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In 2008 Mark Bagley could write his own ticket as a comic book artist. Ultimate Spider-Man was one of the most successful titles of the 2000s, and Bagley’s pencils had a lot to do with its success. Bagley was easily one of the hottest artists of the era, so it was only natural that Marvel’s competitor DC Comics wanted him. And so, seeking new horizons and challenges, Bagley signed a three-year 'exclusive' contract with DC. However, his time at DC wasn’t what he expected it to be.

“I didn’t get to do sort of the projects I really wanted to do at DC,” Mark Bagley says during a spotlight panel at Toronto Comicon 2012. “DC is a different animal. There’s a different vibe over there for me. And there’s stories I can’t tell now because I’m being recorded.”

One of Bagley’s DC projects was Trinity, a weekly series that reunited him with his Thunderbolts collaborator Kurt Busiek. While Bagley loved working with Busiek again, he considered Trinity a misfire.

“There were things that went on that drove me up the fricking wall,” Bagley continues. “A couple of days, I just wanted to strangle somebody. And I’m like the happiest guy in the world. I love my job. I get up every day. I still work 60 hours a week, 70 hours a week, and I love it. But I just wanted to kill somebody. And one particular person, who will go nameless. And so, when the three years was up, and it was time to go – and Trinity, I love [Kurt Busiek], but it turned into something that I didn’t sign on for. It turned into everybody but Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It was just the way it happened.”

“After a year of that, you know, doing 11 pages a week for a year, I was so exhausted. I was just beat up. And I did a four-issue Batman thing, which was fun. I mean, it was a good story, and I had a good time drawing it. And then they got JLA, which was one of the few books I would really want to do full-time in DC. I mean, Superman, maybe the Flash, but the Flash was taken.”

Bagley also penciled James Robinson’s Justice League of America. While he has nothing but praise for Robinson’s work, he was frustrated by editorial keeping his favorite heroes out of the book.

“JLA was so fricking frustrating, because it was everybody but the Justice League, and I talked to [then-DC co-publisher Dan Didio] about it. You know, why can’t we have Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman? And he’s like, well, they’re too powerful, it wouldn’t make a good book. And I’m like, hello, look what’s going on now. It just didn’t work for me. James did some good work, and it just didn’t work for me.”

In 2011 Bagley returned to Marvel after his contract with DC ended. Today, Bagley retired as a monthly artist, but the years haven’t diminished his talents. A lot has changed at DC in the past 15 years, so maybe Bagley will get another chance to make his mark on the universe.

Need more? Here's our picks for the best DC Comics stories of all time, and here's a list of all the free DC comics you can look forward to as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day 2026 and Comics Giveaway Day 2026.