Comics' Greatest World was an imprint of Dark Horse Comics. It was created by Team CGW. Originally conceived in 1990, it took three years for the line to be released, which led to an industry-wide perception that it was created to capitalize on the speculator mania of the early 1990s. When the mania ended, most of the titles were canceled. Ghost , one of the imprint's more unorthodox titles, managed to survive the longest. It was canceled twice, first in early 1998, before being revived later that year and canceled again after a run of just less than two years.
All Comics' Greatest World titles took place in a shared universe. Most of the action centered on four cities in a slightly skewed version of America: Arcadia, Golden City, Steel Harbor, and the Cinnibar Flats area of Nevada, home of an interdimensional rift called the "Vortex".
The series started off with a story in Dark Horse Comics before kicking off in four weekly limited series, introducing the cities and characters. These were followed by several short-lived series, one-shots, and mini-series. Only a few titles lasted very long.
Around April 1995, the imprint was renamed "Dark Horse Heroes". With the name change, the use of the city logos was also dropped.
First appearance: Dark Horse Comics #8 (intro of X)
It is a city of corrupt officials and organized crime. The policemen who are not on the take are criminals in their own right.
Major characters:
Other characters:
Major characters:
Other characters:
Major characters:
Other characters:
Major characters:
The original Comics' Greatest World mini-series comprised 16 weekly issues divided into four environments, each with four issues. The story followed a group of searchers from the Reaver Swarm coming to Earth to track down the Heretic. Each issue also featured a one-page prologue detailing the Heretic's experiments on Earth during the 1930s and 1940s, which ended in an accident that resulted in the metahuman activity on the planet.
Titan, following his exit from Golden City, goes to work for the United States government and comes into contact with all the major characters of the line.
Hunting the Heroes was a "theme" series. The individual stories were unrelated and could be read in any order. Released in 1995, this series pitted the Heroes against the Predator, a hunter from another universe. A group of Predators (the aliens from the Predator movies) arrives on Earth and begins hunting various CGW heroes.
During the initial publication period, a black-covered trade paperback was given to retailers as an ordering incentive during the fourth week of each month in the 16-week period. The covers featured the embossed foil logo of the city they represented.
Dark Horse has published a handful of Comics' Greatest World/Dark Horse Heroes titles in omnibus form.
Barb Wire is a fictional character appearing in Comics Greatest World, an imprint of Dark Horse Comics. Created by Chris Warner and Team CGW, the character first appeared in Comics' Greatest World: Steel Harbor in 1993. The original Barb Wire series published nine issues between 1994 and 1995 and was followed by a four-issue miniseries in 1996. A reboot was published in 2015 and lasted eight issues. In 1996, the character was adapted into a film starring Pamela Anderson. Unlike the comics, the film takes place in a possible future rather than an alternate version of present-day Earth.
Solar is an American fictional comic book superhero created by writer Paul S. Newman, editor Matt Murphy, and artist Bob Fujitani. The character first appeared in Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #1 in 1962 by Gold Key Comics and has since appeared in other incarnations in books published by Valiant Comics in the 1990s, Dark Horse Comics in the 2000s, and Dynamite Entertainment in the 2010s.
Nexus is an American comic book series created by writer Mike Baron and penciler Steve Rude in 1981. The series is a combination of the superhero and science fiction genres, set 500 years in the future.
Aliens vs. Predator is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics between 1989 and 2020 on an intermittent basis, written and drawn by various artists. Dark Horse also publishes the Aliens and Predator lines of comics.
Ghost is the fictional superhero of an eponymous comic book published by American company Dark Horse Comics. The character appeared in specials and monthly titles detailing the afterlife of Elisa Cameron and her search for the truth surrounding her (apparent) death.
Ian Edginton is a British comic book writer, known for his work on such titles as X-Force, Scarlet Traces, H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and Leviathan.
Douglas Mahnke is an American comic book artist, known for his work and penciling books including The Mask, JLA, Batman, Final Crisis, and Green Lantern.
Lee Weeks is an American comics artist known for his work on such titles as Daredevil.
Aliens is a line of several comic books set in the fictional universe of the Alien films published by Dark Horse Comics from 1988 forward. The stories often feature the company Weyland-Yutani and the United States Colonial Marines. Originally intended as a sequel to James Cameron's 1986 film Aliens, the first mini-series features the characters of Rebecca "Newt" Jorden and Corporal Dwayne Hicks. Later series also included the further adventures of Ellen Ripley, with other stories being unique to the Alien universe and are often used to explore other aspects of the species, such as their sociology and biology, and also tying into Dark Horse Comics' Predator and Aliens vs. Predator lines. The novels by Titan Books also crossed over with the comics leading to some shared continuity.
Barbara Randall Kesel is an American writer and editor of comic books. Her bibliography includes work for Crossgen, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, and Marvel Comics.
Catalyst is a superhero team appearing in comics published by Dark Horse Comics under the imprint Comics Greatest World. It first appeared in Comics' Greatest World: Golden City Week 4. Important members of the team have included Grace, Law, and Titan.
Team CGW, short for Team Comics' Greatest World, is the group of five creators of the Comics' Greatest World line for Dark Horse Comics.
Will To Power was a twelve-issue limited series event published by Dark Horse Comics under their Comics Greatest World imprint. It was published in four three-issue arcs, with each arc focusing on one of CGW's four environs, Arcadia, Steel Harbor, Golden City, and the area surrounding the Vortex.
X is a comic book character who starred in his own self-titled series published by Dark Horse Comics for their Comics Greatest World imprint. He is a dark anti-hero vigilante with little true feeling and a strong tendency to kill.
Chris Warner is an American comic book writer, artist, and editor for Dark Horse Comics. He worked extensively on their mid-1990s line of Comics' Greatest World and Dark Horse Heroes. Warner has also worked sporadically for other companies, such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
Steel Harbor is a fictional city, one of the settings in Dark Horse Comics' defunct Comics' Greatest World imprint. While the entire Team CGW was involved with the creation of each of the settings, Chris Warner was tasked with the majority of design for the Steel Harbor locale. The city was based on a combination of Detroit and Watts during the 1960s riots; however, in the comic, the violence is between powerful gangs fighting over territory.
The Indiana Jones franchise has appeared in many comic books. Marvel Comics initially held the comic book licensing rights before they were acquired by Dark Horse Comics in 1990. Marvel published adaptations of the films Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, while Dark Horse adapted the Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis video game, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Mike Richardson is an American publisher, writer, and producer. In 1986, he founded Dark Horse Comics, an international publishing house located in Milwaukie, Oregon. Richardson is also the founder and President of the Things From Another World retail chain and president of Dark Horse Entertainment, which has developed and produced numerous projects for film and television based on Dark Horse properties or licensed properties.
Jerry Prosser is an American comic book writer and editor, best known for his work with Dark Horse Comics.