Shooter, who was 14 and lived in Pittsburgh, had to wait until school was in recess, after which he went to New York with his mother,[6] spurred in part by the need to support his financially struggling parents.

[16] In 1969 Shooter was accepted into New York University, but after graduating from high school he successfully applied for a job at Marvel Comics.

[17] While at Marvel he worked as an editor and occasional co-plotter, taking his residence at the YMCA, but after only three weeks his financial situation compelled him to give up the post and return home to Pittsburgh.

After Roy Thomas stepped down from the post to focus on writing, a succession of other editors, including Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, and Archie Goodwin, took the job during a relatively short span of time, only to find the task too daunting as Marvel continued to grow and add new titles and a larger staff to turn out material.

[17] With the quick turnover at the top, Shooter rapidly found himself rising in the ranks, and on the first working day of January 1978, he succeeded Archie Goodwin to become Marvel's ninth editor-in-chief.

Although there were complaints among some that Shooter imposed a dictatorial style on the "Bullpen", he cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, successfully managed to keep the line of books on schedule (ending the widespread practice of missed deadlines popularly known as "the Dreaded Deadline Doom"), added new titles, and developed new talent.

[21] Shooter in his nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief oversaw Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men,[22] Byrne's work on Fantastic Four,[23] Frank Miller's series of Daredevil stories,[24] Walt Simonson's crafting of Norse mythology with the Marvel Universe in Thor,[25] and Roger Stern's runs on both Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man.

[26] Featuring a disco-themed heroine with ties to the X-Men (based upon an unmade film set to star Bo Derek),[27] the first issue of this series was sold only through specialty stores, bypassing the then-standard newsstand/spinner rack distribution route altogether, as recognition by Marvel of the growing comics shop sector.

"[3] Shooter also institutionalized creator royalties,[citation needed] starting the Epic imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover events, with Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions and Secret Wars;[30] and launched a new, albeit ultimately unsuccessful, line named New Universe, to commemorate Marvel's 25th anniversary, in 1986.

[18] Although he instituted an art-return program, and implemented a policy giving creators royalties when their books passed certain sales benchmarks or when characters they worked on were licensed as toys, Shooter occasionally found himself in well-publicized conflicts with some writers and artists.

Creators such as Steve Gerber, Marv Wolfman,[32][33] Gene Colan,[33][34] John Byrne,[35] and Doug Moench left to work for DC (Encouraged by its new publisher, Jenette Kahn, aggressively taking advantage of the opportunity) or other companies.

[37][38][39] According to John Byrne, he initially had to conceal Northstar's sexuality, since Shooter personally told him that portraying a gay character would not be allowed.

Around the time I left to do Superman, I said that I thought Shooter and Dick Giordano should trade jobs – it was DC that needed fixing then – and do so about every 5 years or so.

Two years later Valiant entered the superhero market with a relaunch of the Gold Key Comics character Magnus, Robot Fighter.

Shooter brought many of Marvel's creators to Valiant, including Bob Layton and Barry Windsor-Smith, as well as industry veterans such as Don Perlin.

[53] Despite some initial success with the first title, the new company failed to secure an audience in the increasingly crowded direct sales market and went out of business after thirteen months of publishing.

[56] In 1998, he spoke of a planned self-publishing, Daring Comics, with a projected eight titles including Anomalies and Rathh of God, with artist Joe James scheduled to draw at least one.

In 2003, Jim Shooter joined custom comics company Illustrated Media as creative director and editor in chief.

[59] Writer Shooter created a team of seven characters, one from each continent, who are brought together in New York because they share a higher consciousness.

Solar series as well as Mighty Samson, another Gold Key character (that had not been picked up by Valiant Comics), for Dark Horse, beginning in 2010.

As of 2023, Shooter still works as consulting editor and freelance writer for custom comics company Illustrated Media.