Matt Fritchman, nom de plume Matt Fraction (born December 1, 1975), is an American comic writer, mostly known from his works at Marvel Comics and Casanova. A lifelong comic fan, he worked at Charlotte, North Carolina comic shop Heroes Aren't Hard to Find in the late 1990s before deciding to follow his dream of being a writer. While having his share of fans and haters, he is considered one of the most friendly people in the industry.
Married to fellow creator Kelly Sue DeConnick, and they have a son and daughter. He and DeConnick have formed their own production company, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, and have recently signed a production deal with Universal Pictures.
Works:
- Casanova
- Fear Itself
- The Five Fists of Science
- The Immortal Iron Fist #1-16, plus one-shots and annual (with Ed Brubaker)
- Invincible Iron Man #1-33, 500-527 plus a .1 issue and an annual
- The Mighty Thor #1-22, Thor (2007) #615-621, Thor: Ages of Thunder one-shot.
- Uncanny X-Men (1963) #500 (with Ed Brubaker), #501-529, #530-534 (with Kieron Gillen), including a crossover with Dark Avengers.
- Hawkeye (2012) #1-22 one of the last series debuted before Marvel NOW!, critically acclaimed, with issue #11 winning an Eisner for Best Single Issue.
- The Defenders
- "To Have and to Hold" (Sensational Spider-Man Annual #1 with art by Salvador Larroca). One of only a few Spider-Man stories to ever be nominated for the Eisners and celebrated as one of the character's best of the last two decades.
- Fantastic Four (2012) and FF (2012) (takes over as part of the "Marvel NOW!" restructure)
- Satellite Sam
- Sex Criminals, Won an Eisner in 2014 for Best New Series.
- Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen (2019)
- Adventureman
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps — the comic book one-shot
- Batman (2025)
Tropes Embodied by Matt Fraction's Work:
- Creator Backlash: The major lesson he learned from writing X-Men? "Don't write X-Men."
- Creator Breakdown: Fraction wrote very frankly that during the writing of Casanova, he and his wife were trying for their first child and they suffered a horrific miscarriage. He noted it had a direct influence on making the ending of the first volume a lot less bleak than he had anticipated, including a Heel–Face Turn for Zephyr.
- Creator Couple: With fellow comic writer Kelly Sue DeConnick.
- Genre Throwback: He likes these.
- Casanova is an unabashed throwback to the psychedelic Spy Fiction of The '60s and The '70s, such as Nick Fury and The Cornelius Chronicles.
- Adventureman: Two-Fisted Tales in general, and Doc Savage in particular.
- Lying Creator: While advertising a crossover between X-Men and Dark Avengers, Fraction said that Colossus will have important role, being their major power-up in a fight against a team featuring Sentry and Ares, strongly suggesting that Colossus will have to fight one of them. He hasn't met either. Fraction also promised interactions between Noh-Varr and girls from New X-Men, possibly of romantic subtext, but he hasn't appeared anywhere near any of them.
- One for the Money; One for the Art: Fraction freely admits that the only reason he writes mainstream superhero titles is to have funds to write his creator-owned comics.
- So My Kids Can Watch:
- His early titles at Marvel, like his X-Men run, have been criticised for bland and often sexist potrayal of women. Today Fraction is known for writing three-dimensional, well-developed female characters. Some may notice his portrayal of women improved greatly after birth of his daughter and him complaining he fears comics industry as it is now is one in which a little girl would feel unwelcome. He apparently decided to fix it, starting from himself.
- He's said that he knows, one day, his daughter is going to ask him how he can bear to work in an industry that treats women so poorly ("how could I sell her out like that") and he's not exactly ready for that day.
- Take That!: Fraction made it clear that his celebrated Eisner-nominated story "To Have and to Hold" was one to One More Day which he knew was coming:"It was sort of dirty pool because I knew One More Day was coming. But I took the shot and it was great. I don’t know if Peter Parker was the best marvel character to be married, and I understand both sides of the argument. When his marriage with MJ worked, it worked very well, but sometimes it seemed like people didn’t know what to do with MJ. Way too often MJ would be relegated to hostage or obstacle. Too seldom did she play the role of supporter, friend or nurturer. I thought it was possible to do all of that, and maybe it’s a cheap shot, but I took it."