Penciller
A penciller is a collaboration artist who works in creation of comic books, graphic novels, similar visual art forms, with focus on primary pencil illustrations, hence the term "penciller". In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form, may require several steps of feedback with the writer; these artists are concerned with layout to showcase steps in the plot. A penciller works in pencil. Beyond this basic description, different artists choose to use a wide variety of different tools. While many artists use traditional wood pencils, others prefer mechanical drafting leads. Pencillers may use any lead hardness they wish, although many artists use a harder lead to make light lines for initial sketches turn to a softer lead for finishing phases of the drawing. Still other artists do their initial layouts using a light-blue colored pencil because that color tends to disappear during photocopying. Most US comic book pages are drawn oversized on large sheets of paper Bristol board.
The customary size of comic book pages in the mainstream American comics industry is 11 by 17 inches. The inker works directly over the penciller's pencil marks, though pages are inked on translucent paper, such as drafting vellum, preserving the original pencils; the artwork is photographically reduced in size during the printing process. With the advent of digital illustration programs such as Photoshop and more artwork is produced digitally, either in part or entirely. Jack KirbyFrom 1949 until his retirement, Jack Kirby worked out of a ten-foot-wide basement studio dubbed "The Dungeon" by his family; when starting with clean piece of Bristol board, he would first draw his panel lines with a T-square. Arthur AdamsArthur Adams begins drawing thumbnail layouts from the script he's given, either at home or in a public place; the thumbnails range in size from 2 inches x 3 inches to half the size of the printed comic book. He or an assistant will enlarge the thumbnails and trace them onto illustration board with a non-photo blue pencil, sometimes using a Prismacolor light-blue pencil, because it is not too waxy, erases easily.
When working on the final illustration board, he does so on a large drawing board when in his basement studio, a lapboard when sitting on his living room couch. After tracing the thumbnails, he will clarify details with another light-blue pencil, finalize the details with a Number 2 pencil, he drew the first three chapters of "Jonni Future" at twice the printed comic size, drew the fifth chapter, "The Garden of the Sklin", at a size larger than standard, in order to render more detail than usual in those stories. For a large poster image with a multitude of characters, he will go over the figure outlines with a marker in order to emphasize them, he will use photographic reference when appropriate, as when he draws things that he is not accustomed to. Because a significant portion of his income is derived from selling his original artwork, he is reluctant to learn how to produce his work digitally. Jim LeeArtist Jim Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work. J. Scott CampbellArtist J. Scott Campbell does his pencil with a lead holder, Sanford Turquoise H lead, which he uses for its softness and darkness, for its ability to provide a "sketchy" feel, with a minimal amount of powdery lead smearing.
He uses this lead because it strikes a balance between too hard, therefore not dark enough on the page, too soft, therefore prone to smearing and crumbling. Campbell avoids its closest competitor. Campbell has used HB lead and F lead, he maintains sharpness of the lead with a Berol Turquoise sharpener, changing them every four to six months, which he finds is the duration of their grinding ability. Campbell uses a combination of Magic Rub erasers, eraser sticks, since he began to ink his work digitally, a Sakura electric eraser, he sharpens the eraser to a cornered edge in order to render fine detailed work. Travis CharestArtist Travis Charest uses 2H lead to avoid smearing, sometimes HB lead, he illustrated on regular illustration board provided by publishers, though he disliked the non-photo blue lines printed on them. By 2000, he switched to Crescent board for all his work, because it does not warp when wet, produces sharper illustrations, are more suitable for framing because they lack the non-photo blue lines.
Charest prefers not to employ preliminary sketching practices, such as layouts, thumbnails or lightboxing, in part due to impatience, in part because he enjoys the serendipitous nature in which artwork develops when produced with greater spontaneity. He prefers to use reference only when rendering objects that require a degree of real-life accuracy, such as guns, vehicles or characters of licensed properties that must resemble actors with whom they are identified, as when he illustrated the cover to Star Trek: The Next Generation: Embrace the Wolf in 2000. Adam HughesThe penciling process that artist Adam Hughes employs for his cover work is the same he uses when doing sketches for fans at conventions, with the main difference being that he does cover work in his sketchbook, before transferring the drawing to virgin art board with a lightbox, whereas he does convention drawings on 11 x 14 Strathmore bristol, as he prefers penciling on the rougher, vellum surface rather than smooth paper, preferring smoother paper only for brush inking.
