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Big Bang Comics is an Anthology Comic series created by Gary Carlson and Chris Ecker, in response due to the many changes during The Dark Age of Comic Books and Ecker feeling annoyed when people said he drew like an old person. The series is a George Lucas Throwback that homages the Golden and Silver Ages, though it also has a few issues set in the Bronze Age and then current Dark Age with more recent issues even being set in the Modern Age. The series started out as buck up stories for Berzerker, bu

Initially being back up stories in a comic series called Berzerker, also created by Garlson, that was published by Caliber Comics under their Gauntlet imprint, but when Big Bang proved to be more popular that the title character a five issue series from 1994 to 1995 was produced. The success of the series led Carlson and Ecker to take their idea to Image in 1996, who published 35 issues until 2001 along with several specials. Following this the series has been self-published by Carlson under new titles, with Big Bang Presents from 2006 to 2007, Big Bang Universe from 2015 to 2017, and then Big Bang Adventures starting in 2019. Several spin-off titles, mostly about the Knight Watchman or other teams, have also been self-published. Also Big Bang at first sprung out from the short lived Megaton comic title created by Carlson, which was described as having new heroes taking over from the previous generation, with the older heroes being reimagined to be the Big Bang heroes and characters like Megaton and Ultragirl returning at times. There was also a 2000 TV movie titled Knights of Justice, which had a low budget and was seemingly a homage to the Saturday morning shows of the 60s and 70s.

Tropes used in Big Bang Comics include:
  • Affirmative Action Legacy: Ultiman's daughter becomes Ultragirl after his death while Galahad's daughter Gwendolyn wants to become the new Kid Galahad in The Graveyard Shift. The story Lady in Waiting. eventually published in Big Bang Universe #1 does show her taking on the identity and Big Bang Adventures #6 had her working with her father.
  • Alternate Self:
    • Some characters, like Ultiman and Knight Watchman, exist on both Earth-A and Earth-B, with their origins simply occurring slightly differently and 20 years apart. Other characters don't exist and have their identities used by other people, like the Beacon and the Blitz, while others lived very different lives, like Thunder Girl who on Earth-A was an normal explorer who went missing.
    • In the case of Mister U.S., the identity is used by a variety of different people in different eras and worlds, with the only consistency being the codename and them being cyborgs: the Golden Age version was Caspar Milquertoast, a 4-F reject who agrees to be part of Project Nazi-Stopper; the Silver Age version was Dave Donovan, an Ordinary High School Student who was mistakenly given a procedure as part of Project Patriot; a second, more campy, Silver Age version was Joseph Average, who tricked a government agency called G.O.O.D.G.U.Y.S to give him the procedure instead of another soldier and had a teenage sidekick named U.S. Junior; the 70s Bronze Age version was Brett Kowaski, a Vietnam draft dodger and hippie who was forcibly transformed into a cyborg as part of Project Perfect Patriot, being threatened to work for the government until he eventually went on the run; the 80s Bronze Age version was Caspar Milquertoast again, now aged and discovering he was in fact a machine crafted onto a corpse instead of a person made into a cyborg like he believed; and the Dark Age version was a nameless person with no memory of his origin.
  • Alternate Universe:
    • Much like how DC separate its Golden Age stories from their Silver Age stories by setting the former in an alternate world, Big Bang has its Golden Age inspired comic set on Earth-B while the rest are set on Earth-A. There is a time difference of two decades between each universe and several characters either don't exist on one Earth or are very different.
    • The Sphinx comes from an entirely different world where ancient Egypt became the dominant power and rules the Earth.
    • Big Bang Comics #8 seems to do this with Mister US, having different people take on the identity in different eras but having no connection to each other and the story treating them as the only people to use the identity.
  • Broad Strokes: The comics being canon to the Megaton comics or other Image titles falls into this, the general approach being that the only thing that is canon is what happens in the Big Bang titles. Adventures also seems to take approach to both the Caliber and Image comics, using Comic Book Time and not being to the letter about the timeline or certain events.
  • Canon Discontinuity: With the exception of the title character, the majority of the Megaton comic stories and characters were either canon in Broad Strokes, reimagined into the current Big Bang cast, or weren't canon at all. This is most notable with the original Vanguard stories, which were replaced with a new version under Image.
  • Canon Welding: Dr. Weird, unlike the rest of the Big Bang cast, is a genuine comic book superhero who first appeared in the 1963 comic Star Studded Comics #1, albeit with a slightly different backstory. Carlson eventually acquired the rights to the character and, given his physical similarities to the characters, used him as the Big Bang equivalent for Doctor Fate and Doctor Strange.
  • Comic Book Time:
    • Actually not used, since the Big Bang heroes were intended to be the older heroes being replaced in the Megaton comics. As a result the characters age from their debut in 1960s (or 1940s in the case of Earth-B) all the way to the present day, meaning characters like Ultiman and Knight Watchman eventually retire while Kid Galahad grows up to become a hero of his own right.
