Anti-superhero Zenith returns to print

It has just been announced that after being stuck in legal limbo for more than two decades, Grant Morrison's anti-superhero Zenith is finally staging a comeback in a hard-fought resurrection worthy of any comics storyline.

In December, the publishing company Rebellion, which owns British comic 2000AD in which the character first appeared in 1987, will bring out a limited edition 480-page hardback collecting the complete series and retailing at a sobering £100.

Zenith has achieved cult status not only for it being one of the classic early works of Glasgow-born Morrison – whose successes include revamps of long-standing characters such as Superman and Batman as well as his own creations, including The Invisibles – but for the legal row that has kept it out of print for almost a quarter of a century.

Since the series ended its run in the weekly comic and was collected into five trade paperbacks between 1988 and 1990, the character has been involved in a tug of war over ownership – Morrison says he and artist Steve Yeowell retained the rights to the work, while Rebellion says it was always work-for-hire, and thus owned by 2000AD.

Announcing the plans for the hardback, Rebellion said: "Both Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell have been informed of the exciting plans." Rebellion has taken legal advice and are happy that they have full ownership of the Zenith strips, and therefore the right to reprint them – though it appears they are going ahead without Morrison's blessing.

The original 2000AD issues are hard to find and the five collected softback albums from the late 80s change hands on eBay for up to £100 each.

Zenith appeared in the same era as gritty, adult superhero tales such as Alan Moore and David Gibbons' Watchmen and Frank Miller's Dark Knight. In contrast, he was handsome, achingly cool and superpowered – but chose not to fight crime, instead using his abilities to become a celebrity and pop star. In his book Supergods, Morrison writes: "Zenith was intended to be as dumb, sexy, and disposable as an 80s pop single; Alan Moore remixed by Stock Aitken and Waterman."

The clean lines of Yeowell – who partnered Morrison on other projects, including The Invisibles and Sebastian O – gave suitably 80s monochrome life to Zenith, who sported a Morrissey quiff and leather jacket.

In an interview with former 2000AD editor David Bishop in 2007, Morrison said: "[Zenith] was very much a reaction against torment superheroes. Dark Knight is a brilliant piece of Reagan-era fiction and Watchmen is very, very clever in its architecture, but both books felt pompous and concept album-y to me as a young man in the 80s. I wanted to do something a little less self conscious perhaps, or to align myself with a different current of thinking … I decided to make it about the superficial things I was into at the time: clothes, records, TV shows. Instead of creating an aspirational superhero, I gave Zenith all of my worst, most venal traits. I wanted to create a postcard from the 80s."

Not that the story was as shallow as Zenith – it was a raw, first outing for a lot of what would become recurring Morrison themes, including malign pan-dimensional entities, morally ambiguous superhumans, and familiar faces from real-life popular culture (one character in Zenith bears more than a passing resemblance to Richard Branson).

Mike Molcher at Rebellion said in the announcement: "Zenith heralded the arrival of a talent who has since gone on to become one of the biggest names in in comic books. A very cynical British take on superheroes, Zenith demonstrates [Morrison's] remarkable depth and maturity as a writer. Yeowell's striking black and white artwork gave a the strip a vitality and rawness that still shines through today."

The collection will also include a Zenith strip by Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar which appeared in a 2000AD winter special in 1990. Morrison and Millar were previously good friends and writing partners, but in a 2011 interview Morrison said of their relationship: "There's not good feeling between myself and Mark for many reasons."

The Zenith hardback will be published on December 1 and available to pre-order from 2000AD from July 1, though will be limited to 1,000 copies. Whether it will be followed by a mass-market and more affordable edition, Rebellion has not said.