He does preliminary undersketches with a lead holder, because he feels regular pencils get worn down to the nub too quickly. As he explained during a sketch demonstration at a comic book
Justice League
The Justice League is a team of fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The Justice League was conceived by writer Gardner Fox, they first appeared together, as Justice League of America in The Brave and the Bold #28; the Justice League is an assemblage of superheroes. The seven original members were Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman; the team roster has rotated throughout the years, consisting of various superheroes from the DC Universe, such as The Atom, Big Barda, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Elongated Man, the Flash/Wally West, Green Lantern/John Stewart, Hawkman, Plastic Man, Power Girl, Red Tornado, Captain Marvel/Shazam, Zatanna, among many others. The team received its own comic book title called Justice League of America in November 1960. With the 2011 relaunch, DC Comics released a second volume of Justice League. In July 2016, the DC Rebirth initiative again relaunched the Justice League comic book titles with the third volume of Justice League.
Since its inception, the team has been featured in various films, television programs, video games. Various comic book series featuring the Justice League have remained popular with fans since inception and, in most incarnations, its roster includes DC's most popular characters; the Justice League concept has been adapted into various other entertainment media, including various forms of television from the classic Saturday morning Super Friends animated series, a live action series of specials Legends of the Superheroes, an unproduced Justice League of America live-action series, the acclaimed Justice League animated series, its sequel Justice League Unlimited and Justice League Action. A live-action film was in the works around 2008 before being shelved. On June 6, 2012, Warner Bros. announced a new live action Justice League film was in development with Will Beall hired as screenwriter. However, the project was scrapped again. After the success of the Superman reboot Man of Steel, a film titled Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was released in March 2016, directed by Zack Snyder.
Batman v Superman script writer Chris Terrio has penned the script for Justice League. In a story told in flashback in Justice League of America #9, the Appelaxians infiltrated Earth. Competing alien warriors were sent to see who could conquer Earth first, to determine who will become the new ruler of their home planet; the aliens' attacks drew the attentions of Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman. While the superheroes individually defeated most of the invaders, the heroes fell prey to a single competitor's attack. For many years, the heroes heralded this adventure as the event that prompted them to agree to pool resources when confronted with similar menaces. In Justice League of America #144, Green Arrow uncovered inconsistencies in the team's records and extracted admissions from his colleagues that the seven founders had formed the League after Martian Manhunter was rescued from Martian forces by the other six founders, along with several other heroes including Robin, Congorilla, Rex the Wonder Dog, Lois Lane.
Green Lantern participated in this first adventure as Hal Jordan, as he had yet to become the costumed hero, the biggest inconsistency Arrow found, as they celebrated the earlier incident's date, while recounting only the one's events. When the group formalized their agreement, they suppressed news of it because of anti-Martian hysteria; because the heroes had not revealed their identities to each other at the time, they did not realize that Jordan and Green Lantern were one and the same when he turned up in costume during the event described in #9. While most subsequent accounts of the League have made little mention of this first adventure, the animated Justice League series adapted this tale as the origin of the Justice League as well. Secret Origins vol. 2, #32 updated Justice League of America #9's origin for post-Crisis continuity. Differences included the inclusion of the Silver Age Black Canary as a founding member and the absence of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman; the JLA: Year One limited series, by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn and Barry Kitson, further expanded the Secret Origins depiction.
In Justice League Task Force #16, during Zero Hour, a unknown superhuman named Triumph appeared. Triumph was their leader. On his first mission with the Justice League, Triumph "saved the world" but was teleported into a dimensional limbo that affected the timestream, erasing all memory of him. In Infinite Crisis #7, the formation of "New Earth" restored Wonder Woman as a founding member of the Justice League. In Brad Meltzer's Justice League of America #0, it was revealed that Superman and Batman were again founding members as well. 52 #51 confirmed that the 1989 Secret Origins and JLA: Year One origins were still in continuity at that time, with Superman and Wonder Woman joining the team with founding members' status shortly after the group's formation with Aquaman, Black Canary, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter. In Justice League of America #12, the founding members of the Justice League were shown to be Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and
Batman and Robin (comic book)
Batman and Robin is an American comic book ongoing series, created by Grant Morrison and featuring Batman and Robin. The debut of the series followed the events of "Batman R. I. P.", Final Crisis, "Battle for the Cowl" in which the original Batman, Bruce Wayne died at the hands of DC Comics villain Darkseid and features the winner of the Battle for the Cowl as the new Batman. The conclusion of Battle for the Cowl shows Dick Grayson ascending to the role of Batman, while Damian Wayne becomes the new Robin. Morrison returned to writing the characters after being the ongoing writer on Batman from issues #655–658 and #663–683. While writing for this title, Morrison wrote the miniseries The Return of Bruce Wayne and finished his run on the title with issue #16, before moving onto the next phase of his narrative in Batman Incorporated. Paul Cornell and Scott McDaniel created a three-issue arc before the new ongoing creative team, the former Green Lantern Corps duo of writer Peter Tomasi and artist Patrick Gleason, began their run with February 2011's issue #20.
