Renegades (BH Franchise)

The Renegades is a franchise that launched a film series, a video game series, comic books, and novels. It was started in 1979 with the premiere of the first film. Due to its depiction of the US government during the Cold War, it was banned in the United States until 1995, as have its sequels up to that year.

Films
The Renegades series started off as a military-drama film about the Cold War, but over the years, especially once the Cold War was over, the series focused less on drama and more on action. With the revamp of many film series such as James Bond and Batman around the mid 2000's, the Renegades followed suit in recreating themselves as a grittier title with 2009's Renegade.
 * 1) The Renegades (1979)
 * 2) The Renegades 2 (1982)
 * 3) The Renegades 3 (1984)
 * 4) Greetings from Mother Russia (1988)
 * 5) Renegades: Operation Overkill (1993)
 * 6) Return of the Renegades (1996)
 * 7) Renegades 2000 (2001)
 * 8) Space Renegades (2003)
 * 9) Renegades: The Next Generation (2005)
 * 10) Renegade (2009)
 * 11) The Renegade Returns (2012)
 * 12) Renegade's Revenge (2015)
 * 13) Renegade: The Last Ride (2018)

Cartoon
A cartoon of the show was created in 1985 for American viewers who enjoyed the original film and were angry that it was banned. The government issued a cartoon company to make a Saturday morning kids show as a replacement that they could control to create a pro-American substitute.

The Renegades Cartoon Series

Video Games
An original arcade game was made in 1987, but a video game adaption of the film series was made in 2002 with the release of Renegades: The Video Game. At the time the films have moved away from their military-drama roots and moved toward the trend of over the top action with silly premises, perfect for video games. As the video games went on, they stayed on their silly premise course even when the films became more serious and grounded again.
 * 1) The Renegades Arcade game (1987)
 * 2) Renegades: The Video Game (2002)
 * 3) Renegades 2: Medal of Valor (2003)
 * 4) Renegades Racers (2004)
 * 5) Renegades 3: Iraq Incident (2005)
 * 6) Renegades: Zombie Attack! (2005)
 * 7) Renegades Racers 2 (2007)
 * 8) The Renegades: Dog Fights (2008)
 * 9) The Renegades Arcade Game Port (2008)
 * 10) Renegades: Survival (2010)
 * 11) The Renegades Simulator (2011)
 * 12) Cyborg Cop vs the Renegades (2012)
 * 13) Cyborg Cop: Solo Missions (2015)
 * 14) Cyborg Cop vs the Renegades 2 (2016)

Comic Books
Marvel penned an ongoing Renegades series to accompany the children's cartoon. It lasted 66 issues and spanned from 1985 until 1990 when it was cancelled due to insufficient sales. The Marvel series was picked up again for two ongoing series in 2007, Classic Renegades (lasting 37 issues), and The Renegade (ongoing).

Outside of Marvel, Alan Moore did a mini-series exclusively for European readers. Since it was based on the films and not the cartoon, Marvel did not own the rights. The book was called The Renegades: Divided.

Novels
Besides novelizations of most of the films, there have also been several original novels written about the fictional universe of the Renegades starting in 1984 with the British novel "Dukes of Justice, a Renegades Story." These novels made it passed American censors, allowing the general public to catch a glimpse of the Renegades and is what led to the demand for their return in 1995.

Toys
A line of action figures based on the original film were made in the 1980's but were soon taken off shelves as they were deemed too inappropriate for young children. In 1986 a second line of toys were put into production based on the children's cartoons which were based on the same characters.