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One of the most influential and prolific comic book writers, Leonard Norman Wein is best known as the co-creator of Marvel's premier female superhero Ororo Munroe (aka "Storm"), the claw-bearing X-Man James 'Logan' Howlett (aka "Wolverine") and the earth elemental known as 'Swamp Thing'. The iconic loner "Wolverine" was initially conceived at the request of Marvel's chief editor Roy Thomas as a Canadian superhero (with the objective of boosting comic book sales in Canada) and has been portrayed in several films by Hugh Jackman. Len penned stories for both the Marvel and DC franchises (as well as Disney), worked on comics ranging from Batman and Superman to Spiderman, Thor, Daredevil and the Justice League of America. In the 80s, he edited DC's seminal series 'The Watchmen'. During the preceding decade, he had been instrumental in reviving the popularity of the X-Men. He also authored several key issues of "Power Man", an African-American protagonist who would later become better known as Luke Cage. An avid young comic book enthusiast named Nicolas Coppola adopted part of Power Man's moniker and subsequently rose to movie stardom as Nicolas Cage.
Len was born in New York's Bronx, had a sickly early childhood and became infatuated with comics during a lengthy recuperation in hospital at the age of seven. He initially aspired to become an artist and graduated with a degree in arts from Farmingdale State College, Long Island. While his art work didn't quite make the grade, he was able to sell his stories to DC by 1968. Along with noted illustrator Bernie Wrightson, Len co-created the human/plant hybrid mutant "Swamp Thing" in 1971 (he apparently came up with the idea while riding a subway to Queens). The character eventually inspired an animated TV series in 1991 and two motion pictures in 1982 and 1989, respectively. In tandem with writer/artist Dave Cockrum and Marvel editor Roy Thomas, Len revamped the X-Men in 1975, further adding new characters to their ranks in the first issue of Giant Size X-Men. In addition to Storm and Wolverine, he co-created the teleporting Bavarian mutant Kurt Wagner (aka " Nightcrawler") and the Russian metal giant Pyotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin (aka "Colossus"). For DC Comics, he co-created the character of Barbara Ann Minerva (alias "Cheetah"), nemesis of Wonder Woman; the alien Galius Zed (affiliated with the "Green Lantern"); Amanda Waller (aka "Mockingbird"), affiliated with Justice League and Suicide Squad and variously played on screen (live action) by Pam Grier (Smallville (2001)), Angela Bassett (Green Lantern (2011)) and Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow (2012)). Another product of Len's fertile imagination (with writer John Calnan) was Wayne Enterprises (Batman's) business manager Lucius Fox, portrayed on screen by Morgan Freeman in The Dark Knight Trilogy. Ironically, Len did not have a hand in the creation of his two personal favourites: Batman and the Incredible Hulk.
Len suffered from long-standing heart ailments. He had a quintuple bypass in 2015 and sadly died two years later, on September 10 2017 in Los Angeles, at the age of 69. The Guardian newspaper quoted Dave Wielgosz (assistant editor at DC comic), eulogising Len by saying "You can't be hyperbolic when it comes to Len Wein's legacy. He created wrote and edited more great superhero stories than anyone."