In an interview with IGN before the release of the first issue, Morrison detailed that the tone of the series would be a "reverse" of the normal dynamic between Batman and Robin, with, "a more light-hearted and spontaneous Batman and a scowling, bad ass Robin." Morrison divulged that this is a continuation of his previous work on the Batman character, although this is a different title than what he wrote previously. "This is the next book in what will be a 5-volume series beginning Batman and Son, but it can be read on its own too. Batman and Robin welcomes new readers!" Morrison said that though the series deals with familiar identities, the series features all new villains and situations, but revealed that some villains were glimpsed in Batman #666. When asked if the series would deal with the new Batman being unable to fill Bruce Wayne's proverbial shoes, Morrison answered, "When I started out I had that in mind, I thought we'd prove that nobody else could be Batman, but I do. I think with it's fun to start by seeing what happens when someone else tries.
Sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it goes well. Some of the things these guys do are things that Bruce Wayne would never have thought to do." In regards to using Frank Quitely as the opening artist, Morrison described the difference between this particular collaboration with previous ones on JLA Earth-2 and All-Star Superman. For instance, Morrison asked Quitely to choreograph the flow of the action in his own way, rather than through Morrison's heavily detailed scripts. In regards to the style, Morrison said, "I've asked to re-introduce the much-maligned sound effects to superhero comics, but in a way that integrates them more with the art." He described Batman and Robin as, "a shorter, pacier collaboration so we've tried to keep it looser and more open than All-Star Superman. Morrison confirmed that following Quitely's run on the first three issues, Philip Tan would be the artist for the next three issues, an arc entitled "Revenge of the Red Hood," with Cameron Stewart as the artist for "Blackest Knight," the third arc, followed by Andy Clarke drawing the fourth arc titled "Batman vs. Robin" and Quitely coming back to the book sometime after.
Frazer Irving took over for the fifth arc "Batman Must Die" starting in issue #13. In an interview with USA Today, Morrison outlined the future of the titles, saying "I'm doing at least another year of stories with Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne in the Batman and Robin book before that book starts to dovetail with Return and we rush headlong and screaming into the next big, earth-shattering, game-changing twist in the life of Batman."It was announced Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason would take over the title after Grant Morrison, while Morrison will go onto a different title. Dick Grayson will continue his role as Batman concurrently with Bruce Wayne, remain the star of Batman and Robin. With this title being Morrison's primary work in the Batman world for nearly two years, the writer has stated that this is a direct continuation of his Batman work: "With the collections out, we’ve got "Batman and Son",' we’ve got The Black Glove, we’ve got "Batman R. I. P.", we’ve got this one and Robin, hopefully, there will be a final volume, a fifth volume."In regards to the fate of Bruce Wayne, Morrison stated that he would be dealing with that in the future.
"Bruce is still out there. Final Crisis revealed Bruce is still out there and he’s got to make his way back in some way." Morrison made the case for fans that disapprove of having a Batman, not Bruce Wayne. "We’re not entertaining the notion that Bruce won’t be back at some time. This isn’t like Captain America with the Winter Soldier story and Cap’s gone; this is an ongoing story, another chapter in the life of Batman, so I think people who are fans of Bruce and who think no one else can be Batman will be entertained by this. And be intrigued to see who it is."Morrison brought Wayne back in a mini-series in which the title promised the character's return, as promised, dovetailed the conclusion of that series with his final issue of the Batman and Robin title, seeing Bruce Wayne create Batman Incorporated. The main story of the comic series was made up of a series of three-issue story arcs; the first one, "Batman: Reborn," was penciled by Frank Quitely. The second arc, "Revenge of the Red Hood," was penciled by Philip Tan.
