under their Red Circle Comics line of the 1980s. At this time, members of the team consisted of: Black Hood II (nephew of the original Black Hood) The Comet Darkling (later killed off) The Fly Flygirl The Jaguar Lancelot Strong: Shield II (soon killed off) Shield I (the original Shield) The Web II (son of the original Web) This title kicked off the Red Circle comics and lasted thirteen issues. Impact Comics series When DC Comics licensed the Archie superheroes for their Impact line in the 1990s, the team was simply called the Crusaders. The DC series The Crusaders lasted eight issues, from May to December 1992. DC Comics series A new Mighty Crusaders series was released by DC Comics, which assimilated the Red Circle heroes into its continuity following Final Crisis. A series of one-shots lead into two ongoing Shield and Web titles, each of which was canceled after the publication of ten issues. Mighty Crusaders lasted seven issues. In addition to the established Red Circle characters, an original heroine by the name of War Eagle was introduced as well. The new team consists of: The Comet Inferno Flygirl The Shield The Web Hangman The Fox Jaguar The Black Hood War Eagle New Crusaders In 2012, Archie comics returned to The Mighty Crusaders characters. The new series, titled New Crusaders would pick up on the characters from the original series many years after the last of their arch-villains had been defeated. New Crusaders follows the progeny of the Mighty Crusaders as they struggle to become heroes after the return of the Brain Emperor. The series debuted digitally on May 16, 2012, through Archie Comics’ Red Circle app, with print publication scheduled to begin monthly on September 5, 2012. For digital release, issues were divided into fourths and released once a week. A spinoff, Lost Crusade, was announced which would run every fifth week and fill in the gaps between the 1980s Red Circle comics & New Crusaders. Ian Flynn expressed a desire to explore the gap between the 1980s series and New Crusaders: "There were so many open endings when the '80s era series wrapped up that it's hard to choose. What happened to Darkling? Who was the traitor? Did Black Hood figure it out, or just make things worse? Did anyone mourn Doc Reeves? There's tons of stories and characters to explore, and it's honestly hard to choose."