Career
Early Work
Tony Bedard got his start in the comics industry at Valiant, where he began as an intern and worked his way up to an editor and writer by the mid-1990s. He wrote several series for the publisher, most prominently Magnus Robot Fighter.
He left Valiant in 1996, going to other publishers such as Crusade and Broadway for brief times before arriving at DC Comics in 1998 to predominantly work as an editor for it and its Vertigo imprint.
Crossgen
In 2001, Bedard was recruited into an exclusive deal with Crossgen and became the new regular writer of its Mystic series. He also co-created the Negation series with Mark Waid and later launched the series Route 666. He wrote a handful of smaller works for the company as well, including the Mark of Charon limited series.
Bedard's work was cut short as severe financial problems caused Crossgen to declare bankruptcy and halt all of its series. This came as Bedard was writing Negation War, the first big crossover of Crossgen's shared universe. Only two issues of the series were ever published, leaving the story unfinished.
Marvel
Bedard was quickly picked up by Marvel Comics after Crossgen's collapse, and he was made the new regular writer of Exiles following Judd Winick's departure from the series. He wrote Exiles from '04 to '06, and it was his only regular writing assignment for Marvel at the time. His other works for Marvel were short term assignments, fill-ins and oneshots. The largest of them was writing the second and final story arc of Rogue.
DC
After ending his run on Exiles and Chris Claremont taking over the series, Bedard returned to DC Comics, soon signing an exclusive contract with the publisher. He was one of the many writers attached to the Countdown to Final Crisis weekly series but began branching out to other works as well. He teamed with his past collaborator Mark Waid on a story arc in Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes, which he soon followed with a seven issue story arc written solely by him.
At this time, he also became the new regular writing of Birds of Prey, following Gail Simone's critically acclaimed run. Tied into his Birds of Prey run was a Black Canary limited series written by him. His run ended when Birds of Prey was cancelled as part of the Batman Reborn reorganization of the Batman franchise following Battle for the Cowl.
Bedard's almost OutsidersBedard was announced as the writer of a relaunched Batman and the Outsiders series, and a promo image of his radically new team roster was released. However in a strange twist, Chuck Dixon was announced as the new writer of the series, replacing Bedard before the series even began. This was allegedly due to scheduling conflicts and DC editorial changing their minds about the direction Bedard had in mind for the series.
Coming back from this experience strongly in '09, Bedard launched R.E.B.E.L.S., a critically acclaimed series based on the old L.E.G.I.O.N. series. He revived many of the old characters, most notably Vril Dox, and incorporated new faces into the mix as well. Though loved, the series was never a commercial success, but despite its low sales, DC supported the book and did not cancel it until its 28th issue.
Also in '09, Bedard and Scott McDaniel launched the Great Ten maxi-series, which explored the origins of each member of the Chinese superfunctionary team that had debuted years earlier in 52. Bedard revealed an impressive wealth of knowledge in Chinese culture in history as every issue focused on a different member of the Great Ten. In an awkward decision, DC chose to cut the series down from ten issues to nine, requiring Bedard to condense his planned story and cover both Mother of Champions and Socialist Red Guardsman in the final issue.
Bedard took over the regular writing duties of Green Lantern Corps under the banner of Brightest Day in '10, shifting the books focus on Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and Ganthet as a Green Lantern. A year later, he took part in DC's Flashpoint event as the writer of Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman.
His run on Green Lantern Corps concluded with the post-Flashpoint relaunch of the series, but he was not done with the Green Lantern franchise. As part of the mass DC relaunches, he was named the writer of the new Green Lantern: New Guardians series, starring Kyle Rayner as the leader of a multi-colored Lantern team.
Bibliography
Writer
Marvel Comics
Ongoing Series
Mini-Series
Annuals
D.C. Comics
Ongoing Series
Mini-Series
Event Series
Valiant Comics
Current Work
Created Characters
DC
Marvel
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