Early career
After writing and drawing stories for a number of fan publications, Jim Starlin got his break into comics in 1972, working for Roy Thomas and John Romita at Marvel Comics. Brought in by fellow artist Rich Buckler, Starlin was part of the generation of artists and writers who grew up as fans of Silver Age Marvel Comics. At a Steve Ditko-focused panel at the 2008 Comic-Con International, Starlin said, "Everything I learned about storytelling was [due to] him or Kirby. [Ditko] did the best layouts."
Starlin's first job was as a finisher on pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. He then drew three issues of Iron Man, introducing the character Thanos. He was then given the chance to draw an issue of the marginal title Captain Marvel (issue #25). Starlin took over as plotter the following issue, and began developing an elaborate story arc centered on the villainous Thanos, and spread across a number of Marvel titles. This eventually led to a complex cosmology that has remained a part of the fictional "Marvel Universe" continuity. Starlin left Captain Marvel one issue after concluding his Thanos saga.
Starlin also co-created the character Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu character, though only working on a few issues himself. Starlin then began his most celebrated work. Expanding on what he did in Captain Marvel, Starlin took over a minor title, Warlock, starring a genetically engineered being created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960s and re-imagined by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in the 1970s. Envisioning the character, Adam Warlock, as a philosophical, existentially tortured character, Starlin proceeded to script and draw a complex space opera with theological and psychological themes. Adam Warlock confronted the militaristic Universal Church of Truth, eventually revealed to be created and led by evil evolution of his future—past self, known as Magus. Starlin ultimately incorporated Thanos into this story.
When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character, Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (Lee & Kirby's reunion for a Silver Surfer graphic novel a few years earlier was published by Simon and Schuster). It was very well-received both critically and commercially, and was felt at the time to bring some depth to the superhero genre , as the hero was slain not by a super villain, but by cancer (which Captain Marvel had developed after exposure to a toxic gas in Starlin's last issue of Captain Marvel).
In addition to his superhero work for Marvel and later DC Comics, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach in the mid-170s. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publisher self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority.
Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider; Warlock commits suicide by killing his future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine.
Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).
1980s
Starlin occasionlly worked for Marvel's competitor DC Comics and drew fill-in stories for Legion of Super-Heroes and Batman in the late 1970s, but the new decade found him creating his most expansive story yet, entitled "Metamorphosis Odyssey". Originally running in Epic Illustrated, Marvel Comics' version of the popular fantasy anthology magazine Heavy Metal, the initial story was painted in monochromatic greys, eventually added to with some other tones, and finally becoming full color. "Metamorphosis Odyssey" featured many of Starlin's hallmarks: a cosmic scope, death, sacrifice, politics, religion. The storyline was further developed in a couple of graphic novels, and eventually the long-running Dreadstar comic book, published by Epic Comics, and then First Comics.
In the late 1980s Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including The Cult, and more successfully, "A Death in the Family," in which Jason Todd, the second Robin, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation.
1990s
Returning to Marvel after his successful Batman run, Starlin took over the writing chores on a revived Silver Surfer series. As had become his Marvel norm, the story arc featured the return of his best-known creation, Thanos, and this led to the Infinity Gauntlet crossover series. Here, Starlin brought back Adam Warlock, whom he had killed years earlier in his concluding Warlock story (in an Avengers Annual, after the Warlock comic itself had been cancelled). In this story, Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to kill half the Marvel Universe as a sacrifice to Mistress Death. Warlock tries to stop Thanos by building an army, consisting of characters ranging from Spider-Man to Galactus.
Infinity Gauntlet was a big sales success for Marvel, and, following the series, other cosmic heroes were teamed with Warlock in a series named Infinity Watch. There were several follow-ups to that story, including Infinity War and Infinity Crusade. By this point, however, many believed that Starlin's current work paled in comparison to his prior achievements in the field, and that Thanos had become a tired cliche for Marvel (whether being used by his creator, or not).
For DC he created Hardcore Station.
Starlin has also written, with his wife Daina Graziunas (whom he married in October 1980), novels such as Thinning the Predators, Among Madmen, and Lady El.
2000s
In 2003 Starlin wrote and drew the Marvel limited series The End. The series starred Thanos and a multitude of Marvel characters, and subsequently, Starlin was given a new book, starring Thanos his own title. However, Starlin left the book after only a few issues, citing "irreconcilable creative differences," and it was canceled shortly thereafter. In 2006 he stated, "At this point in time I do not see myself working for Marvel on any project."
Starlin worked for independent companies, creating Cosmic Guard (later renamed Kid Cosmos) which was published by Devil's Due and then Dynamite Entertainment in 2006., 2006
Starlin returned to DC Comics and, along with artist Shane Davis, wrote the limited series Mystery in Space vol. 2, featuring Captain Comet, and his earlier creation, the Weird, and revisiting Hardcore Station. Starlin then worked on DC's Death of the New Gods limited series and Rann-Thanagar Holy War, as well as a Hawkman tie-in that became the latest of many stories to have altered the character's origins over the previous two decades. He has written the eight-issue limited series Strange Adventures.
