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