A writer for the Emmy Award-winning animated series Robot Chicken, Zeb Wells began making a name for himself at Marvel with his irreverent New Warriors limited series, which provided an inspiration for key story threads that would later appear in Civil War; he also wrote the Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways tie-in. His collaboration with the late Seth Fisher on Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan produced one of the last decade's most charming comics. Wells' other credits include Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock, Venom: Dark Origin, Dark Reign: Elektra and Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One. He also contributed to the thrice-monthly Amazing Spider-Man and helped relaunch New Mutants.

After his scintillating debut on Uncanny X-Men while barely out of his teens, Joe Madureira immediately joined the ranks of fan-favorite artists like Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri. His innovative character designs and explosive layouts attracted a huge following during the '90s, and his popularity reached a fever pitch after his work on the Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught events helped transform the Marvel Universe. After developing the creator-owned Battle Chasers for Wildstorm, Madureira left comics for the video game industry. He made a triumphant return to Marvel with Jeph Loeb's Ultimates 3.