In December 2008, Marvel published 5 What If specials which appeared weekly. They included: Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, House of M, Spider-Man: Back in Black, and Secret Wars. A new “Fantastic Four” consisted of Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Wolverine. In addition, a storyline featuring the Runaways as the Young Avengers ran throughout Volume 7.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a 2006 monthly Star Wars comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics. It takes place in the same timeline as the video games of the same name, eight years prior to the first game. The series ran for 50 issues.
After Simonson’s departure, Marvel’s editor-in-chief at the time, Tom DeFalco, became the writer. Working primarily with artist Ron Frenz, DeFalco stayed on the book until #459 (Feb. 1993). As a consequence of the “Heroes Reborn” crossover story arc of the 1990s, Thor was removed from mainstream Marvel continuity and with other Marvel characters re-imagined in an alternate universe for one year. The Thor title reverted to Journey into Mystery with issue #503 (Nov. 1996), and ran four different, sequential features (“The Lost Gods”; “Master of Kung Fu“; “Black Widow“, and “Hannibal King“) before ceasing publication with #521 (June 1998).
Love and Rockets, reuniting all three Hernandez Brothers! Jaime picks up the newly-divorced Maggie’s story as she returns to the old neighborhood to try to reconnect with her past; in the first issue she meets up with everyone’s favorite Hoppers resident, Izzy Ortiz. Gilbert launches a thrilling new graphic novel, “Julio’s Day,” about a man’s life from 1900 to 2000. Every person gets his day… or does he? Finally, Gilbert (artist) and Mario (writer) collaborate on “Me for the Unknown,” a tale of political intrigue, dumping on the little guy, psychosis, and violent revenge reminiscent of some of their earliest L&R stories (or their Mister X “Tales of Somnopolis” stories).
The comic book studio MVCreations produced numerous Masters of the Universe comics during the promotion of the 2002-2004 toy line. MVCreations is a studio headed by Val Staples, originallly publishing through Image Comics. Following their success with the Masters of the Universe license, the two companies parted ways. MVCreations soon partnered with CrossGen Comics. Despite obtaining the license of two Don Bluth properties, as well as publishing a horror comic by Rob Zombie, the studio failed to off-set financial problems, in part due to CrossGen’s own financial downturn. The studio parted ways with CrossGen and became a full publisher on their own. As Hasbro’s enthusiasm in the Masters of the Universe property faded, MVCreations returned to publishd under Image Comics.
Curtis “Curt” Metcalf is a genius inventor who, in his Hardware identity, uses a variety of high-tech gadgets to fight organised crime. A central irony of the series (of which Metcalf is fully aware) is that Metcalf’s employer, respected businessman Edwin Alva—who provides the resources Metcalf uses to create Hardware’s hardware—is secretly the crime boss whom Hardware is trying to bring down.
East of West is a monthly comic book series published by Image Comics which debuted in March 2013. Created by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Nick Dragotta, the book is a science fiction Western set in a dystopian version of the United States whose fate rests with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
World’s Finest featured Superman and Batman team-ups until issue #197. Noted Batman artist Neal Adams first drew the character in an interior story in “The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads” in issue #175 (May 1968). The title briefly featured Superman teaming with heroes other than Batman in the early 1970s beginning with issue #198 (November 1970). That issue featured the first part of a two-issue team-up with the Flash. 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 (January 1973).
Phantom Force was the last comic book Kirby worked on before his death. The story was co-written by Kirby with Michael Thibodeaux and Richard French, based on an eight-page pitch for an unused Bruce Lee comic in 1978. Issues #1 and 2 were published by Image Comics with various Image artists inking over Kirby’s pencils. Issue #0 and issues #3–8 were published by Genesis West, with Kirby providing pencils for issues #0 and 4. Thibodeaux provided the art for the remaining issues of the series after Kirby died.
The series centers around the artificial planet Archernar IV and it’s two native sentient species, the Archernariansand Crawlers. The series begins at the start of the Enterprise‘s five-year mission at the start of contact with Archernar, and then skips ahead to the Enterprise‘s final mission to the planet as it prepares to join the Federation. At the conclusion of the Archernar mission the Enterprise returns to Earth, with the crew moved by the mission to take on new roles, as seen at the start of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
