Mary Jo Duffy (born February 9, 1954)[1] is an American comic book editor and writer, known for her work for Marvel Comics in the 1980s and DC Comics and Image Comics in the 1990s.
Her writing work for Marvel, which began as an assistant to Archie Goodwin,[2] included Conan the Barbarian, Fallen Angels, Power Man and Iron Fist, Star Wars, Wolverine,[3]
In 1978, Jo Duffy is credited for writing the Wolverine story "At the Sign of the Lion", which was published the following year in Marvel Comic #335 (UK) (March 1979). The story is widely recognized by historians and collectors as the first published solo Wolverine story, making Duffy the first woman—and one of the earliest writers overall—to script Wolverine in a lead role.[6][7]
In the 1990s, she worked for other publishers, including DC Comics, where she wrote the first 14 issues of Catwoman. For Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios imprint of Image Comics, she wrote every issue of the first Glory series, between March 1995 and April 1997,[3] the last six of which were released by Liefeld's Maximum Press after his departure from Image. She also worked on the screenplays for the horror films Puppet Master 4 (1993) and Puppet Master 5 (1994) for Full Moon Features.
In the early 2000s, she co-wrote the last issue of Marvel's Defenders vol. 2 and the six issues of the follow-up series The Order with Kurt Busiek,[3] while working at a financial services company in Lower Manhattan. Her work at that company included meeting planning, editing, proofreading, and packaging for a comic book published by the company.[8] From 2003 to 2006, she also wrote the English script adaptations of Naruto for Viz Media.
Since then, she has been largely absent from the publishing scene. She made multiple announcements on her Facebook page that she created a new company to self-publish her work and incorporated Armin Armadillo Publishers in 2008. As of 2013, the company is listed as inactive.[9]
Jo Duffy received the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing in 2024.[10]
