Marvel comics created by Christopher Hastings

*For a list of all comics written by Chris Hastings, see: List of comics by Chris Hastings*

    Over the years, Chris Hastings has written a number of series for Marvel Comics. Though a transcript of a question he voiced at a Q&A was published in a Marvel comic in 2007, Chris' first contractual partnership with Marvel began in 2012 when he contributed a single-page comic for Marvel's *Avengers Vs. X-Men: Versus* compilation. He gained recognition, however, for creating the character Gwenpool and writing her entire first series. He also contributed to other series such as *Vote Loki*, *I Am Groot*, and *Secret Agent Deadpool*.

## Avengers Vs. X-Men: Versus

In 2012, Marvel ran a mega-event called "Avengers Vs. X-Men" which was contained multiple storylines tied together in an overarching narrative of the Avengers superhero team battling the X-Men team. During this event, a standalone spin-off series was created called *Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus* in which characters from the opposing teams were pitted against eachother in one-on-one battles. The final issue in this series (#6) was a special large issue that contained a larger number of battles, including extra "mini fights" written by different creators. Chris Hastings wrote one of these mini fights: a single-page match between Toad and Jarvis in which Jarvis won. Illustrations were provided by Jacob Chabot, and a cameo was made of the Dr. McNinja website on a computer screen inside Avengers Tower.

The single page written by Chris HastingsThe cover of the book Avengers Vs. X-Men: Versus book that Chris was featured in

## A + X

After the affairs of the Avengers Vs. X-Men event, Marvel launched a new series in 2013 called *A + X* in which, similar to *Avengers Vs. X-Men: Versus*, characters from the two teams were paired together for short, standalone stories that were each written by different writer/artist combinations. Chris Hastings was paired with Reilly Brown to write one of the two short, standalone stories that appeared in the eighth issue. In the story, Hawkeye and Deadpool team up to drive a car down underground and stop a pirate named Captain Barracuda from kidnapping a famous chef and enslaving the chef on his submarine.

The cover for the issue that Hastings contributed to
## Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe

Hastings was approached to write the book Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe and was asked to write a series in which he would make up lucky reasons why Longshot would win against different villains. Upon first being approached, Hastings did not know who Longshot was and had to familiarize himself with the character. Hastings was offered an extremely tight deadline, with a release date six months from when he was asked, and was told by his editors that he could have Longshot team up with almost any character with the exception of a few that were currently being used, such as Galactus. (Galactus was the villain Hastings originally hoped to have Longshot fight against.)  The first issue of the four-issue series released on November 6, 2013.

## Unbelieveable Gwenpool

The character that would become Gwenpool first appeared on a variant cover of the comic issue Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars #2 simply as the popular Spider-Man character, Gwen Stacy, dressed up in a custom Deadpool costume. This cover received such an outpouring of support from the fan community, however, that Marvel made the decision to have Gwenpool become a real character and tasked Chris Hastings with creating her comic. Hastings wanted to avoid making another Gwen Stacy character after the recent proliferation of Gwen Stacy characters like Spider-Gwen, so he tried to come up with a way to make Gwenpool unique while still satisfying the expectations fans had for what her character would be like (such as being able to break the fourth wall or use a variety of guns and weapons to fight crime.)

In an interview, Hastings has said that writing Unbelievable Gwenpool gave him an opportunity to express all of the "meta" thoughts he had about the comic book medium and that he enjoys having the opportunity to be completely truthful about all of the tropes and the conventions of superhero comics. He felt that Gwenpool gave him the opportunity to do what he always wanted to do with Deadpool as a character, but was not able to (such as the constant fourth-wall breaking).

## I Am Groot

In writing I Am Groot, Hastings has said that he took storytelling inspiration from video games such as the Legend of Zelda, where the protagonist doesn't speak but rather the other characters around the protagonist do most of the talking to communicate what needs to be said.

## Secret Agent Deadpool

In 2018, Chris wrote the six-issue miniseries *Secret Agent Deadpool* for Marvel. The series revolved around the popular character Deadpool, and his adventures impersonating a super-spy for a secret United States government agency.

The cover to the paperback compilation of Secret Agent Deadpool
## How to Read Comics the Marvel Way

Hastings was tapped to write a series of comic books titled How To Read Comics The Marvel Way explaining how the basics of comics work for new comic readers. Topics covered included things such as panel layout, speech bubbles, thought bubbles, and magazine gutters. The series also taught lessons on comic history and the role of each production member in the creation of a comic. The info was all portrayed through a narrative that followed Spider-Man as he battled with the villain Mysterio over control of an entity called the "Cosmic Comic". The series of books was planned to be released in 2020, but was put on indefinite hold due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that occured that year. The book was eventually rescheduled for November 2021, and then December 2023.

The cover for the first issue of the series.
## Trivia

* The first time Chris Hastings' words were technically published in a Marvel comic book was in an issue of *The Dark Tower: Gunslinger Born* series in 2007, which was a series of comics based off of the *Dark Tower* books written by Stephen King. Chris had attended a Q&A panel with Stephen King at the New York Comic Con in 2007, and had a asked two questions to the author which were transcribed into one of the books of the series as bonus material.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://web.archive.org/web/20210804050154/https://www.publishthis.email/fwd-dr.-doom,-the-dark-tower,-and-me-rksa0qPyF
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20201209030759/https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/42487/avengers\_vs\_x-men\_versus\_2011\_6
3. ↑ Comic Book Club: Chris Hastings Saves the Marvel Universe - Event occurs at 9:30
4. ↑ Comic Book Club: Chris Hastings Saves the Marvel Universe - Event occurs at 2:20
5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220110064958/https://bleedingcool.com/comics/and-finally-has-marvel-noticed-that-gwenpool-is-a-thing-now/
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220110061750/https://comicbookclublive.com/2017/01/30/comic-book-club-chris-hastings-adam-swiderski/
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210104175239/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LoO51LvI4
8. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20201124092252/https://comicbookclublive.com/2018/10/09/comic-book-club-chris-hastings-and-branson-reese/
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210104175239/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LoO51LvI4
10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210119130048/https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/how-to-read-how-to-read-comics-the-marvel-way-the-marvel-way
11. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20211106193839/https://bleedingcool.com/comics/how-to-read-comics-the-marvel-way-off-the-missing-in-action-mia-list/
12. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20211106194634/https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Comics-Marvel-Way/dp/1302924753