the line. This series, titled only The Crusaders, launched in early 1992. The first issue saw scriptwriting by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn. The series and the line itself, Impact Comics, were aimed at younger readers. DC Comics attempted to sell Impact Comics titles through news-stands in an attempt to expand the potential market. However, due to internal conflicts, this distribution never happened and the imprint eventually collapsed due to poor sales. The last issue of the DC series was issue 8, cover dated December 1992. The team also served as a partial inspiration for Alan Moore's Watchmen series. Moore had initially imagined the story as being based around second string heroes; "I wanted more average super-heroes, like the Mighty Crusaders line ... [the] original idea had started off with the dead body of the Shield being pulled out of a river somewhere." Moore used this idea when asked to submit a pitch for a treatment of DC Comics' then-newly acquired Charlton Comics properties. Although the treatment was rejected for those characters, DC Comics commissioned Moore to base the story on all new heroes, and the project became Watchmen. Moore later used the Crusaders as inspiration for the Minutemen, the Golden Age predecessors of the Watchmen main characters. Team membership First series The first Mighty Crusaders group was created by Archie under their Mighty Comics line in the 1960s. At that time, members of the team consisted of: Black Hood – first appeared in Top-Notch Comics No. 9, October 1940; revived in Adventures of the Fly #7 (July 1960). The Comet – first appeared in Pep Comics No. 1 in January 1940; revived in Adventures of the Fly #30 (October, 1964). The Fly – created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, first appeared in The Double Life of Private Strong No. 1. Flygirl – first appeared in issue No. 13 of The Adventures of the Fly. Shield – first appeared in Fly-Man No. 31. The Shield first appeared in Pep Comics No 1, January 1940, and was a cover featured character until Archie took over Pep a few years later. The character was relaunched in 1959 as The Private Life of Lancelot Strong (bh Simon & Kirby), and appeared in Fly-Man 31 with trunks instead of the singlet style American flag suit as used in the original incarnation. Second series The second Mighty Crusaders group was created by Archie Comics