Brian Azzarello is an American comic book writer and screenwriter. He came to prominence with the hardboiled crime series 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. In addition to 100 Bullets, Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City"; Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire; Joker; and Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance), Hellblazer and Superman ("For Tomorrow" and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel). In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin. Also at Vertigo, his Filthy Rich original graphic novel was one of the two titles that launched the Vertigo Crime line. Azzarello and Risso produced a Batman serial for Wednesday Comics in 2009. He designed the First Wave, a new fictional universe for DC Comics, separate from the main DC Universe. It started with a Batman/Doc Savage one-shot, followed by the First Wave limited series. In 2011 he began writing The New 52 relaunch of the Wonder Woman series. He wrote two Before Watchmen limited series featuring the Comedian and Rorschach. In 2014, he and Jeff Lemire, Keith Giffen, and Dan Jurgens co-wrote The New 52: Futures End. In April 2015 he was announced as the co-writer of an eight-issue second sequel to The Dark Knight Returns, titled The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, with Frank Miller. In 2016 Azzarello wrote the 12-issue miniseries Moonshine with frequent collaborator Eduardo Risso for Image Comics. Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo collaborated on the Batman: Damned limited series for DC's Black Label imprint.