After beginning his writing career on DC horror titles, David Michelinie moved to Marvel. He and co-writer/inker Bob Layton established Iron Man's battle with alcoholism, use of specialized armor variants and vendetta against Doctor Doom, as well as other aspects of the character that endure to this day. Michelinie's unique blend of action, suspense and humor distinguished not only Iron Man, but also Amazing Spider-Man. With artist Todd McFarlane, he introduced the vicious vigilante Venom; he also wrote the first Venom limited series, Lethal Protector. Michelinie's run as Amazing writer was second in length only to that of Stan Lee himself, while he also authored tie-in titles Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man and Spider-Man. He moved from Marvel's flagship character to DC's with a stint on Superman's Action Comics, later returning to the world of Tony Stark for writing collaborations with Bob Layton on Iron Man: Legacy of Doom and Iron Man: The End. After a stint on Incredible Hulk with writer Peter David, artist Todd McFarlane moved to Amazing Spider-Man, where he and writer David Michelinie introduced Venom. Achieving a devoted following with his then-experimental style of unconventional panel layouts, extreme close-ups and other innovations, McFarlane became both writer and artist on a new series, titled simply Spider-Man.

He later joined several fellow industry prodigies to form Image Comics. McFarlane's major contribution was Spawn, the demonic mercenary whose first-issue sales of 1.7 million copies remain a benchmark for an independent. His other industry credits include DC's Infinity Inc. and "Batman: Year Two" in Detective Comics. He has earned the Inkpot Award, the National Cartoonists Society's Award for Best Comic Book and the NFL's Artist of the Year Award for designing the Baltimore Ravens' program covers. In addition to the Image subsidiary Todd McFarlane Productions, he heads McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, and is producer of a Spawn film and an award-winning animated series.