title: Bryansk

text: The plan as revised in 1802 significantly increased the territory of the city and included in the regular system not only the coastal area and the area between Sudki, but also the Petrovskaya Gora area and Yamskaya Sloboda with Forest Sheds in the north and north-east, the area between the White Kolodez ravine and the Podar River on south; it increased the territory of the central part in the northwest behind the market square. The quarters were enlarged, the streets classified, and squares located on a larger scale to the territory of the city.


title: Bryansk

text: Smolenskaya Street - in common parlance Rozhdestvenskaya Gora (now Sovetskaya Street - Gagarin Boulevard) - is the main highway connecting the upland part with the coastal one. It connects three squares: Cathedral, Red and Sennaya (former Shchepnaya). Two other highways run in the longitudinal direction: Bolshaya Moskovskaya (now Kalinin Street) in the coastal part and Petropavlovskaya-Voskresenskaya Street (now Lenin Avenue), which unites the city in the upland part.


title: Bryansk

text: Petropavlovskaya and Voskresenskaya streets, continuing it, crossing the whole city, at the intersection with Trubchevskaya (now Krasnoarmeyskaya) street ended in a new, fourth square - Khlebnaya (on the site of the modern Partizanskaya Square, there was once a mill on this place). From here there were roads to Trubchevsk and Karachev. All squares were square. At the beginning of the 19th century, out of 867 houses in the city, only 25 were of stone; out of 17 stone churches there were 10. A little more than a dozen buildings built in the second half of the 18th century have survived to this day.


title: Bryansk

text: The unique architectural silhouette of the city, which was formed by the beginning of the 19th century, was skilfully expanded and enlarged by the end of the century. In the center, on the territory of the Spaso-Polikarpov Monastery, the Novopokrovsky Cathedral was erected (1862–1897), which emphasized the planning center of the district town with its scale. On the right flank there was a building of a trade and craft school, built by the architect N. A. Lebedev, which linked the building of the Arsenal plant and the Tikhvin church into a single chain of historical buildings.


title: Bryansk

text: The first isographic depiction of the city is a 1857 panorama from the left bank of the Desna, painted in watercolor by self-taught artist Gabriel Vasilyevich Khludov, a draftsman of the Bryansk Arsenal. In the center of the picture is Pokrovskaya Hill with the stone church of the same name and a bell tower, at the bottom right of the Arsenal building, then the Resurrection, Nikolskaya and Trinity churches, the ensemble of the Peter-Pavlovsky Monastery, and in the foreground - the Ascension Church of the Zaretskaya Sloboda.


title: Bryansk

text: It is not definitively known when the first Bryansk fortress appeared as a long-term fortification. The reports of the governor of 1629, and paintings from 1678, 1682, 1685, 1686 testify that the fortress on Pokrovskaya Hill was cut down, like in the old days, from oak logs and consisted of walls with towers. Inventories noted that the fortress was built on a native mountain. The city - "oak, chopped, covered with planks" - included a system of blind and drive-through towers connected by walls, supplemented by embankments and a wooden "standing prison in one log".


title: Bryansk

text: The fortress had towers: Spasskaya, Arkhangelskaya, Bezymyannaya, Bushuevskaya, the first and second Voskresensky, Nikolskaya, Pyatnitskaya, Rukavnaya, Sudkovskaya, Prechistenskaya, Rozhdestvenskaya, Georgievskaya, Karachevskaya and Tainichnaya. The fortress of the "old" and "new" cities had a certain number of towers and a different amount of weapons.


title: Bryansk

text: The fortress was described at the beginning of the 18th century: "an ancient fortress in the city of Bryansk occupied the top of a small mountain, but with rather steep slopes and, in terms of its position relative to the city located on the right bank of the Desna, constituted a citadel. Its fortified fence was in an irregular quadrangle, at the corners of which there were small ledges. They were joined by a chain retransmission, placed on one of the ledges of a raised area."


title: Bryansk

text: The first written mention of Bryansk, as Debryansk, dates to 1146 in the Hypatian Codex. The name appears variously as , and in other spellings. Etymologically, it derives from "дъбръ", a Slavic word for "ditch", "lowland", or "dense woodland"; the area was known for its dense woods, of which very little remains today. Local authorities and archaeologists, however, believe that the town had existed as early as 985 as a fortified settlement on the right bank of the Desna River.


title: Bryansk

text: Bryansk remained poorly attested until the 1237–1242 Mongol invasion of Rus'. It was the northernmost of the Severian cities in the possession of the Chernigov Rurikids. After the Mongols murdered Prince Mikhail of Chernigov in 1246 and his capital was destroyed, his son Roman Mikhailovich moved his seat to Bryansk. In 1310, when the Mongols sacked the town again, it belonged to the Principality of Smolensk.


title: Bryansk

text: Grand Duke Algirdas of Lithuania acquired Bryansk through inheritance in 1356 and gave it to his son, Dmitry the Elder. Until the end of the century Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania, Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, the future Grand Duke Švitrigaila of Lithuania, and Grand Duke Yury of Smolensk contested control of the town.


title: Bryansk

text: The Grand Duchy of Moscow conquered Bryansk following the Battle of Vedrosha in 1503. The town was turned into a fortress which played a major role during the Time of Troubles (1598–1613). During the Time of Troubles the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied the town in 1610, and it remained in Polish hands as part of Smolensk Voivodeship until the Truce of Deulino in 1634. In 1709 Tsar Peter the Great incorporated Bryansk into the Kiev Governorate, but Empress Catherine the Great deemed it wise to transfer the town to the newly-formed Oryol Governorate in 1779. She also promulgated the town's coat of arms (August 1781).


title: Bryansk

text: In the 17th and 18th centuries the economy of Bryansk, which had become a regional trading center, was based on the Svenskaya fair (), the largest in European Russia. The fair took place annually under the auspices of the nearby Svensky Monastery. After the town started to manufacture cannon and ammunition for the Imperial Russian Navy in 1783, Bryansk evolved from a regional market town into an important industrial center for metallurgy and textiles. The city's population exceeded 30,000 by 1917. In 1812 Napoleon's "Grande Armée" fought the Russians in Bryansk and in Oryol during the French invasion of Russia.


title: Bryansk

text: In 1918 the Belarusian People's Republic claimed Bryansk, but Bolshevik forces took the town in 1919. During World War II the German Wehrmacht captured Bryansk and encircled the Soviet 3rd,13th and 50th armies. The town remained under Axis occupation from October 6, 1941 to September 17, 1943, with the city left heavily damaged by fighting. About 60,000 Soviet partisans were active in and around Bryansk, inflicting heavy losses on the German army. In 1944, soon after its liberation, Bryansk became the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast.


title: Bryansk

text: In 2016 the city council approved a new general city plan, which called among others for laying of a new route from Burov Street along the Bolva River to Vokzalnaya Street with the intersection of the railway and Bolva. In the southern direction, it is proposed to extend the road along the Desna to the Fokinsky District to Moskovsky Prospekt, construction of a road from the Black Bridge along the Karachizh ravine with the intersection of Stanke Dimitrova Avenue to Sakharova Street, reconstruction of Sakharova Street to the bypass road and the R120 highway, as well as development of the area of the old airport (area of Gorbatova, Stepnaya streets).


title: Bryansk

text: A large fire was noted at an oil depot on April 25, 2022. Speculation was that it might have been a result of military action during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Bryansk

text: Bryansk is the administrative center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with three work settlements (Belye Berega, Bolshoye Polpino, and Raditsa-Krylovka), incorporated separately as Bryansky Urban Administrative Okrug—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, Bryansky Urban Administrative Okrug is incorporated as Bryansk Urban Okrug.


title: Bryansk

text: Today's Bryansk is an important center for steel and machinery manufacturing, and is home to many large factories. The main industries are machine building, metalworking, chemical, electrical equipment, electronics, wood, textile and food industries, locomotives, diesel engines, freight cars, motor graders, pavers and other road equipment, agricultural equipment, construction materials, and garments.


title: Bryansk

text: Since 1868, there is a railway connection between Bryansk and Moscow. The city has railway stations: Bryansk Orlovsky and Bryansk-Lgovskiy (Bryansk Bryansk -I and -II, respectively), Ordzhonikidzegrad; Street Bus Station and Peresvet Bezhitsa bus station. west of the city lies the Bryansk International Airport.


title: Bryansk

text: Passenger traffic carried by bus (more than 1,400 cars on 54 permanent urban routes), trolley on 10 regular routes, uses (36 routes), as well as commuter trains and railcars. The cost of public transport (trolley buses) is 16 rubles, and buses, 20 rubles ().


title: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (episodes 157–208)

text: "" is a Japanese anime series based on the manga series of the same name and is a spin-off of and sequel to Masashi Kishimoto's "Naruto". It is produced by Pierrot and broadcast on TV Tokyo. The anime is directed by Masayuki Kōda (#105–) and is written by Masaya Honda (#67–). Former manga writer Ukyō Kodachi supervised the story until episode 216.


text: "Boruto" follows the exploits of Naruto Uzumaki's son Boruto and his comrades from the Hidden Leaf Village's ninja academy while finding a path to follow once they grow up. Despite being based on the manga, the anime explores original storylines and adaptations of the spin-off manga, ""; ""; as well as the "Naruto Shinden" light novel series.


text: It premiered on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2017, and aired every Wednesday at 5:55 PM JST. Starting May 3, 2018 (episode 56) it aired every Thursday at 7:25 PM JST. Starting October 7, 2018 (episode 76) it now airs every Sunday at 5:30 PM JST. The series is also being released in DVDs. Viz Media licensed the series on March 23, 2017, to simulcast it on Hulu, and on Crunchyroll.


text: The opening theme songs are "Hajimatteiku Takamatteiku" by Sambomaster (episodes 151–180), "Baku" by Ikimonogakari (episodes 181–205), and "Gamushara" by CHiCO with HoneyWorks (episodes 206–230).


text: The ending theme songs are "Maybe I" by Seven Billion Dots (episodes 151–167), "Central" by Ami Sakaguchi (episodes 168–180), "Answers" by Mol-74 (episodes 181–192), "Kimi ga Ita Shirushi" by halca (episodes 193–205), and "Who are you?" by PELICAN FANCLUB (episodes 206–218).


