Vortex Comics

Vortex Comics is an American publishing company based in New York City, founded in 2013 by writer/artist Owen Graziano and writer/editor Jason O'Brien. The company was created as a response to the decline in readership for "the big two" (DC Comics and Marvel Comics) which they attribute to the over-politicization of comics and a decline of original characters, aiming to create "new, exciting characters and titles that reflect the diversity of the comic book community while maintaining a focus on creating convincing, well-rounded characters and stories." Initiating the company as a startup, they hired many of their employees through an online open call, some of whom had briefly worked with one of the big two in the past. Like the big two, the characters created by Vortex Comics are all set within the same fictional universe, known as the Vortex Universe.

The Vortex Universe has been highly praised by the comic book community as well as both sides of the political spectrum, with many crediting the company for revitalizing the comic book industry. In 2020, Amazon Studios bought the rights to Vortex Comics, initiating the Vortex Entertainment Universe.

History
Graziano and O'Brien met as high school students on Boston’s South Shore, bonding over their shared love of comic books and underground films. After graduating from high school, the duo relocated to Manhattan where they both attended the New School, where Graziano studied art and O'Brien studied film. Graziano also worked as a stand-up comedian during this time while O'Brien interned at A24 but ultimately did not pursue full employment there after falling into a depression his girlfriend at the time cheated on him. Graziano, who had also just experienced a breakup and was experiencing a bout of depression himself, suggested that they collaborate on something they both enjoy, settling on creating a comic book series. They created Dreamland, which O'Brien wrote and Graziano illustrated, and which was published by Image Comics one year after they graduated from college. Graziano also wrote and drew for Marvel Comics' All-New X-Men series for eight months but has stated that he's did not enjoy working there due to creative interference from company executives and a culture he felt was starting to lean too heavily on political correctness. Although writing and/or drawing for X-Men had always been his dream, Graziano had stated that he does not regret leaving Marvel so soon, stating that he was much happier working on Dreamland than he ever would have been working on Marvel.

Realizing that their true passion was working on creator-owned comics, Graziano and O'Brien founded Vortex Comics in 2013, then still in their early-mid twenties. They posted an open call for comic book writers and artists on Facebook, which initially attracted about twelve other people. Initially a very modest company, they skyrocketed into the comic book mainstream in 2015 after iconic comic book creator Stan Lee, who had met Graziano twice while he was at Marvel, publicly praised them and encouraged his fans to buy their comics. Both Graziano and O'Brien have stated that they view Lee as a mentor figure, with O'Brien stating that he "encouraged and believed in (them) from the very beginning." Comic book fans and critics have praised them for their ability to create new and interesting characters while still reflecting diversity of both identity and thought within their stories.

In 2020, Amazon bought the distribution rights to Vortex Comics, planning a shared cinematic universe similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe, called the Vortex Entertainment Universe (often abbreviated to "VEU"). As of 2030, the PCU has released thirteen movies and has many others planned.

Synopsis
The Vortex Universe’s Paradox Saga revolves around a war between humanity and a hostile alien race called the Ziovians, who travel to different solar systems and conquer them. After the Ziovians conquer and destroy the planet Numa, an unnamed Numian scientist escapes with his infant son, Travos, losing his wife in the process. They settle on Earth in Marshfield, Massachusetts, during the late 1970s, where Travos takes on the name of Travis Smith and falls in love with 1980s Earth culture after discovering Miami Vice. As a high school student, Travos falls in love with a classmate named Tracy Strange, taking her to the moon and impregnating her. Soon afterwards, they are attacked by Ziovians where Travos is captured and Tracy escapes in a cryopod where she gives birth to a son named Christian Strange. They float around in space until 1993 when they return to Earth, which the Ziovians have already begun to scout. Now in her twenties, Tracy leaves a 6-year-old Christian in the care of a family friend who raises him as her own son. She briefly attends community college where one of her professors, Norman Brown, is killed by the Ziovians and replaced by an evil clone, who starts the Cloud Foundation, a terrorist organization that employs many of the supervillains within the Paradox Universe in the service of the Ziovians. In response, Tracy and a group of her classmates found P.A.R.A.D.O.X., a clandestine organization dedicated to fighting the Cloud Foundation and the Ziovians. In 1997, Tracy puts together a team of superheroes called The Company, who operate out of a P.A.R.A.D.O.X. bunker under a tree in Boston Common, in response to a team of supervillains founded by Norman Brown called Doom Forever.

In addition to characters affiliated with the Company, other characters and groups include the Odd Squad, a group of superpowered teenagers who live at a boarding school run by an entrepreneur named Jim Power; the Agents of Artemis, an all-AAPI team of superheroes founded by the Olympian goddess Artemis; the Union, a team of superheroes based in London, England; and the Space Invaders, a team of intergalactic superheroes lead by an adult Christian Strange from the year 2053, who uses crystals to stay young, along with the different rogues galleries of the different characters, some of whom make up Doom Forever. The Paradox Saga follows P.A.R.A.D.O.X. and the Company’s fight against the Ziovians, ending when the Ziovians take over Earth, leading to a post-apocalyptic reality where each state is closed off from the rest of the world and Tracy regroups with the Company to form a resistance, defeating the Ziovians and restoring the world to some semblance of normalcy. O’Brien has stated that Vortex Comics will continue making comics based on these characters with a new story arc following the end of the Paradox Saga.