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103-908: The concept for the team emerged from the same pitch Grant Morrison made that contained the idea for the Great Ten , and they were first mentioned in 52 #6. They are influenced by American superheroes and Japanese pop culture . The characters first appeared in Morrison's Final Crisis where they were revealed to be the Fifth World incarnations of the Forever People . They are featured in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance , written by Joe Casey with art by ChrisCross . In that six-part series, their fame overwhelms them, causing judgement errors and loss of self-control. Most Excellent Superbat (Heino)

206-622: A Doom Patrol spin-off with art by Frank Quitely , and returned briefly to DC Universe superheroics with the short-lived Aztek , co-written with Mark Millar. In 1996, Morrison was given the Justice League of America to revamp as JLA , a comic book that gathered the "Big Seven" superheroes of the DC universe into one team. This run was hugely popular and returned the title to best-selling status. Morrison wrote several issues of The Flash with Mark Millar, as well as DC's crossover event of 1998,

309-451: A supercomputer he calls a "unified data field" which is only accessible when he meditated himself into a calm theta rhythm state. Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #1, the ghost of a being calling itself " Ultimon Alpha " recently appeared to him in a vision. By the end of the series, he revealed that he is indeed as rich as he claims when he actually buys Japan. Big Atomic Lantern Boy is Most Excellent Superbat's second in command. He wears

412-510: A 128-page graphic novel painted by Dave McKean . Comics historian Les Daniels observed in 1995 that " Arkham Asylum was an unprecedented success, selling 182,166 copies in hardcover and another 85,047 in paperback." While working for DC Comics in America, Morrison kept contributing to British indie titles, writing St. Swithin's Day for Trident Comics . St. Swithin's Day ' s anti- Margaret Thatcher themes proved controversial, provoking

515-511: A copy of Action Comics #1 (June 1938) sold at auction for $ 3 million, besting the $ 317,000 record for a comic book set by a different copy, in lesser condition, the previous year. The sale, by an anonymous seller to an anonymous buyer, was through the Manhattan-based auction company ComicConnect.com. Although DC had initially announced Marc Guggenheim as writer of the title following the War of

618-483: A crossover arc with the Superman series, entitled " Up, Up and Away! " which told of Clark Kent attempting to protect Metropolis without his powers until eventually regaining them. The " Last Son " storyline was written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner , the director of the 1978 film Superman: The Movie , and was pencilled by Adam Kubert . This story introduces the original character, Christopher Kent , and adapts

721-530: A division of Universal Studio Group, will also adapt the series for television. The first issue was published by Boom! Studios in March 2021. In March 2021 it was announced that Morrison would write a four issue series entitled Superman and The Authority , illustrated by Mikel Janin, to be published by DC in late 2021. In a 2022 newsletter, Morrison revealed they had pitched ideas for Series 8 of Doctor Who to series showrunner Steven Moffat . These included

824-515: A fantasy world populated with his toys and other fantasy characters when he stops taking his medication. Following the closure of Virgin Comics, Dynamite Entertainment and Liquid Comics announced a partnership to publish a hardcover of illustrated scripts of Grant Morrison's Mahābhārata-based, animated project 18 Days with illustrations by artist Mukesh Singh, that was released in August 2010. They are

927-472: A film project with Morrison attached as screenwriter. The following year, Morrison wrote the adaptation of the video game Area 51 home console game for Paramount in development with CFP Productions producing. In 2006 Morrison was voted as the No. 2 favourite comic book writer of all time by Comic Book Resources . That same year, Morrison began writing Batman for DC with issue No. 655 , reintroducing

1030-429: A gorilla and his strip was renamed Congorilla . The introduction of Supergirl by Otto Binder and Al Plastino occurred in issue #252 (May 1959). Following this debut appearance, Supergirl adopted the secret identity of an orphan "Linda Lee" and made Midvale Orphanage her base of operations. In Action Comics #261 (February 1960), her pet cat Streaky was introduced by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney . Supergirl joined

1133-513: A green outfit which is outfitted with an x-rayed circular porthole on his chest. The porthole displays his skeleton, and allows him to fire green force beams of different types of radiation. He is attracted to Shiny Happy Aquazon. Crazy Shy Lolita Canary is a winged heroine in a Japanese schoolgirl uniform, and is physically small enough to fit in someone's hand. She possesses a sonic scream (always " Sumimasen " - "Excuse me") similar to that possessed by Black Canary except that it appears to be

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1236-618: A history of the Superman canon as it existed at the time and was published in the Dollar Comics format. The superheroine Vixen made her first appearance in Action Comics #521 (July 1981). To mark the 45th anniversary of the series, Lex Luthor and Brainiac were both given an updated appearance in issue #544 (June 1983). Lex Luthor dons his war suit for the first time in the story "Luthor Unleashed!" and Brainiac's appearance changes from

1339-509: A little-known character from DC's past whose most notable recent appearance was a cameo in the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series , and for a 48-page Batman one-shot that would eventually become Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth . Animal Man put Morrison in line with the " British Invasion " of American comics, along with such writers as Neil Gaiman , Peter Milligan , Jamie Delano , and Alan Moore , who had launched

