Magic the Gathering: The Shadow Mage (1995)

This is the first in a series of limited series relating just one of the epic sagas set on Dominia, the world of Magic: The Gathering! The Shadow Mage tells the story of young Jared, a boy who is rescued from a spectacular battle and then cared for by a lowly Spellsquire. The old man spends years preparing Jared to take vengeance on the immensely powerful Planewalker who slew his father.

Punisher V7 (2004)

The series explicitly does not use a floating timeline like the mainstream Marvel Universe, instead presenting a Punisher who ages in real time. Gravestones and other references indicate that his family was killed in 1976. The Punisher has been active for almost 30 years at the time presented in most stories, with issue #19 specifying that he has killed approximately 2,000 people. Born also establishes that the Punisher’s service in the Vietnam War is still in MAX continuity.

Crossover (2020)

In 2017, fictional characters from comic books and other media come to life in the real world, and their actions cause a lot of unintentional destruction and death around the city of DenverColorado. Five years later, in 2022, several humans and characters join forces and embark on a quest to return to Denver and find out the cause behind “The Event”.

Venom: Lethal Protector (1993)

Venom: Lethal Protector was a six-issue limited series featuring the Eddie Brock Venom, published by Marvel Comics from February 1993 to July 1993. It was written by David Michelinie and illustrated mostly by Mark Bagley, although Ron Lim and series colorist Sam DeLarosa pencilled the last three issues.

This marked the first time Eddie Brock received a series in which he was the main character, and recast Venom from an unambiguous villain to an anti-hero.

Before the story begins, Venom makes an agreement with Spider-Man that they will leave each other alone, on the condition that Venom commits no crimes. Venom then moves from New York City to San Francisco, and takes up with a group of Californian mole people. Shortly thereafter the father of one of Venom’s victims seeks him out with a group of super-powered mercenaries to take revenge.

Spider-Man, seeing misleading coverage of Venom on television, heads to San Francisco to confront him and instead winds up fighting alongside Venom against five new offspring of the Venom Symbiote: Scream, Phage, Riot, Lasher, and Agony.

Alien Vs. Predator: Life and Death (2016)

Alien vs. Predator: Life and Death forms the Aliens vs. Predator component of Dark Horse’s franchise-crossing Life and Death event in 2016/2017, and was released in conjunction with Predator: Life and DeathPrometheus: Life and Death and Aliens: Life and Death. The four series all form one continuous story and all were written by Abnett.

 

Legion of Super-Heroes V5 (2005)

Initial issues of this volume reintroduced the characters, and provided new and divergent origins for them. Most characters resemble their previous counterparts in costume and powers, with the most notable exceptions including Chameleon Boy, now called simply Chameleon and depicted as an androgynous creature; Star Boy, who in this version of the Legion is black; Colossal Boy, who is now a giant who shrinks to human size; and Phantom Girl, who exists in two universes at once and has conversations with people in her own dimension while talking to Legionnaires at the same time.

Beginning with issue #16, The Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 5) was retitled Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes with Supergirl traveling to the future and joining the Legion. With issue #31, Tony Bedard replaced Waid as writer. The title reverted to The Legion of Super-Heroes with issue #37 and Jim Shooter became the writer. The series ended with issue #50, in which the script was credited to “Justin Thyme”, a pseudonym previously used by uncredited comic book artists.

Moon Knight V1 (2018)

The new “Marvel Legacy” volume launched in January 2018, starting with issue number 188 and continued through issue 200. The initial issue was written by Max Bemis and was drawn by Jacen Burrows. Ty Templeton then steps in as the primary artist for issue 194, with Paul Davidson on issues 195, 196, and 199, and Burrows returning for 197–198. Issue 200 had several artists from Moon Knights run contributing art. In 2019 Cullen Bunn wrote and Ibrahim Mustafa and Matt Horak drew Moon Night Annual #1.

Cerebus (1977)

Cerebus the Aardvark is a series created by Canadian cartoonist Dave Sim, which ran from December 1977 until March 2004. The title character of the 300-issue series was an anthropomorphic aardvark who takes on a number of roles throughout the series—barbarian, prime minister and Pope among them. The series stands out for its experimentation in form and content, and for the dexterity of its artwork, especially after background artist Gerhard joined in with the 65th issue. As the series progressed, it increasingly became a platform for Sim’s controversial beliefs.

The 6000-page story is a challenge to summarize. Beginning as a parody of sword and sorcery comics, it moved into seemingly any topic Sim wished to explore — power and politics, religion and spirituality, gender issues, and more. It progressively became more serious and ambitious than its parodic roots — what has come to be dubbed “Cerebus Syndrome“. Sim announced early on that the series would end with the death of the title character. The story has a large cast of characters, many of which began as parodies of characters from comic books and popular culture.

Starting with the High Society storyline, the series became divided into self-contained “novels”, which form parts of the overall story. The ten “novels” of the series have been collected in 16 books, known as “Cerebus phonebooks” for their resemblance to telephone directories. At a time when the series was about 70% completed, celebrated comic book writer Alan Moore wrote, “Cerebus, as if I need to say so, is still to comic books what Hydrogen is to the Periodic Table.”

Dead Boy Detectives (2022)

The characters returned in a six issue limited series as part of The Sandman Universe initiative. The series, written by Pornsak Pichetshote with art by Jeff Stokley, debuted on December 27, 2022 and concluded on May 24, 2023. In the last issue Edwin Payne realized that he has romantic feelings for his partner Charles Rowland.

The Invisibles V2 (1997)

The second volume begins a year after the events in London. The arc “Black Science” follows the Invisibles embarking on a mission after taking a year off in America at the New York City estate of wealthy Invisible Mason Lang. While Jack Frost, Boy, and Lord Fanny explore New York City, King Mob and Ragged Robin begin a sexual relationship. Jolly Roger, an Invisible and an old friend of King Mob’s, asks them to help her steal an AIDS vaccine from Dulce Base. There, the Invisibles face off against Mr. Quimper and Colonel Friday, two psychic agents of the Outer Church. The Invisibles are victorious, though Quimper plants a tiny part of his psyche in Ragged Robin’s subconscious.