1.
DC Comics
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DC Comics, Inc. is an American comic book publisher. It is the unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. a division of Time Warner, the company has also published non-DC Universe-related material, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta and many titles under their alternative imprint Vertigo. The initials DC came from the popular series Detective Comics. Random House distributes DC Comics books to the market, while Diamond Comic Distributors supplies the comics shop specialty market. DC Comics and its major, longtime competitor Marvel Comics together shared 70% of the American comic book market in 2016, entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications in autumn 1934. The company debuted with the tabloid-sized New Fun, The Big Comic Magazine #1 with a date of February 1935. That title evolved into Adventure Comics, which continued through issue #503 in 1983, in 2009 DC revived Adventure Comics with its original numbering. In 1935, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, created Doctor Occult. Wheeler-Nicholsons third and final title, Detective Comics, advertised with a cover illustration dated December 1936, the themed anthology series would become a sensation with the introduction of Batman in issue #27. By then, however, Wheeler-Nicholson had gone, Detective Comics, Inc. was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Jack S. Liebowitz, Donenfelds accountant, listed as owners. Major Wheeler-Nicholson remained for a year, but cash-flow problems continued, shortly afterward, Detective Comics, Inc. purchased the remains of National Allied, also known as Nicholson Publishing, at a bankruptcy auction. Detective Comics, Inc. soon launched a fourth title, Action Comics, Action Comics #1, the first comic book to feature the new character archetype—soon known as superheroes—proved a sales hit. The company quickly introduced such popular characters as the Sandman and Batman. That year, Gaines let Liebowitz buy him out, and kept only Picture Stories from the Bible as the foundation of his own new company, at that point, Liebowitz promptly orchestrated the merger of All-American and Detective Comics into National Comics. Next he took charge of organizing National Comics, Independent News, National Periodical Publications became publicly traded on the stock market in 1961. The company began to move aggressively against what it saw as copyright-violating imitations from other companies, such as Fox Comics Wonder Man and this extended to DC suing Fawcett Comics over Captain Marvel, at the time comics top-selling character. Despite the fact that parallels between Captain Marvel and Superman seemed more tenuous, the courts ruled that substantial and deliberate copying of copyrighted material had occurred, faced with declining sales and the prospect of bankruptcy if it lost, Fawcett capitulated in 1955 and ceased comics publication
2.
Superhero comics
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Superhero comics are the most common genre of American comic books. The genre rose to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s and has remained the dominant form of book in North America since the 1960s. Superhero comics feature stories about superheroes and the universes these characters inhabit, in comics format, superpowered and costumed heroes like Popeye and The Phantom had appeared in newspaper comic strips for several years prior to Superman. The masked detective The Clock first appeared in the comic book Funny Pages #6, in the Great Depression and World War II era the first Superhero Comics appeared, the most popular being Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and Captain America. Beginning in the 1950s, DC began publishing revised versions of their 1940s superhero characters such as The Flash, Anti-Hero becomes popular with appearances of the Punisher, Wolverine, Ghost Rider and a 1980s revival of Daredevil by Frank Miller. Superhero Comics became darker with the release of landmark deconstructive works such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, in the 1990s, Image Comics released successful new characters including the Anti-Hero Spawn which were predominantly creator owned as opposed to Marvel and DCs which were corporate owned. Superhero Comics of the Silver Age, The Illustrated History, Superhero Comics of the Golden Age, The Illustrated History. Exploring the Sacred in Comics, Graphic Novels, and Film,485 p. ISBN 978-0-06-199210-0 Jacobs, Will and Gerard Jones. The Comic Book Superheroes, from the Silver Age to the Present, xi,292 p. ISBN 0-517-55440-2 Klock, Geoff. How to Read Superhero Comics and Why and our Gods Wear Spandex, The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes. Superheroes and Gods, A Comparative Study from Babylonia to Batman
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DC Universe
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The DC Universe is the fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. DC superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are from this universe, and it also well known supervillains such as the Joker, Lex Luthor. It should be noted that in context, DC Universe usually refers to the main DC continuity, the term DC Multiverse refers to the collection of all continuities within DC Comics publications. Within the Multiverse, the main DC Universe has gone by many names and its not to be confused with Earth Prime. The fact that DC Comics characters coexisted in the world was first established in All Star Comics #3 where several superheroes met each other in a group dubbed the Justice Society of America. Subsequently, the Justice Society was reintroduced as the Justice League of America, over the course of its publishing history, DC has introduced different versions of its characters, sometimes presenting them as if the earlier version had never existed. Similarly, they had such as Batman whose early adventures set in the 1940s could not easily be reconciled with stories featuring a still-youthful man in the 1970s. To explain this, they introduced the idea of the multiverse in Flash #123 where the Silver Age Flash met his Golden Age counterpart. In addition to allowing the conflicting stories to co-exist, it allowed the differing versions of characters to meet, the writers gave designations such as Earth-One, Earth-Two, and so forth, to certain universes, designations which at times were also used by the characters themselves. Earth-One was the world of this publication era. Over the years, as the number of titles published increased, in order to continue publishing stories of its most popular characters, maintaining the status quo became necessary. However, not all the books rebooted post-Crisis, for example, the Legion of Superheros book acted as if the Pre-Crisis Earth-1 history was still their past, a point driven home in the Cosmic Boy miniseries. The Zero Hour limited series gave them an opportunity to revise timelines, meanwhile, DC has published occasional stories called Elseworlds, which often presented alternate versions of its characters. For example, one told the story of Bruce Wayne as a Green Lantern, in another tale, Speeding Bullets, the rocket ship that brought the infant Superman to Earth was discovered by the Wayne family of Gotham City rather than the Kents. In 1999, The Kingdom reintroduced a variant of the old Multiverse concept called Hypertime which essentially allows for alternate versions of characters, the entire process was possibly inspired by Alan Moores meta-comic, Supreme, Story of the Year. The Convergence crossover officially retconned the events of Crisis after heroes in that went back in time to prevent the collapse of the Multiverse. However, Brainiac states Each world has evolved but they all still exist, the Infinite Crisis event remade the DC Universe yet again, with new changes. The limited series 52 established that a new multiverse now existed and this follows the conclusion of the Flashpoint crossover storyline, which provided a jumping-off point for the existing continuity
4.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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American comic books
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An American comic book is a thin periodical, typically 32-pages, containing primarily comics content. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics and this was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the book industry rapidly expanded, and genres such as horror, crime. The 1950s saw a decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television. The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a revival. Since the later 20th century, comic books have gained note as collectable items, Comic shops cater to fans, and particularly valuable issues have fetched in excess of a million dollars. Systems of grading comic books have emerged with plastic sleeves and cardboard backing available to maintain the condition of comic books, standard comics are 6.625 inches ×10.25 inches and about 32 pages long. While comics can be the work of a creator, the labour of making them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be a writer and artist, or there may be separate artists for the characters. The process begins with the coming up with an idea or concept, then working it into a plot and story. After the art production, letters are placed on the page, the creative team, the writers and artists, may work with a comic book publisher for help with marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A distributor like Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest in the U. S. helps to distribute the product to retailers. Another part of the involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator. Fan art and letters to the editor were printed in the back of the book until the early 21st century. Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independently-produced comics, the development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U. S, the Yellow Kid in McFaddens Flats, in 1897. The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5×7 inches. The neologism comic book appears on the back cover, despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Companys Comic Monthly, did not appear until 1922
6.
Flashpoint (comics)
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Flashpoint is a 2011 comic book crossover story arc published by DC Comics. Consisting of an eponymous limited series and a number of tie-in titles. The core miniseries was written by Geoff Johns and pencilled by Andy Kubert, in its end, the series radically changes the status quo for the DC Universe leading into the publishers 2011 relaunch, the New 52. In addition, a Thomas Wayne version of Batman, whose son Bruce Wayne is dead instead of him and his wife Martha, spends his days running Wayne Casinos in order to help fund his vigilante activity. Consisting of a 61 issue run, the series crossed over with Booster Gold, sixteen separate three-issue miniseries, DC announced that Flash #12 would be the last in the series, a thirteenth issue had been announced for sale on May 25,2011, but was withdrawn. The storyline is adapted in the film Justice League, The Flashpoint Paradox as well as in the third season of the CW network television series The Flash. Barry Allen wakes up to everything and everyone around him has changed. He is not Flash nor does he have powers, his mother Nora is alive, his father, Henry, Captain Cold is Central Citys greatest hero, the Justice League is never established, and even Superman is seemingly nonexistent. In Gotham City, Batman throws a criminal off a building, the heroes cannot cooperate to find a solution, and the meeting is ended. Barry Allen drives to the Batcave, where Batman attacks him, Batman is revealed to be Thomas Wayne—in this timeline his son, Bruce, has died instead of his wife and him. In the flooded remains of Paris, Deathstroke captains a ship in search of his daughter. Emperor Aquaman appears and stabs Deathstroke in the chest and attacks Deathstrokes crew, sonar is able to remove a piece of the trident from Deathstrokes chest and heal him. At Wayne Manor, Barry tries to explain to Thomas about his identity as the Flash. Barrys memory begins to spontaneously realign itself to the timeline and Barry realizes that the world of Flashpoint is not a parallel dimension. Barrys ring ejects Eobard Thawnes Reverse-Flash costume and causes Barry to believe that his enemy is responsible for changing history. Barry decides to recreate the accident that gave him his powers in a bid to undo the damage caused by Thawne, in London, Steve Trevor is waiting at a rendezvous for Lois Lane but is attacked by Wonder Woman and the Amazons. Wonder Woman catches him by the neck with her Lasso of Truth and he explains that he was hired to extract Lane from New Themyscira because she was sent to gather information on the Amazons for Cyborg. The U. S. president informs Cyborg that Steve Trevor sent a signal to the Resistance but was intercepted because of a traitor among the heroes that Cyborg tried to recruit, Cyborg is relieved of duty as Element Woman sneaks into the headquarters
7.
Crossover (fiction)
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A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unauthorized efforts by fans or common corporate ownership, Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for the intellectual property rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new derivative of an older one. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the domain with those concurrently under copyright protection. A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the setting, and have to be ignored by the series respective continuities. Still others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with The Simpsons and Futurama, where each show is fiction in the other. Crossovers of multiple characters owned by one company or published by one publisher, have used to set an established continuity. This is especially true of comic book publishers, as different characters in various Marvel, for example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil, just as in the DC Comics Universe, Batman and Superman often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these guest star roles are common enough that they are not considered crossovers, rather, a crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to events, in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe. This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin, The Atom, Green Lantern, the first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a twelve issue mini-series to battle a common threat, after the threat was dealt with they all returned to their regular titles. This Secret Wars was hailed as both a critical and commercial success largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters, Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles, readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars, the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe most notably the introduction of Turok, the birth of Magnus Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero. Dark Horse Comicss Aliens Versus Predator franchise was a success that continued into many games, the comic crossovers from Raj Comics are very famous in India, in which the super heroes meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these crossovers have occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva, in Kohram, all the heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru, an extremely powerful enemy
8.
