10 Most Important Comic Book Series Reboots of All Time

The new year is always a time for fresh starts and beginnings. So with that in mind, we thought it would be seasonably appropriate to run down some of the most memorable/successful times a comic book company has started anew. These 10 comic book series/line reboots have turned out to have a major impact on the industry, spawning new storylines, characters, and in some instances, television and cinematic adaptations that have introduced these superhero icons to a whole new generation of fans. So without further ado, lets get to the 10 most important series reboots of all time.

 

Honorable Mention: Thor (vol. 3)

One of Marvel’s very first superheroes, Thor, was presumed missing in action at the end of the “Ragnarok” storyline, leading to the cancellation of the second volume of Thor in 2004. In the wake of the Civil War event, a third volume of Thor was launched in the Fall of 2007 with superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Olivier Coipel at the helm. The first major arc of the series focuses on Thor trying to track down all of his fellow Asgardians who went missing during “Ragnarok” while also dealing with the fallout from Civil War (including an absolutely fantastic confrontation between the God of Thunder and Iron Man, who had cloned Thor in order to fight Captain America and his Secret Avengers). The book was a critical and commercial success, giving Thor his proper spot back on Marvel’s Mount Rushmore of heroes.

10. Summer of Valiant

The founding of Valiant Comics in 1989 by former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and artist/writer Bob Layton, is considered a key moment in comic book industry history. A legitimate third option for consumers who grew weary of the “Big Two,” DC and Marvel, Valiant offered an assortment of original series  such as Bloodshot and X-O Manowar along with some resurrected properties like Magnus Robot Fighter and Turok that were published by Gold Key Comics in the Golden and Silver ages.

Unfortunately, the comic book industry slowdown in the mid-1990s took its toll on the company, and a few years after being acquired by video game maker Acclaim, Valiant shut down.  Valiant would be resurrected in 2005, and seven years later launch its “Summer of Valiant” initiative which included the reboot of some of its classic titles, like X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Bloodshot and Archer & Armstrong. X-O Manowar #1 alone had more than 40,000 pre-orders. The successful reboot earned Valiant a Publisher of the Year Diamond Gem Award for publishers with less than 5 percent of market share.

9. Green Lantern (vol. 4)

Writer Geoff Johns has his finger in a number of pies these days at DC, including its flagship Justice League, along with Superman and the Flash, but he became a bonafide industry star in the mid-2000s with his reboot of the Green Lantern.

For the Green Lantern: Rebirth miniseries, Johns returns the Silver Age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan to his rightful place in the DC Universe, officially marking the end of Kyle Rayner’s tenure as the holder of the ring. From there, a fourth volume of Green Lantern kicked off in 2005 and was published until the New 52 company-wide relaunch in 2011.

Johns’s take on Hal and the Green Lantern Corps. is considered one of the great runs of the modern era. And while 2011’s Green Lantern film was unsuccessful, the movie would have never had been made without the groundwork being laid by Johns in the comics.

8. Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2)

The 2008 Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning (aka, DnA) reboot of the cosmic superteam Guardians of the Galaxy has become a much bigger deal in retrospect thanks in large part to the enormous success of this past summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy film.

The original Guardians were created in the late 1960s by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan but never appeared in their own series until the early 1990s (when everyone was seemingly getting their own book). That series, which was written and illustrated by Jim Valentino and starred such deep cut characters as Yondu, Major Astro and Starhawk, lasted 62 issues until its cancellation in 1995. More than a decade later, after Marvel’s Cosmic-verse was reinvigorated with the release of Annihilation, Marvel green lit a new Guardians team built around the space pirate, Peter Quill, and a mishmash of cosmic characters and old Jack Kirby monsters like Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon and a talking tree named Groot. The series was a cult favorite, but only lasted about two dozen issues before its cancellation in 2010.

Fast forward a few more years when Marvel turned heads after announcing that the Guardians would be the focus of their very own movie in 2014. The film would be built around the DnA cast. A new series written by Brian Michael Bendis was launched in 2014 to help sell the idea to a new generation of readers. But the movie itself was definitely inspired by the snark and wit of DnA’s iteration of the team, transforming the group into true comic book A-listers.

 

7. Avengers (vol. 3) and “Heroes Return”

In attempt to stave off bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, Marvel killed off the Fantastic Four and the Avengers as part of the “Onslaught” event, cancelling those books (along with Captain America and Iron Man) and relaunching them with all new origin stories under the “Heroes Reborn” imprint. As part of this controversial reboot, these high profile properties were outsourced to the private studios of former Marvel artists/Image revolution leaders Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. While “Heroes Reborn” was moderately successful, it did not set the world on fire as Marvel anticipated, and all four books were cancelled a year later.

From the ashes of “Heroes Reborn” came “Heroes Return,” and third volumes of all four books. Continuity was restored and explained away by a storyline that showed Reed Richards’s son, Franklin, keeping all the heroes who died fighting Onslaught in a “Pocket Universe.”

One of the key relaunches for “Heroes Return” was a new volume of the Avengers featuring the dynamic creative team of Kurt Busiek and George Perez (who had illustrated “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” in the 1970s). The Busiek/Perez creative reinvigorated fan interest in the Avengers franchise and led to some of the team’s greatest stories of all time including “Ultron Unlimited” and the “Kang Dynasty.”

