Stan Lee (1922–2018) began his career with wartime Timely Comics, and staying the course throughout the Atlas era, Stan the Man made comic book history with Fantastic Four #1, harbinger of a bold new perspective in story writing that endures to this day. With some of the industry’s greatest artists, he introduced hero after hero in Incredible Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, and more, forming a shared universe for rival publishers to measure themselves against. After an almost literal lifetime of writing and editing, Lee was involved in movies and television via his company POV! Entertainment. He was Marvel’s chairman emeritus and best-known public representative.

Jack Kirby was regarded as one of the major innovators of comic books as one of its most prolific and influential creators. He, along with Joe Simon and Stan Lee, created the highly successful superheroes such as Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk.

The Lee-Kirby titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim. Called "the William Blake of comics," in 1987 Kirby was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Marvel, not entirely happy with the end result of the Prisoner work by Kirby, decided to commission Steve Englehart to write the rest of the comic. He was known for his work for DC, Malibu, Eclipse Comics, Topps, Valiant and Warren Publishing and co-created Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu for Marvel Comics.