Alitha Martinez

Alitha Evelyn Martinez is a Black American comic book artist from New York City who attended the School of Visual Arts in the mid-1990s, where she was often the only female student in her cartooning classes. Her professional career began in 1993 with work on Cable at Marvel, and her big break came in 1999 when she was working as assistant to Marvel editor Joe Quesada, which led to her becoming the lead artist on Iron Man, working on the book throughout 2000 and 2001. She subsequently worked on Heroes (NBC webcomics, Seasons 2 and 3, 2008–2009), co-created the villain Knightfall in DC's Batgirl #10 (August 2012), and has worked across Marvel, DC Comics, Image Comics, Archie Comics, and more. She penciled most of the first five issues of Black Panther: World of Wakanda (written by Roxane Gay), which won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comic Book. Additional credits include Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Marvel), Riverdale (Archie Comics), Omni Vol. 1 (Humanoids, 2019, with writer Devin Grayson), Lazarus X+66 (Image Comics, 2017), Nubia and the Amazons (DC), Nubia: Queen of the Amazons (DC), Black Moon Ritual (AWA Studios, 2026), and It's a Bird (DC). She is a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts, teaching in the BFA Cartooning program.