title: IJsselmeer

text: The IJsselmeer (; , ), also known as Lake IJssel in English, is a closed off inland bay in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland. It covers an area of with an average depth of . The river IJssel flows into the IJsselmeer.


title: IJsselmeer

text: Two thousand years ago Pomponius Mela, a Roman geographer, mentioned a complex of lakes at the current location of the IJsselmeer. He called it "Lacus Flevo". Over the centuries, the lake banks crumbled away due to flooding and wave action and the lake, now called the Almere, grew considerably. During the 12th and 13th centuries, storm surges and rising sea levels flooded large areas of land between the lake and the North Sea, turning the lake into a bay of the North Sea, called the Zuiderzee. The Zuiderzee continued to be a threat to the Dutch, especially when northwesterly storms funnel North Sea waters towards the English Channel, creating very high tides along the Dutch coast. During the 17th century, Zuiderzee dykes collapsed several times and plans were drawn up to eliminate the threat by draining the bay. Later drainage plans focused on creating fertile farmland, but they never progressed beyond the planning stage. It was only after the flood of 1916 that the legislature approved the Zuiderzee Works, a major hydraulic engineering project that involved building dykes, draining parts of the Zuiderzee and constructing the Afsluitdijk to keep tides and high water out.


title: IJsselmeer

text: In 1932 the Zuiderzee was closed off by the Afsluitdijk, a dyke connecting Friesland and North Holland on either side of the Zuiderzee. The Zuiderzee was no longer a sea inlet and was renamed IJsselmeer ("Lake IJssel"). The continuing flow of fresh riverwater soon flushed out the saltwater.


title: IJsselmeer

text: From 1929 till 1967, over half the IJsselmeer was drained, creating of polders: Wieringermeerpolder, Noordoostpolder, East and South Flevoland.


title: IJsselmeer

text: In 1975, a dyke was built between Enkhuizen and Lelystad as the northern boundary of the Markerwaard, a planned but never realized polder in the IJsselmeer. This dyke, the "Houtribdijk" or "Markerwaarddijk", split the IJsselmeer in two parts. The former southern part of the IJsselmeer is now the hydrologically separate Markermeer. The proposed polderisation of the Markerwaard was abandoned after many of the Dutch population did not want the loss of the traditional seaside (now lakeside) environment and vistas.


title: IJsselmeer

text: In 1986 three polders in the IJsselmeer constituted the new province of Flevoland, the twelfth province of the Netherlands.


title: IJsselmeer

text: The water of the IJsselmeer is now almost completely fresh, the saline having long since been purged. This altered environment has had an impact upon the fish and plant ecosystems. The change has been beneficial for Dutch boats, many of which are steel, as the fresh water significantly reduces rusting of the hulls, and there is far less build-up of marine growth (such as algae and barnacles below the barges' waterlines). This has the knock-on benefit that barges and yachts in the IJsselmeer need far less antifouling, a coating which is inevitably somewhat toxic to wildlife.


title: IJsselmeer

text: Due to considerable amounts of water from the Rhine flowing through its distributary IJssel into the IJsselmeer, the closed off bay functions as a large freshwater reservoir, serving as a source for agriculture and drinking water. Outlet sluices in the Afsluitdijk regulate the water level of the IJsselmeer.


title: IJsselmeer

text: The IJsselmeer is used for transport and fishing. It also offers a number of opportunities for recreational activity, both on the water and on its shores. Due to the shallowness of the IJsselmeer, the Markermeer and the bordering lakes, its cities and fishing villages remained mostly unspoilt and have many historical buildings.


title: IJsselmeer

text: The IJsselmeer is home to the offshore segments of Windpark Noordoostpolder. In the future, Windpark Fryslan will also be built in this bay.


title: Adrian

text: Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word "adur", meaning "sea" or "water".


title: Adrian

text: The Adria was until the 8th century BC the main channel of the Po River into the Adriatic Sea but ceased to exist before the 1st century BC. Hecataeus of Miletus (c.550 – c.476 BC) asserted that both the Etruscan harbor city of Adria and the Adriatic Sea had been named after it. Emperor Hadrian's family was named after the city or region of Adria/Hadria, now Atri, in Picenum, which most likely started as an Etruscan or Greek colony of the older harbor city of the same name.


title: Adrian

text: Several saints and six popes have borne this name, including the only English pope, Adrian IV, and the only Dutch pope, Adrian VI. As an English name, it has been in use since the Middle Ages, although it did not become common until modern times.


title: Sebastiano Esposito

text: Sebastiano Esposito (; born 2 July 2002) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Belgian First Division A club Anderlecht, on loan from Inter Milan.


title: Sebastiano Esposito

text: Esposito made his professional debut for Inter Milan at 16 years old, on 14 March 2019, in the second leg of Europa League match against Eintracht Frankfurt, coming in as a substitute for Borja Valero in the 73rd minute. He became the youngest player ever to feature in a European competition match for the club.


title: Sebastiano Esposito

text: The following season, on 23 October 2019 he made his debut in Champions League replacing Romelu Lukaku in the group stage match against Borussia Dortmund, and becoming the first player born in 2002 and the second youngest ever for the club to feature in a Champions League/European Cup match, after Giuseppe Bergomi. On 26 October he made his Serie A debut, aged 17, coming as a substitute for Lautaro Martínez in a home match against Parma in San Siro. On 21 December 2019, Esposito scored his first goal for Inter, on his full debut, from a penalty in a 4–0 win at home against Genoa. On 18 June 2020, he was nominated for the Golden Boy award.


title: Sebastiano Esposito

text: On 13 July 2021, he was loaned to Swiss club FC Basel, with an option to buy. Basel confirmed the loan deal on the same day and Esposito joined Basel's first team for their 2021–22 season under head coach Patrick Rahmen.<ref name="fcb-aktuell-2021/22-Esposito"></ref> After playing in one test game Esposito played his debut for his new club in the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League, a home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 22 July 2021 as Basel won 3–0 against Partizani Tirana.<ref name="fcb-matchcenter-2021/22-UEL-FCB-Partizani"></ref> Three days later, on 25 July, Esposito made his Swiss Super League debut for Basel against Grasshoppers and scored his first goal for the club in the same game as they recorded 2–0 victory.<ref name="fcb-matchcenter-21/12-FCB-GC"></ref>


title: Sebastiano Esposito

text: At the end of the season Basel decided not to pull the purchase option. During his time with the club, Esposito played a total of 39 games for Basel scoring a total of 9 goals. 23 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, one in the Swiss Cup, ten in the UEFA Europa Conference League and five were friendly games. He scored 6 goals in the domestic league, one in the Conference League and the other two were scored during the test games.


title: Sebastiano Esposito

text: He made his debut with the Italy U21 on 3 September 2020, in a friendly match won 2–1 against Slovenia.


title: IHI Corporation

text: , formerly known as , is a Japanese engineering corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan that produces and offers ships, space launch vehicles, aircraft engines, marine diesel engines, gas turbines, gas engines, railway systems, turbochargers for automobiles, plant engineering, industrial machinery, power station boilers and other facilities, suspension bridges and other structures.


title: IHI Corporation

text: IHI develops, manufactures, and maintains aero engines, either by joint projects of which partners include GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce Holdings, or the company itself.


title: IHI Corporation

text: Shipbuilding was the founding activity of Ishikawajima in 1853. It remains part of IHI's business activities, although it has been diluted through several mergers with other Japanese shipbuilding companies.


title: IHI Corporation

text: In 1960, Ishikawajima Heavy Industries merged with Harima Shipbuilding & Engineering Company to establish the Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI).


title: IHI Corporation

text: In 2013, IHI Marine United was merged with Universal Shipbuilding Corporation owned by the steel company JFE Holdings in order to newly establish a larger firm, Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU), of which IHI remained a shareholder.


title: IHI Corporation

text: In March 2020, Japan Marine United (with 49% of shares) agreed to merge with Imabari Shipbuilding (with 51% of shares) into a joint venture named Nihon Shipyard (NSY), covering all ship types except Liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers. This agreement became effective in January 2021.


title: IHI Corporation

text: In parallel with the creation of Nihon Shipyard, Imabari Shipbuilding bought 30% of JMU's shares, while IHI and JFE Holdings each kept 35% of JMU's capital.


title: IHI Corporation

text: The merger between these two Japanese companies resulted in Nihon Shipyard becoming one of the largest marine-engineering and shipbuilding companies in the world, of which IHI remains a shareholder.


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Savage Dragon is a fictional superhero created by Erik Larsen, published by Image Comics and taking place in the Image Universe. The comic features the adventures of a superheroic police officer named the Dragon. The character first appeared as the Dragon in "Graphic Fantasy" #1 (June 1982) and first appeared as the "Savage Dragon" in "Megaton" #3 (February 1986).


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Dragon is a large, finned, green-skinned humanoid whose powers include super-strength and an advanced healing factor. He is also an amnesiac: his earliest memory is awakening in a burning field in Chicago, Illinois. Thus, for most of the series, the origins of his powers and appearance are a mystery to readers. At the beginning of the series, he becomes a police officer and battles the mutant criminal "superfreaks" that terrorize Chicago.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Together with "Spawn", "Savage Dragon" is one of two Image Comics titles that debuted during the company's 1992 launch that continues to be published well into the early 2020s, and the only one of the two that for most of its run, has been written and drawn almost entirely by its creator (with the exception of one issue), for which Larsen has been lauded. "Savage Dragon" is the longest running full-color comic book to feature a single artist/writer. The character was also adapted into an animated series, which ran for two seasons (26 episodes) on the USA Network beginning in 1995.