1442-468: A magical symbol, or sigil , in an effort to boost sales). When the title was relaunched with volume two, the characters relocated to America. Volume three appeared with issue numbers counting down, signalling an intention to conclude the series with the turn of the new millennium in 2000. Due to the title shipping late, its final issue did not ship until April 2000. The 1999 film The Matrix has numerous elements which have been attributed by critics to

1545-557: A major artist on Superman. Under editor Mort Weisinger , the Action Comics title saw a further expansion of the Superman mythology. Writer Jerry Coleman and Wayne Boring created the Fortress of Solitude in issue #241 (June 1958) and Otto Binder and Al Plastino debuted the villain Brainiac and the Bottle City of Kandor in the next issue the following month. Gradually, the size of

1648-486: A new Green Lantern comic entitled The Green Lantern for DC Comics. Following the success of the first season of The Green Lantern , a second season was announced, to be published in 2020 but beforehand there was a Blackstars mini-series dealing with the ending of Season One , launched in November 2019. "Season Two" of Morrison's Green Lantern series with Liam Sharp began in 2020 and completed in March 2021 alongside

1751-405: A number of comics industry guests, including Robert Kirkman , Darick Robertson , Jason Aaron , Jim Lee , Gerard Way , Jonathan Hickman , Frank Quitely , J. H. Williams III , and Chris Burnham. In September 2014, as part of Legendary Comics ' big foray into the industry, Morrison launched another key creator-owned book: Annihilator with Frazer Iving . A six-issue mini-series, Annihilator

1854-498: A policeman who talked in rhyme. The series saw the introduction of several characters and themes that would become longstanding elements of the Superman mythos. Lois Lane made her debut in the first issue with Superman. An unnamed "office boy" with a bow tie makes a brief appearance in the story "Superman's Phony Manager" published in Action Comics #6 (November 1938), which is claimed to be Jimmy Olsen 's first appearance by several reference sources. New superpowers depicted for

1957-473: A proposal involving the Justice League of America and Jack Kirby 's New Gods entitled Second Coming to DC Comics , but it was not commissioned. After writing The Liberators for Dez Skinn 's Warrior in 1985, Morrison started work for Marvel UK the following year. There they wrote comic strips for Doctor Who Magazine , the final one a collaboration with a then-teenage Bryan Hitch , as well as

2060-546: A run on the Zoids strip in Spider-Man and Zoids . 1986 also saw publication of Morrison's first of several two- or three-page Future Shocks for 2000 AD . Morrison's first continuing serial began in 2000 AD in 1987, when they and Steve Yeowell created Zenith . Morrison's work on Zenith brought them to the attention of DC Comics, who asked Morrison to work for them. They accepted Morrison's proposals for Animal Man ,

2163-570: A small tabloid press reaction and a complaint from Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Teddy Taylor . The controversy continued with the publication of The New Adventures of Hitler in Scottish music and lifestyle magazine Cut in 1989, due to its use of Adolf Hitler as its lead character. The strip, unfinished when Cut folded, was reprinted and completed in Fleetway 's 2000 AD spin-off title Crisis . Two plays staged by Oxygen House at

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2266-572: A story featuring a child version of the Doctor , as well as a new potential villain. None were commissioned, though the BBC offered to buy the rights to Morrison's villains. (The latter declined). Later that year, Morrison published Luda , their debut prose novel . In a 2011 interview, Morrison stated that they and their wife Kristan had no children. When asked if they regretted this, Morrison replied, "Slightly but I don't know. Every time I think of it I think of

2369-400: A strong modulated-mixture of multiple voices. Shiny Happy Aquazon is the daughter of Junior Waveman (Riki Kimura) - a founding member of Big Science Action - and the genius daughter of Senior Waveman Otomo. She has the ability to create hardwater constructs like Mera , the wife of Aquaman . She also is attracted to Sonic Lightning Flash. In Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #4, her father who

2472-439: A three-month hiatus on two separate occasions. The first of these occurred during the summer of 1986, with issue #583 bearing a cover date of September, and issue #584 listing January 1987. The regular Superman titles were suspended during this period to allow for the publication of John Byrne's six-issue The Man of Steel limited series. Publication was again suspended between issues #686 and #687 (February and June 1993) following

2575-448: A western style for people raised on movies, comics, and video games." In August 2009, Morrison and Frank Quitely launched the Batman and Robin series. Batman No. 700 (Aug. 2010) saw the return of Morrison to the title and a collaboration with an art team that consisted of Tony Daniel , Frank Quitely, Andy Kubert , and David Finch . The separate stories tied together to illustrate that

2678-512: Is a Scottish comic book writer , screenwriter , and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives , humanist philosophy and countercultural leanings. Morrison has written extensively for the American comic book publisher DC Comics , penning lengthy runs on Animal Man , Doom Patrol , JLA , Action Comics , and Green Lantern as well as the graphic novels Arkham Asylum , JLA: Earth 2 , and Wonder Woman: Earth One ,

