JSA (2000’s)

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The JSA remained inactive for some time after the events of “Zero Hour“, but the surviving members (the Flash, Wildcat, and Alan Scott, (now going by the name Sentinel) have remained active throughout the DC Universe, having been placed as reserve JLI members, as evidenced in Justice League Europe #50.

The Justice Society was revived as a monthly series called JSA in 1999 which mixed the few remaining original members with younger counterparts. This incarnation of the team focused on the theme of generational legacy and of carrying on the heroic example established by their predecessors. The series was launched by James Robinson and David S. Goyer.  Goyer later co-wrote the series with Geoff Johns, who continued to write the series solo after Goyer’s departure. The series featured the art of Stephen Sadowski, Leonard Kirk, and Don Kramer, among others. It featured a story by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon.

During the events of Infinite Crisis, some of the surviving Golden Age characters, such as Wildcat and the Flash, are transported to the new “Earth-Two”, as created by Alexander Luthor, and seem to recall the existence of the original one, albeit vaguely.

 

Avengers (1970’s)

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During the summer of 1973, Englehart and artists Bob Brown and Sal Buscema produced “The Avengers-Defenders Clash” storyline which crossed over between the two team titles. “The Celestial Madonna” arc linked Mantis’ origins to the very beginnings of the Kree-Skrull conflict in a time-spanning adventure involving Kang the Conqueror, and Immortus, who were past and future versions of each other. Mantis was revealed to be the Celestial Madonna, who was destined to give birth to a being that would save the universe. It was revealed that the Vision’s body had only been appropriated, and not created by Ultron, and that it originally belonged to the 1940s Human Torch. With his origins clear to him, the Vision proposed to the Scarlet Witch. The “Celestial Madonna” saga ended with their wedding, presided over by Immortus. The Beast and Moondragon joined the team soon after. George Pérez became the title’s artist with issue #141 (Nov. 1975) which saw the start of a seven-part story featuring the Squadron Supreme and the Serpent Crown. In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Englehart’s run on The Avengers eighth on its list of the “Top 10 1970s Marvels”.

Image Comics Summer Special (2004)

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Cover by Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri and BATT. Free Comic Book Day 2004. Contains: “The Curse of Spawn”, “Witchblade First Strike” by Robert Place Napton with art by Francis Manapul, “Invincible” by Robert Kirkman with art by Ryan Ottley, “Savage Dragon Power Shortage” by Erik Larson.

Swamp Thing V5 (2011)

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Swamp Thing (Volume 5) is one of “The New 52” ongoing series published after Flashpoint. It tells the story of Alec Holland‘s transformation into Swamp Thing following his resurrection from death.

Amazing Spider-Man V2 (1999)

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Marvel began The Amazing Spider-Man anew with (vol. 2) #1 (Jan. 1999). Howard Mackie wrote the first 29 issues. The relaunch included the Sandman being regressed to his criminal ways and the “death” of Mary Jane, which was ultimately reversed. Other elements included the introduction of a new Spider-Woman (who was spun off into her own short-lived series) and references to John Byrne’s miniseries Spider-Man: Chapter One, which was launched at the same time as the reboot. Byrne also penciled issues #1–18 (from 1999 to 2000) and wrote #13–14, John Romita Jr. took his place soon after in October 2000. Mackie’s run ended with The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001, which saw the return of Mary Jane, who then left Parker upon reuniting with him.

With issue #30 (June 2001), J. Michael Straczynski took over as writer and oversaw additional storylines – most notably his lengthy “Spider-Totem” arc, which raised the issue of whether Spider-Man’s powers were magic-based, rather than as the result of a radioactive spider’s bite. Additionally, Straczynski resurrected the plot point of Aunt May discovering her nephew was Spider-Man, and returned Mary Jane, with the couple reuniting in The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #50. Straczynski gave Spider-Man a new profession, having Parker teach at his former high school.

Issue #30 began a dual numbering system, with the original series numbering (#471) returned and placed alongside the volume two number on the cover. Other longtime, rebooted Marvel Comics titles, including Fantastic Four, likewise were given the dual numbering around this time. After (vol. 2) #58 (Nov. 2003), the title reverted completely to its original numbering for issue #500 (Dec. 2003). Mike Deodato, Jr. penciled the series from mid-2004 until 2006.

Hellboy: The Wild Hunt (2009)

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Hellboy: The Wild Hunt limited series was originally released from December 2008 through November 2009 , also numbered (on the inside front cover) as issues 37 through 44 of the continuing Hellboy series. The storyline delves into Irish and Arthurian legend, reprising several characters first introduced in Hellboy short story “The Corpse”. As with Hellboy stories generally, it was published by Dark Horse Comics.