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Savage Dragon was listed by "Wizard" as the 116th-greatest comic book characters of all time. IGN listed the Savage Dragon as the 95th-greatest comic book hero of all time, stating that he has the trappings of a great comic book hero.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Like many of Erik Larsen's characters, the Savage Dragon was created by Larsen while he was a child in elementary school. In his youth, Larsen drew the Dragon in homemade comic books. The original Dragon, inspired by elements from Captain Marvel, Batman, "Speed Racer" and later "The Incredible Hulk", differs greatly from the modern incarnation. After launching "Savage Dragon" in a professionally published comic book, Larsen returned to the original and reworked his designs into the characters William Jonson, a police officer ally of the Dragon, and Flash Mercury, the "Spectacular Dragon".


title: Savage Dragon

text: Much later, a greatly redesigned "Savage Dragon" was featured in two issues of "Graphic Fantasy", a self-published title with a small print run, published by Larsen and two friends. In this incarnation, the Dragon was a widower and a retired member of a government-sponsored superhero team. Subsequently, the Dragon made another appearance in the third issue of Gary Carlson's "Megaton" anthology in its "Vanguard" strip, which Larsen had been drawing. In these appearances, the character of the Dragon remained basically the same as it had been in "Graphic Fantasy", with a few details modified (such as the inclusion of his wife, who was dead in his previous incarnation). Both the "Graphic Fantasy" and "Megaton" issues containing the Dragon have since been reprinted in high-quality editions.


title: Savage Dragon

text: In 1992, when Larsen left Marvel to co-found Image Comics, he reworked the character for the new publication venture. This time, the Dragon was a massively muscled green amnesiac, who joined the Chicago police department after being discovered in a burning field. Initially debuting in a three-issue miniseries, the "Savage Dragon" comic book met with enough success to justify a monthly series, launched in 1993. To this day, Larsen continues to write and illustrate the series entirely by himself, and has maintained a reasonably consistent monthly schedule (save for occasional lapses) in comparison with the other original Image Comics titles. Larsen has occasionally produced ancillary mini-series, and sometimes allowed other creators to produce stories featuring the Dragon or other characters from the series.


title: Savage Dragon

text: According to Larsen, the series is aimed at "older Marvel readers who are about ready to throw in the towel on comics altogether. It's the missing link between Marvel and Vertigo. More mature than Marvel; less pretentious than Vertigo. The kind of comics [he wants] to read. [The] book is really self-indulgent."


title: Savage Dragon

text: As the series has progressed, it has become an adults-only title with frequent portrayals of graphic sex.


title: Savage Dragon

text: For the initial miniseries and the first 38 issues of the ongoing series, the Dragon was a full officer of the Chicago Police Department, and partnered with officer Alex Wilde. Dragon and Wilde would later have a casual sexual relationship. He received the name of "Dragon" (due to his fin and green skin) from Nurse Ann Stevens, who would later become a supporting character in "Mighty Man".


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Dragon was found in a burning field by Lt. Frank Darling. At the time, Chicago was being terrorized by villainous "superfreaks" (Larsen's collective term for superpowered characters), namely the criminal gang called the Vicious Circle, led by the mysterious Overlord. Realizing that the Dragon's superhuman powers would be a terrific boon to the police in battling the Vicious Circle, Darling asks the Dragon to join the police. At first, the Dragon refuses and takes a job in the warehouse of Darling's cousin. After a number of serious incidents, including the murder of the superhero Mighty Man and the brutal mauling of SuperPatriot, Darling takes drastic action. He pays Vicious Circle members to threaten his cousin in the hope that it will prompt Dragon to reconsider his offer. Although this achieves Darling's desired result, the two criminals, Skullface and Hardware, kill Darling's cousin and detonate a bomb in his warehouse. The Dragon joins the police, but Darling is now under the thumb of the Vicious Circle, causing him to steer the Dragon away from Vicious Circle activities.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Later, the Dragon gains a girlfriend, Debbie Harris, only to see her shot dead in his apartment by her jealous ex-boyfriend Arnold Dimple. The Dragon falls into a deep depression as a result. Dimple returns to plague the Dragon on several occasions as the Fiend, who makes a deal with the devil to gain supernatural powers.


title: Savage Dragon

text: As well as being kept away from Vicious Circle activities, the Dragon was loaned out to other police forces across the country to help them in dealing with superpowered criminals. While on loan to the NYPD, he first met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whom he assisted multiple times in later comics. Also during his time in New York, a large prison break occurred and a number of powerful and dangerous criminals were killed. This is the first time the Chicago PD lost a star witness against the Overlord; Hardware, who intended to give evidence against the criminal, was shot dead.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Though Captain Darling's Freak Force program failed, the Dragon carried on a lasting relationship with one of its former members: Rapture, a former prostitute with electrical powers, who would later have his child. Meanwhile, the Overlord's second-in-command Cyberface broke away from the Vicious Circle to form a rival organization. Cyberface was later arrested but, like Hardware before him, he was killed before he was able to testify. Ultimately, Cyberface was resurrected and later led the Vicious Circle under the control of the Horde, another recurring villain.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Later, the Dragon made his first attempt to arrest the Overlord, who easily defeated him and left him impaled upon a church spire. The Dragon was believed to be dead, but regenerated from his wounds afterwards. This is not the only time the Dragon was missing and presumed dead; it becomes both a recurring theme and running joke in the series. During his recovery, the Dragon was attacked by a person under the mental control of a strange worm. Under the domination of this creature, the Dragon went on a rampage during which many innocent bystanders are injured or killed. He was finally stopped by the vigilante Mace, and the worms were traced to the Horde. The rampage resulted in a massive negative backlash against the Chicago Police Department, and the Dragon's biggest naysayer, R. Richard Richards, took this opportunity to attack the Dragon with a robotic weapon dubbed the "Dragon Slayer". Later, the Dragon encountered the She-Dragon, a young superpowered woman who modeled herself after him.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Following an attack on the police station and the murder of Cyberface (who is later resurrected), the Dragon led a SWAT team to finally take down the Overlord. The battle was harsh, and every member of the SWAT team perished except for the Dragon, who was skinned alive. Even in his weakened state, the Dragon finally unmasked the Overlord as Mafia boss Antonio Seghetti, who subsequently falls to his death.


title: Savage Dragon

text: After aiding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a second time, the Dragon narrowly survived another attack by the Fiend, which left him nearly crippled after his bones healed incorrectly. To make matters worse, Chicago was in the midst of a brutal gang war that arose as a result of the Overlord's death. The Vicious Circle, once kept tightly organized by the Overlord, had since separated into several factions that were battling for criminal supremacy. The Dragon was found by a friendly cabbie and Mighty Man, who used his super-strength to re-set the Dragon's bones. After recuperating from this ordeal, the Dragon fought another prison break, this time in a maximum security facility torn open by a newly resurrected Cyberface. This battle marked the end of the gang war, and Cyberface assumed command of the Vicious Circle.


title: Savage Dragon

text: This victory was followed by difficult times for the Dragon. After a number of crossovers with other Image Comics characters including WildStar and The Maxx, the Dragon encountered Spawn and ultimately was sent to Hell by the Fiend. The Fiend can possess living bodies, and his powers are fueled by the capacity for hate of those possessed. His last victim was Debbie Harris' mother, who was unaware that the demon possessing her was the spirit of her daughter's murderer. While in Hell, a fist-fight occurred between God and the devil. As God finally overcomes the devil, he warned his defeated opponent: "Don't fuck with God." Just as the amnesiac Dragon begins to ask about his origins, God returned him to Earth.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Afterward, things grow steadily worse for the Dragon. He was unable to save ill fellow officer Phil Dirt with a blood transfusion. Meanwhile, Rapture (pregnant with the Dragon's child) suffered internal damage when the baby kicked—the unborn child having inherited its father's strength—and Rapture entered premature labour. The Dragon was not able to reach the hospital in time, and the baby appeared to have died. However, in truth, the infant was taken by the Covenant of the Sword, a shadowy organization bent on world takeover.


title: Savage Dragon

text: After a crossover with Hellboy, the Dragon was caught up in the "Mars Attacks" and "Mars Attacks/Savage Dragon" event, in which he was responsible for destroying the Martians' bases on Mars using a Martian growth ray. This resulted in their retreat and possible extinction. While he was gone, the Vicious Circle had taken control of the city. Returning home to a devastated Chicago, the Dragon was captured and publicly crucified by the Circle. The Dragon survived and defeated most of the villains, but the Dragon's new superior, Captain Mendoza, suspended him for having been missing for so long. During his suspension, the Dragon spent a few months as a bounty hunter and helped rebuild the city after the Martian invasion.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Behind the scenes during this period, Rob Liefeld acrimoniously departed from Image Comics. The "Shattered Image" crossover and the"Mars Attacks Image" event were used as a way to phase out characters created by Liefeld from the collective "Image Universe", including Youngblood. In the pages of "Savage Dragon", Larsen has the Dragon approached by the United States government to form a superhuman task-force to replace Youngblood. After negotiations, the team is dubbed the Special Operations Strikeforce, or S.O.S. This team includes much of the super-powered supporting cast of the book, including Jennifer Murphy, a super-strong, invulnerable single mother first introduced in "" miniseries. Despite being the founding member of the team, the Dragon spends little time as a member.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Later, on a dying parallel Earth, a murderous despot named Darklord begins to swap parts of his Earth with parts from the Dragon's. The Dragon leads a team of S.O.S. members, including Jennifer Murphy and his former girlfriend Rapture, to this world to stop Darklord. Rapture is killed by Darklord, and the Dragon and Jennifer are separated from the rest of the team. While the remaining members of S.O.S. manage to stop the transfer and escape back to their own Earth, the Dragon and Jennifer are forced to find their own way off of the dying planet. While they make their escape, Dragon attempts to find this Earth's Rapture, only to find that world's Debbie Harris instead.


title: Savage Dragon

text: The threesome is lost in space for some months, and the Dragon is once again presumed dead, eventually landing on Godworld, where Debbie dies but is revived as an angel. The Dragon and Jennifer are caught in a battle between Thor and Hercules, and then sent back to Earth by All-God; Debbie does not return with them. Following this, the Dragon fights a Dr. Doom-like armored dictator before returning to Chicago on leave and striking up a casual sexual relationship with his former partner Alex Wilde.


title: Savage Dragon

text: In the giant-sized issue #50, many of the series subplots are resolved, and in a climactic battle among most of the series cast, the Dragon is killed by the mystic Abner Cadaver; however, the wizard is murdered midway through this by William Jonson, and the Dragon is bonded with him.