2781-530: Is not yet trusted by Metropolis citizens and wears a basic costume consisting of a caped T-shirt, jeans and work boots. The first issue has had five printings as of March 2012. The first story arc of the relaunched series, entitled Superman and the Men of Steel for the collected edition, begins very early in Superman's career as he starts making a name for himself as a champion of the oppressed in Metropolis. He captures

2884-416: Is now Senior Waveman Kimura invites her to become a member of Big Science Action . Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash is a young speedster whose real name is Keigo, with a round helmet and giant athletic shoes . He is capable of running up to 500 mph. The group recruits Sunny Sumo, a powerful wrestler with self-healing abilities and the potential to resist mind control. The original Sumo had assisted

2987-413: Is the team leader. He wears a wildly stylized red and yellow uniform influenced by both Superman and Batman . According to him, his power is "being so rich he can do anything", but he appears to use an array of gadgets , one of which can generate an energy-based exoskeleton, he also appears to have some training in the martial arts. His secret island base is called the "Most Serene Sanctuary" and contains

3090-613: The 2000 AD story " Rogue Trooper ". Morrison was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to film and literature. In September 2012, Morrison published their first ever Image Comics creator-owned work: Happy! with Darick Robertson. In the same month, MorrisonCon was held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas) . This small-scale convention, curated by Morrison, featured

3193-596: The Atom . Between issues #423 (April 1973) and #424 (June 1973), the series jumped ahead by one month due to DC's decision to change the cover dates of its publishing line. A new version of the Toyman was created by Cary Bates and Curt Swan in issue #432 (February 1974). Issues #437 (July 1974) and #443 (Jan. 1975) of the series were in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format. Martin Pasko wrote issue #500 (October 1979) which featured

Super Young Team - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-492: The BBC Morrison pitched with director Paul McGuigan and Stephen Fry . In June 2011, as part of DC Comics' massive revamp of its entire superhero line, Morrison was announced as the writer on the new Action Comics No. 1, teaming with artist Rags Morales , marking Morrison's return to the Superman character after the end of All Star Superman . In July 2011, Morrison's analysis of superheroes, Supergods: Our World in

3399-664: The Damian Wayne character in Batman Incorporated No. 8 (April 2013) and their final issue was No. 13 (Sept. 2013). Morrison returned to creator-owned work in 2010 with the eight issue Vertigo series Joe the Barbarian , launched in January with artist Sean Murphy . Originally a six issue series, Morrison felt that the story would benefit from an extra two issues. The titular Joe is a diabetic young boy who begins to hallucinate

3502-648: The Edinburgh Fringe had scripts by Morrison. Red King Rising (1989) concerned an imagined relationship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell . The other, Depravity (1990) concerned the British occultist Aleister Crowley . The plays won between them a Fringe First Award, the Independent Theatre Award for 1989 and the Evening Standard Award for New Drama. Morrison returned to Batman with

3605-507: The Golden Age of Comic Books . Siegel and Shuster had tried for years to find a publisher for their Superman character—conceived initially as a newspaper strip . Superman was originally a bald madman created by Siegel and Shuster who used his telepathic abilities to wreak havoc on humanity. He appeared in Siegel and Shuster's fanzine Science Fiction . Siegel then commented, "What if this Superman

3708-457: The Legion of Super-Heroes in issue #276. She acted for three years as Superman's "secret weapon", until her existence was revealed in Action Comics #285 (January 1962). In the view of comics historian Les Daniels , artist Curt Swan became the definitive artist of Superman in the early 1960s with a "new look" to the character that replaced Wayne Boring's version. Bizarro World first appeared in

3811-893: The New Teen Titans . Other costars during this period included the Phantom Stranger , the New Gods , the Demon , Hawkman and Hawkwoman , the Green Lantern Corps , the Metal Men , Superboy , Big Barda , Mister Miracle , Booster Gold , the Martian Manhunter , the Spectre , Lois Lane and Lana Lang , Checkmate , Wonder Woman , and the Man-Bat . The first Action Comics Annual

3914-611: The " Gothic " story arc in issues 6–10 of the Batman title Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight . The early 1990s saw Morrison revamping Kid Eternity for DC with artist Duncan Fegredo , and Dan Dare , with artist Rian Hughes . Morrison coloured Dare's bright future with Thatcherism in Fleetway's Revolver . In 1991 Morrison wrote Bible John-A Forensic Meditation for Fleetway's Crisis , based on an analysis of possible motivations for

4017-406: The " Reign of Doomsday " storyline. The final issue of the original series was Action Comics #904. The title was relaunched from issue #1, as part of 2011's The New 52 by the creative team of writer Grant Morrison and artist Rags Morales . As with all of the books associated with the relaunch, Clark Kent appears younger than the previous incarnation of the character. Action Comics focus on