6. Iron Man (vol. 4)

Similar to the second volume of Guardians of the Galaxy, 2005’s reboot of The Invincible Iron Man proved to be a true industry game-changer after the enormous success of a cinematic adaptation of the titular character. For the fourth volume, critical darling Warren Ellis was tapped to not only help launch a new series, but to reimagine his origin story. Rather than pit Iron Man against evil Communists as was the case with his original origin story in the 1960s, Ellis borrowed from international headlines and had his Tony Stark square off against Middle Eastern terrorists. Additionally, Ellis introduced the synthetic Extremis virus, which both provided Tony with a whole new set of powers while also posing a threat to Iron Man when it fell into the hands of the terrorists.

Both Ellis’s new origin story and the “Extremis” arc served as sources of inspiration for Marvel’s three Iron Man films, most notably the 2008 movie, the very first installment of the now multi-billion dollar Marvel Cinematic Universe.

5. Marvel Now

While not nearly as drastic as the Distinguished Competition’s “New 52” initiative of 2011 (more on that in a bit), Marvel built off the new status quo established by its Avengers vs. X-Men event to reboot all of its major books starring the likes of the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. The centerpiece series was Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender, a new team book starring the Avengers and members of the X-Men. Longtime Avengers/New Avengers scribe Brian Michael Bendis was taken off those books and put on All-New X-Men, while rising star Jonathan Hickman was assigned to the two main Avengers titles. Perhaps the most controversial change from Marvel Now was the death of Peter Parker, which led to his longtime nemesis, Doctor Octopus taking over as the Superior Spider-Man.

More than two years after Marvel Now, the company has drastically updated its status quo again, which led to its Avengers Now initiative in the Fall and a reboot of such books as Iron Man, Captain America and Thor (with brand new heroes in the title roles of the latter two series).

4. Green Lantern (vol. 2)

Decades before relaunching an ongoing series with a new No. 1 issue was a regular occurrence, DC decided to redo some of its Golden Age heroes, the Flash (Jay Garrick) and Green Lantern (Alan Scott). While the new Flash, Barry Allen, was featured in a series that picked up numerically where Garrick’s Flash Comics left off (Flash #105),Hal Jordan became the star of a brand new Green Lantern series, which published its first issue in 1960.

The second volume of Green Lantern introduced the expansive mythology surrounding the Green Lantern Corps. and featured a far more sci-fi-centric narrative than the first volume with Scott. The Silver Age Green Lantern laid the foundation for every subsequent iteration of the character to follow.

3. DC’s New 52

It what turned out to be DC’s biggest rebranding/retooling since Crisis on the Infinite Earths (more on that shortly), 2011’s “New 52” initiative implemented sweeping changes across every major title in the company’s historic library. In the aftermath of DCs Flashpoint event, DC reset the clock on all of its superhero icons, such as Superman, Batman, Aquaman, et al., restarting those books at issue No. 1 and retconning more than 25 years worth of content in the process. The entire initiative would be built around a rebooted Justice League title, written by Geoff Johns with art from Jim Lee.

The New 52 spurred a sales bonanza, giving DC the lead in market share for a number of months to follow. Since the move, the company has marked the anniversary of the initiative by instituting a theme month every September (complete with lenticular cover comics). Additionally, the new status quo implemented by the “New 52” is seemingly fueling a whole wave of superhero movies from DC/Warner Brothers, which  will be released over the next five years. These films will all feed into two Justice League movies and are expected to compete with Marvel’s successful interconnected cinematic universe.

In time, the “New 52” may prove to be the most significant reboot in comic book industry history, but since it’s only a few years old, we decided to rank two others ahead of it …

2. Daredevil (vol. 2) and Marvel Knights

The 1998 relaunch of the “Man Without Fear” under the newly formed Marvel Knights imprint has been praised by some industry analysts as the move that saved Marvel Comics from going under. In the wake of the comic book speculator bubble bursting in the mid-1990s, causing a massive economic downturn throughout the industry, Marvel filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The publisher had launched a number of controversial initiatives to try and get back on track, including the outsourcing of many of its most popular and iconic titles like Fantastic Four and the Avengers to Image Comics superstars (and former Marvel artists) Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. However, it was the marriage of Hollywood writer/director Kevin Smith and future Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada that saved the company from its downward spiral.

Nabbing someone with the mainstream clout of Smith as a writer for Daredevil was considered a major coup for Marvel, while Quesada, who would become the first ever artist to serve as Marvel’s chief editorial position, envisioned an entire line of darker, more mature comics under the Marvel Knights imprint. Smith/Quesada’s Daredevil sold extraordinarily well and paved the road for Marvel to regain its market share as the No. 1 comic book company in the world.

 

1. Superman and Post-Crisis DC

Before there was the New 52, DC instituted a wave of changes in the mid-1980s following the iconic comic book event, Crisis on the Infinite Earths. Crisis allowed DC to trim down its often confusing/incongruous multiverse, providing the company with an opportunity for a fresh start on many of its most important properties.

Suitably enough, the relaunch was built around DC’s biggest star, Superman, with the launch of the Man of Steel miniseries, followed by a second volume of Superman, written and illustrated by John Byrne. In Man of Steel, Byrne reimagined many key parts of Superman’s origin story, eliminating some key characters/elements from the planet of Krypton. Additionally, Post-Crisis DC spurred new books for Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman. And while his series wasn’t restarted back at issue No. 1, Batman might have received the most memorable refresh of all with a reimagined origin story from Frank Miller dubbed “Batman: Year One.”