The third arc, "Blackest Knight," is penciled by Cameron Stewart on issues # 7-9 of Robin. The fourth arc, "Batman vs. Robin," is penciled by Andy Clarke and contains issues #10-12; the fif
Jason Todd
Jason Todd is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics in association with Batman. The character first appeared in Batman #357 and became the second character to assume the role of Batman's vigilante partner, Robin. Though popular, the character as written by Jim Starlin was not well received by fans following a revamping of his origin by Max Allan Collins. For 1988's "Batman: A Death in the Family" storyline, DC Comics held a telephone poll to determine whether or not the character would die at the hands of the Joker, Batman's nemesis. Todd was killed off by a margin of 72 votes. Subsequent Batman stories dealt with Batman's guilt over not having been able to save him. In 2005's "Under the Hood" story arc, the character was resurrected and became the second character to take up the Red Hood alias. Assuming the role of an antihero with a willingness to use lethal force and weapons, Jason Todd operates as the Red Hood in current DC Comics continuity. In 2013, ComicsAlliance ranked Todd as #23 on their list of the "50 Sexiest Male Characters in Comics".
Todd has appeared in films. Todd's Robin appears in his first live adaptation on the Titans television series for the new DC Universe streaming service, played by Curran Walters. By the time Len Wein took over as editor of DC Comics' Batman titles in 1982, Dick Grayson had moved on to starring as the leader of the young superhero team the Teen Titans in DC's New Teen Titans title. However, with the character no longer featured in Batman comics, the disadvantages of telling Batman stories without the character to act as a sounding board for the protagonist became apparent. Jason Todd was created as Dick Grayson's replacement as Robin; the character debuted in Batman #357 and made his first full appearance in Detective Comics #525, but it wasn't until that year when he would appear in costume as Robin in Batman #366 when he showed up towards the end of the story to help Batman fight the Joker. Following the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC took the opportunity to reboot many of its properties.
The character was revamped. According to Dennis O'Neil, who took over as Batman editor in 1986, " did hate him. I don't know if it was fan craziness—maybe they saw him as usurping Dick Grayson's position; some of the mail response indicated that this was at least on some people's minds." In 1988, Dennis O'Neil suggested that an audience might be attracted to the comics by being offered the opportunity to influence the creative process. Settling on the idea of telephone poll via a 1–900 number, O'Neil had decided due to discussions with DC Comics president Jenette Kahn that the poll should not be wasted on something insignificant. O'Neil settled on using the poll to determine the fate of the second Robin. O'Neil said, "The logical candidate was Jason because we had reason to believe that he wasn't that popular anyway, it was a big enough stunt that we couldn't do it with a minor character." Though Jason Todd was unpopular with readers, O'Neil could not decide what to do with the character, so he opted to present the choice to the readership.
The vote was set up in the four-part story "A Death in the Family", published in Batman #426–429 in 1988. At the end of Batman # 427, Jason was left to die in an explosion; the inside back cover of the issue listed two 1–900 numbers that readers could call to vote for the character's death or survival. Within the 36-hour period allotted for voting, the poll received 10,614 votes; the verdict in favor of the character's death won by a slim 72-vote margin of 5,343 votes to 5,271. The following issue, Batman #428, was published featuring Todd's death. Years O'Neil said it was possible that hundreds of votes in the "Jason Dies" line came from a single person, adding a large degree of uncertainty to the honesty of results regarding a poll designed to determine the character's popularity. "I heard it was one guy, who programmed his computer to dial the thumbs down number every ninety seconds for eight hours, who made the difference", O'Neil said in a Newsarama interview conducted alongside writer Judd Winick during the "Under The Hood" arc.
O'Neil would repeat the claim with further specifics: "I heard it was a lawyer, using a MacIntosh and lived in California—I don't have hard information on this, but I heard someone out there programmed his computer to dial it every couple of minutes, since there was only about 65 votes that made the difference, if that story is true, that guy, that guy killed Jason Todd!"Despite the poll results, O'Neil noted, "We did the deed, we got a blast of hate mail and a blast of negative commentary in the press." A few comics creators voiced their displeasure at the event. Writer/artist Frank Miller, who had worked on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, said, "To me the whole killing of Robin thing was the ugliest thing I've seen in comics, the most cynical." However, DC stood behind the outcome of the poll. O'Neil was quoted on the back cover of A Death in the Family trade paperback collecting the story with Todd's death as saying, "It would be a sleazy stunt to bring him back." O'Neil would regret his comment.
