Dennis Hallum worked in a comic store in the mid-2000s while trying to break into the
comics industry. In 2007, using the pen name "Dennis Hopeless", he created
GearHead (with penciller Kevin Mellon), a four-issue comic about a female auto mechanic searching for her lost brother. The series was published by
Arcana Studio. His next notable work didn't hit shelves until 2011 when Hallum reunited with artist Kevin Mellon to create
LoveSTRUCK, a supernatural
graphic novel inspired in part by
Frank Herbert's Dune and
Garth Ennis's Preacher that was published by
Image Comics. That same year, Hallum began working with
Marvel Comics, writing the second volume of
Legion of Monsters (with penciler Juan Doe). The series starred the titular Legion and monster-hunter
Elsa Bloodstone. While
Legion of Monsters was still being published, Marvel hired Hallum (along with pencillers
Jamie McKelvie and
Mike Norton) to create a graphic novel called
X-Men: Season One as part of a series of four graphic novels focusing on the origins of some of the company's biggest characters. While some publications were hesitant to embrace the
Season One concept, Hallum's novel garnered generally positive reviews, with
Comic Book Resources calling it, "easy to understand, fun to read and still pretty wide in scope." Hallum's next work for Marvel was 2013's
Avengers Arena, an 18-issue comic series in which the villain
Arcade kidnaps 16 teenage superheroes and forces them to fight each other to the death. The series starred characters from
Avengers Academy, the
Runaways and Hallum's newly created Braddock Academy and featured covers referencing
Lord of the Flies,
The Hunger Games series, the game show
Survivor, and the Japanese film
Battle Royale. The comic won Hallum the 2013
Harvey Award for Most Promising New Talent. That same year, Hallum wrote
Cable and X-Force (with artist
Salvador Larroca), a 19-issue series that ran concurrently and eventually crossed over with
Sam Humphries and
Ron Garney's
Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2. Also in 2013, Hallum co-wrote a 4-issue series called
The Answer! with
Eisner Award winning creator
Mike Nolan for
Dark Horse Comics. In 2014, Hallum and artist Kevin Walker authored
Avengers Undercover, a direct follow-up series to
Avengers Arena with many of the same characters. Hallum's next project was the limited series
All-New Captain America: Fear Him (with co-writer
Rick Remender). Part of Marvel's
Infinite Comics series, it starred
Sam Wilson in his new role as
Captain America. The following year, Hallum began working on the fifth volume of Marvel's
Spider-Woman comic with penciler
Greg Land and
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (with artist Tigh Walker), an all-ages western adventure comic based on the
Disney theme park
attraction. That summer, Marvel began their
Secret Wars crossover event and Hallum wrote two books in the storyline,
Inferno (with Javier Garron) and
House of M (with Mark Failla), both based on previous Marvel events. Upon the conclusion of the
Secret Wars event, Marvel relaunched their
Spider-Woman comic in January 2016 with Hallum now joined by artist
Javier Rodríguez who had worked with Hallum on the previous volume after Land's departure. The relaunched series centered on Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew's newly announced pregnancy and impending motherhood. Critics praised the relatable, fun storytelling of the comic with IGN calling it, "laid back at times and outlandish at others" while scoring it an 8.6 out of 10. The following month, Hallum served as writer for another relaunched series, the second volume of
All-New X-Men, a comic starring the time-displaced original
X-Men now traveling the country with three young
Jean Grey School students. In late 2016, Hallum wrote the main story in a
one-shot licensed comic called "WWE: Then, Now, Forever", which was published by
Boom! Studios with Dan Mora providing the art. The comic became an ongoing series simply called
WWE the following year with Hallum continuing to write the main story and
Daniel Acuña replacing Mora on pencils. Both the All-New X-Men and Spider-Woman ongoing series came to an end in May 2017 with both series receiving fairly positive reviews throughout their run. The final issue of Spider-Woman, in particular, garnered a great deal of positive sentiment, with
The A.V. Club's Oliver Sava calling the series "one of Marvel’s most consistently entertaining, fun-loving titles" in his review of the issue. Continuing his work at Marvel, Hallum was tapped to take over writing duties for the
Doctor Strange ongoing beginning with issue #21 as well as scripting a new
Jean Grey series, the character's first ongoing solo book and part of Marvel's ResurrXion revamp. Hallum's first Dr. Strange issue and the first issue of the Jean Grey series will both have a cover date of July, 2017. After the end of
Jean Grey in early 2018, Hallum continued writing for Marvel, including a digital
Cloak and Dagger comic miniseries to coincide with the premier of the
Freeform television series adaptation of the characters. In January 2019, after having used the "Dennis Hopeless" pen name for many years, Hallum announced in a Twitter thread that he would begin using his given surname, Hallum, in his published works. He later deleted the tweet. ==Personal life==