[3] The Archie Adventure line began with titles centered on the Fly, the Jaguar, and a superheroic/spy version of the 1930s pulp character The Shadow.

[5] This team, which followed the success of the Avengers and the Justice League of America, was made up of the Shield, the Fly (re-dubbed Fly-Man), the Black Hood, and the Comet.

Calling themselves the Mighty Crusaders, they initially came together as part of a plan by the Fly's nemesis the Spider to trap the hero.

In 1992 DC Comics acquired a license to publish the characters, and launched a team book as part of the line.

Moore had initially imagined the story as being based around second-string heroes: "I wanted more average super-heroes, like the Mighty Crusaders line ... [the] original idea had started off with the dead body of the Shield being pulled out of a river somewhere."

Although the treatment was rejected for those characters, DC Comics commissioned Moore to base the story on all-new heroes, and the project became Watchmen.

At this time, members of the team consisted of: This title kicked off the Red Circle comics and lasted 13 issues.

When DC Comics licensed the Archie superheroes for their Impact line in the 1990s, the team was simply called the Crusaders.

A new Mighty Crusaders series was released by DC Comics, which assimilated the Red Circle heroes into its continuity following Final Crisis.

The series debuted digitally on May 16, 2012, through Archie Comics’ Red Circle app,[16] with print publication scheduled to begin monthly on September 5, 2012.

Dark Circle comics started a new run in December 2017 featuring the new Shield (Victoria Adams), Steel Sterling, Firefly, Darkling, The Comet and Jaguar.

Recently, Archie Comics has reprinted some of the Mighty Crusaders adventures in a trade paperback collection under the "Red Circle Productions" name.

[23] Carded Action Figures were produced in 1984 for some of the Mighty Crusaders by the Remco Toy Company, featuring packaging art by Steve Ditko.