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Who are the Green Lanterns? A guide of the Emerald Warriors of the DC Universe

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In the DC Universe, there are multiple heroes known as The Flash or Robin, but not as many as there are Green Lanterns. The reason is that, even if the name came with one hero in the 1940s, it became a title. Being a Green Lantern is being a peacekeeper in the Galaxy. It’s being a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic law enforcement organization created by the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa, in order to combat evil and create an orderly universe. 

In 1959, the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott was replaced by Hal Jordan. Introduced in the pages of Showcase #22 in a story written by John Broome and drawn by Gil Kane, Hal was a fearless jet pilot who received a power ring from an Alien named Abin Sur, a member of the Green Lantern Corps who’d just crashed on Earth. The idea by editor Julius Schwartz was to go from the vigilante type of stories told with Alan Scott to a full sci-fi reinvention with Hal Jordan.

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The Origins of Wolverine, Before he joined the X-Men!

Created by Roy Thomas, Len Wein, and John Romita Sr.–but first drawn for publication by Herb Trimpe–in the pages of The Incredible Hulk #180-181 in 1974, Wolverine is not your typical Canadian of small stature, he is a fierce character with retractable claws, a mysterious past, an iconic design, and a popularity that surpassed most of the other Marvel superheroes.

After being introduced as an agent of the Canadian government, Wolverine made a quick comeback. In his second appearance, in the classic Giant-Size X-Men #1, he joined the new team of X-Men but stayed a mystery for a long time. In fact, the mystery past is a big part of the character as it offers a lot of space for the writers to build stories full of twists–and not told in chronological order.

Who was Wolverine before being transformed by the mysterious Weapon X program? How many lives did he have as his healing factor keeps him young and healthy?

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Who Are The New Gods in the DC Comics Universe?

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In 1970, after failing to get Marvel to recognize his true value and the extent of his contribution, Jack Kirby joined DC Comics–certainly one the major event of the time in the industry. After lengthy negotiations, he signed a three-year contract and was ready to create new worlds, and also some magazines. The magazines were quickly canceled after only one issue though.

Everything started with Kirby taking over Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. With issue #133 (Oct. 1970), he launched the “Fourth World,” a saga that will encompass multiple series (The Forever People, Mister Miracle, and The New Gods), and introduced numerous revolutionary concepts and characters that still influenced the way the DC Universe worked to this day.

Based on ideas he developed during his run on Marvel’s Thor, Jack Kirby introduced us to The New Gods.

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Black Lightning Reading Order

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Created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor Von Eeden, Jefferson Pierce made his first appearance in Black Lightning #1 (April 1977). This Afro-American schoolteacher from the crime-ridden Suicide Slum area of Metropolis gained electrical superpowers and started fighting crimes under the name Black Lightning as a response by DC Comics to the success of Marvel’s Luke Cage.

This didn’t work exactly as DC envisioned it as financial difficulties put a quick end to the title, but Black Lightning survived and started to appear in other series and fight crimes as part of a team.

Originally, Tony Isabella had been tasked to retool a series called The Black Bomber with a strange and disturbingly bad premise that the writer described as DC’s first black superhero being a white bigot. He didn’t want to touch that and convinced DC to change the story. To draw the new title, the company recruited a young prodigy. Trevor Von Eeden was only 16 when he was offered the job–at the time though, Von Eeden didn’t know if he got the job for his talent or because he was black.

Through the years, Jefferson Pierce’s origin story evolved. His powers first came from a technologically advanced power belt and the schoolteacher also had an Olympic athlete background. He needed something like that because his powers were not the result of a mutation or a science experiment. This didn’t stay like that as it was later revealed that the character possesses a latent metagene.

At first, Black Lightning fought criminals in his neighborhood, especially the members of the criminal organization called The 100. But Black Lightning is not your typical superhero, he’s also a father–and his two daughters also became superheroes, Thunder and Lightning. Pierce is certainly a team player and he worked alongside Batman as a founding member of the Outsiders superhero team.

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Marvel’s Gang War Reading Order, Spider-Man and friends against the Gangs of New York

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A few months after the Dark Web event, Spider-man is once again throttled at the center of a crossover event as chaos reign in the street of New York City with a Gang War taking place–the old Spidey fan will remember that there’s already a storyline titled Gang War in the series, in Amazing Spider-Man #284-288.

Set up during Zeb Wells’s run of Amazing Spider-Man, the Gang War event revolves around a violent conflict between the gang lords of New York City that is causing chaos throughout the Big Apple. It’s about the bad guys fighting the other bad guys to the point that even a proactive superhero like Spidey can’t keep up.

Hobgoblin, Mr. Negative, the Owl, Shotgun, Diamondback, A.I.M., Hydra, and more battle with and against each other for gaining total control of the city. To stop this folly, Spider-Man has to lead a group of heroes–including Spider-Man Miles Morales, She-Hulk, Daredevil, Shang-Chi, and Spider-Woman–in order to take down the super-gangs in under 48 hours.

But what do Mayor Luke Cage and the city’s strong anti-vigilante laws have to say about it? Will Jackpot gamble on getting involved? And is Shang-Chi a friend or foe? They better all figure it out before two classic villains make a game-changing return!

