Nexus (comics) - Publication History

Publication History

The series debuted as a three-issue black-and-white limited series, followed by an eighty-issue ongoing full-color series. The black-and-white issues and the first six color issues were published by Capital Comics; after Capital's demise, First Comics took over publication.

On the creation of the series, Baron notes that they had originally pitched a series called 'Encyclopaedias' to the Capital Comics but the company rejected this saying they were looking for a superhero title. Over a drink at a restaurant, Baron outlined his ideas for Nexus to Rude,

Nexus was entirely Baron's idea. He even came up with the lightning bolt for the costume. All that we needed then was a name... a few weeks passed. Baron calls, and, without preamble, just says "Nexus." we finally had our name."

In addition to the ongoing series, First reprinted the original mini-series as a graphic novel and later reprinted the first two years of the ongoing title in the Nexus Legends series. The ongoing series was also supplemented by The Next Nexus, a four-issue miniseries that followed Nexus #52. Following the conclusion of the ongoing series with #80 (May 1991), seven miniseries and two one-shots were published by Dark Horse Comics. The last of these mini-series was printed in black-and-white as a cost-cutting measure; low sales led to the series being discontinued. Although each mini-series had its own issue numbering, Baron and Rude added a sequential number to each, as explained in the back of the first issue of Nexus: Executioner's Song:

The current issue number was figured by continuing First Publishing's numbering, which ended at volume 2, #80. Adding Nexus: The Origin, Nexus: Alien Justice #1-3, and Nexus: The Wages of Sin #1-4 brings it up to 88 — making "Dark Side of the Moon" #89.

This numbering excluded Nexus: Liberator (which neither Rude nor Baron worked on) and crossover specials with Magnus: Robot Fighter and Madman.

Baron and Rude discussed plans to revive the series and/or release a movie, possibly in animated form. (A brief animated test clip was shown at comics conventions). July 2007 through July 2009 they published the miniseries Space Opera, which culminated in a double-size issue #101/102.

The creators' canonical publication list includes 105 issues:

• Volume 1 (Black and White) - #1 - 3
• Volume 2 - #1 - 80
• Nexus: The Origin (#81)
• Nexus: Alien Justice (#82 - #84)
• Nexus: Wages of Sin (#85 - #88)
• Nexus: Executioner's Song (#89 - #92)
• Nexus: God Con (#93 - #94)
• Nexus: Nightmare in Blue (#95 - #98)
• Nexus: Space Opera (#99 - #102)