World Wrestling Federation Battlemania

In the early 1990s, Acclaim and Valiant brought the squared circle to comic racks with World Wrestling Federation Battlemania, a five-issue series that captured the larger-than-life personas of WWF’s biggest stars. Scripted by a team including Dwayne McDuffie and Laura Hitchcock, the book pitted grapplers like "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, The Ultimate Warrior, and the Road Warriors against cartoonish villains such as Big Boss Man and The Mountie. Legendary artist Steve Ditko contributed his unmistakable style to the series, lending a surreal, kinetic energy to the in-ring action. A unique crossover of sports entertainment and superhero comics, it remains a vivid artifact of the WWF’s early-‘90s boom.