The main event is taking place in the Amazing Spider-Man series written by Zeb Wells, with art by Ed McGuiness and John Romita Jr.

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The Best Dark Horse Comics Series: 15 must-read comics books

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Best Dark Horse Comic

Following the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, what is now called the Black-and-White Boom took form with the apparition in 1986 of a LOT of new publishers ready to make a fortune. Apple Comics, Fantagor Press, ACE Comics, Crystal Publications, Eternity Comics, Imperial Comics, Quality Comics, Malibu Comics, and more! Most of them produced forgettable books and rapidly closed shops. Not all of course, or else we wouldn’t be here to talk about Dark Horse Comics.

Mike Richardson used the profit generated by his comic book shop to launch the company with his friend Randy Stradley. Dark Horse Comics started with the anthology Dark Horse Presents and James Dean Smith’s parody comic Boris the Bear. The two titles became hits and helped the company to go much further than most of its competitors.

Using its successful launch, Dark Horse Comics adopted a strategy based on popular franchises. Mike Richardson began buying the rights to make Godzilla comics, then it was Aliens, Predator, Star Wars, and Tarzan. The company soon started producing toys and producing movies (via Dark Horse Entertainment).

Dark Horse Comics even tried to invade the world of superheroes with the imprint Comics’ Greatest World. But as the industry changed, DH had to refocus its ambitions on the creators–this led to the publication of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy.

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Batman: The Animated Series: A Look Back at The Best Adaptation That Ever Is (and ever will be?)

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We chose to publish this article today as this is the third Saturday in September, which means it is Batman Day! For more Batman-related articles and reading orders, we invite you to check out our Batman archives!

Batman Logo (pré New 52)

During the 1980s, as Disney dominated the afternoon on TV, some affiliate stations contacted FOX to ask if the young network wouldn’t be interested in entering that market. This led to the creation of the Fox Kids Network which debuted on September 1990. Margaret Loesh who was head of Marvel Productions at that time was recruited to launch the new venture. To achieve her goals, she started working with Warner Bros. Animation.

It started slow, but things became serious in the third season with shows that eventually impacted a generation of kids and the comic book industries: X-Men and, of course, Batman: The Animated Series!

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How To Start Reading Comics, An Option For Every Readers

This is certainly one of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to comic readers, there’s always someone who wants to know: Where to start with reading comics? What do you recommend a comics beginner to read? And other variants.

The answer for a long time was simple. You just buy one. They were just there and most of the stories were standalone. It was a no-brainer. But as the culture around comics evolved, it feels like non-comics readers think that to start reading this type of book is like starting to climb a mountain. It feels insurmountable, you need training, guidance, and you know it will be hard and somewhat dangerous. That is not the case.

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Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War Reading Order

The Dawn of DC line is full of events to the point that one is spinning off the other. Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War is indeed taking place right after the Nightmares of Knight Terrors: Batman.

In Gotham City, a concerted effort has reduced violent crime, but at what cost? Villains disperse as their lives under the new rule start to fall apart. One name comes to Batman’s mind as he recovers from his epic struggle through the Multiverse and the horrors of Knight Terrors. Catwoman is the driving force behind this new, safer Gotham.

The Bat-Family will be torn apart when a feud that has been festering for well over a year finally breaks out on the streets!

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War is a crossover event that takes place in Batman and Catwoman, as well as in special one-shots and a miniseries. Mostly written by Chip Zdarsky and Tini Howard, with art by Jorge Jimenez, Mike Hawthorne, Nico Leon, and Adriano Di Benedetto, the story is sold as an all-out war between the Bat and the Cat.

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Wonder Woman, The Origin Story: The Inspirations and Multiple Retcons Behind the Amazon’s Creation

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She’s the most recognizable female superhero in the history of comic books, and even beyond that. Wonder Woman was not the first one, but she certainly is the first to find success. Her story began a long time ago…

At the end of the 1930s, the kids read comic books in masse, especially Superman and Batman! But as it is always the case, some people thought that these stories full of heroes fighting criminals would transform a generation of children into hardened criminals themself, probably resorting to violence before anything else. Not everybody feared the worst. In fact, psychologist William Moulton Marston thought that comics were wonderful and made it known. This led him to get recruited by Maxwell Charles Gaines–then publisher of All-American Publications, aka DC–into the Editorial Advisory Board of the company.

As a consulting psychologist, Marston was in a position of influence and convinced Gaines to try a female superhero to discredit a good part of the arguments used against the violent men of comics. It turns out that Marston was a hardened feminist with a particular lifestyle (living with 2 wives, and 4 comics-reading children) and was in search of a way to disseminate his views.

Using the pen name Charles Moulton, he started to develop the story of “Suprema, The Wonder Woman”–editor Sheldon Mayer quickly got rid of the Suprema name. Inspired by the way the women’s suffrage movement used the myth of the Amazons to develop the narrative behind the changes they wanted, his beliefs in the superiority of women, his work in lie detection and in the spectrum of emotions, his interest in bondage, and a lot of elements taken directly from his life (and the ones of the women in his life), William Moulton Marston was determined to build a feminist tale.

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