norman Wein on June 12, 1948, and passed away on September 10, 2017. One of the most consequential American comic book writers and editors of his generation, he built a career spanning roughly six decades and more than a thousand credited issues across both of the industry's major publishers.
Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975)
Wein broke into comics in the late 1960s and quickly demonstrated a range that few of his contemporaries could match. His work appeared extensively on flagship Marvel titles including *The Amazing Spider-Man*, *The Incredible Hulk*, and *Thor*, and his byline stretched across international editions of those series as well. He co-created DC's Swamp Thing, one of the stranger and more enduring characters to emerge from early-1970s horror comics, before crossing back to Marvel to help reshape the X-Men entirely. That revamp introduced Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus alongside a particularly durable new addition — Wolverine — a character Wein co-created and whose popularity would eventually define an era of superhero storytelling.
House of Secrets #92 (1971)
Later in his career, Wein served as editor on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' *Watchmen*, lending his expertise to one of the medium's most discussed works. His contributions across writing, editing, and character creation earned him induction into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.
