This year, as the Marvel Universe faced the beginning of the end of X-Men’s Krakoan era, and the DC Universe suffered through Knight Terrors and Beast World back-to-back, smaller publishers, including IDW, Skybound Entertainment, and Boom! Studios, sought to elevate their game to match these industry leaders, resulting in a truly epic – in the strictest sense of the word – time for comic book storytelling.
In addition to major changes across its superhero titles, Marvel’s “Dark Droids” event has been the peak of its current line of Star Wars comics. IDW Publishing undertook the first ever major Star Trek comic book crossover, “God War/Day of Blood.”
Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment acquired the rights to Hasbro properties Transformers and G.I. Joe, rebooting the two iconic franchises alongside one another in the new Energon Universe. Boom! Studios Power Rangers entered into its year-long “Darkest Hour” storyline. The success of crossovers, event series, and shared continuities in 2023 continued a trend from the past several years. Overall, it indicated that Marvel and DC’s success has inspired other publishers be similarly ambitious.
15 Creepiest Nightmares DC Heroes Endured in Knight Terrors Event
While trapped in a nightmare world, DC’s greatest characters confront their biggest fears. See 15 of the most perturbing dreams from Knight Terrors.
2023 Was A Year Of Reboots, Relaunches, & Reaching New Heights For The Major Publishers
(Marvel & DC)
In the past year, both Marvel and DC have made major changes to their roster of titles; Marvel relaunched many of its books in the past year, while the Dawn of DC initiative similarly gave fresh starts to nearly two-dozen of its series. More importantly, both of the big two publishers doubled down on their commitment to telling stories of an increasingly grand scope. Marvel has long teased that the X-franchise’s Krakoan era couldn’t last forever. Finally, the end began with the shocking events of the 2023 Hellfire Gala, which left mutantkind on the defensive for the first time in a long time.
DC’s summer event, Knight Terrors, played out across the majority of its titles, with heroes and villains alike finding themselves trapped in their most horrific nightmares. Following immediately on its heels, the current Beast World crossover began with the death of a beloved Titans hero, and subsequently promises to once more afflict all of its characters, this time by turning them into anthropomorphic animals. Both DC and Marvel have excelled at big, company-wide storytelling this year, in a way never quite seen before.
Energon Reinvigorated Two Franchises That Deserve To Thrive In The Comic Book Medium
(Skybound Entertainment)
One of the biggest surprises in the comic book industry this year occurred when Skybound Entertainment acquired the publishing rights to Transformers and G.I Joe, two franchises that have told many of their best stories in comic book form. In another thrilling move, Skybound announced that it would reboot both properties – in a shared continuity that will also include Skybound originals. Along with the prospect of adding more Hasbro characters to the mix in the future, the idea of a narrative that intertwines the origins of both the G.I. Joe and Cobra organizations with the arrival of the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth has proved a major hit with long-time fans.
With the launch of the initial Transformers ongoing series, leading directly into the Joe miniseries Duke and Cobra Commander, Skybound has received a positive response, one that validates the decision to craft a shared continuity. With any long-running property, it is crucial to find new, dynamic ways to approach the material, in order to keep even the most committed fans’ engagement from waning. Taking a cue from Marvel and DC’s success, Skybound unified its two new, iconic franchises; so far, this has proved to be a recipe for success. The Energon Universe is still fledgling, but it remains one of the most exciting comic book stories of the year to come.
As Their “Darkest Hour” Arrived, Power Rangers Lore Continued To Be Redefined
(Boom! Studios)
Beginning with Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #111, Boom! Studios Rangers comics has embarked on a year-long storytelling event, “Darkest Hour.” Over the past several years, Boom! has worked diligently to take what originated as a children’s TV program, and age it up to where its original audience is now. By telling more mature, adult-oriented stories, the current era of Power Rangers comics has redefined the series, ensuring it is viable long-term as more than a nostalgia property. “Darkest Hour” is the next step in this evolution – a sprawling narrative, building on the expanded lore the past several years worth of arcs has brought to the franchise.
