The Next Men characters made a prototypical appearance as "Freaks" in a lithography plate that was published within the History of the DC Universe Portfolio in 1986.

[3] In addition to exploring mature topics such as sex, abortion, and child abuse, Byrne also set aside some of the more-traditional conventions of the medium, such as "thought-bubbles" and sound-effects.

He stated on his message board: All the Next Men stuff will be coming from IDW in big, honkin' black and white 'phonebooks' in the New Year.

Eventually five of these "Next Men" manage to escape from confinement, but once free, they find that their powers are very greatly enhanced from how they were in their virtual world.

Murcheson works as their handler from that point in the series, intervening when she can and offering a reality check to her naive charges.

Jasmine, afraid they will be killed, seeks solace in the arms of teammate Nathan, and the two unknowingly conceive a child.

Meanwhile, Danny, the youngest member of the team who was not allowed to go on the mission, goes on a quest to find his birth mother.

The two run off to New York City, where Danny hopes to meet his hero, the fictional comic-book character, Action Maxx.

After a publicity stunt for their upcoming comic book, the Next Men are arrested, tried and convicted on multiple counts of murder.

Before they can be sent to prison, Murcheson helps the Next Men escape, and the team lives for a time in a subterranean community of the homeless and disenfranchised.

During his time at the comic-book publisher, Danny is befriended by a young woman named Sandy who is in charge of babysitting him.

As part of this effort, he brainwashes Jasmine into believing that she is his wife and that her time with the Next Men was merely an involved dream.

The 2011 miniseries (which Byrne labels with a "3" in superscript beside each issue number, to continue the numbering of the original series) expands on the time-travel and alternate-reality plots from the initial series, picking up from the cliffhanger ending by stranding each teammate and Agent Murcheson in divergent time periods.

Murcheson is stranded in the South during the American Civil War and is forced into slavery; she later escapes and uses her knowledge of the past to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.