There was a degree of discontinuity between the Batman and Detective Comics titles with regards to the portrayal of Jason. A great deal of adventures occurred post-Crisis which fit with the circus acrobat era and in some cases ran in Detective as the street kid origin was being laid out in Batman; this led to a blackout of any Robin appearances in Detective. This became apparent after his
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U. S. state of Minnesota. As of 2017, the city's estimated population was 309,180. Saint Paul is the county seat of Ramsey County, the smallest and most densely populated county in Minnesota; the city lies on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city. Known as the "Twin Cities", the two form the core of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.6 million residents. Founded near historic Native American settlements as a trading and transportation center, the city rose to prominence when it was named the capital of the Minnesota Territory in 1849; the Dakota name for Saint Paul is "Imnizaska". Though Minneapolis is better-known nationally, Saint Paul contains the state government and other important institutions. Regionally, the city is known for the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, for the Science Museum of Minnesota.
As a business hub of the Upper Midwest, it is the headquarters of companies such as Ecolab. Saint Paul, along with its twin city, Minneapolis, is known for its high literacy rate; the settlement began at present-day Lambert's Landing, but was known as Pig's Eye after Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant established a popular tavern there. When Lucien Galtier, the first Catholic pastor of the region, established the Log Chapel of Saint Paul, he made it known that the settlement was now to be called by that name, as "Saint Paul as applied to a town or city was well appropriated, this monosyllable is short, sounds good, it is understood by all Christian denominations". Burial mounds in present-day Indian Mounds Park suggest that the area was inhabited by the Hopewell Native Americans about two thousand years ago. From the early 17th century until 1837, the Mdewakanton Dakota, a tribe of the Sioux, lived near the mounds after fleeing their ancestral home of Mille Lacs Lake from advancing Ojibwe, they called the area I-mni-za ska dan for its exposed white sandstone cliffs.
In the Menominee language it is called Sāēnepān-Menīkān, which means "ribbon, silk or satin village", suggesting its role in trade throughout the region after the introduction of European goods. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, US Army officer Zebulon Pike negotiated 100,000 acres of land from the local Dakota tribes in 1805 to establish a fort; the negotiated territory was located on both banks of the Mississippi River, starting from Saint Anthony Falls in present-day Minneapolis, to its confluence with the Saint Croix River. Fort Snelling was built on the territory in 1819 at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, which formed a natural barrier to both Native American nations; the 1837 Treaty with the Sioux ceded all local tribal land east of the Mississippi to the U. S. Government. Taoyateduta moved his band at Kaposia across the river to the south. Fur traders and missionaries came to the area for the fort's protection. Many of the settlers were French-Canadians. However, as a whiskey trade flourished, military officers banned settlers from the fort-controlled lands.
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, a retired fur trader-turned-bootlegger who irritated officials, set up his tavern, the Pig's Eye, near present-day Lambert's Landing. By the early 1840s, the community had become important as a trading center and a destination for settlers heading west. Locals called Pig's Eye Landing after Parrant's popular tavern. In 1841, Father Lucien Galtier was sent to minister to the Catholic French Canadians and established a chapel, named for his favorite saint, Paul the Apostle, on the bluffs above Lambert's Landing. Galtier intended for the settlement to adopt the name Saint Paul in honor of the new chapel. In 1847, a New York educator named Harriet Bishop moved to the area and opened the city's first school; the Minnesota Territory was formalized in Saint Paul named as its capital. In 1857, the territorial legislature voted to move the capital to Saint Peter. However, Joe Rolette, a territorial legislator, stole the physical text of the approved bill and went into hiding, thus preventing the move.
On May 11, 1858, Minnesota was admitted to the union as the thirty-second state, with Saint Paul as the capital. That year, more than 1,000 steamboats were in service at Saint Paul, making the city a gateway for settlers to the Minnesota frontier or Dakota Territory. Natural geography was a primary reason; the area was the last accessible point to unload boats coming upriver due to the Mississippi River Valley's stone bluffs. During this period, Saint Paul was called "The Last City of the East." Industrialist James J. Hill constructed and expanded his network of railways into the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway, which were headquartered in Saint Paul. Today they are collectively part of the BNSF Railway. On August 20, 1904, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes damaged hundreds of downtown buildings, causing USD $1.78 million in damages to the city and ripping spans from the High Bridge. In the 1960s, during urban renewal, Saint Paul razed western neighborhoods close to downtown.
The city contended with the creation of the interstate freeway system in a built landscape. From 1959 to 1961, the western Rondo Neighborhood was demolished by the construction of Interstate 94, which brought attention to racial segregation and unequal housing in northern cities; the annual
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Blackest Night
Blackest Night is a 2009–2010 American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, central miniseries written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ivan Reis, a number of tie-in books. "Blackest Night" involves Nekron, a personified force of death who reanimates deceased superheroes and seeks to eliminate all life and emotion from the universe. Geoff Johns has identified the series' central theme as emotion; the crossover was published for eight months as a limited series and in both the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps comic titles. Various other limited series and tie-ins, including an audio drama from Darker Projects, were published; the storyline was first mentioned at the conclusion of the "Sinestro Corps War" in Green Lantern vol. 4, #25. As the war between the Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps reaches its climax, the four Green Lanterns of Earth—Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner—are told by the Guardians Ganthet and Sayd of the Blackest Night prophecy.
