The Twelve (comics)

Infobox comic book title
title =The Twelve

---

caption=Promotion art for "The Twelve" #1
by Kaare Andrews.
schedule = Monthly
limited = y
publisher = Marvel Comics
issues = 12
Superhero = y
main_char_team=Blue Blade
The Black Widow
Captain Wonder
Dynamic Man
Electro
Fiery Mask
Laughing Mask
Master Mind Excello
Mister E
Phantom Reporter
Rockman
Witness
writers = J. Michael Straczynski
pencillers = Chris Weston
inkers = Garry Leach
Chris Weston
colorists = Chris Chuckry
letterers = Comiccraft
Jimmy Betancourt
editors = Tom Brevoort
Molly Lazer
Joe Quesada
creative_team_month =October
creative_team_year = 2008
creators = J. Michael Straczynski
Chris Weston
TPB = Volume 1 hardcover
ISBN = 0-7851-3372-0
subcat = Marvel Comics
sort = PAGENAME

"The Twelve" is an American comic book limited series from Marvel Comics, which the company announced in July 2007 would run twelve issues beginning spring 2008, with the creative team of writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Chris Weston.Arrant, Chris. [http://www.newsarama.com/Comic-Con_07/Marvel/TheTwelve.html "SDCC '07: Marvel's "The Twelve" Revealed"] , Newsarama. July 26, 2007] The series stars 12 obscure characters from Marvel's earliest incarnation as Timely Comics from the 1940s period historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books.

Publication history

Writer J. Michael Straczynski said in July 2007 that the story concerns 12 superhumans randomly kidnapped by the Nazis during World War II in order to study their powers for the Nazis' "Master Race" efforts. The superhumans were put in cryonic suspended-animation until the present day, when a construction project in Berlin, Germany inadvertently uncovers them. The series explores the culture shock of people from the 1940s being revived in the present day. "I wanted to explore their reactions to us, and our reactions to them ... what was good about the World War II period that we lost, and what was not so good about it that we've eliminated in all but them".

Plot synopsis

As related by the Phantom Reporter: During the World War II Battle of Berlin in 1945, a dozen of the many superheroes and masked crimefighters of that era are ambushed by Nazis in the basement of an SS building, where the heroes are gassed and placed into cryogenic suspension for later experimentation, but the building is air bombed soon after and anyone aware of their situation is killed. In the present day, construction workers find this bunker, and the Twelve, as they become known, are revived. Put into the care of the U.S. military, they are housed together in a mansion where they receive counseling and support, are gradually made to understand that decades have passed, and are offered a role as heroes in the 21st century.

The Twelve adjust in various ways: The Blue Blade becomes a celebrity; the Phantom Reporter starts a column for the "Daily Bugle", Dynamic Man allies himself with the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies and throws himself into heroics; the Black Widow reconnects as the "instrument of vengeance" of an unknown party and begins going on missions; and Rockman bemoans being cut off from an underground kingdom that may or may not exist. On ballistics evidence, police arrest the Laughing Mask for a 1940s murder. In addition, the daughter of the creator of the robot Electro reclaims possession of the robot.

In framing story set "much later", the Phantom Reporter, gun in hand, stands over the body of the Blue Blade, regretting the man's death.

Membership

The Twelve are: [ [http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=125573 12 Days of the Twelve: Rockman] , Newsarama, August 16, 2007]

*The Blue Blade
*The Black Widow (not the modern character of that name)
*Captain Wonder
*Dynamic Man
*Electro
*The Fiery Mask
*The Laughing Mask
*Master Mind Excello
*Mister E
*The Phantom Reporter
*Rockman
*The Witness

Collected editions

The series is being collected into two volumes:

*"Volume 1" (collects "The Twelve" #1-6, 144 pages, hardcover, October 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3372-0)

Notes

References

*gcdb series|id=27818|title="The Twelve"
*comicbookdb|type=title|id=16385|title="The Twelve"

External links

* [http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=12252 JMS Talks Timely About "The Twelve"] , Comic Book Resources, November 1, 2007