title: Savage Dragon

text: The series changed its title to "Savage She-Dragon" for four issues, featuring her as the main character during an attack by the God Squad to retrieve the various super-freaks that were descendants of gods. This led to the S.O.S. returning to Godworld and its accidental destruction by S.O.S. member and former Deadly Duo member Kid Avenger. During this time, William Jonson realizes he and the Dragon are sharing bodies, and shortly thereafter the Dragon finds he has the ability to take over Jonson's body, so they become a masked superhero. While he is helping the She-Dragon, Jonson's fiancé, Rita Medermade, is kidnapped by Jonson's brother Ralph and they both encounter an individual wearing the Overlord armor. While rescuing her, Jonson is shot, Ralph is killed by the Overlord, and the Dragon is given full possession of his body.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Abner Cadaver returns — made up of parts of dead God Squad characters, Darklord, and the Dragon's arm — and engages in battle with Fon~Ti, the mystical being who was once the Horde. After Fon~Ti's victory, he separates the Dragon from Jonson and returns the Dragon to his normal body. Having admitted their love, Jennifer and the Dragon begin to date. After a fight with Impostor, posing as Rapture, the Dragon proposes to Jennifer, and their wedding follows in the next issue, in which Jennifer is apparently killed by the new Overlord. In truth, she was replaced with Impostor beforehand by the Covenant of the Sword. Though he had only been semi-active before, the Dragon officially resigns from the S.O.S. and became the legal guardian of Jennifer's daughter Angel. In the following issue, the Overlord subplot is tied up after the Dragon defeats his new team. The Dragon kills the Overlord, and he is revealed as supporting character Vic Nixon, who had worn the armor to spy on Rita; the armor then corrupted him. After this, the Overlord armor is destroyed.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Following the resolution of the new Overlord plot, the series spent most of its issues wrapping up all the remaining subplots. This was preparation for the eventual revamp in issue #75, with the Dragon as a single parent looking after Angel and eventually losing a custody battle for her because of his dangerous lifestyle. The Dragon dated a television producer named Marcy Howard, resumed his casual affair with Alex Wilde, and dated Ann Stevens before she was murdered, while a number of super-powered children and adults were kidnapped by the Covenant of the Sword.


title: Savage Dragon

text: After losing custody of Angel and Ann's murder, the Dragon and Mighty Man (now former Freak Force member Dart) began searching for the missing SuperPatriot. This led them to the Covenant of the Sword, which had in its possession the SuperPatriot, Jennifer, and the Dragon's child. The Dragon and Mighty Man are captured, but eventually rescued in a large battle similar to the one in issue #50 in which a number of characters are killed.


title: Savage Dragon

text: It was revealed that the Covenant was formed by Damian Darklord, a time traveler who was the enemy of a vigilante named Super-Tough. This man became Darklord and started life as Damian, the son of Liberty, SuperPatriot's daughter who was raped during the "Mars Attacks" event. Damian also built and detonated the "Nega Bomb" made up of super-powered individuals that de-powered every non-natural "freak" in the world. The Dragon then kills him.


title: Savage Dragon

text: With issue #76, the series changed into a Jack Kirby-inspired post-apocalyptic/dystopian story. The Dragon is stuck in a new reality he created by killing the infant Damian Darklord, which prevented him from going back in time, and with most of the mutated and monstrous populace of this world trying to kill him. The Dragon finds his house to be a crater and believes Jennifer and Angel are dead. The Dragon has encounters with WildStar and Madman and finds out that during his time possessed, without Mace to stop him, he went on a much longer rampage, killing Alex Wilde. The Dragon also discovers that Cyberface is now President of America and has the SuperPatriot under his control. The Dragon organizes a group of old enemies and allies to defeat Cyberface. After fulfilling a commitment to Rex Dexter — who helped him overthrow Cyberface — by saving his daughter, the Dragon returns a hero and finds his way back to Chicago and is reunited with Jennifer and Angel, who had in fact survived.


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Dragon then finds his old world had survived as well as the Savage World. His counterpart from Darkworld, this Dragon, was defeated, but the Dragon's old Earth was destroyed by a world-devouring Galactus-like being named Universo, despite the best efforts of the Dragon and his son, Malcolm, who are left floating in space after its destruction. The Dragon is able to save Alex Wilde from that world. After this, the Dragon marries Jennifer and lives with her, Angel, and Angel's new "pet", Mr. Glum, who is secretly plotting to kill the Dragon.


title: Savage Dragon

text: To coincide with the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Larsen created a corrupt politician Ronald Winston Urass, who engineers a successful write-in campaign to elect the Dragon President of the United States. However, once his criminal intents and relationship to the criminal Dread Knight are exposed, the Supreme Court disallows these votes. This leads a vengeful Urass to attack the Dragon using the armor of his father, the Dread Knight, who was an old foe of the SuperPatriot's.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Behind the scenes, Erik Larsen was made publisher of Image Comics, causing a nearly year-long publishing gap between issues #121 and #122 of the series. The title resumed regular publication in January 2006, with the first story involving a vengeful scientist from Iraq sending an almost unstoppable robot to kill the President.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Mr. Glum's plans for world domination were realized using the power of the God Gun (a weapon able to grant three wishes to its user). Glum fires the gun and asserts his control of the planet while the Dragon is incapacitated in a hospital, having lost his rapid healing abilities. Glum was, at the time, on the run with the Dragon's stepdaughter Angel after he caused her to grow to more than 100 feet tall, and she accidentally destroyed her house and crippled her mother. The two become partners and Angel adopts a murderous, merciless personality, while Glum set the people of Earth to work with the impossible task of making the planet look like his face (as his old world did).


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Dragon is revived with his healing abilities restored and is able to defy Glum's control because of a loophole in his wish that means he cannot control extraterrestrials. The Dragon is unable to get close enough to Glum due to the various robots and villains Glum has under his control. However, the intervention of a number of characters from the comic series "Wanted", who had come to steal the God Gun, allows the Dragon to destroy the weapon, negating Glum's wish.


title: Savage Dragon

text: During the story, Vanguard's spaceship is destroyed, freeing Universo who was imprisoned on it. He begins to suck the energy from Earth once more. Universo and its herald are killed by Solar Man, a Superman-like hero who became murderous and was wished out of existence using the God Gun, a wish undone by the Dragon's destruction of the weapon. The She-Dragon also returns from Dimension X with the Angel from the Dragon's original world of origin. They are being pursued by the Darkworld Dragon and a new villainess, Battleaxe.


title: Savage Dragon

text: After Angel and Malcolm's return to the "new world", the Savage Dragon is left to face a new array of troubles. With Jennifer having disappeared and presumed dead, two superstrong kids ill-equipped to face the return to normalcy after months spent in isolation (Angel has learning deficits and Malcolm is nearly illiterate), and no income to care for his family, the Savage Dragon returns to the police force.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Meanwhile, a new Overlord takes over the Vicious Circle, resuming his attacks over the city, and the Savage Dragon, hospitalized after a fight, is ambushed and killed by a new "freak" with the power to steal the memories and the life force of his enemies. Due to the huge amount of life force held by the Dragon and his powerful immune system, the freak absorbs all of his memories and physical characteristic, becoming essentially a new iteration of the Dragon. The "Impostor Dragon" has the remains of his former body packed in a preservative solution by Rex, and resumes his normal life.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Even this new lease at life appears to be short-lived, as the new Overlord, after trying to bargain with the Savage Dragon for his allegiance, literally blows his head and torso away: the "Impostor Dragon", brought in the Vicious Circle laboratories for analysis, revives himself as a crazed, unstoppable, deformed powerhouse with conflicting memories, bent on nourishing himself on the superpowered Angel and Malcolm.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Still knowing nothing about the actions of the "Impostor Dragon", Angel and Malcolm seek a way to revive the body of the Savage Dragon, despite being faced by Rex with the prospect of creating nothing more than a soulless being or a mind-addled monstrosity, due to the brain matter lost during the attack. They set off to ask Nurse Stevens for the last blood sample of the Dragon, hoping to use its regenerative abilities to speed up the recovery and the resurrection of the Savage Dragon corpse. The Vicious Circle, however, overpowers them, stealing the blood sample to create an army of Dragon clones.


title: Savage Dragon

text: As a last resort, after being faced by the "Impostor Dragon" who attacks Rex and is frozen in the preservative solution, Rex and Malcolm agree to transfuse part of Malcolm's blood into the Dragon's corpse. The Dragon revives, but has no memories of his former life.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Concerned about the new, harder attitude of the Dragon, the new Overlord sends the Dark Dragon after the Savage Dragon. Showing a callous disregard for human life, the Savage Dragon ultimately reveals to have regained every shred of his past memory as Kurr the Emperor (see below), and after beating up the Dark Dragon, he eats his brains, killing him for his defiance.


title: Savage Dragon

text: He then proceeds to alienate from himself Malcolm, planning vengeance over the Vicious Circle, now using the Dragon's blood to empower his members. The new Overlord decides to strike a truce with the police department as seen in #159. He lends the help of all the superfreaks in his command to stop Kurr. As the last attempt fails, Kurr sheds his facade, proclaiming his identity and retelling his origins (see below), for the first time in-universe speaking, to Malcolm and Angel. Battling his way through several enemies, including Vanguard, an unnamed Shapeshifter taking the She-Dragon's appearance, Glum, the "original" Angel, and other friends and foes from his past, Kurr cleanses Earth of human life using a special venom.


title: Savage Dragon

text: After he battles and kills Malcolm, the Impostor Dragon wakes up, this time with the Savage Dragon's personality fully in charge, and avenges his offspring and world by killing the Kurr-Dragon. Damian Overlord proceeds to restore his original look and body, giving the Savage Dragon the opportunity to greet his species and leave the cleansed Earth in their care.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Distraught by the consequences of Kurr's actions, he pleads with Damian Overlord for the power to travel back in time and kill Kurr before he unleashes the potion, thus creating another divergent timeline where his family is still alive. Damian grants his wish, mercilessly killing him shortly thereafter as "Savage Dragon is a dangerous wildcard for the world". Despite a red herring implying Damian transplanted Savage's personality into WildStar's body, in the "restored" timeline Kurr's alien son, along with a "mysterious gentleman", takes away Virus' corpse (as he is now calling the Impostor Dragon), taking it on to his spaceship, where Virus and Kurr are used to return the Savage Dragon to life. The Savage Dragon decides to keep his resurrection hidden to Earthlings, and to make amends with his species, offers to help them to find a suitable planet.


title: Savage Dragon

text: After the Dragon Wars, Malcolm Dragon has taken the Savage Dragon's role, along with his sister Angel, acting as protectors of the city. A schism in the superfreaks has brought the Overlord working with the police department, with a part of the freaks still engaging in villainy, and Malcolm to keep them in check.