This will be, in part, the basis for the 2019 Hellboy reboot directed by Neil Marshall.

Detective Comics V1 (2020’s)

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The next regular writer after James Tynion IV was Peter Tomasi who began on the series with issue #994, published December 2018. Tomasi’s run as writer continued for two years until issue #1033, published December 2020.

On March 27, 2019, DC Comics released the series’ 1,000th issue, marking the second American comic book in history to reach that milestone after Action Comics in 2018. The issue, which coincided with Batman’s 80th anniversary, is an anthology featuring several stories from a variety of different creative teams.

Writer Mariko Tamaki began on the series with issue #1034 as part of the Infinite Frontier line-wide relaunch. In April 2022, it was announced that Ram V and Rafael Albuquerque would serve as the new creative team starting with issue #1062.

The Incredible Hulk V1 (1968)

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The Hulk first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 (cover dated May 1962), written by writer-editor Stan Lee, penciled and co-plotted by Jack Kirby, and inked by Paul Reinman. Lee cites influence from Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Hulk’s creation. The Hulk’s original series was canceled with issue #6 (March 1963).

In the debut, Lee chose gray for the Hulk because he wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colorist Stan Goldberg, however, had problems with the gray coloring, resulting in different shades of grey, and even green, in the issue. After seeing the first published issue, Lee chose to change the skin color to green. Green was used in retellings of the origin, with even reprints of the original story being recolored for the next two decades, until The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #302 (December 1984) reintroduced the gray Hulk in flashbacks set close to the origin story. Since then, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original gray coloring, with the fictional canon specifying that the Hulk’s skin had initially been grey. An exception is the early trade paperback, Origins of Marvel Comics, from 1974, which explains the difficulties in keeping the gray color consistent in a Stan Lee written prologue, and reprints the origin story keeping the gray coloration.

Lee gave the Hulk’s alter ego the alliterative name Bruce Banner because he found he had less difficulty remembering alliterative names. Despite this, in later stories he misremembered the character’s name and referred to him as “Bob Banner”, an error which readers quickly picked up on. The discrepancy was resolved by giving the character the official full name of Robert Bruce Banner.

Judge Dredd – Eagle Comics (1983)

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Judge Dredd is a fictional character who appears in British comic books published by Rebellion Developments, as well as in a number of movie and video game adaptations. He was created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, and first appeared in the second issue of 2000 AD (1977), a weekly science-fiction anthology. He is that magazine’s longest-running character.

Joseph Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One. He is a “street judge“, empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals. Dredd’s entire face is never shown in the strip. This began as an unofficial guideline, but soon became a rule. As John Wagner explained: “It sums up the facelessness of justice − justice has no soul. So it isn’t necessary for readers to see Dredd’s face, and I don’t want you to”. Time passes in the Judge Dredd strip in real time, so as a year passes in life, a year passes in the comic. The first Dredd story, published in 1977, was set in 2099, whilst stories published in 2015 are set in 2137. Consequently, as former editor Alan McKenzie explains, “every year that goes by Dredd gets a year older – unlike Spider-Man, who has been a university student for the past twenty-five years!”. Therefore Dredd is over seventy years old, with over fifty years of active service (2079–2136), and for some time characters in the comic have been mentioning that Dredd is not as young and fit as formerly.

The Sandman V2 (1989)

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The main character of The Sandman is Dream, also known as Morpheus and other names, who is one of the seven Endless. The other Endless are Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, who was once Delight, and Destruction, who turned his back on his duties. The series is famous for Gaiman’s trademark use of anthropomorphic personification of various metaphysical entities, while also blending mythology and history in its horror setting within the DC Universe. The Sandman is a story about stories and how Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, is captured and subsequently learns that sometimes change is inevitable. The Sandman was Vertigo’s flagship title, and is available as a series of ten trade paperbacks, a recolored five-volume Absolute hardcover edition with slipcase, in a black-and-white Annotated edition, and is available for digital download. Critically acclaimed,The Sandman was one of the first few graphic novels ever to be on the New York Times Best Seller list, along with Maus, Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. It was one of five graphic novels to make Entertainment Weekly‘s “100 best reads from 1983 to 2008,” ranking at No. 46. Norman Mailer described the series as “a comic strip for intellectuals.” The series is noted for having a large influence over the fantasy genre and graphic novel medium since then.