Chuck Austen (born Chuck Beckum) is an American comic book writer and artist, television writer and producer. In the comics industry, he is known for his work on U.S. War Machine, The Avengers, JLA, Action Comics and the X-Men franchise. In television, he is known for co-creating the animated TV series Tripping the Rift, producing the first season of Steven Universe, and acting as a co-showrunner on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.
Early life
Chuck Austen was born Chuck Beckum. and after his parents divorced, he was raised by his single mother in a housing project. At the start of his career Austen used his birthname; he later abandoned out of a desire to disassociate from his father's family name.
Subsequently, he drew the first five issues for the short-lived series Hero Sandwich for Slave Labor Graphics, as well as stints on The Badger for First Comics and two issues of Scott McCloud's Zot!, covering for the artist's honeymoon. prompting Austen to jokingly comment, "I feel like I should stop doing this book so the world will stay at peace." Using the creative liberties provided due to the fact that series was set outside the mainline Marvel Universe, Austen wrote Rhodes' boss Tony Stark as more pacifist and business-minded than his mainstream counterpart, and Rhodes himself as the proactive protector. and remained on the title until #443. The two-year run was the most lengthy writing assignment in Austen's mainstream career, His controversial run saw the return of Havok and Polaris to the X-Men, the introduction of Havok's love interest Annie Ghazikhanian, and the addition of several existing characters to the X-Men team, including Northstar, Juggernaut, M, and Husk. The most controversial storyline revealed the identity of Nightcrawler's father: an immortal mutant known as Azazel. During this run, he showcased the beginning of the relationship between Cyclops and Emma Frost following the death of Jean Grey and introduced new versions of the character Xorn and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Michael Aronson of Silver Bullet Comics, while praising Austen's characterization of Professor X and Annie Ghazikhanian, excoriated Austen for what Aronson saw as his obsession with relationships and sex, and the sexist nature of his characterization of Husk. According to Thor K. Jensen of UGO Entertainment, fans disliked the romantic pairing of Angel and Husk; Jensen cites that storyline as emblematic of critical reception to Austen's run on X-Men.
In 2003, Austen wrote a brief run on Captain America, finishing the storylines that were started by the outgoing writer John Ney Rieber. In 2004, Austen took over The Avengers, introducing a new, female Captain Britain (since renamed Lionheart), a single mother thrust into the realm of super-heroes after being killed as an innocent bystander during a fight between the Avengers and the Wrecking Crew, only to be resurrected by the original Captain Britain. The second arc, which saw Austen writing former Avengers U.S. Agent and Namor attempting to liberate a Middle Eastern country from its corrupt leadership, served as launching pad for the short-lived New Invaders series. Non-superhero Marvel work of the time includes The Call of Duty, a project consisting of several mini-series conceived in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks that were written primarily by Austen (with one series written by Bruce Jones) and featured firefighters and emergency service workers dealing with paranormal phenomena in the Marvel Universe, as well as Eden's Trail with artist Steve Uy, a series in "Marvelscope" (landscape) format created to capitalize on the burgeoning manga market which resulted in controversy when Uy publicly disowned the project, calling it a "bad dream".
Also in 2003, Austen returned to DC Comics with the limited series Superman: Metropolis which followed the life of Jimmy Olsen and other citizens of the eponymous fictional city. After the series concluded with issue #12, Austen took over the writing duties of the ongoing series Action Comics. Fans criticized Austen for resurrecting the long-forgotten Silver Age feud between Lois Lane and Lana Lang over the love of Superman, with Lana in particular divorcing her longtime husband Pete Ross in the process. and the following two issues were scripted by a writer named "J.D. Finn". While readers suspected Finn to be Austen, he speculated that Finn was actually then–Action Comics editor Eddie Berganza and denied using the pseudonym. The last page of Worldwatch #2 featured an announcement from the publisher stating that Austen had been fired, and that he would be replaced by a writer named Sam Clemens (which is the real name of American writer Mark Twain). In a subsequent interview, Austen revealed that this was intended as a joke (since he himself was the publisher and thus could not be fired from the book) and expressed disappointment in the fact that most readers had not understood it. Subsequent news reports indicated that the series had been cancelled even though the other two volumes were completed and both creators had been paid for the work. In 2011, writing as Charles Olen Austen, he released the three-book series Pride and Nakedness, followed by Something Old, Something New in 2013.
In 2020, Austen returned to comics with Edgeworld, a five-part series with artist Pat Oliffe, published digitally via Comixology.
Reception
During his stint at the Big Two, Austen used the expression "Seven Deadly Trolls". In Austen's point of view, there was a small group of people, not representative of the wider comics readership, that used internet message boards, blogs and newsgroups to attack him on a professional and personal level. Austen has stated that he received death threats from fans and had certain comic book store owners refuse to stock any comics written by him. In a 2004 interview, Austen explained that decision as a result of a "bad day".