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Savage Dragon's origin was revealed in the "Image Comics tenth Anniversary" hardcover book, which was released on November 30, 2005. The collection featured stories by the four remaining Image founders (Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino) returning to the characters they first created for the company. Larsen's story revealed that the Dragon used to be an evil tyrant named Emperor Kurr, who led a nomadic race of space aliens who spent thousands of years traveling through space, searching for a suitable new homeworld. After Kurr had chosen Earth, which was perfect for their needs, he decided to go against his people's peaceful ways and slaughter all humans. Two scientists named Rech and Weiko conspired against him.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Kurr had previously refused to father an heir, (correctly) believing that it would put his own power in jeopardy and thus killed all the females he had lain with. Weiko's daughter Geeta sacrificed herself by mating with him, allowing her father to recover a fertilized egg from her remains. With their people's future assured, the two scientists gave him brain damage that erased his memory, and implanted within his memories five days' worth of satellite television broadcasts from Earth, giving him an unconscious sense of the culture. Kurr was then sent to live on Earth, while his race moved on to search for a new planet elsewhere.


title: Savage Dragon

text: In issue #225, during the battle against Darklord, Dragon sacrifices his life to stop him. The role of the Savage Dragon is taken over by his son Malcolm.


title: Savage Dragon

text: Malcolm and Maxine relocate to Toronto, Canada. Malcolm's half-brother Kevin enters into a sexual relationship with Maxine's mother, who becomes pregnant with their child.


title: Savage Dragon

text: In issue #250 it is shown that Paul Dragon (the first Savage Dragon prototype) previous name showed up in the current universe as a replacement for the original dragon.


title: Savage Dragon

text: In 1995, the Savage Dragon appeared in "The Savage Dragon", an animated television series as part of the Cartoon Express on the USA Network. Produced by Universal Cartoon Studios, it ran for 26 episodes from 1995 to 1996 and featured numerous supporting characters from the comic book series, including the She-Dragon, the Horde, Barbaric, Mako and the Overlord. The Dragon was voiced by Jim Cummings. Additional voices were provided by Mark Hamill, Michael Dorn, Jennifer Hale, René Auberjonois, Frank Welker, Dawnn Lewis, Paul Eiding, Peter Cullen, Rob Paulsen, Robert Ito and Tony Jay.


title: Savage Dragon

text: The Savage Dragon was listed by "Wizard" as the 116th-greatest comic book character of all time. IGN also listed the Savage Dragon as the 95th-greatest comic book hero of all time.


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: Splinter is a 2008 American horror film directed by Toby Wilkins and starring Shea Whigham, Paulo Costanzo, and Jill Wagner. It was filmed near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It had a limited theatrical release on October 31, 2008. HDNet Movies aired the film two days prior to its theatrical release.


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: At a sleepy gas station, the pump attendant is attacked by a splinter-infected animal. The attendant's body contorts. A young couple, Seth Belzer and Polly Watt, drive for a romantic camping trip in the forests of Oklahoma, but their plans are shattered when they are car-jacked by an escaped convict, Dennis Farell, and his drug-addict girlfriend, Lacey Belisle. The group gets a flat tire when they run over a splinter-infected animal on the road. They find shelter at the now-abandoned gas station.


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: Lacey discovers the horribly-infected pump attendant, writhing in the bathroom. She is attacked and is killed by the monster, but her corpse slowly reanimates and becomes a new creature, which attacks the remaining survivors. While fighting her, Seth, Polly and Dennis discover that severed pieces of the infected victims are capable of attacking on their own. Sheriff Terri Frankel arrives and attempts to arrest Dennis, but is ripped in half by Lacey's corpse. The creature takes the top half of the officer's body and bonds with it, becoming a larger creature. The trio hide in the walk-in refrigerator when a piece of the creature's arm attacks them. It is discovered that Dennis has been infected, as his left arm violently twists on its own. Seth and Polly amputate his arm to prevent the infection from spreading. Dennis explains that he had been pricked by a splinter from the dead creature they encountered on the road. Seth discovers that the creatures themselves are a fungus taking control of the corpses they infect and consuming the blood in the body, using the currently zombified host to seek out fresh and new hosts. Because of this, they hunt based on temperature and attack the warmest thing they can find.


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: By lowering his body temperature with bags of ice, Seth sneaks past the creature to the police car, while Polly and Farell distract it with fireworks. Seth discovers that, without the keys, the car and the police radio inside are useless. His body temperature rises again, forcing Dennis to leave the gas station to lure the creature away from him. The creature enters the gas station, and Dennis and Polly hide in the freezer. The discarded fireworks ignite the trail of flammable liquid, and the gas station catches on fire. Seth retrieves a shotgun from the police car and helps Polly and Dennis escape. Dennis is infected after helping to keep the creature at bay while Seth and Polly escape. He shoots one of the gas pumps with the shotgun, and the creature is engulfed in flames, killing it. Dennis, still infected, gives Seth and Polly a key to a bank account, telling them to give it to the wife of a man he shot, who later died. Dennis shoots directly into the propane tanks, incinerating himself, the station, and any remaining infected corpses. Seth and Polly wander into the distance as other infected creature corpses lie dormant in the woods.


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: Wilkins said the original script was a "classic siege movie" that interested him. The monster in this script was more generic, but he realized that an idea he and a friend had been developing about a parasitic creature would fit in well. Wilkins found the concept of a creature that takes over its host to be scarier than one that simply kills it. Like "28 Days Later" and "The Thing", he wanted his characters to briefly fight against the infection before losing their personality. Wilkins also wanted to introduced horror from the creature's ignorance of how human bodies work and its resulting abuse of the host's skeleton. To choreograph the jerky movements by the infected people, Wilkins used multiple performers, including a gymnast, mime, and stuntperson. Most of the effects are practical. Shooting took place in Oklahoma City.


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "Splinter" received an approval rating of 74% rating based on 35 reviews and an average rating of 6.3/10. Its consensus reads, "Never taking itself too seriously, "Splinter" scores as a fast-paced, fun thriller with more than enough scares." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: Claudia Puig from "USA Today" gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "This is classic Halloween fun with plenty of thrills and chills, surprisingly believable performances and healthy doses of humor." Chuck Wilson from "The Village Voice" wrote, "Buoyed by solid ensemble work, some yuckily effective special effects, and a script that subverts genre convention by having its characters do smart things instead of stupid ones (mostly), "Splinter" earns our respect while delivering 82 minutes of lean, mean fun." Marc Savlov of "The Austin Chronicle" awarded the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, stating that the film "would have made a far more effective short than the feature-length drag it is."


title: Splinter (2008 film)

text: "Splinter" won six awards at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival: Best Editing, Best Score, Best Special Effects, Best Make-Up, Best Directing and Best Picture. It was a nominee for Best Horror Film at the 35th Annual Saturn Awards, but it lost to "". It was also nominated in Spike TV's 2009 Scream Awards for Most Memorable Mutilation for the arm removal scene, but lost to "Saw V's" Pendulum Trap.


title: Ackee and saltfish

text: The ackee fruit ("Blighia sapida") is the national fruit of Jamaica. It was imported to the Caribbean from Ghana before 1725 as 'Ackee' or 'Aki' is another name for the Akan people, Akyem. The fruit's scientific name honours Captain William Bligh who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England in 1793 and introduced it to science. Because parts of the fruit are toxic, such as the arils prior to the opening of the husk at the ripening stage, there are shipping restrictions when being imported to countries such as the United States. Salted codfish, on the other hand, was introduced to Jamaica for enslaved people as a long-lasting and inexpensive protein source.


title: Ackee and saltfish

text: To prepare the dish, salt cod is sautéed with boiled ackee, onions, Scotch bonnet peppers, tomatoes, then seasoned with spices like pepper and paprika. It can be garnished with bacon and tomatoes, and is usually served as breakfast alongside breadfruit, hard dough bread, dumplings, or boiled green bananas.


title: Ackee and saltfish

text: Ackee and saltfish can also be eaten with rice and peas or plain white rice. When seasonings (onion, escallion, thyme, garlic) and saltfish are combined with plain rice it is often called "seasoned rice", which can be a one-pot meal including ackee.


title: Ackee and saltfish

text: Ackee and saltfish is widely regarded as the national dish of Jamaica. According to "The Guardian", Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt often has ackee and saltfish for breakfast. Harry Belafonte's 1956 hit song Jamaica Farewell declares "Ackee rice, saltfish are nice".


title: Sheeba Akashdeep

text: Sheeba has acted in Hindi films primarily. She married filmmaker Akashdeep in 1996; he directed her in films like "Ghaath" and "Miss 420". She and her husband Akashdeep made a comeback as producers from TV show "Bhoot Aaya".


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: "Try Again" is a song recorded by American singer Aaliyah for the soundtrack to the 2000 film "Romeo Must Die". It was written by Static Major and Timbaland, and produced by the latter. The song features an intro in which Timbaland pays homage to Eric B. & Rakim by rapping the duo's opening verse from "I Know You Got Soul". "Try Again" was released as the lead single from "Romeo Must Die" on March 21, 2000, by Blackground Records and Virgin Records. It was later included as a bonus track on international editions of Aaliyah's eponymous third and final studio album (2001).