4120-621: The "Death of Superman" and "Funeral for a Friend" storylines, before Action Comics returned in June 1993 with the "Reign of the Supermen" arc. The series was published weekly from May 24, 1988, to March 14, 1989. (See detail in The Modern Age section above.) The temporarily increased frequency of issues allowed Action Comics to further surpass the older Detective Comics in the number of individual issues published. It surpassed Detective Comics in

4223-429: The "invasion" with his work on Swamp Thing . After impressing with Animal Man , Morrison was asked to take over Doom Patrol , starting their surreal take on the superhero genre with issue No. 19 in 1989. Morrison's Doom Patrol introduced concepts such as dadaism and the writings of Jorge Luis Borges into the first several issues. DC published Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth in 1989 as

Super Young Team - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-517: The 1970s when that series was bimonthly for a number of years. This change lasted from issue #601 to issue #642. During this time, Superman appeared only in a two-page story per issue; he was still the only character to appear in every issue of the series. An issue #0 (October 1994) was published between issues #703 and #704 as part of the Zero Month after the "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time" crossover event. There

4429-470: The 1991 story wherein Clark Kent finally revealed his identity as Superman to Lois Lane . Several major Superman storylines crossed over with Action Comics including "Emperor Joker" in 2000 and " Our Worlds at War " in 2001. John Byrne returned to Action Comics for issues #827–835 working with writer Gail Simone in 2005–2006. After the " One Year Later " company-wide storyline, Action Comics had

4532-598: The Age of the Superhero , was published by Random House Spiegel & Grau in the United States and Jonathan Cape in the UK. Morrison has written a screenplay for a film entitled Sinatoro . In 2011 they worked on the screenplay Dinosaurs vs Aliens for Sam Worthington 's production company, Full Clip Production, and said they planned to work with them again on a screenplay based on

4635-598: The Blackhawks (in flashback), Deadman, and the Phantom Stranger. The story ran counter to DC editorial policy at the time as it portrayed Hal Jordan and Clark Kent as old friends who knew each other's secret identities. This was not considered canon in 1989 and Gaiman was unwilling to change this aspect of the story (as each serial in ACW was edited by different editors, continuity was not being maintained by DC editorial). The story

4738-614: The DC Universe in the wake of the Infinite Crisis . Morrison was one of the writers on 52 , a year-long weekly comic book series that started in May 2006 and concluded in May 2007. Starting in November 2005, DC published All-Star Superman , a twelve-issue story arc by Morrison and Frank Quitely. Not so much a revamp or reboot of Superman, the series presents an out-of-continuity "iconic" Superman for new readers. All-Star Superman won

4841-475: The DC character Damian Wayne . Morrison's creator-owned work, the bulk of which was published through DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, includes Flex Mentallo and We3 with Scottish artist Frank Quitely , Seaguy with artist Cameron Stewart , The Filth with Chris Weston , and the three-volume series The Invisibles . At Marvel , Morrison wrote a three-year run on New X-Men and created Marvel Boy for

4944-804: The Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2006, the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 2007 and several Eagle Awards in the UK. It won three Harvey Awards in 2008 and the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 2009. In the same year, Morrison and Quitely worked on pop star Robbie Williams ' album Intensive Care , providing intricate Tarot card designs for the packaging and cover of the CD. Morrison provided outline story and script work for two video games, Battlestar Galactica (2003) and Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005), both by Vivendi Universal . In 2006, New Line Cinema optioned We3 as

5047-735: The Forever People in their original series, but had been stranded in ancient Japan where he lived out a peaceful life; the Sunny Sumo who joined the Super Young Team was a refugee from Earth-51, escaping before it was destroyed. The Super Young Team has a vehicle called the Wonder Wagon, which is a car capable of powered flight, similar to the Newsboy Legion 's Whiz Wagon. Grant Morrison Grant Morrison MBE (born 31 January 1960)

5150-590: The Manhattan Guardian , Mister Miracle , Klarion the Witch Boy , Bulleteer , Frankenstein , Zatanna and Shining Knight . The series consists of seven interlinked four-issue mini-series with two "bookend" volumes – 30 issues in all. Dan DiDio , the editorial vice president of DC Comics, was impressed with Morrison's ideas for revitalising many of DC's redundant characters. Giving them the unofficial title of "revamp guy", DiDio asked them to assist in sorting out

5253-410: The Supermen limited series, he was replaced by Paul Cornell . Cornell featured Lex Luthor as the main character in Action Comics from issues #890–900 and Death appeared in issue #894, with the agreement of the character's creator, Neil Gaiman . In April 2011, the 900th issue of Action Comics was released. It served as a conclusion for Luthor's "Black Ring" storyline and a continuation for

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5356-559: The Word and the Fool, with many others. Morrison also penned several editorials for the magazine during this period, whilst writing occasional prose stories for Ahoy Comics backup features. In 2017, Morrison co-created the Syfy TV series Happy! , which starred Christopher Meloni and Patton Oswalt . It commenced its second season in 2019. In November 2018, Morrison and artist Liam Sharp launched