Action Comics
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Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters as the term is popularly defined. The publisher was known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics Publications and as National Periodical Publications. Its original incarnation ran from 1938 to 2011 and stands as one of the comic books with consecutively numbered issues. A second volume of Action Comics with issue #1 ran from 2011 to 2016, Action Comics returned to its original numbering beginning with issue #957. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster saw their creation, Superman, launched in Action Comics #1 on April 18,1938, Siegel and Shuster had tried for years to find a publisher for their Superman character originally conceived as a newspaper strip without success. Superman was originally a bald madman created by Siegel and Shuster who used his abilities to wreak havoc on mankind. He appeared in Siegel and Shusters book Science Fiction, Siegel then commented, What if this Superman was a force for good instead of evil. After seeing the published first issue, publisher Harry Donenfeld dismissed the featured strip as ridiculous, originally, Action Comics was an anthology title featuring a number of other stories in addition to the Superman story. Zatara, a magician, was one of the characters who had their own stories in early issues. There was the hero Tex Thompson, who eventually became Mr. America, vigilante enjoyed a lengthy run in this series. Sometimes stories of a humorous nature were included, such as those of Hayfoot Henry. The series saw the introduction of characters and themes which would become longstanding elements of the Superman mythos. Lois Lane made her debut in the first issue with Superman, Superman was first depicted as possessing the power of flight in issue #13. Other new superpowers depicted for the first time for the character included X-ray vision in issue #18 and telescopic vision, Luthor, a villain who would later become Supermans archenemy, was introduced in issue #23. The original Toyman was created by writer Don Cameron and artist Ed Dobrotka in issue #64, by 1942, artist Wayne Boring, who had previously been one of Shusters assistants, had become a major artist on Superman. Under editor Mort Weisinger, the Action Comics title saw an expansion of the Superman mythology. Gradually, the size of the issues was decreased as the publisher was reluctant to raise the price from the original 10 cents. For a while, Congo Bill and Tommy Tomorrow were the two features in addition to Superman, the introduction of Supergirl by Otto Binder and Al Plastino occurred in issue #252
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Detective Comics
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Detective Comics is the title of an American comic book series published by DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011, is best known for introducing the superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27, a second series of the same title was launched in the fall of 2011 but in 2016 reverted to the original volume numbering. The series is the source of its companys name, and — along with Action Comics. The series published 881 issues between 1937 and 2011 and is the longest continuously published comic book in the United States. His second effort, New Comics #1, would be retitled twice to become Adventure Comics, another series that ran for decades until issue #503 in 1983. Wheeler-Nicholson was forced out a year later and its first editor, Vin Sullivan, also drew the debut issues cover. The Crimson Avenger debuted in issue #20, Detective Comics #27 featured the first appearance of Batman. That superhero would eventually become the star of the title, the logo of which is often written as Detective Comics featuring Batman. Because of its significance, issue #27 is widely considered one of the most valuable books in existence. Batmans origin is first revealed in a story in issue #33. Batman became the cover feature of the title beginning with issue #35. Issue #38 introduced Batmans sidekick Robin, billed as The Sensational Character Find of 1940 on the cover and the first of several characters that would make up the Batman Family. Several of Batmans best known villains debuted in the pages of Detective Comics during this era including the Penguin in issue #58, Two-Face in issue #66, a female was chosen first, to offset the charges made by Fredric Wertham that Batman and Robin were homosexual. Writer Bill Finger and artist Sheldon Moldoff introduced Bat-Mite in issue #267, in 1964, Julius Schwartz was made responsible for reviving the faded Batman titles. Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and Infantino introduced Barbara Gordon as a new version of Batgirl in a story titled The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl. in issue #359, Mike Friedrich wrote the 30th anniversary Batman story in Detective Comics #387 which was drawn by Bob Brown. Writer Dennis ONeil and artist Neal Adams had their first collaboration on Batman on the story The Secret of the Waiting Graves in issue #395, Adams introduced Man-Bat with writer Frank Robbins in Detective Comics #400. ONeil and artist Bob Brown crafted Batmans first encounter with the League of Assassins in Detective Comics #405, after publishing on a monthly schedule throughout its run, Detective Comics became a bi-monthly book from issues #435 to #445. Issues #438 to #445 of the series were in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format, ONeil and artist Dick Giordano created the Batman supporting character Leslie Thompkins in the story There Is No Hope in Crime Alley appearing in issue #457
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Wildstorm Universe
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The Wildstorm Universe is a fictional shared universe where the comic books published by Wildstorm take place. It represents a history of the real world where ideas such as interstellar travel. It is also the name of one of three launched by Wildstorm to help differentiate their titles set in the same universe from other. Originally launched as part of the Image Universe, it broke off as its own separate universe during the Shattered Image event, the Wildstorm Universe began as part of the Image Comics Universe. During Shattered Image, Wildstorm broke off from Image and constituted a separate universe, the Wildstorms universe represents an alternate history of the real world, with further similarities to other comic book universes. Interstellar travel and alien races, including the Kherubim and Drahn, are taken for granted, fictional technologies, or technologies only theoretically possible in the real world, are present in the Wildstorm Universe. Superhuman agents are commonplace and involved in politics, Stormwatch dealt extensively with the United Nations. The Drahn are an alien race and they are humanoid in appearance, but are generally larger than humans with grey skin and red eyes without visible iris or pupil. Three bony ridges are on the top of their head and their ears are rudimentary, little more than large openings in the sides of their heads. There are similar openings in their cheeks, but the purpose of these openings is unclear and their hands have large claws and a female Drahn also showed extendable bone claws. While there are recursive traits among members of the Drahn such as superior Strength, Speed, Flight, Invulnerability, examples include Voodoo, Warblade, Maul, Backlash and Winter. Gen-Actives are those people who were exposed to the Gen-Factor serum giving them special abilities, examples include the DV8, Gen¹³, and Team 7. Seedlings, Seedlings are people who were mutated at birth due to a radiation of a comet that passed close to Earth. Many who were exposed to this comet became superhumans and were known as Comet Enhanciles or Seedlings, examples include Battalion, Diva, Hellstrike, Fuji, and Swift. Century Babies, They are humans that were born with the century - on the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve, as they grew each displayed certain superhuman abilities and skills, as well as immortality. It has been theorized that they act as a system for the planet. Each of them represents a aspect of the century into which they were born. Some of them are Jenny Sparks, Jenny Quantum and Elijah Snow, in the Wildstorm Universe, one of the sources of superhuman powers is the Gen-factor
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Vertigo (DC Comics)
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Vertigo is an imprint of the American comic book publisher DC Comics. These comics were free to contain violence, substance abuse, sexuality, nudity, profanity. Although its initial publications were primarily in the horror and fantasy genres, it has published works dealing with crime, social commentary, speculative fiction, biography. Originally publishing a mix of company- and creator-owned work, its current focus is on the latter and it pioneered in North America an increasingly common publishing model, in which monthly series are periodically collected into collected editions which are kept in print for bookstore sale. Vertigo series have won the comics industrys Eisner Award, including the best continuing series of various years, several of its publications have been adapted to film and episodic television. Vertigo originated in 1993 under the stewardship of Karen Berger, a literature and art-history student. 2, and Shade, the Changing Man vol,2, the Black Orchid miniseries, fantasy series The Sandman vol. 2, and horror titles Hellblazer and The Saga of the Swamp Thing and these seven titles, all of which carried a Suggested for Mature Readers label on their covers, shared a sophistication-driven sensibility the fan press dubbed the Bergerverse. Several DC titles bearing the age advisory, such as Green Arrow and The Question and these titles included Enigma, Sebastian O, Mercy, and Shadows Fall. Vertigo was launched in January 1993 with a mixture of existing ongoing series continued under the new imprint, new ongoing series, new mini-series and their publishing plan for the first year involved two new titles – whether ongoing/limited series or one-shots – each month. The existing series were Shade the Changing Man, The Sandman, Hellblazer, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, the first comic book published under the Vertigo imprint was the first issue of Death, The High Cost of Living, a 3-issue series by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo. The following month saw the debut of Sandman, Mystery Theatre by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle, haunting, film noir-ish. and starring original Sandman Wesley Dodds in a title whose sensibilities echo crime genre fiction. Joining it was J. M. DeMatteis and Paul Johnsons 64-page one-shot Mercy, Gaimans The Books of Magic limited-series was relaunched as an ongoing series written by John Ney Rieber, and illustrated by Peter Gross, Gary Amaro, and Peter Snejbjerg. The design layout continued with little variation until issues cover-dated July 2002 which introduced an across-the-top layout ahead of 2003s Vertigo X 10th anniversary celebration. The distinctive design was designed to be used on all Vertigo books except the hardcovers, trade paperbacks, in addition, a 16-page Vertigo Sampler was also produced and bundled with copies of Capital City Distributions Advance Comics solicitation index. Works previously published by DC under other imprints, but which fit the character of Vertigo, have been reprinted under this imprint. This has included issues of Vertigos launch series, V for Vendetta, and books from discontinued imprints, such as Transmetropolitan. Two of the new ongoing series did not last long, Kid Eternity was cancelled after 16 issues, Sandman Mystery Theatre and most of the pre-existing series continued for several years, including Sandman which reached its planned conclusion with #75
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Convergence (comics)
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Convergence is a 2015 weekly comic book storyline published by DC Comics that ran from April 2015 to May 2015. Notable during this event is the return of DC characters and past timelines from before the 2011 Flashpoint storyline that led to the creation of The New 52 DC Universe, on November 3,2014, DC Comics announced the Convergence miniseries. Conceived as a series in April and May 2015, Convergence would begin with a #0 issue. Throughout November 2014, DC Comics began announcing each of these tie-ins in blocks of 10 in tandem with various websites, the list of titles includes a vast array of creators, many of whom have a previous association with the pre-New 52 versions of characters. Over a number of decades in the 20th century, DC Comics reimagined its staple characters and concepts, classic characters which had been replaced were then brought back, and explained as residing on Earth-Two, while those of other publishers lived on fanciful worlds such as Earth-S and Earth-X. This storytelling device, positing an infinite Multiverse of worlds full of heroes and villains, subsequent crisis storylines have seen reality threatened and reshaped again, often as a way of adjusting the fictional history of the setting of DCs stories. In the run-up to Convergence, DC published two series, Earth 2, Worlds End and The New 52, Futures End. These battles are shown in various issues during the two-month Convergence series of comic books. Meanwhile, the Earth 2 heroes investigate their setting, and Yolanda Montez discovers she has residual animal-like abilities, such as claws and reflexes. While investigating the planet, Batman partners with Dick and enters a version of Gotham City and he enters the pre-Flashpoint Gotham on the former Earth 0 where Thomas Wayne and pre-Flashpoint Batman, Bruce Wayne, share an emotional encounter with one another. Bruce lends Thomas his Batmobile, but they are pursued out of the city by some of Gothams villains, Thomas Wayne kills himself with an explosive device, taking the villains with him. The Wonders soon learn that Deimos has systematically captured the Time Masters, as well as other powerful time travelers such as Monarch and he absorbs their collective power and uses it to summon Brainiac. Telos, shocked, vanishes, and Deimos declares himself the planets ruler, using his near-infinite power, he tells the captives of the planet that he will protect their lives for a price. Even all-powerful beings such as Nix Uotan, the guardian of the Multiverse, the evil god Darkseid, meanwhile, on Telos, the Earth 2 heroes encounter several pre-Flashpoint heroes, with whom they form a team. Superman tells Dick Grayson he heard his interactions with Telos, and knowing the Dick of his world, the two Flashes, Jay and Wally, begin to search Telos for other Flashes, and add the second Flash from the Silver Age of Comic Books to their team. They are soon joined by versions of heroes and villains from comics published in every decade of DCs history, Deimos reveals he has recruited various villainous and misguided DC characters to defend him in exchange for giving them their deepest desires. When Yolanda reveals to the villains that they are being used by Deimos who wants them to die to grant him the magic of death to remake the Multiverse in his own image, Telos, convinced by Dick to fight for the heroes, battles with Deimos and weakens him. Deimos is finally destroyed by the Parallax version of Hal Jordan from the Zero Hour storyline and this inadvertently releases all the energy of the Time Masters into the world, creating an arc of lightning which escapes into space, striking the omniscient Oracle character, who breaks up
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DC Rebirth
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The New 52 was the 2011 revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing monthly superhero comic books. Following the conclusion of the Flashpoint crossover storyline, DC cancelled all of its existing titles, among the renumbered series were Action Comics and Detective Comics, which had retained their original numbering since the 1930s. The relaunch included changes to the format, for example, print. New titles were released to bring the number of ongoing monthly series to fifty-two, various changes were also made to DCs fictional universe to entice new readers, including to DCs internal continuity to make characters more modern and accessible. In addition, characters from the Wildstorm and Vertigo imprints were absorbed into the DC Universe, the New 52 branding ended after the completion of the Convergence storyline in May 2015, although the continuity of The New 52 continued. In June 2015,24 new titles were launched, alongside 25 returning titles, in February 2016, DC announced their Rebirth initiative with the release of an 80-page one-shot on May 25,2016, and continuing through late 2016. Following the conclusion of the Flashpoint limited series, all set in the DC Universe were cancelled and relaunched with new #1 issues. The new continuity features new outfits and backstories for many of DCs long established heroes, while many characters underwent a reboot or revamp, much of the DC Universes history remained intact. DC editorial has also constructed a timeline that details the new history, on August 31,2011, Midtown Comics Times Square held a midnight event at which they began selling Justice League #1 and Flashpoint #5. On hand to sign the books were DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, the new titles were dubbed the Second Wave, Dial H, Earth 2, G. I. On June 8,2012, DC announced that in September 2012, in addition, the Third Wave of titles was announced, Talon, Sword of Sorcery, Phantom Stranger, and Team 7. With these additions to the line, Justice League International, Captain Atom, Resurrection Man, in October and November 2012, DC announced new titles Threshold, Justice League of America, Katana, Justice League of Americas Vibe, and Constantine. Threshold would be published in January 2013, Constantine in March 2013, DC later consolidated these new titles as the Fourth Wave of The New 52. Grifter, Blue Beetle, and Legion Lost were cancelled as a result, young Romance, A New 52 Valentines Day Special #1 was published as the 52nd title in February 2013. In January 2013, DC Comics announced the cancellation of I, Vampire, to celebrate the 60th birthday of Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman, DC solicited variants drawn by Mad artists for 13 titles being published in April 2013. Starting with titles released on January 28,2013, all printed New 52 publications featured advertisements for fictional news channel, Channel 52. The two page back-ups, titled Channel 52, appear in all books, starting in February 2013 and this news feature stars Bethany Snow, Ambush Bug, Vartox, and Calendar Man as reporters and anchors on the fictional in-universe news show. The art is provided by Freddie E. Williams II, each week brings new content regarding the current or future goings-on in the DC universe
14.