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: "Try Again" was met with positive reviews from music critics and enjoyed commercial success. In the United States, it peaked atop the "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming the first single to reach number one based solely on airplay. The song peaked within the top five in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Wayne Isham and won two MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. "Try Again" was also nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards (2001).


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: In 1999, Aaliyah landed her first movie role in "Romeo Must Die" (2000), a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Aaliyah starred opposite martial artist Jet Li, playing a couple who fall in love amid their warring families. It grossed US$18.6 million in its first weekend, reaching number two at the box office. In addition to acting, Aaliyah served as an executive producer of the film soundtrack, to which she contributed four songs, including "Try Again". Aaliyah revealed that the production team "actually talked about the soundtrack before we even shot the movie".


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: "Try Again" was recorded at Sound on Sound Studios in New York City and was originally written as an inspirational song. It was written by Stephen "Static Major" Garrett and Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, and produced by the latter. According to engineer Jimmy Douglass, it was "written to inspire young people, but Barry [Hankerson] heard it and told them, 'It's got to be about love'." After all the changes were made to the song, the melody and hook remained the same but the lyrics became love-themed.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: Musically, "Try Again" is an R&B, electro, and dance-pop song. James Poletti from "Dotmusic", stated that the song's sound is associated with Detroit techno. Other genres that are utilized within the songs instrumental is Hip hop, early EDM of the 2000s, and Acid House. Lyrically, Aaliyah encourages "a potential partner not to give up on her". Production wise, it "skews more toward the fuzzy electronic sounds of the future than the thumping hip-hop beats of the past". The song features "disembodied backing vocals, electronically treated string and flute samples, speaker-rumbling bass, and the sort of grinding synthesiser riff more usually found on late-1980s acid-house records". It also incorporates, "programmed snares, kicks and shakers for drums and overlays a wide array of synth sounds, sitars, horns, guitars, and a snaky, distorted bass line underneath it all". The "horn blasts straight out of a Renaissance processional and then it thrusts you onto a ripping electro-bass roller coaster with Aaliyah's airy voice serving as the wind blowing through your hair". Throughout the record, "Aaliyah's voice is as nimble as ever, slinkily sliding over the synth line and icing the techno-inspired beat with her R&B finesse". According to Musicnotes, the song is composed in the key of C minor and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 92 beats per minute, while Aaliyah's vocal range spans from G to G.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: In the song's intro, Timbaland pays homage to Eric B. & Rakim by interpolating the duo's opening verse from "I Know You Got Soul". The chorus line "If at first you don't succeed, then dust yourself off and try again" is hypnotically repeated in a fashion similar to the sampling and vocal manipulation found in house music. "As the song nears the end, a haunting growling noise stalks the edges of the mix like a monster on the prowl".


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: On February 18, 2000, it was announced that "Try Again" would be released as the lead single from the "Romeo Must Die: The Album" soundtrack, while an accompanying music video would be directed by Wayne Isham. Blackground Records and Virgin Records officially serviced it to rhythmic contemporary radio in the United States on March 21, and to contemporary hit radio on April 4. On May 22, a maxi CD single was issued in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the single was released on July 10, 2000, via three formats: a CD single, a cassette single, and a 12-inch vinyl single.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: In August 2021, it was reported that Aaliyah's recorded work for Blackground (since rebranded as Blackground Records 2.0) would be re-released on physical, digital, and, for the first time ever, streaming services in a deal between the label and Empire Distribution. "Romeo Must Die" was re-released on September 3, 2021, including "Try Again".


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: To promote "Try Again" and "Romeo Must Die", Aaliyah performed the song during numerous televised appearances. It was first performed alongside "Come Back in One Piece" on "Romeo Must Die: The Kickoff Special", which aired on MTV in March 2000. Aaliyah performed it again on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" on April 17. On April 26, she performed the song on both "Total Request Live" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". To promote "Try Again" in the United Kingdom, Aaliyah performed it via satellite on the July 21, 2000 episode of "Top of the Pops".


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: Taylor from "Billboard" felt that Aaliyah had another smash hit on her hands and praised her vocal styling by saying: "Aaliyah's sultry vocals slide all over the futuristic beat". However, he had a mixed response to the production; although he thought the synth sample and snare alternate lived up to his expectations, he ultimately felt that the synth sample "becomes grating as the song progresses." James Poletti from "Dotmusic" praised the song and felt that the chorus "refuses to leave your brain after a couple of listens". Ultimately he declared that "Try Again" was a "class Timbaland product" and that the song would be equally successful in Europe.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: "Try Again" debuted on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 the week of March 18, 2000, at number 58. During the week of June 17 the song jumped 6-1, becoming the first song ever to peak atop the chart based solely on airplay, as it was not commercially released in the United States. At the time of "Try Again" reaching the top spot it gained 5.5 million listeners, in total reaching 92 million audience impressions. The song also peaked at number one on Hot 100 Airplay, number three on Mainstream Top 40, and number four on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. On the year-end "Billboard" Hot 100 chart for 2000, the song placed 12th. It placed 98th on the 2000s decade-end "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: In the United Kingdom, "Try Again" debuted and peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart on July 16, 2000―for the week ending July 22, 2000―while staying within the top 75 for twelve weeks. The song has sold over 209,000 copies and remains Aaliyah's best-selling single in the country. "Try Again" also achieved commercial success elsewhere in Europe, peaking within the top five in Belgium, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal. In Australia, the song reached number eight on the ARIA Singles Chart. It became the country's 51st best-selling single of 2000.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: The accompanying music video for "Try Again" was directed by Wayne Isham. It begins with Jet Li entering a hall of mirrors and Aaliyah stepping in, wearing a revealing low-cut bra and tight low-rise leather pants, Timbaland is also shown. The room is dim with a shallow pool and circle light in the center to resemble the moon shining over the ocean represented by said pool. In an interview with Nylon, Lee mentioned that he knew Try Again was going to be a dance video and that she was going to "wear one outfit for the entire thing". For the music video Aaliyah is wearing a crystal bra top with a matching choker by Dolce & Gabbana. According to her former stylist Derek Lee "the crystal bra top offered so little coverage that LeGrand had to add some extra rows of rhinestones so Aaliyah felt more comfortable". Prior to the video Lee had a working relationship with Dolce & Gabbana , and he seen an ad for the top, in Vogue "for something that was coming out for pre-order". After seeing that ad he knew that outfit would be the look for the video "Because if we needed to level up on her little bra tops with the baggy pants, maybe we should go this route". Dolce & Gabbana had multiple colors of the bra but Lee opted for the plain crystal because it had the matching belt and choker.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: The music video for "Try Again" made its official television debut on MTV during the week of March 5, 2000. On the week of March 12, the video debuted on the cable network channel VH1. Meanwhile, during the week of March 19, the video debuted on The Box, while it debuted on BET on April 3. During its chart run, the video received heavy television airplay on multiple music video countdown shows. For the week ending May 8, the video was the most played video on BET. On MTV, the video was the third most-played video during the week ending May 22.


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: "Try Again" became the first airplay track to reach No. 1 on The Billboard Hot 100 without the benefit of a retail single. Alexis Petridis from "The Guardian" felt that, "Try Again" was "one of the most remarkable and forward-thinking pop singles of 2000". According to Jonathan Keefe from "Slant Magazine", the song "influenced hip-hop, dance, and pop over the nine years that followed". He also felt that "After "Try Again", much of the decade's rhythmic music rested on the shoulders of thin-voiced, icily detached singers like Rihanna, Alison Goldfrapp, Ciara, and Annie, none of whom have been able to match the presence or the lived-in soulfulness Aaliyah conveyed with her ethereal wisp of a voice".


title: Try Again (Aaliyah song)

text: George Michael sampled "Try Again" in his 2002 song "Freeek!". German NDH band Knorkator covered the song on their album "Ich hasse Musik". In a 2013 episode of "The Mindy Project", Dr. Danny (portrayed by Chris Messina) showed Mindy (portrayed by Mindy Kaling) the choreography from the song's music video. The song is ranked at number 225 on "Billboards" Greatest of All Time Songs of the Summer chart. On August 21, 2019, the Madame Tussauds Las Vegas revealed a wax figure of Aaliyah. The life-sized figure was modelled on Aaliyah's appearance in the music video for "Try Again". It was unveiled by Aaliyah's brother Rashad Haughton to an invited audience.


title: Mangla Dam

text: The Mangla Dam () is a multipurpose dam situated on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir. It is the sixth-largest dam in the world. The village of Mangla, which sits at the mouth of the dam, serves as its namesake. In November 1961, the project's selected contractors were revealed; it was announced that "Binnie & Partners", a British engineering firm, was going to serve as the lead designers, engineers, and inspectors for the construction of the dam (led by Geoffrey Binnie). The project was undertaken by a consortium known as the Mangla Dam Contractors, which consisted of eight American construction firms sponsored by the "Guy F. Atkinson Company" based in South San Francisco, California.


title: Mangla Dam

text: As part of the Indus Waters Treaty signed in 1960, India gained rights to the waters of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers, while Pakistan, in addition to the waters of the aforementioned three rivers' sections within Pakistani territory and some monetary compensation, received the rights to develop the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus river basins. Until 1967, the entire irrigation system of Pakistan was fully dependent on unregulated flows of the Indus River and its major tributaries. The agricultural yield was very low for a number of reasons, the most significant being a lack of water during critical growing periods. This problem stemmed from the seasonal variations in river flow due to monsoons and the absence of storage reservoirs to conserve the vast amounts of surplus water during those periods of high river discharge.


title: Mangla Dam

text: The Mangla Dam was the first of the two dams constructed to reduce this shortcoming and strengthen the irrigation system of the country as part of the Indus Basin Project, with the other being the Tarbela Dam situated on the Indus River in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.


title: Mangla Dam

text: The Mangla Dam was constructed at a cost of billion ( billion) with funding being provided by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.


title: Mangla Dam

text: The dam was constructed between 1961 and 1965 across the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Kashmir, about southeast of the capital city of Islamabad. The Mangla Dam components include a reservoir, main embankment, intake embankment, main spillway, emergency spillway, intake structures, 5 tunnels, and a power station. Besides the main dam, a dyke called Sukian – in length and a small dam called Jari Dam to block the Jari Nala – about beyond the new Mirpur town had to be constructed.


