1990: DC IN THE UK: SHOCKWAVE

Following the failure of the pricey album-format bi-monthlies DC ACTION (6 issues) and ZONES (4 issues) in 1990, UK licensee London Editions had another crack at the Vertigo-reprint mature-readers market with SHOCKWAVE.

The new monthly, priced 99p and in a much cheaper format than its predecessors, reprinted BLACK ORCHID (previously announced for the never-published ZONES issue 5), ANIMAL MAN (following a truncated run in DC ACTION) and HELLBLAZER.

Animal Man was suspended after two issues in favour of CATWOMAN reprints.  He was due to resume in issue five but, true to London Editions form, it was never published.

Shockwave had the working title SHADOWS which survived into pre-launch house ads.

Unlike the demise of its predecessors, LEM didn't have a third crack at repackaging the same material.

ISSUE ONE

ISSUE TWO

ISSUE THREE

ISSUE FOUR

PRE-LAUNCH ADVERT FOR SHADOWS

LEM HOUSE-AD FROM 1991.

SUPERMAN, BATMAN and BATMAN PRESENTS proved to have some longevity, the weekly HEROES and, of course, SHOCKWAVE didn't.