Jim Lee
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Jim Lee is a Korean American comic book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He entered the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal, before gaining popularity on The Uncanny X-Men. 1, the 1991 spin-off series premiere that Lee penciled and co-wrote with Chris Claremont, remains the best-selling comic book of all time, on February 18,2010, Jim Lee was announced as the new Co-Publisher of DC Comics with Dan DiDio, both replacing Paul Levitz. He has received a Harvey Award, Inkpot Award and three Wizard Fan Awards in recognition for his work, Lee was born on August 11,1964 in Seoul, South Korea. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived a typical middle-class childhood, Lee attended River Bend Elementary School in Chesterfield and later St. Louis Country Day School, where he drew posters for school plays. Having had to learn English when he first came to the U. S. presented the young Lee with the sense of being an outsider, as did the preppy, upper-class atmosphere of Country Day. As a result, on the occasions that his parents bought him comics, Lees favorite characters were the X-Men. His classmates predicted in his senior yearbook that he would found his own book company. Despite this, Lee was resigned to following his fathers career in medicine, attending Princeton University to study psychology and he submitted samples to various publishers, but did not find success. When Lee befriended St. Lees work on the Punisher, War Journal was inspired by such as Frank Miller, David Ross, Kevin Nowlan. During his stint on Uncanny Lee first worked with inker Scott Williams, during his run on the title, Lee co-created the character Gambit with long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont. Lees artwork quickly gained popularity in the eyes of enthusiastic fans, in 1991, Lee helped launch a second X-Men series simply called X-Men volume 2, as both the artist and as co-writer with Claremont. Lee designed new uniforms for the series, including those worn by Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Psylocke and Storm. Actor/comedian Taran Killam, who has ventured into writing with The Illegitimates, has cited X-Men No.1 as the book that inspired his interest in comics. Stan Lee interviewed Jim Lee in the documentary series The Comic Book Greats, the other major series of the initial years of Wildstorm, for which Lee either created characters, co-plotted or provided art for, included Stormwatch, Deathblow and Gen¹³. The miniseries would consist of four books, two each produced by the respective companies, plus a prologue and epilogue book. Wildstorm produced Deathmate Black, with Lee himself contributing to the writing and he illustrated the covers for that book, the Deathmate Tourbook and the prologue book, as well as contributing to the prologues interior inks. Lee and Rob Liefeld, another Marvel-illustrator-turned-Image-founder, returned to Marvel in 1996 to participate in a reboot of several classic characters, while Liefeld reworked Captain America and The Avengers, Lee plotted Iron Man and wrote and illustrated Fantastic Four
15.
Geoff Johns
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Geoff Johns is an American comic book and television writer, film producer, and television producer. He is the president and Chief Creative Officer at DC Comics and his most notable work in different media has used the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash, and Superman. He is well known for his work on The WB/The CWs Smallville, Arrow and he is also a comic book retailer who co-owns Earth-2 Comics in Northridge, California with Carr DAngelo and Jud Meyers. Johns was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Barbara and Fred Johns, and grew up in the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and Clarkston and he is of half Lebanese ancestry. As Johns continued collecting comics, he gravitated toward DC Comics and later Vertigo, after graduating from Clarkston High School in 1991, he studied media arts, screenwriting, film production and film theory at Michigan State University. He graduated from Michigan State in 1995, and then moved to Los Angeles, Johns started off copying scripts, and after about two months, was hired as a production assistant for Donner, whom Johns regards as his mentor. While working on production of Donners 1997 film Conspiracy Theory, Johns visited New York City, where he met DC Comics personnel such as Eddie Berganza, reigniting his childhood interest in comics. Berganza invited Johns to tour the DC Comics offices, and offered Johns the opportunity to suggest ideas, a series based on the second Star-Spangled Kid and her stepfather, to editor Chuck Kim a year later. Johns expected to write comics on the side, until he met David Goyer and James Robinson, after looking at Stars and S. T. R. I. P. E. Robinson offered Johns co-writing duties on JSA in 2000, and Johns credits both him and Mike Carlin with shepherding him into the comics industry and that same year, Johns became the regular writer on The Flash ongoing series with issue 164. I make a lot of my characters from Detroit, I think self-made, blue-collar heroes represent Detroit. Wally Wests Flash was like that, I took the inspiration of the city and the people there and used it in the books. Johns Flash run concluded with #225 and he co-wrote a Beast Boy limited series with Ben Raab in 2000 and crafted the Return to Krypton story arc in the Superman titles with Pasqual Ferry in 2002. After writing The Avengers vol.3 #57-76 and Avengers Icons, The Vision #1-4 for Marvel Comics, Johns oversaw the re-launch of Hawkman and Teen Titans. Johns was responsible for the return of Hal Jordan in 2005 as the writer of the Green Lantern, Rebirth mini-series, Johns was the writer of the Infinite Crisis crossover limited series, a sequel to 1985s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Following this, Johns was one of four writers, with Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, in 2006, Johns and Kurt Busiek co-wrote the Up, Up and Away. Story arc in Superman and Action Comics and he then reunited with Richard Donner on the Last Son storyline in Action Comics with Donner co-plotting the series with his former assistant. The Justice Society of America series by Johns and artist Dale Eaglesham began in February 2007 and six months later, he and that same year, Johns helmed the critically acclaimed Sinestro Corps War storyline in the Green Lantern titles
16.
Justice League
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The Justice League, also known as the Justice League of America, is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The Justice League was conceived by writer Gardner Fox, and first appeared in The Brave, the team is an assemblage of superheroes who join together as the Justice League. The seven original members were Batman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The team roster has rotated throughout the years, consisting of many superheroes from the DC Universe like Atom, Black Canary, Shazam, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Cyborg, the Justice League received its own comic book title called Justice League of America in November 1960. With the 2011 relaunch of its titles, DC Comics released a volume of Justice League. In July 2016, the DC Rebirth initiative relaunched the Justice League comic book titles with the volume of Justice League. Since its inception, the team has featured in various television programs. Various comic book featuring the Justice League have remained generally popular with fans since inception and, in most incarnations. A live-action film was also 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 also 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, the aliens attacks drew the attentions of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. While the superheroes individually defeated most of the invaders, the heroes fell prey to a single competitors 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. When the group formalized their agreement, they suppressed news of it because of anti-Martian hysteria, 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 #32 updated Justice League of America #9s 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, in Justice League Task Force #16, during Zero Hour, a then unknown superhuman named Triumph appeared. Triumph was revealed to have been a member of the Justice League and was their leader. On his first mission with the Justice League, Triumph seemingly saved the world but was teleported into a limbo that also affected the timestream
17.
Midtown Comics
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Midtown Comics is a New York City comic book retailer with three shops in Manhattan and an e-commerce website. The largest comic book store in the United States, the company opened its first store in the Times Square area in 1997 and its second was opened on Lexington Avenue in 2004, and is known as the Grand Central store for its proximity to Grand Central Terminal. Its Downtown store was opened on Fulton Street in the Financial District in November 2010 and it also operates a boutique inside Manhattans Times Square Toys R Us. The store is noted for appearances by celebrities known outside the book industry, for its friendly and energetic staff. On July 13,2012, the National Geographic Channel premiered Comic Store Heroes, according to The New York Times, The stereotypical view of comics stores is that they are dim, cramped and dusty places with a no-girls-allowed clubhouse atmosphere. In reality, they run the gamut, for instance, the West Side Midtown store is bright, airy and welcoming to all, with two floors and 5,000 square feet of space. The main floor, which is one story above street level, has a wall with countless racks of new. The rest of the space offers DVDs, manga, trading cards, back issues, Toys and other collectibles are upstairs. The second Midtown store, on Lexington Avenue and 45th Street, Midtown Comics is the official retail sponsor of New York Comic Con, and has performed this role since the NYCCs inception in 2006. Each year, Midtown creates a show-within-a-show, featuring appearances by comics creators and variant comic books by publishers like Marvel Comics. On November 10,2010, Midtown Comics opened a third Manhattan store, known as their Downtown store, it is located in the Financial District, at 64 Fulton Street, in the southernmost section of the borough. Inaugural book signings were held for that branch featuring Jim Lee and Jonathan Layman, as of June 2012, Midtown is the largest comic book store in the United States. The store is a sponsor of Artists Assemble, a comics festival in Union City, New Jersey that began in February 2013. In May 2012, Midtown Comics opened a boutique inside the flagship FAO Schwarz toy store in Manhattans Fifth Avenue shopping district, the boutique offered graphic novels, hardcover books, apparel and collectibles. The boutique ceased operations when FAO Schwartz closed in July 2015, in October 2013, Midtown opened a shop inside the Toys R Us store in Manhattans Times Square. Midtowns website was at first purely informational, but has developed into a full-scale web retail site, Midtown also produces a weekly podcast that covers the comic book industry, with a different comic book creator interviewed each week. Midtown Comics has developed a reputation for being the most media-friendly comic store in the United States, the media also rely on Midtown as a source for reaction to industry news and events. Gladston was consulted by multiple publications on the effects on new readership of DC Comics 2011 relaunch, The New 52, in January 2015, Marvel announced their Secret Wars storyline at a press conference held at Midtown
18.
Reboot (fiction)
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In serial fiction, to reboot means to discard all continuity in an established series in order to recreate its characters, timeline and backstory from the beginning. The term is used with respect to different forms of fictional media such as comic books, television series, video games. The term is thought to originate from the term for restarting a computer system. Reboots remove any non-essential elements associated with a franchise by starting the franchises continuity over, for audiences, reboots allow easier entry for newcomers unfamiliar with earlier titles in a series. With reboots, filmmakers revamp and reinvigorate a film series in order to new fans. A reboot can renew interest in a series that has grown stale, reboots also allow directors and producers to cast a new set of younger actors for the familiar roles of a film series in order to attract a younger audience. Unlike a remake, however, a reboot often presupposes a working familiarity on the part of the audience with the original work, reboots are common in the video game industry, particularly with franchises that have multiple entries in the series. Reboots in video games are used to refresh the storyline and elements of the game, comic books sometimes use an in-universe explanation for a reboot, such as merging parallel worlds and timelines together or destroying and recreating a fictional universe from the beginning. Artistic license Canon List of modernized adaptations of old works Prequel Reset button technique Retroactive continuity Sequel
19.
War of the Green Lanterns
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It was written by each series writer, Geoff Johns, Tony Bedard, and Peter Tomasi respectively, and drawn by Doug Mahnke, Tyler Kirkham, and Fernando Pasarin. The story starts at multiple locations across the DC Universe with some events happening simultaneously between the different series, Hal and the group come across The Book of the Black and are attacked by Lyssa Drak, who starts pulling them into the book. With Jordan and Sinestro being the two not to be captured by the book, in a last attempt to save themselves, they combine the energy of their rings to create an explosion. The book teleports away, leaving only the rings of the books captives. Hal Jordan then encounters the other Green Lanterns sent to arrest him, unfortunately at the same time, Parallax climbs into the Central Power Battery on Oa and broadcasts out to all the members of the Green Lantern Corps Impurity Restored. Hal Jordan hears Parallax telepathically speaking to him and is attacked by his fellow corpsmen and is forced to flee. Simultaneously, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Ganthet, Soranik Natu, The Alpha Lantern Boodikka, however when they arrive, they find the other Alpha Lanterns floating above Oa and Boodikka as well. Shortly after, Parallax enters the Central Power Battery and the group feel his presence, while John, Kyle, and Ganthet are not immediately affected by the impurity, Hannu and Soranik are and fly off. Kyle begins to chase them, but John stops him. The impurity begins to take its effect and the two start to fight, Ganthet overloads his power ring trying to remove Kyles and Johns, causing Ganthets ring to explode, taking his hand with it. With them freed from Parallaxs influence, they discover that the reason they have not been affected the way is due to their previous encounters with Parallax. Off in the distance, the three see a group of Green Lanterns forming a search party. Also at the time, Guy Gardner, Kilowog, and Arisia are heading to Oa to tell the Guardians about Zardor. They also feel Parallaxs influence and see Arisia flying, while Guy and Kilowog try to restrain her, she overpowers them as they are attacked by a group of Lanterns. Kilowog helps Guy escape, telling him to head to a called the Green House, deciding to stay close. Guy tries to contact members of the Corps, but only gets through to Hal Jordan. The two eventually meet up at the Green House and also come to the conclusion that their previous exposure to Parallax has helped them resist the effects of the impurity. However, the two begin to argue and under the effects of the impurity, begin to fight, fortunately, their fighting causes them to drain their rings of energy and calm themselves down
20.
