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Dennis Hopeless

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Dennis Hallum
BornKansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Area(s)Writer
Pseudonym(s)Dennis Hopeless
Notable works
Cable and X-Force
Avengers Arena
Spider-Woman
All-New X-Men
Marvel's Spider-Man comics

Dennis Hallum,[1] known professionally as Dennis Hopeless and Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum, is an American comic book writer from Kansas City, Missouri, who has written for Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, Boom! Studios, Arcana Studio and Oni Press.[2]

Hallum has written multiple series starring teenage superheroes and has said that he "tend[s] to write about the challenge of growing up."[3] He's been praised by critics for including a female point-of-view in his comics.[4] After finding success with two creator-owned comics, Hallum began writing for Marvel in 2011. In 2015, Hallum wrote two limited series as part of Marvel's Secret Wars event. The following year, Hallum began scripting Marvel's relaunched ongoing series All-New X-Men. That same year, he resumed his writing duties on Marvel's Spider-Woman comic, the sixth volume of the character's ongoing series. The series earned Hallum some of the best reviews of his career, as he and his creative team received praise from feminist critics for showing the realities of motherhood.[5] In 2017, Marvel published an ongoing Jean Grey comic, the character's first, with Hallum and artist Victor Ibanez at the helm.[6]

Career

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Dennis Hallum worked in a comic store in the mid-2000s while trying to break into the comics industry.[7] In 2007, using the pen name " Dennis Hopeless", he created GearHead (with penciller Kevin Mellon), a four-issue comic about a female auto mechanic searching for her lost brother. The series was published by Arcana Studio.[8] His next notable work didn't hit shelves until 2011 when Hallum reunited with artist Kevin Mellon to create LoveSTRUCK, a supernatural graphic novel inspired in part by Frank Herbert's Dune and Garth Ennis's Preacher that was published by Image Comics.[9][10] That same year, Hallum began working with Marvel Comics, writing the second volume of Legion of Monsters (with penciler Juan Doe). The series starred the titular Legion and monster-hunter Elsa Bloodstone.[11]

While Legion of Monsters was still being published, Marvel hired Hallum (along with pencillers Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton) to create a graphic novel called X-Men: Season One as part of a series of four graphic novels focusing on the origins of some of the company's biggest characters.[12] While some publications were hesitant to embrace the Season One concept, Hallum's novel garnered generally positive reviews,[13][14] with Comic Book Resources calling it, "easy to understand, fun to read and still pretty wide in scope."[15]

Hallum's next work for Marvel was 2013's Avengers Arena, an 18-issue comic series in which the villain Arcade kidnaps 16 teenage superheroes and forces them to fight each other to the death.[16] The series starred characters from Avengers Academy, the Runaways and Hallum's newly created Braddock Academy and featured covers referencing Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games series, the game show Survivor, and the Japanese film Battle Royale. The comic won Hallum the 2013 Harvey Award for Most Promising New Talent. That same year, Hallum wrote Cable and X-Force (with artist Salvador Larroca), a 19-issue series that ran concurrently and eventually crossed over with Sam Humphries and Ron Garney's Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2.[17] Also in 2013, Hallum co-wrote a 4-issue series called The Answer! with Eisner Award winning creator Mike Nolan for Dark Horse Comics.[18] In 2014, Hallum and artist Kevin Walker authored Avengers Undercover, a direct follow-up series to Avengers Arena with many of the same characters.[19]

Hallum's next project was the limited series All-New Captain America: Fear Him (with co-writer Rick Remender). Part of Marvel's Infinite Comics series, it starred Sam Wilson in his new role as Captain America.[20] The following year, Hallum began working on the fifth volume of Marvel's Spider-Woman comic with penciler Greg Land and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (with artist Tigh Walker), an all-ages western adventure comic based on the Disney theme park attraction.[21][22] That summer, Marvel began their Secret Wars crossover event and Hallum wrote two books in the storyline, Inferno (with Javier Garron) and House of M (with Mark Failla), both based on previous Marvel events.[23][24]

Upon the conclusion of the Secret Wars event, Marvel relaunched their Spider-Woman comic in January 2016 with Hallum now joined by artist Javier Rodríguez who had worked with Hallum on the previous volume after Land's departure.[25] The relaunched series centered on Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew's newly announced pregnancy and impending motherhood. Critics praised the relatable, fun storytelling of the comic with IGN calling it, "laid back at times and outlandish at others" while scoring it an 8.6 out of 10.[26] The following month, Hallum served as writer for another relaunched series, the second volume of All-New X-Men, a comic starring the time-displaced original X-Men now traveling the country with three young Jean Grey School students.[27]

In late 2016, Hallum wrote the main story in a one-shot licensed comic called "WWE: Then, Now, Forever", which was published by Boom! Studios with Dan Mora providing the art.[28] The comic became an ongoing series simply called WWE the following year with Hallum continuing to write the main story and Daniel Acuña replacing Mora on pencils.[29]

Both the All-New X-Men and Spider-Woman ongoing series came to an end in May 2017 with both series receiving fairly positive reviews throughout their run.[30] The final issue of Spider-Woman, in particular, garnered a great deal of positive sentiment, with The A.V. Club's Oliver Sava calling the series "one of Marvel’s most consistently entertaining, fun-loving titles" in his review of the issue.[31][32] Continuing his work at Marvel, Hallum was tapped to take over writing duties for the Doctor Strange ongoing beginning with issue #21 as well as scripting a new Jean Grey series, the character's first ongoing solo book and part of Marvel's ResurrXion revamp.[33][34] Hallum's first Dr. Strange issue and the first issue of the Jean Grey series will both have a cover date of July, 2017. After the end of Jean Grey in early 2018,[35] Hallum continued writing for Marvel, including a digital Cloak and Dagger comic miniseries to coincide with the premier of the Freeform television series adaptation of the characters.[36]

