Comics' Greatest World was an imprint of

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

. It was created by

Team CGW Team CGW, short for Team Comics' Greatest World, is the group of five creators of the Comics' Greatest World line for Dark Horse Comics. The members are: * Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics' Publisher * Randy Stradley, creative director * Barb ...

. 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 A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, chara ...

. 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 Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

, 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.

Environs

Arcadia

First appearance: ''Dark Horse Comics'' #8 (intro of X) "Arcadia is an orderly, smoothly run machine of a city. ..This is a world of shadow, danger, and bloody retribution." 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: * X * Ghost * Focus (''Ghost'') * Silhouette (''Ghost'') * Carmine Tango (''X'') Other characters: * Monster (''Comics' Greatest World'', ''Will to Power'', ''X'') * Pit Bulls (''Comics' Greatest World'', ''X'') * Scream (''

Hero Illustrated ''Hero Illustrated'' was a comic book-themed magazine published in the early to mid-1990s in the United States. Columnists included Andy Mangels, and Frank Kurtz was at one time a managing editor. The journal won the 1995 Eisner Award for Best Co ...

: X Special - Will to Power'') * Lt. Lewis * Congressman DeMarco * Commissioner Anderson * Mayor Teal

Golden City

Major characters: *

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninco ...

* Titan * Catalyst: Agents of Change (a group of heroes) *

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

(introduced in ''Division 13'' #1) Other characters: * Madison * Ruby * Rebel * Warmaker

Steel Harbor

Major characters: *

Barb Wire Barb Wire may refer to: * Barb wire, a fencing material * Barb Wire (character), a comic book superhero published by Dark Horse Comics * ''Barb Wire'' (1996 film), starring Pamela Anderson, based on the comic book * ''Barb Wire'' (pinball), pinb ...

* Motorhead * The Machine Other characters: * Mace Blitzkrieg * Wolf Hunter * Ignition * Charlie

The Vortex and surrounding areas

Major characters: * Lt. Anderson *

Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex ( : vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in ...

* Division 13 *

* Hero Zero (''Comics' Greatest World'', ''Will to Power'', ''Out of the Vortex'') * King Tiger (''Comics' Greatest World'', ''Will to Power'', ''Ghost'')

Storylines

The original mini-series

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.

Major characters

* X (weeks 1–4) *

(weeks 5–8) *

(weeks 9–12) * Motorhead (weeks 9–12) * Lt. Anderson (weeks 13–16) *

Issues

* Prelude: ''Dark Horse Comics'' #8-10: "Who is X?" (reprinted in ''X: One Shot to the Head'') * ''Comics' Greatest World: Sourcebook'' * ''Arcadia Week 1: X'' (cover by

Frank Miller Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book writer, penciller and inker, novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on ''Daredevil'' and subsequen ...

) * ''Arcadia Week 2: Pit Bulls'' * ''Arcadia Week 3: Ghost'' (cover by

Dave Dorman Dave Dorman (born 1958 in Michigan) is a science fiction, horror and fantasy illustrator best known for his ''Star Wars'' artwork. Early life Dorman's parents are Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jack N. Dorman and Phyllis Dorman. Both parents ar ...

) * ''Arcadia Week 4: Monster'' * ''Golden City Week 1: Rebel'' (cover by

Jerry Ordway Jeremiah Ordway (born November 28, 1957) is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books. He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' ...

) * ''Golden City Week 2: Mecha'' * ''Golden City Week 3: Titan'' * ''Golden City Week 4: Catalyst: Agents of Change'' (cover by

George Pérez George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four'' and '' The Avengers'' for Marvel Comics. In the 198 ...

) * ''Steel Harbor Week 1: Barb Wire'' * ''Steel Harbor Week 2: The Machine'' * ''Steel Harbor Week 3: Wolf Gang'' (cover by Chris Warner) * ''Steel Harbor Week 4: Motorhead'' * ''Vortex Week 1: Division 13'' * ''Vortex Week 2: Hero Zero'' * ''Vortex Week 3: King Tiger'' (cover by

Geoff Darrow Geofrey "Geof" Darrow (born October 21, 1955) is an American comic book artist, best known for his work on comic series '' Shaolin Cowboy'', '' Hard Boiled'' and '' The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot'', which was adapted into an animated televi ...

) * ''Vortex Week 4: Out of the Vortex'' (cover by Frank Miller)

Will to Power

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.

Major characters

* Titan

Issues

* ''Titan Special'' #1 (lead-in) * ''Will to Power'' #1-3 (Arcadia) * ''Will to Power'' #4-6 (Steel Harbor) * ''Will to Power'' #7-9 (Golden City) * ''Will to Power'' #10-12 (Vortex)

Hunting the Heroes

''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 Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

(the aliens from the ''Predator'' movies) arrives on Earth and begins hunting various CGW heroes.

Major characters

* X * Ghost * Motorhead * Law

Issues

* ''X'' #18 * ''Ghost'' #5 * ''Motorhead'' #1 * ''Agents of Law'' #6

Titles

Special cases

* 9 issues of ''Dark Horse Comics'' featured CGW stories, including the very first CGW story, the 3-part "Who is X?" (#8-10, later reprinted as ''X: One Shot to the Head''); #19-20 (X); #21-22 (Mecha); and #23-24 (The Machine). * At least 4 issues and 1 annual of ''Dark Horse Presents'': #144 (Vortex), #145-147 (Ghost) * A Ghost story was featured in ''A Decade of Dark Horse'' #2. * Also, the

Nexus NEXUS is a joint Canada Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection-operated Trusted Traveler and expedited border control program designed for pre-approved, low-risk travelers. Members of the program can avoid waits at border ...

story in ''A Decade of Dark Horse'' #3 featured theme park rides of Ghost and Barb Wire, and Hero Zero made a cameo appearance in a story in '' The Mask''.

Collected editions

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. *''Dark Horse Heroes Omnibus, Vol. 1'' – Collects the ''Comics' Greatest World'' and ''Will to Power'' maxi-series, plus a written summary of the events in between by Chris Warner (January 2008, ). *''X Omnibus, Vol. 1'' – Collects ''X'' #1-11, ''X: One Shot to the Head'', "Welcome to the Jungle" from ''Dark Horse Comics'' #19-20, ''X:

Special'' #1-2 (May 2008, ). *''X Omnibus, Vol. 2'' – Collects ''X'' #12-25, "Someone to Watch Over Me" from ''Dark Horse Extra'' #28-31 (August 2008, ). *''Barb Wire Omnibus, Vol. 1'' – Collects all the original Dark Horse Barb Wire tales, including the ''Ace of Spades'' series (September 2008, ). *''Ghost Omnibus, Vol. 1'' – Collects ''Ghost'' #1-12, ''Ghost Special'' #1, "Sweet Things" from ''Decade of Dark Horse'' #2 (October 2008, ).

Crossovers

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films prod ...

(with Hero Zero) *

(with Vortex; title canceled before release) *

Predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

(with X, Ghost, Motorhead, Agents of Law) *

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

(with Ghost) *

Hellboy Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossover ...

(with Ghost) * Batgirl (with Ghost) * The Mask (with all characters and locations)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Comics' Greatest World
at the International Superheroes directory Dark Horse Comics imprints Dark Horse Comics titles