title: Mangla Dam

text: There was a total of 120 x 10 cubic yards (cu yds) of excavation for the reservoir whereas the total fill amounted to 142 x 10 cu yds and concrete to 1.96 x 10 cu yds respectively. The main embankment is earthfill with clay as the core material. Gravel and A-type sandstone are applied on the shoulders. The maximum height of embankment above the core trench is and the length is . The intake embankment is earthfill type with B-type sandstone as the core material. Gravel is applied on the shoulders. The maximum height of the intake embankment above the core trench is and the length is .


title: Mangla Dam

text: Sukian Dam is earthfill with B-type sandstone as the core material. A-type sandstone is applied on the shoulders. The maximum height of the intake embankment above the core trench is and the length is .


title: Mangla Dam

text: Jari Dam is also an earthfill type with silt as the core material. Gravel is applied on the shoulders of the dam. The maximum height of Jari dam above the core trench is and the length is . The main spillway is a submerged orifice type with 9 radial gates, x each; it has a maximum capacity of 1.1 million cusecs. The emergency spillway is a weir type with an erodible bund and a maximum capacity of 0.23 million cusecs. The 5 tunnels are steel and concrete lined and 1,560 feet long in bedrock. The internal diameter ranges between and .


title: Mangla Dam

text: The powerhouse, which consists of turbines, generators, and transformers, has been constructed at the toe of an intake embankment at the ground surface elevation of 865  feet SPD. The water to the powerhouse is supplied through five steel-lined tunnels of 30/26 feet diameter. Each tunnel is designed to feed two generating units. The powerhouse tailrace discharges into New Bong Canal, which has a length of 25,000  feet with a discharge capacity of about 49,000 cusecs, and terminates at an automatic gate control headworks at about 12 km downstream located near old Bong Escape Headworks.


title: Mangla Dam

text: There are ten vertical Francis type turbines in the powerhouse. Each of these turbines has an output of 138,00 bhp with a rated head of 295 feet of water. The first four turbines were manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric, Japan and were installed in 1969, turbines 5 and 6 are manufactured by , the Czech Republic and were installed in 1974, turbines 7-8 were manufactured by ACEC, Belgium and were installed in 1981, while the remaining two turbines are a make of Škoda, Czech Republic and were commissioned in 1994.


title: Mangla Dam

text: These turbines are connected to umbrella-type generators which have a generation capacity of 100 MW. Hitachi, Japan had provided generators for turbines 1–4 and 7-8 while Škoda generators are connected to turbines 5-6 and 9–10.


title: Mangla Dam

text: These generators are in turn connected to three-phase transformers. The transformers connected to turbines 1, 4, and 7 were manufactured by the Italy-based Savigliano. The transformers for turbine 5 and 6 are a make of , another Italian company, while the remaining five transformers were provided by Škoda.


title: Mangla Dam

text: The Government of Pakistan had agreed to pay royalties to the Government of AJK (Azad Jammu and Kashmir) for the use of the water and electricity generated by the dam. Over 280 villages and the towns of Mirpur and Dadyal were submerged and over 110,000 people were displaced from the area as a result of the dam being built. Some of those affected by the dam were given work permits for Britain by the Government of Pakistan, and as a result, in many cities in the UK the majority of the Pakistani community originates from the Dadyal-Mirpur area of Kashmir. There are 747,000 Mirpuris in the United Kingdom, and the British Mirpuri community forms about 70% of the British Pakistani community. The percentage is greater in northern cities and towns. In Bradford, an industrial town in north-west England, it is estimated that roughly three-quarters of the population is from Mirpur, with a sizeable population also in Birmingham. At the time, many took up work in the textile and steel mills, due to the acute shortage of workers in England.


title: Mangla Dam

text: The project was designed primarily to increase the amount of water that could be used for irrigation from the flow of the Jhelum and its tributaries. Its secondary function was to generate electrical power from the irrigation releases at the artificial head of the reservoir. The project, though not initially designed as one, also works as a flood control structure by retaining water during the flood-prone season of Monsoon.


title: Mangla Dam

text: On 5 December 1971, the dam was damaged due to a bombing raid conducted by the Indian Air Force during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. This was against the international convention that large water reservoirs would not be targeted in war. As a consequence, the hydro project was temporarily out of service.


title: Mangla Dam

text: From the data available in 2009, the project had generated 183.551 billion units of low-cost Hydel energy since its commissioning. The annual generation during 2008-2009 was 4797.425 Million KWh while the station shared a peak load of 1150 MW which was 8.18% of the total WAPDA system peak.


title: Mangla Dam

text: On 1 September 2013, the water level in Mangla Dam reached a record height of 1237.15 feet against the maximum conservation level of 1242 feet. "Radio Pakistan" reported that "the water level in Mangla Dam has attained the maximum height of 1237.15 feet in the history and it is still increasing."


title: Mangla Dam

text: Mangla reservoir had an initial reservoir capacity of , which reduced to in 2005 due to the sedimentation & was likely to reduce further. To counteract this phenomenon, the "Mangla Dam Raising Project" was started in 2004 and the main dam, spillway and its allied works were completed in 2009 at a cost of Rs. 101.384 billion. This project effectively raised the dam height by 30 feet to 482 feet (147 m), thereby raising the maximum water conservation level from 1202 feet to 1242 feet. This increased the dam's storage capacity from . Besides, it is expected that after raising the height of the Mangla Dam by 30 feet, the power house will generate 12 percent additional energy per year which will increase its installed capacity from 1,000 MW to 1,120 MW.


title: Mangla Dam

text: The Mangla Dam Raising Project, however, has affected more than 40,000 people living in the vicinity of the dam. The total cost of compensation and resettlement was Rs. 70 billion. The resettlement project includes the construction of New Mirpur City, four satellite towns (Islamgarh, Chakswari, Dadyal, Siakh) with all civic amenities, the Mirpur Bypass and two bridges across River Jehlum and Bong Canal respectively.


title: Mangla Dam

text: In November 2012, United States announced a grant of $150 million for the expansion of the Mangla Dam powerhouse. Under the project, $400 million would be spent on the Mangla Dam powerhouse which is estimated to provide additional production for the next 40 years. The project, when complete, will increase the power generation capacity of the Mangla Dam to 1,310 MW from the existing 1000 MW capacity. The dam was further expanded in the era of Pervez Musharraf but it did not enhance the capacity of electric generation except increasing the level of water in the dam.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: The Modern Age of Comic Books is a period in the history of American superhero comic books which began in 1985 and continues through the present day. During approximately the first 15 years of this period, many comic book characters were redesigned, creators gained prominence in the industry, independent comics flourished, and larger publishing houses became more commercialized.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: An alternative name for this period is the Dark Age of Comic Books, due to the popularity and artistic influence of titles with serious content, such as "" and "Watchmen".


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Because the time period encompassing the Modern Age is not well defined, and in some cases disputed by both fans and most professionals, a comprehensive history is open to debate. Many influences from the Bronze Age of Comic Books would overlap with the infancy of the Modern Age. The work of creators such as John Byrne ("Alpha Flight", "Fantastic Four"), Chris Claremont ("Iron Fist", "Uncanny X-Men"), and Frank Miller ("Daredevil") would reach fruition in the Bronze Age but their impact was still felt in the Modern Age. "The Uncanny X-Men" is the most definitive example of this impact as Bronze Age characters such as Wolverine and Sabretooth would have a huge influence on the Marvel Universe in the 1980s and beyond.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: For DC, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" is the bridge that joins the two ages. The result was the cancellation of "The Flash" (with issue 350), "Superman" (with issue 423), and "Wonder Woman" (with issue 329). The post-Crisis world would have Wally West as the new Flash, John Byrne writing a brand-new Superman series, and George Pérez working on a new Wonder Woman series. Batman would also get a makeover as the "" storyline would be one of the most popular Batman stories ever published.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: In rough chronological order by the beginning of the trend, here are some important developments that occurred during the Modern Age, many of which are interrelated:


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: The late 1970s saw famed creators going to work for new independent publishers. The arrival of Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief at Marvel Comics saw the departure of key creators at Marvel such as Steve Gerber, Marv Wolfman, and others. In these new companies (Pacific, Eclipse, First) creators were free to create very personal stories. Mike Grell's "Jon Sable Freelance", Howard Chaykin's "American Flagg!", Mike Baron and Steve Rude's "Nexus", Dave Steven's Rocketeer and John Ostrander's "GrimJack" attracted some attention and garnered a number of awards. These creators were brought in by DC editor Mike Gold to create defining works such as "" by Grell, "Blackhawk" by Chaykin, and "Hawkworld" by Truman. With Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Art Spiegelman's "Maus" (which would later receive the Pulitzer Prize), this period marks the summit of the artform per comics expert Scott McCloud.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: The Comics Code Authority was established in 1954, and specified that no comic should contain the words "horror" or "terror" in its title. This led EC Comics to abandon its horror comics line. Publishers such as Dell and Gold Key Comics did run an expanding line of silver-age horror and "mystery" titles during the early 1960s, and Charlton maintained a continuous publishing history of them, during the later 1960s, a gradual loosening of enforcement standards eventually led to the re-establishment of horror titles within the DC and Marvel lineups by the end of the decade. Since this genre's evolution does not neatly match the hero-dominated transitional phases that are usually used to demarcate different eras of comic books, it is necessary to understand this "silver age" and "bronze age" background. 1970s horror anthology series merely continued what had already been established during the late 1960s, and endured into the 1980s until they were markedly transformed into new formats, many of which were greatly influenced by, or directly reprinted, "pre-code" content and styles of the early 1950s.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Starting with Alan Moore’s groundbreaking work on DC's "Swamp Thing" in the early 1980s, horror comic books incorporated elements of science fiction/fantasy and strove to a new artistic standard. Other examples include Neil Gaiman’s "The Sandman" (followed a few years later by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s "Preacher"). DC's Vertigo line, under the editorship of Karen Berger, was launched in 1993, with the goal of specializing in this genre. Existing titles such as "Animal Man", "Doom Patrol", "Hellblazer", and "Shade, the Changing Man" were absorbed into this new line. Other titles later were created for the line, which continued successfully into the 2010s.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Starting in the 1990s and throughout the 2000s, a number of successful movie adaptations of comic books, partly due to improvements in special effect technology, helped to extend their market audience, attracting the attention of many new readers who previously had not been interested in comic books. This also led to an avalanche of other comic book adaptations which included previously lesser known Vertigo titles, notably "Constantine" (based on the comic book "Hellblazer") and "V for Vendetta".


