Jody Houser decided she wanted to be a writer when she was 8 years old. She earned her MFA in creative writing at Emerson College in Boston, where she completed her master's thesis in screenwriting and was a winner of the Rod Parker Fellowship for Playwriting. She is the creator behind the web comic Cupcake POW! and has contributed to numerous comics anthologies including Womanthology: Heroic and Womanthology: Space for IDW, CMYK: Magenta for Vertigo and Avengers: No More Bullying for Marvel. Her early Marvel credits include The Cavalry: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary one-shot, as well as the James Patterson adaptations Max Ride: Ultimate Flight and Max Ride: Final Flight. She told tales of the alternate-universe Parker family in Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows and explored the galaxy far, far away in Star Wars: Rogue One Adaptation and Star Wars: Thrawn.

Working for the Marvel UK imprint led Spanish artist Salvador Larroca to a regular gig on Ghost Rider. He graduated to Fantastic Four, alongside one of his favorite writers, Chris Claremont. From 2000 to 2006, Larroca depicted Marvel's mutants across Uncanny X-Men, X-Men and X-Treme X-Men. Following a stint on Amazing Spider-Man, Larroca brought his maturing style to a lengthy run on Invincible Iron Man and the X-Men: No More Humans original graphic novel. Upon the return of Star Wars to Marvel, Larroca turned to the dark side with Darth Vader before taking on the flagship Star Wars title.