List of dystopian comics
This is a list of dystopian comics.
- 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa; the second half of the story is set in Japan after a former cult leader known only as "Friend" controls the entire world.
- "The Age of Apocalypse" is an alternate reality of the X-Men. Attempting to kill the mutant Magneto in the past, before he can become a threat, the time-traveler Legion instead killed his own father, Charles Xavier, who took the shot to save his friend of that time. In this timeline, Magneto took the dream of Xavier for himself and started the X-Men, while the mutant Apocalypse created a dystopia where humans were destroyed. This dystopia would be erased from existence by a second time travel by Bishop, who prevented Legion from killing either Xavier or Magneto and so restored the usual Marvel continuity.
- Akira, also set in a post-nuclear Tokyo, touches on themes like youth alienation and government corruption.
- Alpha Girl, a comic about a group of survivors trying to survive a zombie apocalypse while working to save the brother of one of the group
- American Flagg is a comic book series created by writer-artist Howard Chaykin, published by First Comics from 1983 to 1989. A science fiction series and political satire, it was set in the US, particularly Chicago, Illinois, in the early 2030s.
- Appleseed by Masamune Shirow is a science fiction manga which combines elements of the cyberpunk and mecha genres with a heavy dosage of politics, philosophy, and sociology.
- Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama follows a group of humans as they try to survive and prevent mankind's extinction from the terror of the Titans.
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a non-continuity tale by Frank Miller, portrays an aged Batman returning to fight crime in a dystopian Gotham City.
- Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro
- BLAME!
- "Civil War" - The recent events in the Marvel Universe following this storyline dealing with the Superhuman Registration Act could be seen as dystopian, especially "Dark Reign", in which the supervillains are placed in positions of power.
- "Days of Future Past" is a dystopian future of the X-Men, in which the Sentinels, robots entrusted with protecting the human race from the mutants, take control of all human society. This dystopia is erased by time-traveler Kitty Pryde, who goes back to the present and prevents the events that would lead to the dystopia.
- Eden: It's an Endless World by Hiroki Endo is set in a near-future world where a biological agent has wiped out approximately 15% of the world's population, while leaving a much larger number crippled and traumatized. Political and religious upheaval drastically change the balance of power between nations and organized crime, with the two sometimes becoming indistinguishable.
- Fist of the North Star, also known as Hokuto no Ken, shows a post-nuclear society in which people are threatened by gangs of bikers and violent martial art killers.
- Ghost in the Shell
- The Incal by Moebius and Alexandro Jodorowsky starts in a dystopian futuristic city populated largely by apathetic "TV junkies".
- Judge Dredd is set in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by megacities, like Mega-City One, policed by ruthless lawmen called Judges.
- Marvel 2099 by various authors - The story spans several different books, taking place in a society ruled by a small group of Megacorporations and a corrupt religion known as the Church of Thor.
- Marshal Law takes place in a post-earthquake San Francisco (called San Futuro) where rival gangs of "super heroes" terrorize the city and are hunted by a government-sanctioned vigilante.
- The Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal, consisting of La Foire aux Immortels (The Carnival of Immortals), La Femme Piège (The Woman Trap) and Froid Équateur (Cold Equator), tells of dystopian future Paris ruled by fascist dictatorship.
- No. 6, based on the original novel series by Atsuko Asano
- Ruins by Warren Ellis is the Marvel Universe in which the myriad experiments and accidents which led to the creation of superheroes in the mainstream world instead resulted in more realistic consequences: horrible deformities and painful deaths.
- Long-running web comic Sluggy Freelance told a story of a dystopian alternate dimension where the entire Earth was changed into endless wastelands populated by hordes of mutants as a result of the Research and Development Wars, safe for the last bastion of humanity, 4U City. 4 Us stands for Universal Unified Ubiquitous Utopia.
- Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis concerns a partially dystopian, postcyberpunk take on our world, some unspecified time from now. Nearly everyone lives in "The City," which is overrun with pollution and chaos.
- The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by Shaun Simon and Gerard Way serves as a sequel to My Chemical Romance's album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, and deals with a post-apocalyptic society controlled by a brainwashing corporation and the freedom fighters who attempt to save the world.[1]
- V for Vendetta by Alan Moore follows the exploits of the anarchist V and his struggle in a Britain ruled by a fascist party.[2]
- The Walking Dead depicts the story of a group of people trying to survive in a world stricken by a zombie apocalypse. It is influenced by George A. Romero's zombie movies and other works in zombie fiction.
- Wanted by Mark Millar depicts a world ruled by supervillains.
- Watchmen by Alan Moore depicts an alternate reality where masked heroes actually exist in American society, and how that affects the history of the twentieth century. The book is marked by a strong sense of alienation in a hostile society.
- Y: The Last Man - almost all male mammals in the world have died except for lead character Yorick and his male monkey Ampersand.
- Captain Confederacy (1986, and occasional tie-ins afterward) by Will Shetterly and Vince Stone.
- Elseworlds: Batman: The Blue, the Grey and the Bat (1992) by Elliot S! Maggin and Alan Weiss.
- Elseworlds: Batman: Detective No. 27 (2003) by Michael Uslan and Peter Snejbjerg
- One issue of Supreme written by Alan Moore.
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