Batman: A Death in the Family
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The story was written by Jim Starlin, pencilled by Jim Aparo, inked by Mike DeCarlo, colored by Adrienne Roy, lettered by John Costanza, and covers were illustrated by Mike Mignola. The story was collected as a paperback under the title Batman. The story follows Jason Todd, the second Robin, in the beginning of the story, Jason and Bruce are in uniform hiding behind some crates while a mob plans. Then, out of the blue, an impatient Jason leaps out from behind the crates, when the struggle is over, Bruce asks him what he was doing and warns him that his impulsive behavior could cost him his life. Bruce then asks if he thinks that what they do is a game, to which Jason replies Yes, Bruce therefore relieves him of his duties. When Bruce mentions Jasons parents, the latter becomes upset and storms off and he concludes that Catherine was, in fact, his stepmother and resolves to find his biological mother. However, all three are based in the Middle East and Africa, Jason therefore runs away from home to find them. Meanwhile, the Joker has escaped yet again from Arkham Asylum, Batman discovers that he has somehow obtained a nuclear weapon and plans to sell it to terrorists. He tracks him to civil war-torn Lebanon where he and Jason are reunited and they foil an attempt by Arab terrorists to destroy Tel Aviv using a nuclear missile sold to them by the Joker. Sharmin Rosen, a Mossad agent who was at the scene, another of the suspected mothers is none other than Batmans old acquaintance Lady Shiva, whom they track down to a terrorist training camp. A fight ensues, in which Batman is almost killed, only with Jasons help is he able to defeat Shiva, when she proves uncooperative, they administer a truth drug, and she then admits that she is not Jasons mother. The dynamic duo then go to Ethiopia and meet the third suspect, Sheila Haywood and she proves to be Jasons mother, and she has an emotional reunion with her long-lost son. The Joker has used information to blackmail Sheila into giving him the medical supplies her agency has stockpiled in a nearby warehouse. Sheila herself had been embezzling from the aid agency and, as part of the cover-up, the Joker brutally beats him with a crowbar. Robin is soon lying unconscious in a puddle of blood, which the Joker casually remarks is a bit messy, the villain then restrains Jason and Sheila and leaves them in the warehouse with a time bomb. Batman arrives too late to them and they die from their injuries. The bodies are taken back to Gotham for burial, blaming himself for Jasons death, a guilt-ridden Batman resolves to carry on alone. He even rejects Alfreds suggestion to involve Dick Grayson, the first Robin, the Joker himself, meanwhile, has met none other than the Ayatollah Khomeini, who offers him a position in the Iranian government
21.
Batman: The Killing Joke
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Batman, The Killing Joke is a 1988 DC Comics one-shot graphic novel featuring the characters Batman and the Joker written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland. The Killing Joke provides a story for the supervillain the Joker. Taking place over two timelines, The Killing Joke depicts the Joker attempting to drive Jim Gordon insane and Batmans desperate attempt to stop him, Moore stated that he attempted to show the similarities and contrasts between the two characters. The storys effects on the mainstream Batman continuity also included the shooting and paralysis of Barbara Gordon, many critics consider the graphic novel to be the definitive Joker story and one of the best Batman stories ever published. The comic won the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album in 1989, in 2006, The Killing Joke was reprinted as part of the trade paperback DC Universe, The Stories of Alan Moore. In 2008, DC Comics reprinted the story in a hardcover edition, which features new coloring by Bolland, with a more somber, realistic. Elements of The Killing Joke have inspired or been incorporated into other aspects of Batman media, such as films, artist Brian Bollands version of the Joker stemmed in part from his having recently seen the film The Man Who Laughs. Giordanos invitation led directly to Bolland working with writer Alan Moore to create a background story for the Joker. He recounted, I thought about it in terms of whos my favorite writer at the moment, what hero I would really love to do, I basically came up with Alan, Batman and the Joker. Bolland said that he saw Judge Death almost a dry run for drawing the Joker and he also recounted that by the time Alan had finished Watchmen he had fallen out with DC to a certain extent. In the end, he continued to do Killing Joke as a favour to me. The 48-page prestige format one-shot comic took an amount of time to produce. He was aided by the laid back attitude taken by DC, the original editor, Len Wein, left the company, and was replaced by Dennis ONeil, a very hands-off sort of guy, with whom Bolland only recalls having one conversation about the book. Bolland envisaged the flashback sequences in black and white, and instructed Watchmen-colorist John Higgins to use muted November colors and he was upset when he saw the finished comic had garish. Hideous glowing purples and pinks. and my precious Eraserhead-esque flashback sequences swamped in orange, the 2008-published 20th anniversary edition of the book featured new colouring by Bolland, restoring his artistic intentions to the palette. The man who become the Joker is an unnamed engineer who quits his job at a chemical company to become a stand-up comedian. Desperate to support his pregnant wife Jeannie, he agrees to guide two criminals through the plant where he previously worked so that they can rob the playing card company next to it. During the planning, the police inform him that his wife has died in a household accident, grief-stricken, the engineer tries to withdraw from the plan, but the criminals strong-arm him into keeping his commitment to them
22.
Blackhawk (DC Comics)
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Blackhawk is the eponymous fictional character of the long-running comic book series Blackhawk published first by Quality Comics and later by DC Comics. Primarily created by Chuck Cuidera with input from both Bob Powell and Will Eisner, the Blackhawk characters first appeared in Military Comics #1, though the membership roster has undergone changes over the years, the team has been portrayed most consistently as having seven core members. At the height of his popularity in the early 1940s, Blackhawk titles routinely outsold every other comic book, Blackhawk also shares the unique distinction of being just one of four comic book characters to be published continuously in his own title from the 1940s through the 1960s. The comic series has spawned a film serial, a radio series, like many of his golden age and silver age comic book counterparts, the creation of Blackhawk has been the subject of sometimes-contentious debate. Will Eisner has at times considered the characters primary creator, with Eisner himself acknowledging the contributions of Chuck Cuidera. Over the years, Cuidera became increasingly vocal that he did more work on Blackhawk than Eisner. According to Cuidera, he and Powell fleshed out the concept, deciding on everything from names and nationalities, to the distinguishing traits, uniforms. In 1999, Eisner addressed his view of the matter during a Comic-Con panel, Its not important who created it. its the guy who kept it going, whether or not Chuck Cuidera created or thought of Blackhawk to begin with is unimportant. The fact that Chuck Cuidera made Blackhawk what it was is the important thing, the Blackhawks debuted in August 1941 as the lead feature in the first issue of Quality Comics anthology series Military Comics, billed as featuring stories of the Army and Navy. Viewed by Will Eisner as a version of the Robin Hood legend. When Cuidera joined the services in 1942, Reed Crandall took over as artist. Jim Steranko has observed, Where Cuidera made Blackhawk a best-seller, Crandall turned it into a classic and it was during Crandalls run that the series hit its sales and popularity zenith. The Blackhawks success earned them their own title in Winter 1944 and that issue, Blackhawk #9, picked up the numbering of Qualitys canceled Uncle Sam Quarterly. They meanwhile continued to be featured prominently in Military Comics, later renamed Modern Comics and it was French, also an accomplished songwriter, who infused the team with the quirky desire to sing celebratory songs from their cockpits as they swooped in and out of battle. Quality Comics ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956, with Blackhawk #107 being the issue published by Quality. The character and title trademarks were initially leased on a royalty basis to National Periodical Publications before eventually being sold in their entirety, Blackhawk was one of the few Quality series that DC chose to keep running uninterrupted. Penciller Dick Dillin and inker Chuck Cuidera remained on the title, the duo would stay with the title through nearly its entire first run at DC. The Blackhawks also gained a new ally in Blackhawk #133, Lady Blackhawk, after a couple of appearances, she was granted honorary status and became a semi-frequent member of the supporting cast
23.
Hawk and Dove
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Hawk and Dove are a superhero team that appear in DC Comics. Created by Steve Ditko and Steve Skeates and debuting in Showcase No.1 following Dons death in 1985s Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series. With Dove representing reason and nonviolence and Hawk representing force and aggression, they complement one another, with Dawns introduction, it was revealed that Hawk and Dove receive their powers from the Lords of Chaos and Order, respectively, and that their powers are mystic in origin. Though the duos ongoing titles have all been relatively short-lived and their guest-appearances in other titles sporadic, Dawns estranged sister, the British and fiery Holly Granger serves as Hawk in Hanks absence until her own death in 2009s Blackest Night event. Spinning off from their Showcase debut, Don and Hank Hall received their own series titled The Hawk, created by Steve Ditko and Steve Skeates, Ditko plotted only the first issue and left after the second. A lot of changes would happen after I turned in a script, quite often, my idea of what to do with the Dove was have him do brave stuff – and then it would be changed by either Dick or Steve into the Hawk doing that stuff. They’d say it was out of character for the Dove and they seemed to be equating Dove with wimp, wuss, coward or whatever. And I don’t really think it was because they were more hawkish, I just don’t think that they knew what a dove was. Skeates also provided scripts for some of issues they appeared in. The brothers also teamed up with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #181 in an out-of-continuity tale written by Alan Brennert, the original Hawk and Doves last appearance together was in Crisis on Infinite Earths No. 12, in which Don Hall was killed and became one of the last of a multitude of characters to meet their demise throughout the series, including Flash, Supergirl, and dozens of others. In 1986, Karl Kesel and Barbara Kesel began collaborating on a revival of Hawk and Dove, with the idea of creating a second Dove, I always liked Hawk and Dove. I always thought how they’d say “Hawk. ” and “Dove. ”, then it hit me, The mysterious voice that gave Hawk and Dove their powers could easily give the Dove powers to someone else. I called Barbara as soon as I could and she sparked off the idea instantly and before even we knew it, we were co-writers. The revival was approved for a five-issue mini-series, and the Kesels were joined by then-up-and-coming artist Rob Liefeld, the mini-series, shortened from its 1968 title to simply Hawk & Dove was published in 1988–1989. Their portrayals of Hank and Dawn themselves were modeled on Barbara Kesels brother and Karl Kesels sister, the Kesels also wrote a Hawk and Dove feature in Secret Origins No. Despite its strong start, the relaunched ongoing was eventually cancelled after 28 issues, to date, this is the longest any Hawk & Dove ongoing series has lasted. Hank Hall and Don Hall were the sons of Judge Irwin Hall and they eventually found out that their father had many enemies when their father was nearly assassinated
24.
Men of War (comics)
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Men of War is the name of several American comic book series published by DC Comics. For the most part, the series was a comic featuring fictional stories about the American military during World War II. The original series, All-American Men of War, published 118 issues from 1956 to 1966, pop artist Roy Lichtensteins famous 1962 work Whaam. is based on a Jerry Grandenetti panel from the cover of All-American Men of War #89. A second series, simply titled Men of War, published 26 issues from 1977–1980, regular contributors included writers Kanigher, Roger McKenzie, Cary Burkett, Jack C. Harris, and Paul Kupperberg, and artists Grandenetti, Dick Ayers, joe Kubert provided the cover art for the full series run except issue #1. A third series, also titled Men of War starred Sgt, rock and was published from November 2011–June 2012. All-American Men of War did not start with issue #1, it was a renaming of the 1948 series All-American Western, the title became All-American Men of War with issue #127, published in August–September 1952. All-American Men of War published two issues before rebooting the numbering with issue #2 in December 1952–January 1953, All-American Men of War #35 featured the first painted cover on a DC comic book. One of the earliest known examples of pop art, Roy Lichtensteins Whaam, adapted a panel from a story titled Star Jockey, from All-American Men of War #89, drawn by Irv Novick. The painting depicts an aircraft, the North American P-51 Mustang, firing a rocket into an enemy plane. The cartoon style is heightened by the use of the onomatopoeic lettering Whaam. Lichtenstein used other artwork from this series for other works, including Brattata and Bratatat. The All-American Men of War letters page was titled Combat Corner, after eleven years, the series returned with the shortened title Men of War. It was published for 26 issues from August 1977–March 1980, Men of War vol.2 was launched in 2011 as part of The New 52 initiative, the series was written by Ivan Brandon. In January 2012, DC announced that Men of War would be one of six titles cancelled following its issue to be replaced by a second wave of six new titles. Khaki-Yaks — humorous one-pagers by Irwin Hasen were a feature of early issues. Tank Killer — This feature appeared in issue #69, 71–72, johnny Cloud — a Native American World War II P-51 Mustang pilot, Johnnys adventures were told by Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick. The Navajo Ace appeared in every issue from #82 to the end of the series, johnny Cloud, with Gunner and Sarge, later became part of The Losers, a team which in the late 1960s and early 1970s was the main feature of Our Fighting Forces. Lt. Savage, the Balloon Buster — World War I aviation strip written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Russ Heath, steve Savage appeared in issues #112–114, and 116
25.