In January 2019, after having used the "Dennis Hopeless" pen name for many years, Hallum announced in a Twitter thread that he would begin using his given surname, Hallum, in his published works.[1] To avoid audience confusion, however, he was credited as Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum.[37][38] He later deleted the tweet.[1]

In April 2019, Hallum wrote an issue of Darth Vader: Dark Visions that portrayed Darth Vader from the perspective of an unnamed female nurse obsessed with him. Her portrayal evoked strong criticism from fans. io9 commented that "Dark Visions’ view of the nurse's desires takes established feminine power fantasies and treats them as delusional jokes, right up until the moment it leaves its female protagonist a crumbled heap on the floor."[39]

Personal

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Hallum is a Kansas State University alumnus. He lives in Kansas City, MO with his two sons.[40]

Awards

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Bibliography

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Early work

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  • GearHead #1–4 (with Kevin Mellon, Arcana, 2007) collected as GearHead (tpb, 120 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-97630-959-9)
  • Action DoubleFeature #1: "The Answer" (co-written by Hopeless and Mike Norton, art by Norton, digital anthology, Four Star Studios, 2011)
    • The story was eventually continued in print as The Answer! #1–4 (co-written by Hopeless and Mike Norton, art by Norton, Dark Horse, 2013)
    • The series, along with the short story from Action DoubleFeature, was collected as The Answer! (tpb, 120 pages, 2013, ISBN 1-61655-197-6)

Image Comics

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Marvel Comics

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Other publishers

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Hallum, Dennis “Hopeless” (2019-01-22). "So hey... My real name is Dennis Hallum and I'm going to start using it in my books". @HopelessDent. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  2. ^ "Dennis Hopeless". Comic Book DB. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  3. ^ "X-MEN: SEASON ONE Aims for New Readers with Old Characters". Newsarama.com. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  4. ^ "Comics: Who Is Dennis Hopeless?". Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on June 4, 2016. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  5. ^ "Marvel's Dennis Hopeless and Nick Lowe Talk Writing a Single Mom Superhero in Spider-Woman". The Mary Sue. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  6. ^ "'Jean Grey' Is On The Way From Dennis Hopeless And Victor Ibanez". Comics Alliance. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  7. ^ "Dennis Hopeless introduces 'House of M' to Secret Wars' Battleworld". Hero Complex. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  8. ^ "Gearhead #1 (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  9. ^ "Interview: Dennis Hopeless & Kevin Mellon on Image's LoveStruck". Westfield Comics Blog. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  10. ^ "Hopeless Hits the Bullseye with LoveStruck". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  11. ^ "Review: Legion of Monsters #1". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  12. ^ "Why Marvel's 'Season One' Graphic Novels May Not Be Such A Great Idea". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  13. ^ "Review: X-Men: Season One". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  14. ^ "X-Men: Season One". Teenreads. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  15. ^ "Review: X-Men: Season One". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  16. ^ "Review: X-Men: Season One". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  17. ^ "Cable and X-Force". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  18. ^ "Review: The Answer #1". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  19. ^ "Avengers Undercover". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  20. ^ "All-New Captain America: Fear Him". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  21. ^ "Spider-Woman #1 (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  22. ^ "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad #1 (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  23. ^ "Inferno #1 (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  24. ^ "House of M #1 (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  25. ^ "Spider-Woman #1 (Issue)". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  26. ^ "Spider-Woman #1 Review". IGN. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  27. ^ "All-New X-Men #1". Comic Vine. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  28. ^ "WWE: Then. Now. Forever. #1". Comic Vine. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  29. ^ "WWE #1". Comic Vine. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  30. ^ "Dennis Hopeless Comic Reviews". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  31. ^ "Spider-Woman #17". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  32. ^ "Spider-Woman thrives thanks to its superheroine's relatable, everyday problems". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  33. ^ "Hopeless & Henrichon Take Over Doctor Strange From Aaron & Bachalo". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  34. ^ "JEAN GREY's First-Ever Ongoing Is Coming (And So Is THE PHOENIX)". Newsarama. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  35. ^ "JEAN GREY Title Ends in January". Newsarama. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  36. ^ "Marvel Announces New 'Cloak and Dagger' Digital Series". Marvel. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  37. ^ "Marvel Comics APRIL 2019 Solicitations". Newsarama. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  38. ^ "Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  39. ^ Whitbrook, James (25 April 2019). "Why This Week's Darth Vader Comic Is Causing Controversy". io9. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  40. ^ Cox, Carolyn. "Marvel's Dennis Hopeless and Nick Lowe Talk Writing a Single Mom Superhero in Spider-Woman". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  41. ^ "2013 Harvey Awards". The Harvey Awards. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  42. ^ "And the #glaadawards nominees are..." GLAAD. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
[edit]
Preceded by Cable and X-Force writer
2013–2014
(with Cullen Bunn in 2014) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Spider-Woman writer
2015–2017 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Brian Michael Bendis
 All-New X-Men writer
2016–2017 		Succeeded by
n/a
Preceded by Doctor Strange writer
2017 		Succeeded by
Preceded by X-O Manowar writer
2020–2021 		Succeeded by
Becky Cloonan
Michael W. Conrad
(X-O Manowar Unconquered)
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