Kurt Busiek and several others, but the company folded after only two issues were published. Empire was completed under the DC Comics label in 2003 and 2004. Waid wrote the first year of Crossgen's Ruse series. Waid began an acclaimed run as writer of Marvel's Fantastic Four in 2002 with his former Flash artist Mike Wieringo, with Marvel releasing their debut issue, Fantastic Four vol. 3 #60 (Oct. 2002) at the promotional price of 9 cents U.S. By June 2003, Marvel publisher Bill Jemas tried to convince Waid to abandon his "high-adventure" approach to the series, and making the book into, in Waid's words, "a wacky suburban dramedy where Reed's a nutty professor who creates amazing but impractical inventions, Sue's the office-temp breadwinner, the cranky neighbor is their new 'arch-enemy,' etc." Waid, who felt that this was too much of a departure from what he had been hired to write, initially declined. After some discussion with editor Tom Brevoort, Waid found a way to make the requested changes, but by then, the decision had been made to fire Waid and Wieringo from the series. The resulting fan backlash led to Waid and Wieringo's reinstatement on the title by that September. Waid and Wieringo completed their run on Fantastic Four with issue #524 (May 2005), by which time the previously relaunched series had returned to its original numbering. In 2003 Waid wrote the origin of the "modern" Superman with Superman: Birthright, a twelve-part limited series which was meant to be the new official origin story of the Man of Steel. Birthright contained several characters and elements from the Silver and Modern Age Superman comic books and homages to Superman: The Movie and the Smallville television series. Waid returned to writing Legion of Super-Heroes in December 2004, teaming again with Barry Kitson. He finished his run on the series with issue #30 (July 2007). In 2005, Waid signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. He co-wrote the 52 limited series with Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Keith Giffen that lasted for one year and covered the events that take place during the year in the DC Universe following Infinite Crisis. Another project for DC was a new launch of The Brave and the Bold with artist George Pérez, and a brief return to The Flash. On July 27, 2007, at the San Diego Comic-Con International, Boom! Studios announced that