All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder (2005)

All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder is an American comic book series written by Frank Miller and penciled by Jim Lee. It was published by DC Comics, with a sporadic schedule, between 2005[1] and 2008. The series was to be rebooted under the title Dark Knight: Boy Wonder in 2011, when both Miller and Lee were to finish the last six issues. The series retells the origin story of Dick Grayson, who became Batman‘s sidekick Robin.

This was the first series to be launched in 2005 under DC’s All Star imprint. These series are helmed by renowned writers and artists in the American comic book industry and attempt to retell some of the history of prominent DC Universe characters, but outside of DC Universe continuity, and not be restricted by it, in order to appeal to new and returning readers. Each title under the All Star imprint is set in its own continuity and separate universe.[2] According to Miller, the series takes place in the same continuity as Miller’s other Batman-related works, such as The Dark Knight Returns.

Since its initial publication, Miller’s writing of All Star Batman has consistently received an overwhelmingly negative critical response, though Lee’s artwork has been praised.

New Gods V1 (1971)

Created and designed by Jack Kirby, The New Gods first appeared in February 1971 in New Gods #1.

Kirby’s production assistant of the time, Mark Evanier, remarked that: “Folks forget but the New Gods saga was intended to be a limited series … There was no intention that these characters would go on forever. After Jack’s books started getting good sales figures, DC demanded that we keep them going and use guest stars like Deadman, which we were very much against doing. So Kirby had this novel he was forever stuck in the middle of – he could never get to the last chapter. … You can spot the issues where Jack kind of gave up trying to advance the story of Darkseid and Orion and was marking time. If those books had been intended from the start to run indefinitely, they would have been done very differently.”

New Gods #1 marks the first appearance of Orion, Highfather, and Metron, among others.

Superman: The Man of Steel (1991)

Beginning an all-new monthly Superman title. Over a year ago, Superman fought the urge to become the Krypton Man…now the Krypton Man is born anew from the Earth’s fiery sun, where the Man of Steel buried the mysterious Kryptonian Eradicator! In the wake of the rebirth of his nemesis, Earth’s yellow sun begins turning red – causing natural disasters planetwide!

Justice League Dark (2011)

Justice League Dark was announced on May 31, 2011 as a First Wave title of The New 52 The title and team was created by Peter Milligan, with art by Mikel Janín. The title launched on September 28, 2011. The title brought several of DC Comics’ occult and offbeat characters, something which had been a trait of sister imprint Vertigo, back into the main DC Universe following Vertigo’s editorial change to publish purely new, creator owned content.

Detective Comics (2000’s)

Writer Greg Rucka and artist Shawn Martinbrough became the creative team as of #742 (March 2000) and created the Sasha Bordeaux character is #751 (Dec. 2000).  Issue #800 (Jan. 2005) was written by Andersen Gabrych and drawn by Pete Woods. Paul Dini became the writer of the series as of issue #821 (Sept. 2006) and created a new version of the Ventriloquist in #827 (March 2007).

Forever People V1 (1971)

The Forever People are a fictional group of extraterrestrial superheroes published by DC Comics. They first appeared in Forever People #1 (February–March 1971), and were created by Jack Kirby as part of his “Fourth World” epic.

The Forever People lasted eleven issues. They mainly fought Darkseid’s forces such as Glorious Godfrey in issue #3. Issues #9 and 10 guest-starred Deadman; according to writer/artist Jack Kirby‘s assistant Mark Evanier, “We were ordered to put Deadman into New Gods, but we slipped him into Forever People instead, where he was a little less obtrusive. Jack didn’t like the character and didn’t want to do it. He didn’t feel he should be doing someone else’s character. … He doesn’t want to trample on someone else’s vision. Carmine [Infantino, DC Comics publisher and Deadman’s co-creator] said the character hadn’t sold and he wanted the Kirby touch on it.”

DK III: The Master Race (2015)

The series is a sequel to Miller’s 1986 Batman miniseries The Dark Knight Returns and the 2001 miniseries The Dark Knight Strikes Again, continuing the story of an aged Bruce Wayne resuming his identity as a crimefighter, aided by his sidekick Carrie Kelley (Robin) and featuring an ensemble of DC Universe characters including SupermanGreen Lantern, and Wonder Woman. In DK IIIRay Palmer restores the inhabitants of Kandor to full-size, but they immediately begin to terrorize the Earth. Batman sets out to assemble his former allies against the invaders.

The series is accompanied by a series of one-shots which fill in events between issues. They are written and drawn by Frank Miller, which continues his experimentation with noir-style writing and divisive art style.

Resurrection Man (1997)

Mitch Shelley made his debut in Resurrection Man #1 (1997). The monthly series was structured to follow a grand story arc planned by Abnett and Lanning, with stories following Shelley as he wandered America, having adventures while searching for the truth behind his past and his transformation. During this, he is pursued by “the Lab”, its former director Hooker, and the bounty hunters known as the Body Doubles.

Swamp Thing V2 (1980’s)

In 1984, editor Len Wein assigned Swamp Thing to British writer Alan Moore. When Karen Berger took over as editor, she gave Moore free rein to revamp the title and the character as he saw fit. Moore reconfigured Swamp Thing’s origin to make him a true monster as opposed to a human transformed into a monster. In his first issue, he swept aside most of the supporting cast Pasko had introduced in his year-and-a-half run as writer, and brought the Sunderland Corporation to the forefront, as they hunted Swamp Thing and “killed” him in a hail of bullets. The subsequent investigation revealed that Swamp Thing was not Alec Holland’s consciousness transformed into a plant but actually a form of plant life that had absorbed Holland’s consciousness after exposure to his work, with Swamp Thing’s appearance being the plants’ attempt to duplicate Holland’s human form.

The House of Secrets (1971)

The House of Secrets was revived in 1969 after a 3 year absence. Now its horror and suspense tales were introduced by a host named Abel, who would also host the satirical comic Plop!. His brother Cain hosted House of Mystery. Swamp Thing first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971) in a stand-alone horror story set in the early 20th century written by Len Wein and drawn by Bernie Wrightson. The woman appearing on the cover of this issue was modeled after future comics writer Louise Simonson.

This revival, sporting many covers by Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, and Michael Kaluta, ran through issue #154 (Nov. 1978), with three months passing between #140 (April 1976) and #141 (July 1976). It was then ‘merged’ into The Unexpected with issue #189, through issue #199. The series was 68 ad-free pages, allowing all three portions to be full-length issues.

The House of Secrets also came to be the name of the actual edifice in which Abel lives. Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jerry Grandenetti introduced the house and explained its origins. The Sandman series revealed it exists both in the real world of the DC Universe and in the Dreaming, as a repository for secrets of all kinds.