Mister Terrific (comics)
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Mister Terrific is the name of two different superheroes in the DC Comics universe. The Golden Ages Mister Terrific was Terry Sloane, a millionaire whose photographic memory, Olympic-level athletic skills. After graduating college at age 13, he became a renowned business leader in the community. Having accomplished all his goals, he felt there were no challenges left for him to pursue, however, upon seeing a young woman jump from a bridge, Sloane reacted quickly and saved the woman, Wanda Wilson. Sloane assisted Wandas brother, who had caught up in a gang, by adopting a superhero identity. This provided him with what he had been missing, a sense of accomplishment and he then created the Fair Play Club to stymie growing juvenile delinquency. In the end, they chose the latter to protect themselves, following the dissolution of the JSA, Mr. Terrific retired along with many of the others. Years later, Sloane came out of retirement and joined with the reformed Justice Society of America, while contemplating suicide after the accidental death of his wife and unborn child, he was met by the Spectre, who told him about Terry Sloane. Inspired by Sloanes life story, he took the name Mister Terrific and later joined the current Justice Society of America and he is the inventor of the T-Sphere, an artificially intelligent miniature device that he controls with his mask and earpieces. In the past, he has used them for reconnaissance, infiltration, espionage and information retrieval and storage, while in costume, Mr. Terrific has no fewer than three T-Spheres orbiting his body at all times and has had as many as ten. He is also considered the third-smartest man alive, Holt served as the White King in the restructured Checkmate but eventually returned to full-time duties with the JSA. However, Holt was apparently killed in Justice Society of America #30/31, in 2011, Holt became the title character in his own Mister Terrific comic book, as part of The New 52, but this was a short run, ending in 2012 after 8 issues. He has since appeared in the DC book Earth 2 following his seriess cancellation, in Kingdom Come, Alex Ross portrayed a Mister Terrific with oversized guns, shoulder pads, and other military accoutrements. He sported the Fair Play logo, but displays little idea of its true, another version was portrayed in JSA, The Liberty File and its sequel JSA, The Unholy Three. Here, Terry Sloane was portrayed as a World War II intelligence agent transferred to desk duty and he was seen wearing a variation of the classic Fair Play costume and using a rapier. In Villains United #5, a new villain calling himself Mister Terrible appears as a part of Deathstrokes criminal army, Michael Holt has made several cameo appearances in the animated TV series Justice League Unlimited. He moves into a prominent role in the series final season, becoming the Leagues Coordinator. The animated Mr. Terrific is voiced by former Third Watch star Michael Beach and it is unknown whether Mr. Terrific retains his invisibility to technology, as throughout the show the image of his face appears on several computer screens
26.
OMAC (comics)
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The OMACs are a fictional type of powerful cyborg that exist in the DC Comics universe. They are based on the Jack Kirby character of the same name The OMACs first appeared in The OMAC Project #1 and were created by Greg Rucka, the OMACs are cyborgs, human bodies transformed by a virus into living machines to assassinate any and all beings with superpowers. The virus was created from Brainiac-13s nanotechnology, which had acquired by the U. S. Department of Defense and Lexcorp. The OMACs are featured in the mini-series The OMAC Project that leads up to the Infinite Crisis series, the new OMACs are controlled by the Brother MK I satellite. Brother MK I was created by Batman and programmed by Pseudopersons, Inc. scientist Buddy Blank and its sole purpose was to gather data on all metahumans, both villain and hero. Batman had grown distrustful of metahumans after discovering that the Justice League altered his memories following an altercation with Doctor Light in Identity Crisis, Alexander Luthor, Jr. later gave the satellite sentience as part of his plans. Maxwell Lord, recently promoted to the top rank of Checkmate, subverted the original mission of the Brother MK I satellite by inculcating a fear, the first OMAC test subject was renamed Buddy Blank, after the scientist who programmed the satellite. The OMACs history may be more recent than Brother MK Is itself, equus and Pilate, formerly featured in Superman, For Tomorrow, are later denounced as former iterations of the OMAC concept. In JLA, Classified an all mechanical OMAC is an enemy of the Metal Men, since then, the design has improved to the current form, with little to no changes to the base model. When Maxwell Lord brainwashed Superman to kill Batman, Wonder Woman, because Lord proffered this solution while held by her Lasso of Truth, Diana believed this was the only course of action possible, she was fiercely criticized from many quarters. Brother MK I, rechristening itself Brother Eye, initiated the KingIsDead protocol, specifically designed to be used in the event of Lords death, it ordered all of the OMACs to attack and kill all the metahumans on Earth and destroy Checkmate. These measures effectively freed the majority of the OMAC hosts from their nanotech forms, in response, the satellite broadcast footage of Wonder Woman executing Maxwell Lord, preceded by the word MURDER, to media outlets all over the world, destroying her reputation. After this, Brother Eye initiated the final protocol, Truth and Justice, by having all the remaining OMACs invade and attack her homeland, Themyscira and it was revealed that Alexander Luthor was the one who wrestled control of Brother Eye away from Batman. He used it to program his multiverse tuning fork and redirect its energy to where he needed it as part of his attempt to re-create Earth-Two, and in turn, Blue Beetles scarab allows him to find and reveal Brother Eyes hidden location above Earth by negating its vibrational frequency. Brother Eye sends OMACs and the two groups clash, with the two Green Lanterns fighting off most of the OMACs and Brother Eyes defenses, the heroes ship crashes into Brother Eye. Batman goes to distract Brother Eye by shutting off the central computer, Sasha, linked to Oracle, goes to upload every computer virus on Earth into Brother Eyes system as well as trying to prevent the artificial gravity from shutting down. Black Canary goes to the room to use her sonic scream to blind the Eye. The plan works, and Brother Eye is deactivated, and begins to fall apart, all of the remaining activated OMACs shut down, releasing their hosts
27.
Static (DC Comics)
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Static is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. After the closing of Milestone, Static was incorporated into the DC Universe, an African American teen, Static was a key character of Milestone Comics, an independently-owned imprint of DC Comics with a greater representation of minority heroes. Dwayne McDuffie has stated that the creation of Static was a group effort, originally developed for Marvel Comics, Static would become a main staple of the Milestone line. Much of the inspiration for Statics character came from Marvels Spider-Man, when initially creating the first five characters for Milestone Comics, it was decided that Static would be created as a teenage hero who was a contemporary version of Spider-Man. Statics civilian identity was named after a man who was denied entrance to the University of Floridas law school in 1949. McDuffie described the character, Like any other awkward 15 year-old, Virgil Hawkins worries about money, getting beaten up. But recently, hes had more on his mind, stuff like his powers, his secret identity. Because, when innocents are in danger, and Virgil can slip away from class, the youth becomes Static. The character was introduced in one of the first four titles of books published by Milestone in 1993, founded by Derek T. Dingle, Denys Cowan, Dwayne McDuffie. His early adventures were written by Robert L. Washington III and McDuffie, Virgil Hawkins was fifteen years old when he became Static. In the comics, Virgils family consists of his father, who works at Paris Island Hospital, his mother, and his sister, Sharon. Virgil attends Ernest Hemingway High School in the city of Dakota with his friends, Frieda Goren, Richard Rick Stone, Larry Wade, Chuck, Felix, in the guise of Static, Virgil eventually rescues Rick Stone from gay bashing. Not unlike Spider-Man, the character has a propensity for witty banter and humor, in addition, Virgil utilizes his knowledge of science and pop culture in various battles and scenarios as Static. A self-professed geek, Virgil is portrayed as comic book and video game fan. In the comics, Virgil regularly visits the local store, in addition to creating fan comics with his friends. In addition, he has shown to be an avid video gamer at several points in both his series and the Teen Titans. In the 2001 miniseries, Static Shock, The Rebirth of the Cool, it is shown that at point in time, Virgil is into collecting Pokémon cards. Any obstructions were eventually resolved and Static appeared in the Terror Titans, at the San Diego Comic-Con 2008, it was announced that Static would be joining the mainstream DC Universe where he would be added to the Teen Titans
28.
Dial H
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Dial H was a DC Comics superhero title launched in 2012 as part of the second wave of The New 52. It is a contemporary, frequently take on the Silver Age title Dial H for Hero. It was written by novelist China Miéville, featuring artwork primarily by Mateus Santolouco with Brian Bolland as the cover artist, the comic tells of an out-of-shape man named Nelson Jent discovering that dialing H-E-R-O at a mysterious phone booth will transform him into unique, though short-lived, superheroes. Each time creates a new persona with a new set of powers, DC Comics announced the cancellation of the title in May 2013. It concluded with issue #15 on August 7,2013, an epilogue issue titled Justice League #23.3 Dial E was released as part of Villains Month initiative. Dial H Vol.1, Into You Dial H Vol.2, Exchange
29.
Earth-Two
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Earth-Two is a fictional universe appearing in American flash stories published by DC Comics. First appearing in The Flash #123, Earth-Two was created to explain how Silver-Age versions of such as the Flash could appear in stories with their Golden Age counterparts. Earth-Two, along with the four other surviving Earths of the DC Multiverse, were merged into one in the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, following the events of Infinite Crisis, the Multiverse was reborn, following the events of Flashpoint, Earth-2 underwent an additional reiteration. While it still houses a team of superheroes, its membership is younger than before, Earth 2 also has a tragic backstory, having been invaded by a horde of alien invaders from Apokolips five years prior to the reboot, ahead of Darkseids attempted invasion of Prime Earth. Characters from DC Comics were originally suggestive of each existing in their own world and this was soon changed with alliances being formed between certain protagonists. Several publications, including All Star Comics, Leading Comics and other comic books introduced a shared universe among several characters during the 1940s, by the 1950s, as the popularity of superheroes was waning, comics shifted to horror, westerns and war. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman were among the few DC continued to publish, beginning in the early 1960s, the popularity of superheroes began to grow. DC introduced more modern versions of its heroes, for example, the older heroes were assigned to an alternative reality earth. Alternative-reality Earths had been used in DC stories before, but were not referred to after that particular story. Most of these alternative Earths were usually so vastly different that no one would confuse that Earth and he claims Gardner Foxs dreams were tuned into Earth-Two, explaining their depiction as a fictional world in earlier Barry Allen stories. Most of the costumed mystery men history is based on the Earth-Two Supermans initial appearance. In order to him from the later primary version of the character. He was specifically introduced as an Earth-Two character in Justice League of America #73, most superheroes from the Golden Age later followed this trend of operating publicly, while wearing distinctive costuming and interacting in a largely shared universe. The primary characters of Superman and Batman still largely worked independent of team environments, the story continued in Adventure Comics #460-465, which featured the death of the Earth-Two Batman. Mr and Mrs Superman, a feature in Superman Family, featured stories of the adventures of married Superman and these stories were set at a time in which the Superman of Earth-Two was at a similar age to the then-present-day Superman of Earth-One. In the 1980s, DC published All-Star Squadron which covered the war history of various superheroes during World War II. Infinity, Inc. a group made up of the children, there was an eponymous comics series starring the group, which ran from March 1984 through June 1988
30.
G.I. Combat
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Combat was an American comics magazine, specializing in war comics. It was published from 1952 until 1956 by Quality Comics, followed by DC Comics until its final issue in 1987, in 2012 it was briefly revived. The focus was on stories about American soldiers or G. I. s, as with other media, the World War II setting was sometimes used to discuss themes pertinent to contemporary conflicts such as the Vietnam War. Combat was published in October 1952, when DC Comics acquired the rights to the Quality Comics characters and titles, they continued publishing the series starting with issue #44. Combat and Blackhawk were the only Quality titles which DC continued publishing, many notable writers and artists worked on G. I. Combat during its run, including Robert Kanigher, who edited the title, Joe Kubert, Jerry Grandenetti. Combat contained several short stories, a format that continued throughout its run. There were several recurring features in the DC Comics version of the title, including most notably The Haunted Tank, the Losers first appearance as a group was with the Haunted Tank crew in issue #138, in a story titled The Losers. Other recurring features included The Bravos of Vietnam and late in its run, combat was DCs only war comic to be upgraded to its Dollar Comics line, with additional pages of content beyond the then-standard 32-page format. The Dollar Comic format was used through issue #259, the series continued in a 52-page giant-sized format through issue #281 before returning to a standard 32 page size with #282. The Monitors first full appearance was in G. I, by the 1980s, war comics grew less marketable and Sgt. Rock, The Unknown Soldier, and Weird War Tales were discontinued, combat ongoing series as part of The New 52. The Haunted Tank feature began in issue #5, the new series was canceled as of issue #7 on sale in December 2012 and cover dated February 2013. Rock Archives Vol.1 includes G. I, combat #68,240 pages, May 2002, ISBN 978-1-56389-841-9 America at War includes G. I. Combat #87, Introducing -- the Haunted Tank by Robert Kanigher and Russ Heath,247 pages, July 1979, ISBN 978-0671249533 Showcase Presents, combat #87-119,560 pages, May 2006, ISBN 1-4012-0789-8 Volume 2 collects G. I. Combat #120-157,560 pages, June 2008, ISBN 978-1-4012-1793-8 G. I, combat Vol.1, The War That Time Forgot collects G. I. Combat vol.3 #0-7,224 pages, April 2013, combat at the Comic Book DB G. I. Combat vol.2 at the Comic Book DB G. I, combat at Cover Browser G. I
31.