5459-454: The X-Men in the guise of new character Xorn and developing an addiction to the power-enhancing drug "Kick". In 2002, Morrison launched their next creator-owned project at Vertigo: The Filth , drawn by Chris Weston and Gary Erskine , a 13-part mini-series. That same year, Morrison sold the screenplay Sleepless Knights to DreamWorks with Guillermo del Toro attached to direct. Around

5562-416: The attention of the military and scientist Lex Luthor, who are both interested in testing his capabilities as well as discovering what kind of threat he represents. Following the completion of Morrison's storyline, writer Andy Diggle and artist Tony Daniel became the new creative team on the title with issue #19. Unlike the previous issues, the setting for the Action Comics series would now take place in

5665-609: The character had a brief run as the backup in World's Finest Comics . Julius Schwartz became the editor of the series with issue #419 (December 1972) which also introduced the Human Target by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino in the backup feature. The Green Arrow and the Black Canary became a backup feature in #421 and ran through #458, initially rotating with the Human Target and

5768-431: The character of Damian Wayne and signalling the beginning of a seven-year-long run on the character across multiple titles. They wrote relaunches of The Authority and Wildcats , with the art of Gene Ha and Jim Lee respectively, for DC's Wildstorm imprint. WildC.A.T.S. went on hiatus after one issue, The Authority was discontinued after two. The scheduling of The Authority conflicted with 52 and Morrison

5871-537: The classic Superman film villains, General Zod , Ursa and Non into the regular DC Universe continuity. Issue #851 (August 2007) was presented in 3-D . Starting with issue #875 (May 2009), written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Eddy Barrows , Thara Ak-Var and Chris Kent, took Superman's place as the main protagonists of the comic, while Superman left Earth to live on New Krypton. A Captain Atom backup feature began in issue #879 (September 2009). On February 22, 2010,

5974-470: The comics anthology Heavy Metal . Their involvement lasted until 2018. During the period, they penned such strips as Industria , The Rise and Fall of Empires , both with frequent collaborator and old friend Rian Hughes. Other strips included The Smile of the Absent Cat with artist Gerhard , as well as Mythopia , Beachhead , Option 3 , Nihilophilia , Ten Sounds That Represent a Kind of Person: A Historical Parody, The House of Heart's Desire, and Beyond

6077-420: The controversial Big Dave with Millar. DC Comics launched its Vertigo imprint in 1993, publishing several of Morrison's creator-owned projects, such as the steampunk mini-series Sebastian O and the graphic novel The Mystery Play . 1995 saw the release of Kill Your Boyfriend , with artist Philip Bond , originally published as a Vertigo Voices one-shot. In 1996 Morrison wrote Flex Mentallo ,

6180-451: The cover feature of their new magazine. After seeing the published first issue, publisher Harry Donenfeld dismissed the featured strip as ridiculous. He ordered it never to be on the cover of the series. Subsequent reports of the first issue's strong sales and follow up investigations revealed that Superman was the reason. Thus, the character returned to the covers, becoming a permanent presence in issue 19 onward. Initially, Action Comics

6283-434: The creator-owned title Nameless , with frequent collaborator Chris Burnham . A tale of apocalyptic cosmic horror, Nameless sought to approach the genre from a new lens, with different influences, rather than lean to its iconic founder H.P Lovecraft , drawing on everything from the Tarot to The Qlippoth. In November 2015, Morrison began their biggest creator-owned project of the decade, collaborating with BOOM! Studios for

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6386-481: The crimes of the serial killer Bible John . Covering similar themes to Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell 's From Hell , the work utilised cut-up techniques, a Ouija board and collage rather than conventional panels to tell the story. In 1993 Morrison, fellow Glaswegian comic writer Mark Millar and John Smith were asked to reinvigorate 2000 AD for an eight-week run called "The Summer Offensive". Morrison wrote Judge Dredd and Really and Truly , and co-wrote

6489-464: The early days of Superman's career, while the Superman series focus on Superman's present. Superheroes at large have appeared only in the past five years, and are viewed with at best, suspicion, and at worst, outright hostility. The storyline in Action Comics takes place about a year before the events of Justice League #1, and was referred to by DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio as "DC Universe Year Zero" while JL operates as "Year One." The Man of Steel

6592-464: The end of its initial run, Action Comics was no exception, and the first issue of the new series was released on September 7, 2011. In February 2016, it was announced that as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch, Action Comics would resume its original numbering system, starting with issue #957 (Aug. 2016) and ship on a twice-monthly schedule. The Action Comics series is included in many trade paperbacks and hardcovers. These generally reprint only

6695-429: The familiar green-skinned android to the metal skeletal-like robot in the story "Rebirth!". Keith Giffen 's Ambush Bug character made appearances in issues #560, #563, and #565. Action Comics #579, written by Jean-Marc Lofficier and drawn by Giffen, featured an homage to Asterix where Superman and Jimmy Olsen are drawn back in time to a small village of indomitable Gauls. Schwartz ended his run as editor of