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: In the mid-1980s, Marvel antiheroes such as the X-Men's Wolverine, the Punisher, and writer/artist Frank Miller’s darker version of Daredevil challenged the previous model of the superhero as a cheerful humanitarian. Miller also created Elektra, who straddled the conventional boundary between love interest and villain.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Two artistically influential DC Comics limited series contributed to the trend: "," also by Frank Miller and "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, both of which were series of psychological depth that starred troubled heroes.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: By the late 1980s DC had published many mature titles such as "John Constantine, Hellblazer", "Swamp Thing", and "Lobo". They featured morally ambiguous characters such as the cynical John Constantine and the violence-loving Lobo with graphic violence and adult content that differentiated them from other mainstream titles. DC later separated these titles to their launched Vertigo imprint that publishes titles outside of the DC Universe.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: By the early 1990s, antiheroes had become the rule rather than the exception, and among the most popular were Marvel Comics' Cable and Venom and Image Comics' Spawn.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: The trend of creating characters with more psychological depth that were less black-and-white, also affected supervillains. For example, the Joker, Batman's nemesis, was portrayed less as an evil criminal and more as a mentally ill psychopath who cannot control his actions, Marvel Comics' galactic planet-eater Galactus became a force of nature who means no personal malice in his feedings, and the X-Men's nemesis Magneto became more benign and sympathetic as a man who fights for an oppressed people, albeit through means that others deem unacceptable.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: By the mid-1980s, "X-Men" had become one of the most popular titles in comics. Marvel decided to build on this success by creating a number of spin-off titles, sometimes collectively referred to as "X-Books". These early X-Books included "New Mutants" (which would later become "X-Force"), "X-Factor", "Excalibur", and a "Wolverine" solo series. There were many new popular additions to the X-Men in the 1990s, including Cable and Bishop.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: By the early 1990s, X-Men had become the biggest franchise in comics, and by the middle of the decade over a dozen X-Men-related comic books, both continuing and limited series, were published each month. On an almost annual basis from 1986 until 1999, one storyline crossed-over into almost every X-Book for two to three months. These "X-Overs" usually led to a spike in sales.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: This sales boom resulted in a great deal of merchandising, such as action figures, video games, and trading cards. This success was thanks in no small part to the Fox Network's , which debuted in 1992 and drew in a large number of younger fans.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: The sales boom began to wane in the mid to late 1990s, due to the crash of the speculators' market and the effect it had on the industry. Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996, and as a result, scaled back all of their franchises, including X-Men. A number of "X-books" were canceled, and the amount of limited series published, as well as general merchandise, was reduced.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: In the early 2000s, a series of blockbuster "X-Men" films have kept the X-Men franchise healthy, and have resulted in a larger market presence outside of comics. In 1999–2000, a new animated series, "" debuted, while new toys have been developed and sold since the success of the first "X-Men" feature film. The comic books themselves have been reinvented in series such as Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" and the "Ultimate X-Men", which, like Marvel's other "Ultimate" series, is an alternative universe story, starting the X-Men tale anew. This was done for "X-Men", and other books, because Marvel feared that the long and complex histories of the established storylines of certain titles were scaring off new readers.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Many series tried to imitate the model the X-Men carved as a franchise. Marvel and DC expanded popular properties, such as Punisher, Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman into networks of spin-off books in the mid-to-late 1980s. Like the X-Books, some of these spin-offs highlighted a concept or supporting character(s) from a parent series, while others were simply additional monthly series featuring a popular character. In another similarity to the X-Books, these franchises regularly featured crossovers, in which one storyline overlapped into every title in the “family” for a few months.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: With regards to storylines overlapping, the Superman stories from 1991 to 2000 were written on a weekly basis. One needed to buy "Superman", "Adventures of Superman", "Action Comics", and "" (and eventually, "") to keep up with any existing storylines. If a collector only bought "Action Comics", they would only get twenty-five percent of the story. A triangle was featured on the cover of every Superman title with a number on it. This number indicated which week of the year the Superman title was released.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Complementing the creation of these franchises was the concept of redesigning the characters. The Modern Age of comics would usher in this era of change. The impact of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was the first example as Supergirl died in issue 7, and long-time Flash (Barry Allen) died in issue 8. Specifically, Barry Allen signified the beginning of the Silver Age of Comics and his death was highly shocking at the time. Marvel Comics' Secret Wars would usher in a new change as well as Spider-Man would wear a black costume. This costume change led to the development of the character Venom.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: The interest in the speculator market of a new Spider-Man costume led to other changes for Marvel characters in the 1980s. Iron Man would have a silver and red armor in issue 200. Captain America would be fired and would be reborn as the Captain, wearing a black outfit in issue 337 of the series. The Incredible Hulk would revert to his original grey skin color in issue 325. Issue 300 of the first "Avengers" series resulted in a new lineup including Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, of the Fantastic Four. Within the decade, Wolverine would switch to a brown and yellow costume, Thor would be replaced by Thunderstrike, Archangel would emerge as the X-Men's Angel's dark counterpart after serving as one of Apocalypse's Horsemen, and many other Marvel characters would have complete image overhauls. The changes to Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine and most other Marvel characters would be undone in the early 1990s.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: The 1990s would bring similar changes to the DC Universe, including the death of Superman and the crippling of Bruce Wayne in 1993. The only lasting change was Kyle Rayner replacing Hal Jordan as Green Lantern.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: In addition to individual character or franchise/family wide makeovers, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" ushered in a popular trend of "rebooting", "remaking" or greatly reimagining the publisher-wide universes every 5–10 years on varying scales. This often resulted in origins being retold, histories being rewritten, and so forth. These reinventions could be on as large a scale as suddenly retconning seminal story points and rewriting character histories, or simply introducing and/or killing off/writing out various important and minor elements of a universe. "Crisis on Infinite Earths" resulted in several miniseries which explicitly retconned character histories, such as "", "Superman: Man of Steel" and "". An example of a less ambitious scale of changes is "", which did not explicitly retcon or retell Green Arrow's history, but simply changed his setting and other elements of the present, leaving the past largely intact. This trend of publisher wide reinventions, which often consists of a new miniseries and various spinoff storylines in established books, continued for decades, with DC's "New 52" in 2011 and Marvel's "Secret Wars" in 2015.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: In the mid-1980s, artist Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel's most popular characters, came into dispute with Marvel over the disappearance of original pages of artwork from some of his most famous titles. Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and many other contemporary stars became vocal advocates for Kirby.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: By the early 1990s, these events, as well as the influence of vocal proponents of independent publishing, helped to inspire a number of Marvel artists to form their own company, Image Comics, which would serve as a prominent example of creator-owned comics publishing. Marvel artists such as "X-Men"’s Jim Lee, "The New Mutants/X-Force"’s Rob Liefeld and "Spider-Man"’s Todd McFarlane were extremely popular and were idolized by younger readers in ways more common to professional athletes and rock musicians than comic book artists. Propelled by star power and upset that they did not own the popular characters they created for Marvel, several illustrators, including the above three formed Image Comics in 1992, an umbrella label under which several autonomous, creator-owned companies existed. Image properties, such as "WildC.A.T.s", "Gen¹³", "Witchblade", and especially McFarlane’s "Spawn" provided brisk competition for long-standing superheroes. Image in particular is singled out by some critics for contributing to the conditions which led to the speculator market crashing, as Image titles favored alternative covers, foil covers, and other "collectible" comics.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Many popular creators followed Image's lead and attempted to use their star power to launch their own series; ones for which they would have licensing rights and editorial control. Chris Claremont, famous for his long run as the writer of "Uncanny X-Men", created "Sovereign Seven" for DC; Joe Madureira, also made popular by "Uncanny X-Men", launched "Battle Chasers" for WildStorm Productions; and Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, and Brent Anderson created "Astro City" for Image.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: In 1993, a coalition of African-American writers and artists started Milestone Comics, believing that minority characters were underrepresented in American superhero comics. Some of the company's better-known series include Static, about an African-American teen who became Milestone's key character, Hardware, an example of Afrofuturism, Icon, about an alien mimicking the appearance of an African-American, and Blood Syndicate, a series about a multicultural gang of superheroes. All of these flagship titles were co-created by Dwayne McDuffie. In 1997, the Milestone Universe merged with the DC Universe.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: By the late 1980s, important comic books, such as the first appearance of a classic character or first issue of a long-running series, were sold for thousands of dollars. Mainstream newspapers ran reports that comic books were good financial investments and soon collectors were buying massive amounts of comics they thought would be valuable in the future.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: Publishers responded by manufacturing collectors’ items, such as trading cards, and “limited editions” of certain issues featuring a special or variant cover. The first issues of Marvel Comics' "X-Force, X-Men" vol. 2, and "Spider-Man" became some of the first and most notorious examples of this trend. Another trend which emerged was foil-stamped covers. The first Marvel comic book with a foil-stamped cover was the third volume of the "Silver Surfer", issue 50 (June 1991). A glow-in-the-dark cover for "Ghost Rider", volume 3, issue 15 appeared as well. This led a market boom, where retail shops and publishers made huge profits and many companies, large and small, expanded their lines. Image Comics in particular became notorious for this, with many of its series debuting with alternative covers, wide use of embossed and foil covers and other "collectible" traits.


title: Modern Age of Comic Books

text: This trend was not confined to the books themselves, and many other pieces of merchandise, such as toys, particularly "chase" action figures (figures made in smaller runs than others in a particular line), trading cards, and other items, were also expected to appreciate in value. McFarlane Toys was notable for this, as it created many variations in its high-quality toys, most of which were main characters or occasional guest stars in the Spawn series.