World's Finest Comics
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Worlds Finest Comics was an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled Worlds Best Comics for its first issue, issue #2 switched to the familiar name. Most likely the reason for the change was that DC received a cease and desist letter from Better Publications. Virtually every issue featured DCs two leading superheroes, Superman and Batman, with the earliest issues also featuring Batmans sidekick, Robin. The idea for Worlds Best #1 originated from the identically formatted 1940 New York Worlds Fair Comics featuring Superman, Batman, and Robin with 96 pages and a cardboard cover. The year before there was a similar 1939 New York Worlds Fair Comics featuring Superman but without Batman and Robin because Bill Finger, the series was initially a 96-page quarterly anthology, featuring various DC characters - always including Superman and Batman - in separate stories. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that Pairing Superman and Batman made sense financially, the title often depicted Batman gaining superpowers as a way to avoid having him be overshadowed by Superman. Lex Luthor and the Joker first joined forces in issue #88, a new super-villain, the Composite Superman was introduced in #142. Noted Batman artist Neal Adams first drew the character in a story in The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads in issue #175. The title briefly featured Superman teaming with other than Batman in the early 1970s beginning with issue #198. That issue featured the first part of a two-issue team-up with the Flash, nick Cardy was the cover artist for Worlds Finest Comics for issues #212-228. Metamorpho was the feature in issues #218-220 and #229 after the character had a brief run as the backup in Action Comics. The series reverted to Superman and Batman team-ups after issue #214, initially with a unique twist, featuring the children they might one day have, Superman Jr. and Batman Jr. These characters, billed as the Super-Sons, were co-created by writer Bob Haney and artist Dick Dillin in issue #215. Super-Sons stories alternated with tales of the original Superman and Batman through issue #263, with issues #215-216, 221-222,224,228,230,231,233,238,242, and 263 featuring the sons. Haney frequently disregarded continuity by scripting stories which contradicted DCs canon or by writing major heroes in an out-of-character fashion and he introduced Batmans older brother, Thomas Wayne Jr. in Worlds Finest Comics #223. This story was used a basis for a detail in the Court of Owls story arc in 2012. Issues #223 to #228 of the series were in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format, with issue #244, Worlds Finest Comics became one of the first 80-page Dollar Comics
32.
Ravager (comics)
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Ravager is the name of five fictional comic book characters in the DC Universe, four villains and one hero. Four have appeared in series featuring the Teen Titans and have a connection to the villain Deathstroke, the first Ravager is Deathstrokes older son Grant Wilson, who dies attempting to assassinate the Teen Titans under a contract from the H. I. V. E. Causing Deathstroke to hold the Titans responsible for his death, because of a procedure the H. I. V. E. Undertook to imitate his fathers abilities, he gains enhanced strength, in Teen Titans, vol.3, #31, Grant was temporarily resurrected by Brother Blood to guard Kid Eternity. In the Teen Titans tie-in to the Blackest Night crossover, Grant Wilson was reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps, after the events of Flashpoint, Grants history was changed. He appears to have beaten and killed in an explosion by Midnighter. In the aftermath, even having a chance to kill Deathstroke, Grant hesitated, Grant later appeared being mind-controlled by Jericho. He was later killed off by Deathstroke in his try to kill Jericho, Grants backstory is later expanded upon in the Deathstroke, Rebirth one-shot. In his younger years as a child, he had a relationship with his father Slade, who was hard on him. This Ravager is hired by Two-Face to kill Batman, but fails, the third Ravager is Bill Walsh, a former rival of Deathstrokes who takes up the title to lure Deathstroke into battle. Years before assuming the name Ravager, Walsh was involved in the kidnapping of Slades younger son, Joseph, as Ravager, Walsh attempts to kill Slade with a bomb. Slade instead kills Walsh and defuses the bomb, the fourth Ravager is Slades half brother, Wade DeFarge, a small-time hitman who uses the name in mockery of Slade. In the Teen Titans tie-in to the Blackest Night crossover, Wade DeFarge was reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps, attacking Rose and he fights Rose, who attempts to incinerate him, but then finds out that Rose was possessed by her brother Jericho. The fifth Ravager is Rose Wilson, Slades illegitimate daughter, at one period, Deathstroke manipulates and brainwashes her into becoming his apprentice. One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, she has joined the Teen Titans, in The New 52, the Ravagers are a group of super-powered teens who have escaped the plans of Harvest in The Culling. The Ravagers title first appeared as part of The New 52s Second Wave in 2012, the team was formed after the Teen Titans and the Legionnaires stuck in the present day were abducted by Harvest, and then later stopped the villain and escaped. The team includes Beast Boy, Terra, Thunder and Lightning, Ridge, Ravager appears in DC Super Hero Girls as a Super Hero High student and cameo non speaking characters. Summer Glau portrays Isabel Rochev during Season 2 of The CWs Arrow and she dons the moniker of Ravager and is trained by Deathstroke to get vengeance on the Queen family before the events of the show
33.
Batman Incorporated
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Batman Incorporated is an American comic book series published by DC Comics, featuring Batman. In the series, one of the themes present is Batman traveling across the world seeking to use the symbolic power that the Batman has on a global scale. In the wake of the relaunch of the DC Universe under The New 52 initiative, Batman Incorporateds first volume came to an end in December 2011. Batman, Inc. is the continuation from Morrisons previous work with the Batman character, following the stories Batman and Son, The Resurrection of Ras al Ghul, The Black Glove. Final Crisis, Batman and Robin and The Return of Bruce Wayne, after the October one-shot Batman, The Return, Inc. represents Bruce Waynes first foray into the present-day DC Universe since December 2008s Final Crisis No. 6, when he was stranded in the distant past by Darkseids Omega Sanction, the Return one-shot features the debut of a new costume for Bruce Wayne, designed by artist David Finch. So thats what Batman Inc. is about and its about expanding the Batman universe and the Batman line and the Batman cast of characters. In interviews, Morrison has stated that the series, Batman, The Brave. The first story arc contains several references to the Batman manga from the 1960s, in addition, a new protagonist named Jiro Osamu is introduced as the sidekick of Mr. Unknown, the Batman of Tokyo. As for the nature of Batman, Inc. Morrison said that he was inspired by real-life tools used to market the image of the title character, I was looking back at the old Tim Burton Batman movie in 1989, and the way they played that symbol, it was such a major merchandising tool. So I wanted to do something that represented that, or echoed that, so Batman, Inc. is the notion of Batman taking the symbol and saying, lets form an international army or team, or police force, which is endorsed by Batman and wears Batmans symbol. In order to finish the series first volume, Grant Morrison wrote and Cameron Stewart and Chris Burnham penciled a giant sized one-shot titled Batman Incorporated, Leviathan Strikes. As part of the New 52, DC Comics began a series starring Batwing that debuted in September 2011 as a part of the relaunch. Batwing was one of the titles of the New 52, premiering before Batman. Though technically taking place in the newly rebooted DC Universe, the series makes extensive references to the prior continuity, stories such as Grant Morrisons first JLA arc and Metamorphos tenure in the Justice League as a part of the Justice League International are referenced. I. P. Batman, Reborn, and The Return of Bruce Wayne all still forming the backbone of the recent history of the characters. This is further emphasized by the first issue of the volume, mentioning Bruces disappearance and return as well as Dick Grayson and Damian serving as Batman
34.
Talia al Ghul
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Talia al Ghul is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman. The character was created by writer Dennis ONeil and artist Bob Brown, Talia is the daughter of the supervillain Ras al Ghul, the half-sister of Nyssa Raatko, on-and-off romantic interest of the superhero Batman, and the mother of Damian Wayne. She has alternately been depicted as an anti-hero and supervillain, Talia has appeared in over 200 individual comics issues, and has been featured in various media adaptions. The character was voiced by Helen Slater in Batman, The Animated Series, Talia was subsequently portrayed by Marion Cotillard in the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises, and by Lexa Doig in the television series Arrow. Talia al Ghul was created by writer Dennis ONeil and artist Bob Brown, the characters creation and depiction was inspired by other works of fiction, such as the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majestys Secret Service, and the Fu Manchu fiction. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #411 and she is most commonly depicted as a romantic interest for Batman, a villain, or a combination of the two. Her father, the leader of a criminal empire, considered Batman the man most worthy to marry Talia. Absent a spouse, Talia was considered as an heir to her father, while Batman is uninterested in the criminal empire, he has often demonstrated romantic feelings for Talia. Talia has saved the life of Batman or helped him on numerous occasions, the majority of her criminal acts have been committed at the behest of her father and motivated by loyalty to her father rather than personal gain. She had been depicted as morally ambiguous or an antiheroic figure, iGNs list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time List ranked Talia as #42. She was ranked 25th in Comics Buyers Guides 100 Sexiest Women in Comics list, the first Talia comic story appears in Into the Den of the Death-Dealers. in Detective Comics #411, written by Dennis ONeil. In the story, Batman rescues her from Dr. Darrk and it is eventually revealed that the League is just one part of Ras al Ghuls organization, The Demon, and that Darrk apparently turned against Ras after failing in a mission. At the end of the story, she shoots and kills Darrk to save Batmans life, Talia next appears in Daughter of the Demon in Batman #232. In the story, Dick Grayson is kidnapped, Ras al Ghul enters the Batcave, revealing to Batman that he knows Batmans secret identity and saying that Talia was also kidnapped along with Dick. Though Batman rejects Ras offer, he nevertheless returns Talias feelings, Ras and Talia consider Batman to be married to Talia with only their consent necessary in DC Special Series #15 in the story I Now Pronounce You Batman and Wife. In the years since the character met Batman, Talia is repeatedly depicted as torn between loyalty to her father and her love of Batman. In the graphic novel Son of the Demon by Mike W. Barr, Ras al Ghul successfully enlists Batmans aid in defeating a rogue assassin who had murdered his wife and Talias mother, Talia witnessed the murder as a young child. During this story line, Batman marries Talia and the marriage from DC Special Series #15 is referenced
35.
Sword of Sorcery
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Sword of Sorcery was an American sword-and-sorcery comic book featuring Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, heroes and rogues created by Fritz Leiber. Published bi-monthly by National Periodical Publications, it ran for five issues in 1973, the title was written by Denny ONeil and featured art by Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson and Jim Starlin. In June 2012, the returned with a revival of Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld by writer Christy Marx. The title included a feature starring Beowulf written by Tony Bedard. A prequel to the series appears the Wonder Woman series, in the last panel of #201 and all of #202. In this story, written by Samuel R. Delany, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser team up with Diana Prince, her kung-fu mentor I Ching, and Catwoman, to defeat the dimension-spanning wizard Gahwron. — original story by Denny ONeil Writer, Denny ONeil Pencils, Howard Chaykin Inks, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Berni Wrightson Cover, Howard Chaykin, — adapted from a story by Fritz Leiber Writer, Denny ONeil Artists, Chaykin, Inc. This series was written by Christy Marx with art by Aaron Lopresti and featured the adventures of Amethyst, a backup story written by Tony Bedard and drawn by Jesus Saiz told the story of Beowulf. DC cancelled the new series as of issue #8
36.
Phantom Stranger
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The Phantom Stranger first appeared in a six-issue anthology comic book series bearing his name published in 1952, created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino. After an appearance in Showcase #80, he received another series beginning May–June 1969 that lasted until February–March 1976 and these had Dr. Thirteen, certain that the Phantom Stranger was an impostor, determined to expose him. Beginning with issue #4, the series began featuring all-new material, with produced by Robert Kanigher, Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Tony DeZuniga. In these stories, while the Strangers past remained a mystery and she eventually learned differently and turned up occasionally. Doctor Thirteen, dropped along with the reprints, was given a series here as of #12 which morphed into The Spawn of Frankenstein in #23. The Phantom Stranger is better known for his role as an assistant to other heroes. His status as either a full, reserve, or honorary member of the League is debatable and this issue was part of an unofficial metafictional crossover with Marvel Comics, spanning titles from both of the major comics companies. Beginning in Marvels Amazing Adventures #16, the story continued in DCs Justice League of America #103, writer Len Wein commented on the Phantom Strangers relationship with the JLA in a 2012 interview stating that the character only sort of joined. He was offered membership but vanished, as per usual, without accepting the offer. Over the years, other writers have just assumed was a member, the Stranger also starred in a mini-series in 1987. This series portrayed him as an agent of the Lords of Order and they temporarily stripped the Stranger of his powers, due to his desire to continue a battle against the Lords of Chaos. This went against the wishes of the Lords of Order, who had believed a victory by darkness over light was necessary and this series featured Eclipso as an agent of Chaos, in Green Lantern/Superman, Legend of the Green Flame, this role is continued. However, the Stranger claims that he belongs to no group, the Lords of Order threaten to strip him of his powers, and he leaves, claiming that he shall continue to wander. The Phantom Stranger received a new ongoing series in September 2012 written by Dan DiDio and this series was retitled as Trinity of Sin, The Phantom Stranger as of issue #9 and cancelled as of #22. Unusual for a book character of such longevity, nothing in the way of personal data about the Phantom Stranger—his real name, his true nature. DC produced an issue of Secret Origins that postulated four possible origins. Questioning Gods actions, he commits suicide, the angel forbids his spirit from entering the afterlife, reanimates his body and condemns him to walk the world forever as part of humanity, but also forever separated from it. He then discovers his divine charge, to turn humanity away from evil, some versions of this story imply that the angel was the incarnation of The Spectre of that time period
37.