Beyond expanding the Power Rangers universe, the Boom! Studios era introduced a Multiverse, most notably using this to tell stories in the alternate timeline known as the World of the Coinless. As with some of its most famous Marvel and DC antecedents, “Darkest Hour” will be a massive crossover in the truest sense, as characters from across the Multiverse converge to tell a franchise-altering story, one that will irrevocably impact Power Rangers stories moving forward – in both the comics, and future on-screen entries into the series. The start of the “Darkest Hour” event was a stand-out story in 2023, suggesting its climax will be major news in 2024.
Power Rangers Debuts New Dark Ranger Army, as the Franchise’s DARKEST HOUR Arrives
As the year-long Power Rangers “Darkest Hour” storyline event kicks into full gear, the villainous Dark Specter has made his deadliest moves yet.
Legendary Characters Returned To The Forefront Of Star Trek Storytelling This Year
(IDW Publishing)
Comics became the ascendant medium for Star Trek storytelling in 2023, as IDW’s relaunched Star Trek flagship title, along with the new Star Trek: Defiant series, devoted the majority of the year to a galaxy-spanning “God War,” which concluded in the “Day of Blood.” Both series featured all-star crews, comprised of legendary characters from most of the franchise’s television installments. Notably, however, the series made the most of comic book storytelling, taking inspiration from Marvel’s recent House of X reboot to tell a story on a truly epic scope, befitting the grandeur of the Trek universe. Promoted as Trek’s “first comic book crossover event,” and a “sequel to Deep Space 9,” the storyline proved much more than that.
“God War/Day of Blood” made the Klingons Trek’s primary antagonists for the first time in decades, as the Emperor Kahless led his fanatical Red Path cult on a quest to destroy the galaxy’s god-like beings, and become one himself. Captain Benjamin Sisko returned from the Bajoran wormhole to face the threat, while Worf and a crew including Spock, Beverly Crusher, and Data’s evil brother Lore, stole the Defiant and took it on a renegade mission to save Worf’s son Alexander. High-octane from start to finish, IDW’s Trek titles succeeded, more than anything, because they revel in being Star Trek stories.
A New Threat Revolutionized The Current Era Of Star Wars Stories
(Marvel)
The current era of Marvel’s Star Wars comics reached new heights of its own this year with the “Dark Droids” crossover, which has recontextualized the year between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, making it one of the most pivotal moments in galactic history in its own right. New villain the Scourge, a sentient artifical intelligence, was revealed to be able to infect and possess hordes of droids across the galaxy at once, and schemed to spread to the biological entities of the galaxy. The story gave the franchise’s villains and heroes an equal threat to fight against, allowing for fresh dynamics that proved vital to the franchise.
One of the most engaging aspects of “Dark Droids” was the unheralded spotlight it afforded Star Wars’ artifical lifeforms. The past year saw stories utilizing droids in a way that had few precedents in the franchise’s previous decades of Expanded Universe content. As was the case for many major intellectual properties this past year, “Dark Droids” made it clear that audiences’ interests go beyond just grand storytelling. Audiences want to see familiar material interpreted in new, unexpected ways. They want remixed character dynamics, and a renewed sense that anything is possible in the story. Despite readers knowing the galactic status quo had to be restored, with Return of the Jedi looming, “Dark Droids” managed to deliver this.
With the Energon Universe established, the “Darkest Hour” ongoing, and the Star Trek and Star Wars galaxies recovering from their respective calamities, the coming year of comic book storytelling from companies like IDW, Boom!, and Skybound is sure to be even more ambitious. Likewise, Marvel’s Fall of the House of X will give way to the Rise of the Powers of X and a new paradigm for mutantkind in 2024, while the Marvel Universe as a whole will face the “Blood Hunt.” DC’s Beast World will play out in the new year, and given its current track record, more major event series are likely in the works at the company.
