He and his younger brother, alternative cartoonist Noah Van Sciver,[4] grew up in Merchantville in southern New Jersey,[1] and he graduated from Pennsauken High School in 1992.

[5] Van Sciver decided on a career in the comic-book field after seeing the 1978 movie Superman as a child, but only began to read comics intently with John Byrne's The Man of Steel in 1986.

[6] While in high school, Van Sciver did various art-related jobs, which included painting murals of Native Americans, drawing caricatures for mall customers, illustrating children's books, and airbrushing t-shirts.

[6] Van Sciver was hired by Marvel Comics in 2001 to work on New X-Men, a retitled and revamped series (beginning with #114) written by Grant Morrison.

In issue #133 of this series, Morrison and Van Sciver co-created the character Dust, a Sunni Muslim mutant who can transform into sand.

[14] Johns, Van Sciver, Dave Gibbons, Ivan Reis, and others produced "Sinestro Corps War", a high-profile 11-issue story appearing in DC's two Green Lantern monthly series in 2007.

[19][20][21] In 2017, Van Sciver penciled illustrations for 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, a self-help book by Canadian psychologist and social activist Jordan Peterson.

[33] Van Sciver has also been a prominent figure in the Fandom Menace, a Star Wars fan movement with similar goals and methods to Comicsgate.

[34][35] In 2018, Van Sciver expressed his displeasure at the direction that the franchise had taken by producing a video of himself opening and destroying action figures of The Last Jedi character Rose Tico.

"[35][38] In March 2023, Van Sciver publicly criticized actor Pedro Pascal for not having defended his Mandalorian co-star Gina Carano[39][40] when Lucasfilm fired her from that series in 2021[41] for comments that were interpreted as a comparison of treatment of American conservatives to Jews in Nazi Germany.