The American

In the late 1980s, Dark Horse Comics published The American, an eight-issue series by writer Mark Verheiden and artist Grant Miehm. The story follows a government-created super-soldier, the latest in a line of patriotic heroes, as he grapples with his programmed purpose and the shadowy organization that controls him. A gritty, revisionist take on the classic all-American archetype, the series stands as an early example of Dark Horse's willingness to deconstruct superhero tropes with a mature, cynical edge.