Pat Broderick is an American comics artist, known for his work on the Micronauts and Alpha Flight for Marvel Comics, and Legion of Super-Heroes, Captain Atom, and Green Lantern for DC Comics. Broderick also penciled the four-part “Batman: Year Three” storyline, written by Marv Wolfman, which detailed the first meeting of Batman and Dick Grayson as well as Tim Drake’s first appearance.
Soon after graduating from high school in Tampa, Florida, Broderick flew to New York in the early 1970s to compete in DC Comics’ junior bullpen program, a nationwide art and writing contest held at the July 4 convention at the Commodore Hotel. Presenting his work to DC editors Sol Harrison and Joe Orlando, Broderick was almost immediately placed in the junior bullpen program and drew filler pages and short stories for various 100-page Super Spectaculars. During this period, Broderick also worked for Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’s Continuity Associates as a member of the Crusty Bunkers.
In 1975, after sporadic work with DC and Marvel, Broderick joined the team at Atlas Comics. His time at Atlas was short-lived, and Broderick soon found himself back at Marvel, working on various titles for their black-and-white line, Curtis Magazines. This led to working on Captain Marvel and then The Micronauts. He drew the Micronauts series from #19 (July 1980) to #34 (Oct. 1981).Writer J. M. DeMatteis and Broderick created the Creature Commandos in Weird War Tales #93 (November 1980). In 1981, he abruptly left Marvel for DC. As he said in a 2003 interview, “Jim Shooter had all but informed me that, in his opinion, my art sucked and that I would never get another raise there, regardless of how well my books were selling.
So one quick phone call to DC and I was in.” Broderick was one of the artists on the double-sized Justice League of America #200 (March 1982). He and writer Gerry Conway launched The Fury of Firestorm in June 1982. Broderick briefly drew the Batman feature in Detective Comics in 1985. Captain Atom, a Charlton Comics character purchased by DC, was given an ongoing series in March 1987 which was written by Cary Bates and drawn by Broderick. Writers Marv Wolfman and Broderick created Tim Drake in the “Batman: Year Three” story. Broderick drew the Swamp Thing series from 1989 to 1990 and then launched the Green Lantern Volume 3 series with Gerard Jones.
After ten years at DC, Broderick’s relationship with that company soured. According to him, he “was being abused by [his] editors, Andy Helfer and Kevin Dooley, and was really just fed up with their attitude.” Shooter was no longer at Marvel which offered him work again and Broderick returned, where he worked as the regular penciller first on Alpha Flight and Doom 2099