Team 7
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Team 7 is a comic book superhero team that appeared in titles published by Wildstorm Productions, and now appear in The New 52. The team has appeared in 3 self-titled miniseries, Team 7, Team 7, Objective Hell and Team 7, the first 5-issue Gen¹³ limited series also involved members of Team 7. The teams members have played a role throughout the Wildstorm Universe. Team 7 debuted in a four issue limited series, published in 1994-95. Writer Brandon Choi remarked on this mini-series that I really enjoyed Chuck Dixons portrayal of the team members and he really wove Coles background into the whole Team 7 story in a very believable fashion. The team featured in the series Wetworks, a new ongoing series about the group was announced by DC in June 2012. It began with a #0 issue in November, and ended with a #8 issue in July 2013, the series was written by Justin Jordan and illustrated by an assortment of artists. Team 7 was officially the seventh incarnation of a group of specialists gathered from various government forces. Team 7 took its orders from Miles Craven, director of International Operations, Craven wanted his own army of superhumans, and therefore dropped a chemical known as the Gen-factor on the members of Team 7 during a mission. When they awoke from their Gen-factor induced comas, Team 7 was told that the enemy had dropped a chemical weapon on them, as a result of the Gen-factor, Team 7 started to develop superhuman powers. It would be years before Cray himself would develop similar abilities, Team 7 member Cole Cash distrusted Craven and suspected that he was behind the experiment. Several members of Team 7 were unable to cope with their new powers, at least one had to be shot during a subsequent mission. As a test, Craven dropped a low-yield nuke on Team 7, the members survived through co-operation and went into hiding. Some time later, Team 7 returned to work for I. O. and were sent to destroy a cache of weapons from Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge could get them. The team succeeded, but learned that a pair of Soviet superhumans were trailing them and they battled them, but they turned out to be too strong and Jackson Dane went into a coma. The Cambodian blind girl Xing Xiang, who had displayed superhuman mental powers before, overpowered one of the Soviet agents, the team returned to the US and took Xing Xiang with them. Years later, the Team 7 members were ordered to bring in the Soviet scientist, Cole Cash entered the Soviet Union on his own to find out more about Dbovchek, while the rest of the team went on the mission. Dbovchek turned out to be one of the scientists behind the Russian psionic program
38.
Justice League International
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Justice League International is a DC Comics superhero team written by Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis, with art by Kevin Maguire, created in 1987. However, at the time, most of the core Justice League characters were unavailable, Superman was limited to John Byrnes reboot, George Pérez was relaunching Wonder Woman and Mike Baron was launching the Wally West version of The Flash. As a result, the team consisted of, Batman, Denny ONeil, taking pity on the new creative team. Black Canary, Dinah Lance was written as a strong feminist, Blue Beetle, A recent acquisition from Charlton Comics. Captain Marvel, No longer a separate personality, this focuses on his alter egos naiveté. Dr. Fate, The inclusion of Dr. Fate coincided with a series written by DeMatteis. Dr. Light, First appearing in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Guy Gardner, Editor Andy Helfer suggested using Guy Gardner over the more well known Hal Jordan. Martian Manhunter, The only connection to the iteration of the Justice League. He soon develops a love for Oreos, mister Miracle, The worlds greatest escape artist. His wife, Barda, and friend, Oberon, are associated with the League. The series would go on to become nominated as Best New Series in 1988 by the Harvey Awards and it would also feature Adam Hughes first work for a major comic publisher. The series was renamed following the launch of Justice League Europe in 1989. The series would be known as Justice League America until its cancellation in 1996, the major events that occurred were the following, Maxwell Lord is initially in a coma from a failed assassination attempt. He is later possessed by JLE foe Dreamslayer of the Extremists, following the end of the Breakdowns saga, Maxwell Lord has no more mental powers, apparently drained completely when possessed by Dreamslayer. The Queen Bee, ruler of the country Bialya, is killed in a coup led by Sumaan Harjavti. Despero awakens and escapes Manga Khans starship to wreak havoc on New York City, a force of the Justice Leagues best, along with the Conglomerate and Lobo, were unable to stop him. Ultimately, it was Kilowog and L-Ron who subdued Despero by transferring L-Rons consciousness into the cybernetic control collar that remained around Desperos neck. Using Lords persona, Dreamslayer lures a large portion of the Justice League to the island and takes control of them
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Captain Atom
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Captain Atom is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Captain Atom has existed in three basic incarnations, the character was created by writer Joe Gill and artist/co-writer Steve Ditko, and first appeared in Space Adventures #33. Captain Atom was created for Charlton Comics but was acquired by DC Comics. The character of Captain Atom was the inspiration for the character Doctor Manhattan who was featured in the miniseries Watchmen, in all incarnations, the character initially worked for the military. Over the years, DC has attempted to reinvent the character a number of times, in several animated depictions, he has served the role as government stooge when the government has brought itself into conflict with the Justice League. The Charlton Comics version of Captain Atom was Allen Adam, the characters origin had Adam working as a technician in a special experimental rocket when it accidentally launched with him trapped inside. Adam was atomized when the rocket exploded while entering the upper atmosphere, however, he somehow gained superpowers that included the ability to reform his body safely on the ground. He was outfitted in a red and yellow costume that was designed to shield people from the radiation of his nuclear powers, when he powered up, his hair changed to a silverish-white. Later, in his own title, he replaced his original red and gold costume with an outfit that was under his skin. Captain Atoms powers were similar to such other nuclear-powered superheroes as Gold Keys Doctor Solar, Captain Atom was first published in a series of short stories in the anthology series Space Adventures # 33-40 and #42. Captain Atom later teamed with the superhero Nightshade, with whom he shared a mutual attraction, the superhero Blue Beetle starred in the initial backup feature, later replaced by a Nightshade backup series. Captain Atom was canceled with issue #89 and this last story had originally been done for Charlton before the company folded. By storys end, Earth-Four had been incorporated into the Post-Crisis DC Universe, the last appearance of this Charlton-era Captain Atom was in DC Comics Presents #90. A new, post-Crisis version of the character was introduced in March 1987 with the launch of a comic written by Cary Bates, co-written by Greg Weisman. This modern captains name is established as Nathaniel Christopher Adam, a United States Air Force officer and Vietnam War veteran. Adam had been framed for a crime he did not commit and was, under military justice, condemned to death, the experiment involved testing the hull of a crashed alien ships durability by placing a human being within the metal craft and then exploding an atomic weapon under it. The weapon went off and Adam, along with the metal, was seemingly disintegrated, eighteen years later, Adam suddenly reappeared. The alien metal, now bonded around his body, afforded him incredible abilities far beyond that of a mere mortal and it was revealed that the alien metal could absorb energy but that past a certain threshold, any excess energy absorbed would force it to jump forward in time
40.
Resurrection Man (comics)
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Resurrection Man is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Resurrection Man #1 and was created by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett, Resurrection Man was created by British writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and American artist Butch Guice. The initial idea came to them working for Marvel Comics in the early 90s. Abnett and Lanning considered reviving the Great Lakes Avengers, a team led by a character called Mr Immortal. They felt that Mr Immortal was boring because immortality was his only power, Lanning thought the character would be more interesting if he gained a different superpower with every resurrection. When they moved to DC Comics, they proposed the concept to the editors, Mitch Shelley made his debut in Resurrection Man #1. The character was written as a superhero who did not wear a colorful costume or regularly associate with the likes of the Justice League. The book series was written like a TV series, with a story arc in which Shelley wanders America in search of the truth behind his past. The first volume of Resurrection Man was critically acclaimed but was not a big success and it was cancelled in 1999 after 27 issues, though Mitch kept making occasional guest appearances in other books. In 2011, DC editor Eddie Berganza asked Abnett and Lanning to revive Resurrection Man as an ongoing title, the new series debuted in September 2011, with Fernando Dagnino Guerra as the artist, but was cancelled in September 2012 after 13 issues due to mediocre sales. A comment by the Phantom Stranger in RM #18 about having worked with Shelley in previous lifetimes suggests that there is more to his powers than just the tektites, however, the series never expanded on this point. At least one alternate future has established Shelleys survival and long-term League membership into the 853rd Century, however, Shelley later returned alive in the subsequent DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1,000,000. Shelley main ability is a form of Immortality in that while he can die he can never stay dead, whenever Shelley is killed, he returns to life with a different power that correlates in some way to his death. He can potentially become more powerful than any other superhero on Earth if he resurrects right, the source of his power appears to be nanites called tektites that permeate his body, although the Phantom Stranger claimed that Shelley had powers in previous lives. Whenever Shelley dies, the tektites will leave his body, consume biomatter from the surrounding environment, Shelley can resurrect whatever the state of his remains, including total cremation. During the run of Resurrection Man, Abnett and Lanning also wrote an Elseworlds graphic novel called The Superman Monster which retold the story of Frankenstein as a Superman story and this featured an actual resurrection man who was drawn to closely resemble Mitch Shelley. Resurrection Man Vol.1 Resurrection Man Vol.1, Dead Again Resurrection Man Vol.2, A Matter of Death and Life The DCU Guide entry on Resurrection Man
41.
Voodoo (Wildstorm)
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Voodoo is a fictional comic book superhero, appearing in books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Brandon Choi and artist Jim Lee, she first appeared in WildC. A. T. S, #1, which was produced by Jim Lees studio, WildStorm comics, and published by Image Comics. A new incarnation of the character was created as part of the main DC Universe in September 2011, as part of DCs company-wide relaunch of its title, the first Voodoo series was a four-issue limited series, published in 1997 and written by Alan Moore. Josh Williamson was announced as the new writer of the book, starting with Voodoo #5. Priscilla Kitaen was a dancer before being rescued by the WildC. A. T. s from the Daemonites. A. T. s. Voodoo joined the WildC. A. T. S and revealed even greater powers, such as telepathy and she was later trained by Zealot in the martial arts of The Coda and developed an attraction towards Spartan. Her Daemonite ancestry was not revealed until she entered into a coma after being shot, void entered in her mind through a computer, and it was revealed that one of her ancestors, a Kherubim, was possessed by a Daemonite. When the WildC. A. T. s travelled to Khera, homeplanet of the Kherubim and she was relocated to a Daemonite ghetto and discovered that the war between Khera and Daemonites had been over for centuries. She managed to find the other WildC. A. T. s and confronted Zealot, Voodoo became disgusted with the Kherans and renounced Zealot, her former teacher. Despite this she helped the WildC. A. Ts to stop an assassination attempt on Zealot. The WildC. A. T. s returned to Earth, disappointed by her life as a superhero, she left the WildC. A. T. s. Priscilla moved to New Orleans to return to exotic dancing, as she arrived, she met two men, Carry-4 and Attibon. Carry-4 took Voodoo to The Midnight Lounge, where the owner, Christian Charles and she became friends with Purity, another dancer. Needing a place to stay, Attibon took her to a hotel, the Royale, where she met Freeda, a prostitute and Saturday. These three later revealed themselves as Erzulie, Papa Legba and Baron Samedi, soon it became clear that Christian Charles had been murdering his dancers to bathe in their blood, an arcane ritual to resurrect his dead father, a dark magician. Christian had help from Carry-4 who was, in reality, Mait Carrefour, Priscilla and lieutenant David Dove, the police officer investigating the murders, arrived in time to save Purity, but Christian had absorbed enough blood to summon his dead father. Priscilla faced him and channelled Erzulie, despite all their power, Christian and his father could not resist her dance and Priscilla lured him back to the Royale. Inside the Royale, Baron Samedi, Erzulie, and Papa Legba waited for Christian and his father, the three pointed the Charles towards a door where they faced Damballa, causing the Royale to explode
42.
