Uncanny X-Men by Gail Simone Vol. 2: The Dark Atery

Gail Simone first drew attention with her 1999 Women in Refrigerators website chronicling comics' frequent mistreatment of female characters. Becoming a popular online comics columnist, Simone later wrote Simpsons stories for Bongo Comics before breaking into the mainstream with her 2002 Deadpool run and its Agent X sequel at Marvel. Moving to DC, Simone had a long, acclaimed run on Birds of Prey, featuring heroines such as Oracle (Barbara Gordon), Black Canary and Huntress.

She later wrote some of those characters for TV shows such as Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Her other comics credits include DC's Rose and Thorn, Villains United, Teen Titans, The All-New Atom, Wonder Woman, Secret Six, The Fury of Firestorm and a 2011 Batgirl relaunch starring Simone favorite Barbara Gordon. Artist David Marquez began his career fresh out of college as an animator on Warner Independent Pictures' 2006 film A Scanner Darkly.

He made his comics debut in 2010 with the graphic novel Syndrome, published by Archaia Entertainment, for which he received a Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award nomination. He has since gone on to draw Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four: Season One, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, All-New X-Men and Invincible Iron Man for Marvel. The event series Civil War II established him as one of the House of Ideas' biggest artistic superstars.