During World War II, several heroes were captured by the Nazis and cryogenically frozen, to be experimented on later. The year is now 2008, and the heroes are found and revived, they are the Twelve.
The series had been put on hold after issue 8 in december 2008, after a falling out between the writer of the comic, J.M. Straczynski and then editor in chief of Marvel Comics, Joe Quasada.
The series briefly returned with a one-shot in 2010 named The Twelve: Spearhead, written and drawn by the original penciler of the series. In 2012, the series finally continued publication, with the original artist and writer as the creative team, finishing the 12 part story.