6798-492: The first time for the character included X-ray vision and super-hearing in issue #11 (April 1939) and telescopic vision and super-breath in issue #20 (January 1940). Luthor , a villain who would later become Superman's arch-enemy , was introduced in issue #23 (April 1940). The original Toyman was created by writer Don Cameron and artist Ed Dobrotka in issue #64 (September 1943). By 1942, artist Wayne Boring , who had previously been one of Shuster's assistants, had become

6901-568: The five issues of Near Myths and they were suitably encouraged to find more comic work. This included a weekly comic strip, Captain Clyde , an unemployed superhero based in Glasgow, for The Govan Press , a local newspaper, plus various issues of DC Thomson 's Starblazer , the science fiction counterpart to that company's Commando title. Morrison spent much of the early 1980s touring and recording with their band The Mixers, occasionally writing Starblazer for D. C. Thomson and contributing to various UK indie titles. In 1982, Morrison submitted

7004-464: The follow-up to 2004's Seaguy called Seaguy 2: The Slaves of Mickey Eye , the second part of a planned three part series. At the 2008 New York Comic Con , Morrison announced they would be working with Virgin Comics to produce "webisodes" (short animated stories) based on the Mahābhārata ; it would not be a direct translation but, "Like the Beatles took Indian music and tried to make psychedelic sounds... I'm trying to convert Indian storytelling to

7107-560: The four-issue mini-series DC One Million , in addition to plotting many of the multiple crossovers. With the three volumes of the creator-owned The Invisibles , Morrison started their largest and possibly most important work. The Invisibles combined political, pop- and sub-cultural references. Tapping into pre-millennial tension, the work was influenced by the writings of Robert Anton Wilson , Aleister Crowley and William Burroughs , and Morrison's practice of chaos magic in Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth . In 1998 Morrison published

7210-514: The influence of Morrison's The Invisibles . Morrison was immediately struck by the similarities to their own work upon first seeing the film. In 2000, Morrison's graphic novel JLA: Earth 2 was released with art by Frank Quitely . It was Morrison's last mainstream work for DC for a while, as they moved to Marvel Comics . While at Marvel, Morrison wrote the six-part Marvel Boy series, and Fantastic Four: 1234 , their take on another major superhero team. In July 2001, they began writing

7313-428: The issues was decreased. The publisher was reluctant to raise the cover price from the original 10 cents and reduced the number of stories. For a while, Congo Bill and Tommy Tomorrow were the two features in addition to Superman. Writer Robert Bernstein and artist Howard Sherman revamped the "Congo Bill" backup feature in issue #248 (January 1959) in a story wherein the character gained the ability to swap bodies with

7416-484: The lead writer on the series, as well as its companion series Superman . Action Comics is the longest-running DC Comics series by number of issues, followed by Detective Comics . A departure from a strict monthly schedule was four giant-size Supergirl reprint issues published as a 13th issue annually: issues #334 (March 1966), #347 (March–April 1967), #360 (March–April 1968), and #373 (March–April 1969). Action Comics has not had an uninterrupted run, having been on

7519-689: The legacy of Batman is unending, and will survive into the future. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2010 it was announced that Grant Morrison would be leaving Batman and Robin with No. 16 and launching a new series entitled Batman Incorporated with revolving artists starting with Yanick Paquette . A more team-oriented Batman book inspired by the Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series, Batman Incorporated builds on Morrison's work dating back to " Batman and Son " and Final Crisis , with Bruce Wayne creating an international Batman franchise all over

7622-527: The main X-Men title, renamed New X-Men for their run, with Quitely providing much of the art. Again, Morrison's revamping of a major superhero team proved to be a commercial success, with the title jumping to the No. 1 sales spot and established Morrison as the kind of creator whose name on a title would guarantee sales. Their penultimate arc " Planet X " depicted the villain Magneto infiltrating and defeating

7725-527: The meta-series Seven Soldiers and The Multiversity , the mini-series DC One Million and Final Crisis , both of which served as centrepieces for the eponymous company-wide crossover storylines, and the maxi-series All-Star Superman . Morrison's best known DC work is the seven-year Batman storyline which started in the Batman ongoing series and continued through Final Crisis , Batman and Robin , Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and two volumes of Batman Incorporated . They also co-created

7828-408: The new creative team on the series with issue #25 (Jan. 2014). This series concluded with issue #52 (July 2016), which was part of the "Final Days of Superman" storyline which depicted the death of the "New 52" version of Superman. As part of DC Comics' DC Rebirth relaunch in June 2016, Action Comics reverted to its original numbering beginning with Action Comics #957. Written by Dan Jurgens ,

7931-475: The present. Diggle announced his resignation as the writer of the series shortly before his first issue went on sale. Diggle left the title with only one issue completed (he would be co-writer for #20 and co-plot issue #21), with Daniel taking on full scripting and art duties for the two following issues completing the three-part story arc "Hybrid". Scott Lobdell wrote the series after Diggle and Daniel's departure. Writer Greg Pak and artist Aaron Kuder became

