Oriental Heroes is the longest running comic book series in China. I have issues that go as high as 960+, published in 1994. I don't know whether the series is still continuing but in it's heyday it was the top selling comic in China. The 55 translated American issues take place somewhere around issues 560 to 670 of the Chinese version. Doing some quick math it's easy to tell that several Chinese issues were being combined to make up one American version. The American comics storyline took place at just about the same time as the Chinese version so what the American audience was reading in 1988 was very close to what the Chinese were reading at the same date. Obviously America was somewhat behind given the time was needed to redisplay the frames and translate the text.

One would think that the American version would eventually pass up the Chinese counterpart given that America was packing two issues into one however the opposite was likely true. The American version was published once a month while the Chinese version was produced on a weekly basis so America was most likely falling behind.

The first issue I have that picks up where the American version left off is issue 685 which means that I missed around a dozen issues. I also must admit that I don't have issue 55 of the American version. Somewhere after the big fight between Global Cult and Red Sect, Old Supreme has miraculously continued to de-age and now appears younger even then his children but the big event is the introduction of Ancestor. Ancestor has become the dominating character in the storyline and remains quite a mystery. Who is he, where did he come from and how come he appears to be capable of fighting every single character in the Oriental Hero universe at once and winning.

Leadership of Global Cult becomes a revolving door. And perhaps we may even see the return of Dragon Wong???