    • It exists with Big Bang Adventures to an extent however. The characters are still treated as having been active from the 60s to 90s, while in stories set in the present day they are usually portrayed as being elderly. However Big Bang Adventures #15, which is set seven years after the original Megaton comics from the 1980s (retconned by Big Bang Comics to have been set in the 1990s), has modern smartphones and text messaging exist. To confuse matters further Adventures #14, which is set slightly before or during Megaton, has Galahad confirm they are in the digital age and have much more modern technology and has Cyclone reference Breaking Bad
  • Continuity Snarl: Not uncommon for the comics for their to be minor to extreme continuity issues due to the anthology nature of the series, not only with the wider Image universe but within the Big Bang universe. Adventures notably portrayed Ultiman without gloves or a belt in certain issues, despite the Earth-A version wearing gloves while Earth-B had a belt, and the addition of Comic Book Time complicates the Big Bang timeline. For instance, Adventures #22 shows Galahad finally joining the Round Table of America along with Cyclone, however this conflicts heavily with Caliber's Big Bang Comics #4 which is seemingly retconned to have occurred earlier, despite it being implied Galahad was already a member then. Both issues also feature Megaton, who canonically never got a chance to be mentored by Ultiman as they planned which stretches the timeline even further.
  • Expy: The characters are obvious homages to DC, and the occasional Marvel, characters, though they don't necessarily share the same origins. Also while there is a primary inspiration for characters, many fulfil multiple roles held by other characters. Notable examples are:
    • Ultiman, Lori Lake and Ultragirl are copies of Superman, Lois Lane and Supergirl. The Earth-B Ultiman counts as a Captain America copy as well since he was rejected from military service due to ill health, while modern readers are more likely to see Ultragirl as a gender swapped version of Jon Kent.
    • Knight Watchman and Kid Galahad are copies of Batman and Robin. Like Batman the Knight Watchman was motivated to fight crime after two loved ones were murdered, but it was his brother and sister-in-law instead of his parents while Kid Galahad is his nephew.
    • Thunder Girl is primarily based on Mary Marvel, but after moving to Earth-A she acts as an equivalent to Supergirl and later joins the Whizz Kids, Big Bang's version of the Teen Titans which means she shares the role of Wonder Girl with Moray. Her moving to Earth-A in a way makes her comparable to Earth-2 Black Canary. However as the third most popular and focused on hero in the Big Bang universe, she serves as an equivalent to Wonder Woman for Ultiman and Knight Watchman.
    • The Round Table of America and Knights of Justice are this for the Justice League and Justice Society.
    • Both Earth-A's and Earth's B's versions of the Beacon and the Blitz are based on the Silver and Golden Age versions of Green Lantern and Flash respectively.
    • Despite what one might think, Dr. Weird isn't based on DC's and Marvel's respective wizard doctors, though it's highly likely they influenced his costume design. Instead he was apparently based on the lesser known hero Mr. Justice, who like Weird was a ghost who fought evil.
    • Protoplasman is pretty obviously based on Plastic Man.
    • Shutterbug is based on Spider-Man, though he lacks the same character's morals and is portrayed as a superhero equivalent to a paparazzi.
  • George Lucas Throwback: The entire point of the comics is to show readers that both the Golden and Silver Ages of comics are just as enjoyable as modern comics.
  • Legacy Character: Kid Galahad eventually grows up to become known as simply Galahad, or occasionally White Knight, but when operating at night he takes on the identity of Knight Watchman.
  • Mockumentary:
    • Big Bang Comics #8 by Image was treated as being a 54th anniversary issue for Mister U.S., with a professor about comic history going over a collection of comics describing the many different origins of the character.
    • The History of Big Bang Comics was this, revealing the fictional "real world" history of Big Bang and it's characters as if they were were a real comic book company. Apparently the creators of Ultiman ended up buying the company while Clint Eastwood starred in a Knight Watchman film in the 1960s.
  • Retcon: Dr. Weird's initial origin had Rex Ward be a time traveller from 2013 who was murdered in 1963, but when he was made part of the Big Bang universe his time of origin and date of death was changed to 2031 and 1941 respectively. Since the character must remain a ghost until the day of his birth, this was done to give the character more adventures. In Big Bang Adventures #4 however, his origin was revised again so that his original time is 2133 though the year of his death remained the same.
  • Retool:
    • In Big Bang Comics #3, Thunder Girl ended up trapped on Earth-A which was used as a way for the writers to give her both Golden and Silver Age stories. The mockumentary material explained that Thunder Girl's fictional creature had a legal dispute with Big Bang that caused the comics to end in the mid 1940s, but they were resolved in the 1960s which allowed the writers to revive the character. Deeming the "original" comics to be too silly, Thunder Girl was moved to Earth-A where she became an Ordinary High School Student with parents and a mean sister while acting as part of the Ultiman Family as well as joining the Whizz Kids.
    • Parodied with Mister U.S. in Big Bang Comics #8, where the character was given a variety of different origins and personalities to reflect the eras he was in. In his Golden Age origin set in the 1940s he was a young man deemed unfit for military service who agreed to take part in a government project that turned him into a cyborg, in the more campy Silver Age he tricked the scientists into making him Mister U.S. and now fights for G.O.O.D.G.U.Y.S with a teenage sidekick, in the 80s the original Mister U.S. was revealed to be a robot with false memories, and in the Dark Ages he's now a very brutal character who doesn't remember his origin. This was an commentary on the the different styles and themes of each decade, the change in villains (Nazis, communists, and terrorists), and certain storylines in Captain America's history.
  • Shared Universe: It is part of Image's loosely defined universe, having crossovers characters like with Savage Dragon and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.