Basement X

Lately, newsarama has been releasing a slew of top 10 lists so here they are:

10) VALIANT/GOLD KEY
Valiant, once among the largest publishers in the comic book industry, has a history that is filled with relaunches. But perhaps the most significant one is the company's founding itself.

In 1989, former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter -- with the help of Barry Windsor-Smith and Bob Layton -- took licensed characters from Gold Key Comics and relaunched them, creating one of the most successful comic book companies of the 1990s.

The effort made millions from the defunct Gold Key action hero line, which was never a chart-topper the first time around. Adding original characters and developing the universe further, Valiant became a leading publisher in the '90s and had characters featured in video games.

Despite its initial success, Valiant was subsequently relaunched a number of times. While DC's relaunch is the largest renumbering attempted by a comics publisher, Valiant did something similar in 1996, after Acclaim Entertainment bought the company. All previous Valiant Universe titles were canceled, and Senior VP Fabian Nicieza was given the task of completely revamping the line with new #1 issues and writers like Warren Ellis, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek and Garth Ennis.

And the relaunches aren't even finished yet for Valiant. Earlier this year, Valiant Entertainment announced another relaunch will happen in 2012.

9)DC-VERTIGO CHARACTERS
In the mid- to late-1980s, a group of writers from the U.K. were given the task of relaunching characters within the DC Universe, including titles like Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Animal Man by Grant Morrison, Shade, The Changing Man by Peter Milligan and Sandman by Neil Gaiman.

Not only did the relaunches scrap much of the characters' previous continuity as they started with a new #1, but the style used by these creators transcended previous superhero genre norms. The innovative, edgier tone these writers introduced to DC's line of superhero comics inspired decades of writers after them.

But the relaunches were also important because they were more mature than previous superhero comics. As a result, they served as a pre-cursor for one of the most successful imprints in comics today, Vertigo. Upon the imprint's creation in 1993, Sandman, Swamp Thing, Animal Man and Shade moved from DC proper to the Vertigo line.

But in 2010, DC announced the former relaunched characters would return to the DCU, evidenced by this past year's appearances of characters like Swamp Thing, Shade, the Changing Man and Death from Sandman.

8) DARK HORSE STAR WARS
Although the Star Wars series had been published by Marvel for nine years and more than 100 issues, the license eventually went to Dark Horse. The relaunch of the Star Wars comic universe that followed was one of the most successful relaunch initiatives in the history of licensed comics.

The popular film franchise first inspired a comic in 1977, when Marvel Comics won the license to publish the initial Star Wars series. At first, it was just an adaptation of the A New Hope film, but ended up continuing for more than 100 issues through 1986.

Though there was a forgettable three-issue run of 3D comics at a publisher called Blackthorne in-between, effectively the cancellation of the Marvel series opened the door for Dark Horse to acquire and relaunch the Star Wars universe. The revamp the publisher orchestrated in 1991 -- with Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy's Dark Empire as its hinge -- turned Star Wars from a defunct single title into an entire line spanning 20 years.

Dark Horse is now the third largest publisher in comics, combining licenses like Star Wars and Buffy with original creations like Sin City and Hellboy. The acquisition of the Star Wars license in 1991 and the successful relaunch of the comic book universe was as important to the publisher's success as anything that has happened since.

7)GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH
The Warner Bros. release of the Green Lantern film this past weekend may represent the launch of a new DC Universe in movies, but it's also proof that the success of one comic book's relaunch can kick start the character's expansion across multiple media.

The Green Lantern franchise is enjoying a huge resurgence right now, including an upcoming Green Lantern: The Animated Series cartoon, three successful ongoing comics, a slew of new toys and a film franchise with a possible sequel on the way.

But that wasn't the case in 2005, when low sales of the single Green Lantern comic prompted DC to hand the franchise over to comics writer Geoff Johns, who had relaunched the Teen Titans comic the year before.

Johns was tasked with bringing Hal Jordan back to life while re-introducing the previously disbanded Green Lantern Corps. While the writer won rave reviews for doing just that, the vast universe of new concepts he ended up introducing to Green Lantern jump started more than just the comics. These multi-colored concepts became the backbone of the character's launch into film, TV and beyond.

The relaunch also gave a new superstar status to Johns, who spearheaded several DC events and recently became Chief Creative Officer for DC Entertainment.

And according to DC Editor-in-Chief Eddie Berganza, the Green Lantern relaunch of 2005 serves as a "model" for September's line-wide relaunch to emulate.

6) MARVEL KNIGHTS DAREDEVIL
In 1998, the long-running Daredevil title was relaunched by Marvel Comics as part of a brand new imprint called Marvel Knights. While the relaunch was a success, the comic's importance lies in its contribution to the editorial career of Marvel's current Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada, and the role its success played in a new era at Marvel Comics.