According to the prophecy, the two existing Corps would be joined by five new ones, each driven by a specific emotion and empowered by a specific color of the emotional spectrum, leading to a "War of Light" that would subsequently destroy the universe. Johns says the prophecy has its origins in the story "Tygers" by Alan Moore, which touches on the rising up of the Guardians' enemies the Weaponers of Qward, Ranx the Sentient City, the Children of the White Lobe, the destruction of the Green Lanterns, shows Hal Jordan and Mogo dying. Both Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver said that Blackest Night is the third part of a Green Lantern event trilogy that began with Rebirth and continued with "Sinestro Corps War". In a December 2007 interview with IGN, Johns stated that he has the monthly Green Lantern book plotted up until issue #55. More details for the event were revealed in DC Universe #0, which depicted Black Hand discovering the black power battery on the planet of Ryut. Blackest Night #0 was released on May 2, 2009, —Free Comic Book Day—and portrays a series of events directly leading into Blackest Night #1.
The standalone, self-titled miniseries consists of Blackest Night eight monthly issues. Tie-ins include issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps starting with issues #43 and #38 and nine 3-issue limited series: Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, Blackest Night: Superman, Blackest Night: Batman, Blackest Night: Titans, Blackest Night: Wonder Woman, Blackest Night: Flash, Blackest Night: JSA. Ethan Van Sciver had planned to work on the opening book, but because of his work on The Flash: Rebirth miniseries he was not able to complete both effectively. Van Sciver and Ivan Reis created many of the designs for this storyline. Green Lanterns Ash and Saarek find the Black Central Power Battery at a classified location within Sector 666. After touching the battery, Saarek reports; the two are killed when two monstrous hands emerge from below them as the battery calls "flesh". In Green Lantern Corps, a field of asteroids in an unknown region of space is depicted with the colors of the spectrum in the background.
The asteroids, which are the remains of the planet Xanshi, are shattered and a large quantity of black power rings move through them. In Gotham City, Black Hand removes Bruce Wayne's skull from his grave and carries it with him, a Black Lantern power battery begins to charge; the Guardians of Oa observe the War of Light and realize that Ganthet and Sayd are correct but are kept from intervening by Scar, who swiftly kills one and imprisons the rest. Thousands of black rings assault the Corps' crypt. Hal Jordan and the newly revived Flash investigate Bruce Wayne's grave and are attacked by Black Lantern Martian Manhunter. On Oa, the Green Lanterns are met by all of the resurrected Lanterns. Hawkgirl and Hawkman are killed by Black Lanterns Elongated Man and Sue Dibny and join the growing Black Corps; the Atom is tricked into visiting Black Lantern Hawkman, Deadman is the first to realize the dead superheroes are not their true selves when his physical body revives as a Black Lantern while he is still free.
Aquaman and his Black Lantern family attack Mera. A black ring strikes the Spectre, binding the spirit Aztar and reviving Crispus Allen as a Black Lantern; the black rings are unable to revive dead characters who are at peace, such as former Dove Don Hall as his partner Hawk and his brother Hank rise. In Gotham, Hal Jordan and Barry Allen are confronted by several Black Lanterns, including Ronald Raymond. Hal, the Atom and Flash battle the Black Lanterns when the Indigo Tribe appear and use their Indigo power with other rings to obliterate the Black Dibnys. Mera finds the new Gehenna, who merge to create a new Firestorm. Indigo says; the Indigo Tribe leave the other heroes to fight the invading Black Lanterns. Black Lantern Firestorm separates Gehenna and Jason, kills Gehenna and absorbs Jason's consciousness. Black rings revive the villains. Mera and Flash use Atom's powers to escape through a telephone line. Flash leaves and gives all the superheroes in the US the key to defeat the Black Lanterns—merging lights with a Green Ring—and the Atom and the Justice Society of America battle many Lanterns together.
Jean Loring kills and causes Damage to revive as a Lantern, which empowers the Black Lantern power battery. Barry arrives in Coast City. Black Hand summons Nekron, who revives the residents of Coas