8034-586: The prose piece "I'm A Policeman" in Sarah Champion's millennial short story collection Disco 2000 ; though no explicit connection to The Invisibles is made, there are strong thematic links between the two works. At DisinfoCon in 1999, Morrison said that much of the content in The Invisibles was information given to them by aliens that abducted them in Kathmandu , who told them to spread this information to

8137-559: The publisher's Marvel Knights imprint. Between 2016 and 2018, Morrison served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Heavy Metal magazine. Morrison's work has drawn critical acclaim. They have won numerous awards, including Eisner , Harvey , and Inkpot awards. In 2012, Morrison was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to film and literature. Grant Morrison

8240-448: The reality of it. I really like kids and I get on with them and it's that aspect of it but I see people with actual kids. The trauma and the trouble. And if I'm worried that my cat is sick it's the thought of everyday worrying about a kid would be even more hellish." Action Comics Action Comics is an American comic book / magazine series that introduced Superman , one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher

8343-520: The regular cover, blank variant cover, eight covers spanning eight decades from the 1930s-2000s, nineteen other variant covers from variant artists, and a hardcover Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman Deluxe Edition . Brian Michael Bendis became the new writer for the Action Comics series starting with issue #1001. Starting with issue #1029, the title became a part of the Infinite Frontier relaunch in March 2021. Phillip Kennedy Johnson became

8446-566: The release of their third and final volume of the Wonder Woman: Earth One series. Morrison co-created and worked as a writer and producer on the 2020 TV series Brave New World for the Peacock Streaming Service , having developed it for adaptation. In early 2021, it was announced that a new comic called Proctor Valley Road would be released, developed by Morrison in partnership with NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal's UCP,

8549-637: The run included the Black Canary , Blackhawk , Captain Marvel , Catwoman , Deadman , Nightwing , the Phantom Lady , the Phantom Stranger , the Secret Six , Speedy , and Wild Dog . Titles spun off from Action Comics at this time included a Catwoman miniseries and a Blackhawk ongoing, in both cases by the same creative teams that worked on the weekly serials. During and after Action Comics Weekly' s run, two Green Lantern Special s were published in late 1988 and

8652-503: The same time, Morrison was working on the script for the sequel to the Marvel Boy mini-series, but the project ultimately failed to materialize. In 2004, Vertigo published three Morrison mini-series. Seaguy , We3 , and Vimanarama . Morrison returned to the JLA with the first story in a new anthology series, JLA Classified . In 2005 Morrison wrote Seven Soldiers , which featured

8755-733: The second in spring 1989, the latter special wrapping up the storylines from the Green Lantern serials in Action Comics Weekly . Each issue featured a two-page Superman serial, a feature that, according to an editorial in the first weekly issue, was intended as a homage to the Superman newspaper strips of the past. The final issue of the weekly was originally intended to feature a book-length encounter between Clark Kent and Hal Jordan by writer Neil Gaiman . While Gaiman's story primarily teamed up Green Lantern and Superman, it also featured other characters from Action Comics Weekly , including

8858-441: The series ships twice-monthly and serves as a continuation of the comic book series Superman: Lois and Clark , which featured the pre- Flashpoint Superman alongside his wife, Lois Lane, and their son, Jon Kent . For the series' 1000th issue —released on April 18, 2018, the 80th anniversary of the premiere issue—DC returned Superman to his traditional costume with the red trunks and yellow belt. Action Comics #1000 collects

8961-522: The series with issue #583 (September 1986) which featured the second part of the " Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? " story by Alan Moore and Curt Swan. Following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths , writer/artist John Byrne relaunched the Superman franchise in The Man of Steel limited series in 1986. Action Comics became a team-up title with issue #584 (January 1987) featuring Superman and

9064-451: The story "The World of Bizarros!" in issue #262 (April 1960). Writer Jim Shooter created the villain the Parasite in Action Comics #340 (Aug. 1966). Mort Weisinger retired from DC in 1970 and his final issue of Action Comics was issue #392 (September 1970). Murray Boltinoff became the title's editor until issue #418. Metamorpho was the backup feature in issues #413–418 after which

9167-453: The subject of a feature-length documentary titled Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods . The documentary features extensive interviews with Morrison as well as a number of comic artists, editors and professionals they have worked closely with. Talking with Gods was produced by Sequart Organization and was released in 2010 at San Diego Comic-Con. Another 2010 project was Bonnyroad , a science fiction television series pitched by Morrison to

9270-763: The title and was joined by scripter Roger Stern the following month. As writer of the series, Stern contributed to such storylines as "Panic in the Sky" and " The Death of Superman ". He created the Eradicator in Action Comics Annual #2 and later incorporated the character into the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc beginning in The Adventures of Superman #500. The Eradicator then took over Action Comics as "the Last Son of Krypton" in issue #687 (June 1993). Stern wrote

9373-576: The very first time to do Klaus with Dan Mora and Ed Dukeshire. Morrison's The Multiversity project for DC was published in 2014 and 2015. A metaseries of nine one-shots set in some of the 52 worlds in the DC Multiverse, it included the main Multiversity title which involves the return of President Calvin Ellis, the black Superman from Earth 23 originally seen in Action Comics vol. 2 No. 9, which