Daredevil's relaunch, with filmmaker Kevin Smith writing and Quesada drawing, was one of four comics that were outsourced to Quesada's Event Comics company in 1998 as part of the Marvel Knights line. The titles dealt with more mature themes than the regular Marvel Universe, and the outsourcing meant Quesada had control over the talent hired to create them.

The successful launch of the Marvel Knights line and the popularity of the Daredevil relaunch not only catapulted Quesada's editorial career, but also contributed to the character's film adaptation.

In 2000, within two years of the relaunch at Marvel Knights, Quesada was named Editor-in-Chief at Marvel Comics. He served in that capacity until earlier this year, guiding Marvel to its current status as industry leader across multiple media.

5) HEROES REBORN/NEW AVENGERS
With the Avengers movie on its way and multiple top-selling Avengers comics now being published, two relaunches in comic book history can been seen as contributors to the franchise's recent success.

In 1996, the Heroes Reborn event relaunched titles for members of The Avengers and Fantastic Four into new comics that were outsourced to the studios of superstar artists Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld.

Heroes Reborn was not only an industry first in "farming out" superheroes to talent's control, but the sales boost experienced during the relaunch event gave renewed importance to Marvel's non-X-Men and non-Spider-Man titles. Somewhat floundering before that, Avengers "family" titles and characters like Captain America and Iron Man have arguably retained that renewed importance to Marvel ever since.

The Avengers title itself experienced another relaunch in December 2004 when writer Brian Michael Bendis completed the franchise revival when he "disassembled" the former team and brought characters together under a new banner, New Avengers. The successful sales move not only led to multiple Avengers spin-off titles, but it brought Bendis into the creative center of the Marvel Universe.

According to Tom Brevoort, the Marvel executive editor who oversaw the Avengers relaunch, it's not necessarily a coincidence that the success of the comic relaunch is now followed by a film. "Certainly, Avengers has been successful," Brevoort told Newsarama in 2009 about the comics. "That can't be lost on the guys doing the various films that we have coming up from Marvel."

4) THE MAN OF STEEL
After the publication of the continuity-altering Crisis on Infinite Earths, John Byrne retold the original story of Superman in a six-issue series that relaunched the character for a new generation, even getting a famous Time Magazine cover.

While not technically a relaunch of a title, the series was designed to reboot the Superman mythos and reduce or eliminate the expansive Superman family of characters and some of the wackier ideas introduced to his universe during the Silver Age.

The character was given an updated look by Byrne as the creator also completely rewrote his history.

While there has been several different re-tellings of his original since, and a number of alternations to post-Crisis DC Universe continuity as whole, this is still considered the starting point for the current version of the character...

...until September, that is.

3)THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS/BATMAN YEAR ONE
Probably two of the best-known titles by legendary writer/artist Frank Miller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One relaunched the character's history -- and future -- in 1986-1987 and ushered in the darker version of the Dark Knight that fans know today.

"DKR", as the Returns title is known, takes place in the future of Gotham City while Year One takes place in its past. Both are considered in-continuity and usually show up on lists citing the "best comics of all time."

After Crisis on Infinite Earths rewrote DC's history, Batman: Year One became the official in-continuity version of the Dark Knight's origin. Written by Frank Miller with art by David Mazzucchelli, the story helped launch the Modern Age of comics

2)GIANT-SIZE X-MEN
With today's film, TV and comic book success of X-Men characters, it's hard to imagine a world where there were no new X-Men stories. But that's exactly what happened from 1970 to 1975 when Marvel's Uncanny X-Men title was filled with reprints because of a lack of sales.

Giant-Size X-Men #1, released in 1975, relaunched the team by adding culturally diverse, internationally-based characters like Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus to the previously established group.

This relaunch of the X-Men, written by Len Wein with art by Dave Cockrum, led to a younger, mostly-unknown writer named Chris Claremont taking on the title. Claremont's now-legendary 17 year-run, which included countless spin-offs that expanded Marvel's mutant universe to one-time flagship status, helped redefine comic book storytelling in the mid 70's and defined nearly all of the X-Men mythos that inspired many successful animated TV series, feature films and billions of dollars worth of licensed merchandise since.

Not to mention ruling the top of the comic book sales charts for years on-end.

SHOWCASE #4
It's difficult to overstate the importance of Showcase #4, the relaunch of DC's superhero character The Flash, because the 1956 was the first of many relaunches that ushered in the Silver Age of comics.

Superheroes, which had dominated the world of comics in the late '30s and early '40s, declined in popularity after World War II. To boost sales, publishers turned instead toward stories of crime, horror and romance.

But public fears about comics contributing to juvenile delinquency led to the 1954 establishment of the Comics Code Authority. To save the industry, publishers turned back to the superheroes upon which the Golden Age had been built, but they "relaunched" most of the characters, giving them a more modern, space-age origin.

The first of these relaunches was The Flash. Where Jay Garrick was once The Flash, DC gave readers a new Flash named Barry Allen. In the following years, DC published more and more relaunched superhero titles, leading Marvel Comics to do the same and saving the superhero genre for future audiences.

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