Dark Horse Comics began their take on Conan in 2003. Their first comic series published was written by Kurt Busiek and Tim Truman and pencilled by Cary Nord and Tomas Giorello. This was followed by Conan the Cimmerian, written by Tim Truman and pencilled by Tomas Giorello, Richard Corben and José Villarrubia. This series is a fresh interpretation, based solely on the works of Robert E. Howard and on the Dale Rippke chronology, with no connection to the large Marvel run.
More feral than ever, the mutated Kirk Langstrom has only one consuming wish–to see his estranged family again. But as a series of brutal murders committed by a winged creature terrorize Gotham’s high-rises, S.W.A.T. teams mobilize throughout the city to take down Man-Bat. Gotham’s skyline becomes a war zone as the night erupts in a blitzkrieg of bullets, wings and screams, bringing the tortured, increasingly less human Man-Bat into savage conflict with a horrifying new villain, the Roc. But behind the Roc’s rampage lie secrets to chill even the blood of Man-Bat…secrets that could cost Langstrom’s wife, Francine, her very life.
Marvel relaunched The Punisher War Journal in 2009 as simply Punisher, with a thematic link tied to the events of the “Dark Reign” storyline. As part of his work on the character, Rick Remender wrote the one-shot title Dark Reign: The List – Punisher, which, as part of the “Dark Reign” storyline, shows the character dismembered and decapitated by Daken.
The Tick was created by cartoonist Ben Edlund in 1986 as a newsletter mascot for the New England Comics chain of Boston area comic stores. He is an absurdist spoof of comic book superheroes. After its creation, the character spun off into an independent comic book series in 1988, and gained mainstream popularity through an animated TV series on Fox in 1994. A short-lived live-action TV series, video game, and various merchandise have also been based on the character. IGN‘s list of the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time ranked The Tick as #57.
Green Lantern would know a number of revivals and cancellations. Its title would change to Green Lantern Corps at one point as the popularity rose and waned. During a time there were two regular titles, each with a Green Lantern, and a third member in the Justice League.
Doctor Stephen Strange was the world’s greatest neurosurgeon and the Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, defending the world against invasions from other dimensions and supernatural threats. He has lost and regained the role several times and journeyed to the strangest of places, even met Eternity itself, but he has always been there to defend this dimension against threats of every size and shape imaginable.
And now he’s dead.
Who will protect the Earth? Who will keep the supernatural evils at bay?
And who killed Doctor Strange?
In June 2002, a new Micronauts series by Image Comics was published for eleven issues before its cancellation in September 2003. The same year saw a four-issue limited series featuring Baron Karza’s origin and his relationship with the Time Traveler entity.
In 1956, DC Comics successfully revived superheroes, ushering in what became known as the Silver Age of comic books. Rather than bringing back the same Golden Age heroes, DC rethought them as new characters for the modern age. The Flash was the first revival, in the aptly named tryout comic book Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956).
This new Flash was Barry Allen, a police scientist who gained super-speed when bathed by chemicals after a shelf of them was struck by lightning. He adopted the name The Flash after reading a comic book featuring the Golden Age Flash. After several more appearances in Showcase, Allen’s character was given his own title, The Flash, the first issue of which was #105 (resuming where Flash Comics had left off).
Published by Dark Horse Comics, the first issue was released in September 2002. It ran for 40 issues, and was continued in the Star Wars: Rebellion series.
In the weeks before the events in Star Wars: A New Hope, as the Death Star is readied for its fateful first mission, a power-hungry cabal of Grand Mofs and Imperial Officers embark on a dangerous plan to kill Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader and seize control of the Empire!
The Atom introduced in Showcase #34 (1961) is physicist and university professor Dr. Raymond Palmer, Ph.D. (He was named for real-life science fiction writer Raymond A. Palmer, who was himself quite short.) After stumbling onto a mass of white dwarf star matter that had fallen to Earth, he fashioned a lens which allowed him to shrink down to subatomic size. Originally, his size and molecular density abilities derived from the white dwarf star material of his costume, controlled by mechanisms in his belt, and later by controls in the palms of his gloves. Much later, he gained the innate equivalent powers within his own body. After the events of Identity Crisis, Ray shrank himself to microscopic size and disappeared. Finding him became a major theme of the Countdown year long series and crossover event.
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