Threshold (DC Comics)
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Threshold was an ongoing comic book series published by DC Comics, as part of The New 52. Threshold is written by Keith Giffen and illustrated by Tom Raney, the series explores the space-orientated side and cosmic mythos of DC Universe. Threshold was announced on October 12,2012, as part of a Fourth Wave of comics for The New 52, the series spun out of Green Lantern, New Guardians Annual #1, and Blue Beetle #16, picking up on plot threads that were developed. Giffen planned to re-introduce dozens of space-related characters into The New 52, among them, Omega Men, Space Ranger, Lady Styx, Space Cabbie, a Larfleeze back-up, drawn by Scott Kolins, ran from issues #1 to #5. Larfleeze would spin-off into a series after the conclusion of the back-up. A Star Hawkins back-up feature began with issue #6, drawn by Timothy Green II, threshold was cancelled with issue #8. His Green Lantern power battery is collected by the host of The Hunted, the Hunted is a bounty hunting glimmernet game show taking place on Tolerance, a planet in Lady Styxs sector of space, the Tenebrian Dominion. Those who are labeled as being a threat to the Tenebrian Dominion have a bounty put on their head and are inducted into the game, the series begins with Caul evading capture from hunters and hunt clubs. He is aided by Ember who, with Star Hawkins, was supposed to bring him in to join their resistance forces, Ember is also part of The Hunted. Another Hunted competitor, Stealth, runs into another competitor, Rikane Ric Starr, Starr is revealed to be working with Colonel Tomas Tmorra, head of the resistance, to create blind spots for Hunted competitions. The Crimson Thrust hunt club attempts to ambush Stealth and Starr, however, Blue Beetle, last seen being captured by Lady Styxs henchmen, is also dropped into the competition, however, without his scarab armed. Caul later meets up with Tmorra and Ember at a bar, Captain Krot with his team, Sleen and Pig-Iron, are trying to claim Beetles Scarab. The Scarab activates to protect its unconscious host, during their altercation with Beetle, they run into Caul, which causes the Scarab to go berserk. Once Caul gets far enough from Beetle, Jaime Reyes regains control. Star Hawkins and Ilda, a robot uploaded with the personality and memories of his wife, arrive to cloak Caul. Back at Tmorras bar, Starr and Ember are attempting to convince Stealth to join their crew, Tmorra thinks that they could use reverse-propaganda, to turn the tables on the game, because Stealth is one of the longest living contestants in The Hunted. Ember tails Stealth, wanting to be friends and learn from her, Blue Beetle is tracked by another Hunted contestant, a New God named Lonar, who has plans for Beetle. Hawkins informs Caul of his power batterys location—a pocket dimension inside Bleeding Adonis palace, Krot is hired by an unknown party to steal Cauls battery and relocate it
43.
Katana (comics)
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Katana is a fictional superheroine that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character made her film debut in the 2016 Suicide Squad film. Katana first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #200 and was created by writer Mike W. Barr, in February 2013, Katana received her own series written by Ann Nocenti and with art by Alex Sanchez. This book is considered by DC as part of the Fourth Wave of New 52 titles, the final issue was released on December 11,2013. Tatsu Yamashiro was an average Japanese girl, save for her proficiency in the martial arts, Two brothers—Maseo and Takeo Yamashiro—both proclaimed their love for her. While she liked both, she chose Maseo as her husband, Takeo did not take this well and refused to attend the couples wedding. Maseo disowned his brother, who had joined the Yakuza and taken their mark of a dragon tattoo across his chest. Tatsu and Maseo, mourning the deaths of Tatsus parents, started a family of their own, Tatsu gave birth to twins, Yuki and Reiko. Meanwhile, Takeo rose through the Yakuzas ranks and indulged his exotic tastes for ancient weapons and he was presented with a pair of matching swords by General Karnz, one of which Takeo favored for its mystical properties. Takeo spent days preparing himself, before taking both swords to the Yamashiro residence, demanding his brother duel for the prize of Tatsu. During the course of the struggle, a fire was started, Tatsu arose just in time to see her husband die and engaged Takeo, gaining the upper hand and disarming him. Attempting to save her children, she heard her husbands voice coming from the sword, escaping with her life, Tatsu began training as a samurai under a master called Tadashi. After much time she graduated from his tutorship and left for America where she intended to use her talents to fight for justice and she took the codename Katana after the sword that she wielded, possessed for some time by the soul of her husband. Eventually Tatsu journeyed to Markovia, a small Baltic state, where she had tracked down Karnz, attempting to rectify the misunderstanding by freeing Black Lightning, she encountered a young girl who was named Halo. The two joined up to rescue Black Lightning, Batman, and Bruce Waynes employee Lucius Fox from their captor, Baron Bedlam. Batman was himself in Markovia to rescue Lucius Fox, and having failed to gain—the help of the Justice League of America, had resigned his membership in the Justice League. Inspired by the teamwork he encountered between Black Lightning, Katana, Halo, Geo-Force, and Metamorpho, Batman decided to form the Outsiders, the team managed to end the Barons tyranny in Markovia and moved to Gotham City, where they set up their headquarters. Tatsu became Halos guardian and the two moved into the penthouse, at the same time, Takeo was still at large and had followed Tatsu to Gotham City
44.
Vibe (comics)
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Vibe is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Vibe first appearance was in Justice League of America Annual #2, Paco Ramone or Francisco Cisco Ramons career as Vibe began shortly after Aquaman disbanded the original Justice League. When young Cisco heard that a new Justice League was forming in his own hometown of Detroit, he decided to give up his position as the leader of a street gang, Los Lobos. What made Ramon a candidate was his ability to emit powerful vibratory shock waves. Vibes presence on the team caused Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter to harbor some strong doubts about the new JLA, Vibe soon proved his mettle during the Leagues battles against Cadre, Anton Allegro and Amazo. He stayed with the League through the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, during Darkseids assault on Earth during the Legends mini-series, the Justice League of America was disbanded and Paco left his JLA comrades to seek the familiar solace of the streets. Vibe was attacked by one of Professor Ivos androids, and became the first Justice League member to be killed in the line of duty, the Martian Manhunter brought Vibes body back to the Leagues mountain sanctuary, where Vibe was laid to rest in a cryogenic chamber. Pacos dead form has twice been resurrected by evil-doers, one of Vibes younger brothers, Armando, developed a similar set of vibratory powers and joined Booster Golds team of heroes, the Conglomerate, using the codenames Reverb and later Hardline. He has since been depicted as the owner of a club named Reverb in the Little Tachyon section of Old Town Metropolis. In the Trinity maxi-series, reality is altered, and a living Cisco is shown as a member of The League, soon after Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman return, his head is disintegrated by an energy blast, killing him again. In a Justice League of America tie-in to the Blackest Night storyline, Vibe was reanimated as a member of the Black Lantern Corps, alongside the Black Lantern Steel, Vibe attacked his former teammates, Gypsy and Vixen, until Doctor Light destroyed him. In DCs Free Comic Book Day 2012 sample during The New 52, geoff Johns revealed that Vibes return would be explored in greater detail in the third story arc of Justice League. On August 26,2012, DC announced a new Justice League of America title which would feature Vibe, on November 5,2012, DC announced that Vibe would star in his own ongoing monthly title. It was written by Andrew Kreisberg and drawn by Pete Woods, in new continuity, Vibes powers derive from being caught in the event horizon of a Boom Tube, in which interdimensional forces rewrote his DNA. Justice League of Americas Vibe lasted for ten issues, with the issue released on December 18,2013. Vibes powers revolve around vibration, frequency and resonance, Vibes powers enabled him to shock waves of considerable strength that could shatter concrete or steel. His powers can affect the world as seismic vibration, or the fabric of spacetime. Vibes reintroduction in 2013 redefined his powers as having to do with inter-dimensional physics, Vibes waves have the power to disrupt the Speed Force, making him one of the few characters who poses a serious threat to the Flash
45.
Constantine (comic book)
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Constantine is an ongoing comic book series published by DC Comics, which started in March 2013. It follows the story of a British magician, John Constantine and replaces the former Vertigo Comics title Hellblazer, the title character was originally created by Alan Moore in his 1980s run on Swamp Thing. This has since changed to an opening team including Animal Man and Sweet Tooth writer Jeff Lemire as a co-plotter. Both writers also worked on Justice League Dark, where Constantine is heavily featured, the character will be the younger incarnation seen in recent DC titles, rather than the version from the cancelled title, depicted as being in his early 60s. The series ended at issue #23 and will be relaunched as Constantine, The Hellblazer written by Ming Doyle and James Tynion IV, the new Constantine series will return him back to his roots in the DCU and hopefully be the start of another incredible run. Constantine has received mixed to negative reviews critics, praising the story but criticizing its characters, setting. Comic Book Resources calls it a story that would have fit in with the branding of the title and praised the characters roots
46.
Frankenstein (DC Comics)
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Frankenstein is a DC Comics character based on the Frankensteins monster character created by Mary Shelley. Frankenstein was created in 1948 by Edmond Hamilton and Bob Kane in Detective Comics #135, a later reworking was developed by Len Wein as the Spawn of Frankenstein concept. The monster fell under the thrall of Count Dracula and they often battled against Superman, Batman, or the Phantom Stranger. Frankensteins latest revamping was created by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke in 2005 and is similar to Doc Frankenstein and he is one of the Seven Soldiers, and bears a resemblance to the creature as portrayed by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film directed by James Whale. Frankenstein is a body composed of parts from several corpses stitched together. He was assumed dead in Europe when he sank beneath the ice and he was revived by Victor Adam, and vowed vengeance for restoring him to life, successfully killing him, but accidentally bringing about a coma for Doctor Thirteens wife, Maria, in the process. In particular, Frankenstein became a frequent enemy of Melmoth, who he referred to as the Ringmaster of the Circus of Maggots, in a climactic battle in the year 1870, Frankenstein faced Melmoth and stopped him from destroying a town with maggot-hominids. The fight took place on a train, which was derailed during the conflict. In 2005, a school student, called Uglyhead by all the other children, acquires telepathic abilities through contact with the Sheeda. At the senior prom, the students are killed by the Sheeda maggot-hominids. Afterwards, Frankenstein tracks down Melmoth and makes his way to Mars through an Erdel Gate, on Mars, the Monster confronts Melmoth once again. Frankenstein frees the children Melmoth has enslaved to work in his gold mines and she is now an agent of the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive, a secret government agency, which temporarily drafts Frankenstein as well. Of their previous relationship, she says, Its nothing personal, in the final issue, he stows away on a time-ship which brings him to the Sheeda realm in the distant future. There, he destroys their world-destroying fleet, kills the Sheeda-Queens time-yachts steersman, once in the present, though, Klarion gains control of Frankenstein using a witch-brand and forces him to take the castle back to the future. He appears briefly in Infinite Crisis #7, which place one week after the Frankenstein miniseries. He is seen fighting against General Wade Eiling, Frankenstein is armed with a three-foot-long sword, which he claims once belonged to the Archangel Michael, and a large antique pistol, which he calls his steam-gun. A character called Young Frankenstein has appeared in Teen Titans as a member of the team during the Lost Year covered by 52, Young Frankenstein is apparently killed by Black Adam during WWIII, but actually survives as shown in the Infinite Halloween Special and Countdown to Mystery #2. Frankenstein and S. H. A. D. E appear in Final Crisis #3 and he again appears two issues later, leading a squad of superheroes against Darkseids forces, who are led by Kalibak
47.
Grifter (comics)
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Grifter is a fictional comic book superhero who has appeared in books published by Wildstorm Productions and DC Comics. In that incarnation, Grifter is a government operative and member of the military unit Team 7. In 1999, Lee sold Wildstorm to DC Comics, and ownership of all Wildstorm characters, including Grifter, transferred to DC Comics. His backstory and continuity remained the same, however, until DCs 2011 relaunch of their entire line, The New 52. Since then, the character has starred in his own DC series, the character was also a cast member in the 1994 -95 animated TV series Wild C. A. T. s, in which he was voiced by Colin OMeara. He was later a character in the original Team 7 miniseries. In 1997, co-creator Brandon Choi picked this mini-series as his favorite Grifter story, explaining, I really enjoyed Chuck Dixons portrayal of the team members and he really wove Coles background into the whole Team 7 story in a very believable fashion. Beginning with Grifter #9 in May 2012, series writer Nathan Edmondson was replaced with Rob Liefeld, the title concluded in issue #16. A former member of the US Armys Special Forces, Cole Cashs natural talent for combat landed him in black ops, Cashs codename during these operations was Deadeye. After the experiment the survivors were classified as Gen 12, some of their teammates went mad or committed suicide. One had to be put down by his friends, andrew Johnson, one of the members, goes mad on one of their missions and glories in his ability to make people commit suicide. Cole suspects that in fact their own superiors, International Operations, were behind the experiment, Cole grew more and more disgruntled with I. O. s manipulations and secrecy and rebelled against team-leader John Lynch. Cash took charge and united the teams mental powers against a weapon that I. O. team-leader Miles Craven fired at Team 7 as a test. Team 7 went into hiding, but was forced to return to I. O. When the powers of many of Team 7s members started to wane, Craven became interested in their children, the Gen¹³, most of the team goes into hiding again after learning this, while Cray and Slayton stay behind with I. O. The team finally falls apart and Cole ends up working as an assassin for International Operations and he went freelance, and it was during this period of his life he encountered the ancient Kherubim warrior Zealot. They fell in love, and she took the measure of teaching him, a male, the ways of the Coda. Her Coda-teachings stabilized Coles sanity and locked away what remained of his psionic powers, some time later Cole and Zealot broke up, for Zealot it was just another relationship, but Cole had become devoted to her, being eternally grateful to her for restoring his sanity
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