9476-487: The world via a comic book. They later clarified that the experience they labelled as the "Alien Abduction Experience in Kathmandu" had nothing to do with aliens or abduction, but that there was an experience that they had in Kathmandu that The Invisibles is an attempt to explain. The title was not a huge commercial hit to start with. (Morrison actually asked their readers to participate in a " wankathon " while concentrating on

9579-431: The world. The series suffered from slow scheduling and was ended after eight issues while the DC Universe was rebooted in 2011; to bridge the gap a prestige book was released that featured two issues together along with a synopsis that recapped the story so far. In mid-2012, a second volume of the comic was launched with Chris Burnham on artwork, scheduled for 12 issues. Morrison left the Batman titles in 2013. They killed

9682-488: Was a force for good instead of evil?" The writer and artist had worked on several features for National Allied Publications' other titles such as Slam Bradley in Detective Comics . They were asked to contribute a feature for National's newest publication. They submitted Superman for consideration. After re-pasting the sample newspaper strips they had prepared into comic book page format, National decided to make Superman

9785-484: Was an anthology title featuring several other stories in addition to the Superman story. Zatara , a magician, was one of the other characters who had his own stories in early issues. There was the hero Tex Thompson , who eventually became Mr. America and later the Americommando . Vigilante enjoyed a lengthy run in this series. Sometimes stories of a more humorous nature were included, such as those of Hayfoot Henry ,

9888-537: Was an issue #1,000,000 (November 1998) during the " DC One Million " crossover event in October 1998 between issues #748 and #749. On June 1, 2011, it was announced that all series taking place within the shared DC Universe would be either canceled or relaunched with new #1 issues, after a new continuity was created in the wake of the Flashpoint event. Although being DC's longest running series, having reached issue #904 at

9991-451: Was born in Glasgow , Scotland , in 1960. They were educated at Allan Glen's School where their first portfolio of art was rejected by their careers guidance teacher, who encouraged them to work in a bank. Their first published works were Gideon Stargrave strips for Near Myths in 1978 (when they were about 17), one of the first British alternative comics. Their work appeared in four of

10094-473: Was informed by the writings of Thomas Ligotti, and other nihilistic philosophers, and played with the idea of the satanic archetype. A work of cosmic horror, it stars a monstrous Hollywood screenwriter named Ray Spass in his attempts to finish the script for the next tentpole blockbuster, while coming into contact with the character he's writing about: the diabolical Max Nomax, The Devil himself. In February 2015, Morrison's second Image project ever launched in

10197-760: Was originally known as Detective Comics Inc. , which later merged into National Comics Publications (later National Periodical Publications), before taking on its current name of DC Comics . Its original incarnation ran from 1938 to 2011 and stands as one of the longest-running comic books with consecutively numbered issues. The second volume of Action Comics beginning with issue #1 ran from 2011 to 2016. Action Comics returned to its original numbering beginning with issue #957 (Aug. 2016). Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster saw their creation, Superman (also known as Kal-El, originally Kal-L), launched in Action Comics #1 on April 18, 1938 ( cover dated June), an event which began

10300-713: Was published in 1987 and featured Superman teaming with Batman in a story written by Byrne and drawn by Arthur Adams . A DC Comics Bonus Book was included in issue #599 (April 1988). From May 24, 1988 – March 14, 1989, the publication frequency was changed to weekly, the title changed to Action Comics Weekly , and the series became an anthology. Prior to its launch, DC cancelled its ongoing Green Lantern Corps title and made Green Lantern and his adventures exclusive to Action Comics Weekly . The rest of these issues featured rotating serialized stories of other DC heroes, sometimes as try-outs that led to their own limited or ongoing series. Characters with featured stories in

10403-547: Was pulled and a different story, written by Elliot S. Maggin , was run. Gaiman's story was finally published as a one-shot in Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame in November 2000. The Action Comics Weekly experiment lasted only until the beginning of March 1989 and after a short break, issue #643 (July 1989) brought the title back onto a monthly schedule. Writer/artist George Pérez took over

10506-505: Was the framing for the whole series. Other issues include The Society of Super-Heroes a pulp version of the DC characters; The Just – set on a world of celebrity youngsters; Pax Americana , drawn by Frank Quitely , Thunder World – a Captain Marvel book; the Multiversity Guidebook ; Mastermen – which includes a fascist version of the Justice League . and Ultra Comics . In 2016, Morrison became editor-in-chief of

10609-512: Was unhappy with the reviews: "And then I saw the reviews on issue one and I just thought 'fuck this'.". It eventually concluded without Morrison's involvement in Keith Giffen 's The Authority: The Lost Year . At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con , DC Comics announced that Morrison would write Final Crisis , a seven-issue mini-series slated to appear in 2008 with J. G. Jones handling the art. Morrison announced that 2008 would see publication of

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