Matt Fraction was born December 1, 1975, in Chicago Heights, Illinois.[2] As a child, he developed an affinity for telling stories, and he enjoyed reading comic books and strips. The first comic he remembers buying was Batman #316 (Oct. 1979), and he liked newspaper comics Peanuts and Doonesbury. He became a regular weekly comic-book reader around the time that the 1985–86 DC Comics storyline "Crisis on Infinite Earths" ended, but he found that storyline bizarre and impenetrable and gravitated toward Marvel Comics instead. Spider-Man became his favorite character, and he read other Marvel publications such as Star Wars and G.I. Joe.[3]
Fraction started in the comics industry by working for smaller publishers including AiT/Planet Lar and IDW Publishing, many of which employed people that he had met on the Warren Ellis Forum; as such, he continued using the "Fraction" name as it was the one under which he had built a reputation.[6] He became known early in his career for his creator-owned work on The Five Fists of Science and Casanova, before taking on a number of assignments for Marvel Comics.
He wrote The Mighty Thor and The Invincible Iron Man, the latter of which led to his consulting work on the set of the film Iron Man 2 and writing the Iron Man 2 video game that tied into that film sequel.[13][14]
As part of Marvel NOW!, Fantastic Four was relaunched in November 2012 with the creative team of Fraction and artist Mark Bagley. Its spinoff series FF was produced by Fraction and artist Mike Allred.[19][20] Fraction left both series due to other work commitments.[21]
In February 2013, he was named on IGN's list of "The Best Tweeters in Comics", which described him as "the premier comics Twitter personality."[22]
In 2013, Fraction and Chip Zdarsky co-created the Sex Criminals series for Image Comics. He and illustrator Christian Ward created the ODY-C series in 2014, a science-fiction retelling of the Odyssey with the characters' genders changed to female.[citation needed]
In 2015, Fraction and Fabio Moon returned to Casanova with a new eight-issue mini-series, Acedia. The series featured backup stories written by Michael Chabon with art by Casanova co-creator Gabriel Bá. Also in 2015, Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick's company, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, signed a two-year deal with Universal Television to adapt some of their comic books, as well as original TV series concepts. They also planned to use Milkfed Criminal Masterminds as a TV launchpad for other comic creators' properties.[23][needs update]
In 2018, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds signed another two-year overall deal, this time with Legendary TV to adapt several of their creator-owned comics, as well as produce exclusive, original projects developed by the duo for television across traditional and non-traditional platforms.[24][needs update]
In 2020, Sex Criminals concluded with issue #69, volumes 2 and 3 of November were released, and Adventureman, the long-anticipated series from Fraction and Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson began releasing from Image Comics, and his and Lieber's run on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen concluded, with a collected trade paperback entitled Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? being released in October.
Fraction served as a consultant for the Hawkeye television miniseries, which was heavily inspired by his 2012 comic run. He also planned to make a cameo appearance as a member of the Tracksuit Mafia, but was unable to commit to this, due to complications stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.[26][27]
Since 2022, Fraction has been working on the Apple TV+ show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, on which he is a co-creator with Chris Black.[28] The series debuted in November 2023 and Fraction wrote episode 9, "Axis Mundi".
Fraction is married to Kelly Sue DeConnick, a comic book writer and adapter of manga into English,[3][29] whom he met when they were both participants on the Warren Ellis Forum.[6] They have two children, Henry and Tallulah.[30]
Collected, along with the leading feature, in 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales (hc, 200 pages, 2005, ISBN1-933239-11-5; tpb, 2005, ISBN1-932382-78-X)
Collected in a separate volume as 30 Days of Night: Juarez (tpb, 104 pages, 2009, ISBN1-6001-0405-3)
Adventureman (with Terry Dodson, 2020–ongoing) collected as:
The End and Everything After (collects #1–4, hc, 168 pages, 2020, ISBN1-5343-1712-0)
A Fairy Tale of New York (collects #5–9, hc, 168 pages, 2022, ISBN1-5343-2214-0)
The Old Guard: Tales Through Time #4: "How to Make a Ghost Town" (with Steve Lieber, anthology, 2021) collected in The Old Guard: Tales Through Time (tpb, 176 pages, 2021, ISBN1-534-32005-9)
"The Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay" (with Travel Foreman, Leandro Fernández and Khari Evans, in #7, 2007)
Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death (with Russ Heath, Mitch Breitweiser, Nick Dragotta and Lewis LaRosa, one-shot, 2008)
The Origin of Danny Rand (with Kano, two-page framing sequence for a reprint of Marvel Premiere #15–16, one-shot, 2008)
"The Story of the Iron Fist Bei Bang-Wen (1827–1860)" (with Khari Evans, in #15, 2008)
"Happy Birthday Danny" (with David Aja, in #16, 2008)
Omnibus (collects #1–16, Annual, Civil War: Choosing Sides, Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death and The Origin of Danny Rand, hc, 560 pages, 2009, ISBN0-7851-3819-6)
The Complete Collection Volume 1 (collects #1–16, Annual, Civil War: Choosing Sides, Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death and The Origin of Danny Rand, tpb, 496 pages, 2013, ISBN0-78518-542-9)
Punisher War Journal vol. 2 (with Ariel Olivetti, Mike Deodato, Jr. (#4), Leandro Fernández (#11), Cory Walker (#13), Scott Wegener (#14–15), Howard Chaykin and Andy MacDonald (#26), 2007–2009) collected as:
Issues #19–25 are co-written by Fraction and Rick Remender.
The Mighty Thor (with Olivier Coipel, Pasqual Ferry, Pepe Larraz, Giuseppe Camuncoli (#12), Barry Kitson (#12.1 and 22), Alan Davis (#18) and Carmine Di Giandomenico, 2011–2012) collected as:
Casanova (Luxuria and Gula reprint the original Image series in colorized and relettered form with new short stories in Luxuria #1 (art by Fábio Moon) and Gula #4 (art by Gabriel Bá); published under the Icon imprint):
"Chapter Five" (with John Romita, Jr., in #5, 2012)
"Chapter Seven" (with Olivier Coipel, in #7, 2012)
AvX: VS #5: "Hawkeye vs. Angel" (with Leinil Francis Yu, anthology, 2012) also collected in Avengers vs. X-Men: VS (tpb, 160 pages, 2013, ISBN0-7851-6520-7)
Hawkeye vol. 4 (with David Aja, Javier Pulido (#4–5), Steve Lieber + Jesse Hamm (#7), Annie Wu and Francesco Francavilla (#10 and 12), 2012–2015) collected as:
Family Freakout (collects #9–16, tpb, 184 pages, 2014, ISBN0-7851-6664-5)
Issues #12–16 are scripted by Lee Allred from Fraction's plots.
Both series along with the short story from the Marvel NOW! Point One one-shot are collected into a single volume as Fantastic Four by Matt Fraction Omnibus (hc, 760 pages, 2015, ISBN0-7851-9110-0)
Following these issues, Fraction was supposed to launch an ongoing Inhuman series[43] with artist Joe Madureira[44] but due to "creative differences" the title was handed over to Charles Soule.[45][46]
Fraction served as a consulting producer for the Disney+ series Hawkeye, which is heavily influenced by his stint writing for the Hawkeye comic.[26] Fraction also serves as the co-creator, writer, and executive producer of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters alongside Chris Black.[47]
^Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "2000s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 334. ISBN978-0756641238. Ed Brubaker teamed with co-writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja to give Iron Fist another shot at an ongoing title.((cite book)): |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)