Iconic Marvel artist John Romita Jr. returns home after stint at DC

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

John Romita Jr., the long-time Marvel Comics artist, is returning to the publisher in July, Marvel announced March 31.

Following in the footsteps of his father, the legendary artist John Romita Sr, Romita Jr. (known as JRJr.) began his career at Marvel in 1977 and worked almost exclusively for them for 37 years, until 2014. He's known for distinctive runs on some of the publisher's top properties, like Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil with frequent collaborator Frank Miller, and Uncanny X-Men.

Romita Jr. signed exclusively with DC in 2014 to draw Superman for writer Geoff Johns and has gone on to draw for Action Comics and specials like 2016's Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade one shot with Miller and Brian Azzarello, and 2019's Superman; Year One, again with Miller.

"Romita will now bring his indelible talent to some of Marvel's most iconic series starting later this year," reads the publisher's announcement.

"I have been very fortunate more than a few times in my life, and now I can add this latest event to that list," says Romita Jr. in the announcement. "I have returned to Marvel, the company that I started my career in, and I couldn't be more thrilled!"

"I am literally, at this very moment, working on my next big Marvel project, and it's a blast!!! I am just as excited as I was when I first started, and I will do my best to let the work show that again. I hope fans will see that too!"

John Romita Jr. is #2 on Newsarama's list of the best Spider-Man artists of all time.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.