Image United is an incomplete comic book limited series published by Image Comics. The intent of the series was to re-unite the founders of Image Comics on a joint project, serving as a crossover between various Image Universe titles. However, there were delays in production, and only three of the planned six issues were published in November 2009 (plus a spinoff, the prologue-centric #0), with artist Rob Liefeld eventually confirming that no further issues would be forthcoming.[1][2][3]
Image was announced in 1992 as a cooperative publisher with seven partners – Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino – who each created and controlled their own superhero characters. Portacio dropped out before the partnership was formed, Liefeld left the partnership later, and Lee sold his characters and took a position at DC Comics. Although the various creators' characters had occasionally appeared in each other's books, it was rare for them to appear together. Image United was a long-discussed effort to feature them all in a single story.
The story begins with Fortress appearing unsure of his new powers and still adjusting to them. This leads to a run-in with Savage Dragon, who assumes the worst about Fortress, and Fortress accidentally knocks Dragon to the ground. Before the altercation can continue, they both run into Doc Seismic, and a fight ensues, resulting in Fortress finally taking down Seismic after absorbing all his energy. Dragon then thanks Fortress for his help, but after trying to bring him in, Fortress flies off unable to handle the amount of energy he absorbed. He then crashes down onto the ground and passes out after having a vision of all the Image Comics characters standing together.[6]
Issue #1 begins with Fortress continuing to have his vision of the Image Universe characters. In said vision, they face an evil they cannot possibly stand against and are all systematically taken down. Fortress snaps out of it to find himself on a roof in Chicago, before he can get his bearings, he sees Overt-Kill down in the street causing mass destruction while Youngblood arrive on the scene to face down Overt-Kill. Dragon sees the commotion and joins the fray, teaming with Youngblood to stop Overt-Kill.
Meanwhile, at Cyberforce HQ, Cyberforce are seeing violent incidents rising all over the country. Unsure of where to assist first, they conclude that all these incidents arising at the same time can be no coincidence and there must be a larger force at work. At that point Velocity runs in and informs them of big mess in downtown New York City, and they decide to go there first.
Back in Chicago, Dragon and Youngblood are still fighting against Overt-Kill and not having much success. Fortress, tired of standing by, joins the fray, just in time for Diehard's current body to be destroyed by Overt-Kill. He uploads himself into a new body, and as he departs Youngblood HQ, Troll informs him that a new recruit is waiting before he runs out. Fortress, Shaft, Badrock and Dragon continue to engage Overt-Kill in Chicago.
At Youngblood HQ, Eddie Collins, Shadowhawk, is waiting to audition for the team with his father. Troll runs in and informs him that Shaft is out in the field, and that he will be handling the final evaluation. Eddie suits up and says that he is ready.
Back in Chicago, Badrock gets the upper hand on Overt-Kill and destroys his body. Overt-Kill launches his head off, but Shaft grounds him before he can escape. Fortress sees the battle is over, but cannot help but feel that worse things are coming and he must gather more forces. Diehard returns and takes Vogue to a hospital to be treated for her wounds. Dragon starts to leave but Fortress stops him by slamming him into a wall and starts screaming that the world needs them and terrible danger is coming. Dragon punches him down unsure of what Fortress is talking about, Shaft steps in and says that Youngblood will take him into custody.
Back at Youngblood HQ, Shadowhawk has apparently passed all evaluations with flying colors and Troll tells him that he's as good as in. Cougar runs by and tells Troll that Girth, Quantum and Crypt are all active in different locations and that Youngblood is splitting into three teams to assist. Troll tells Shadowhawk that while he must stay to coordinate the effort, they could use Shadowhawk in the field. Shadowhawk agrees with almost no hesitation.
In New York City, Jim Downing is sitting in a room when a voice tells him to rise, and that he is a piece of a plan that has already been set into motion. Jim is unsure of who it is and transforms into Spawn, demanding to know who it is and what they want. Al Simmons then reveals himself as the Omega Spawn, and says that he wants it all, and that Jim Downing is going to help him get it.
Back in Chicago, Dragon arrives back home to find Malcolm watching TV and Angel attempting to help with the chaos. Dragon forbids her before he is called in by the Police Department. His only comment being, "What in the world is going on...?"
At Youngblood HQ, Shaft goes to visit Fortress in his cell, once there Shaft demands to know what he was going on about to Dragon earlier. Fortress says he only knows bits, but that it's going to get worse, and if they do not gather everyone against the coming threat, they will all die.[7]
In New York, Jim Downing comes face to face with Al Simmons, where Al Simmons makes all his plans clear to end the world, and he asks Jim to help him. Jim refuses and engages Omega Spawn in a battle, where Al easily gains the upper hand. Omega Spawn makes it very clear that he is superior, and informs Jim that he will never truly know what he was a part of, and he will never have the answers his sought, as he attempts to deliver a final blow Jim teleports himself to a hospital. He attempts to warn them of the coming threat, but is too weak. He is taken into care by Ann Stevens.
Coincidentally enough this is also the hospital Diehard brought Vogue too after their fight with Overt-Kill. Vogue appears to be sleeping or passed out, and as Diehard attempts to tell her how he feels about her, the hospital is attacked. Diehard rushes to get Vogue to safety, as Ann changes into Mighty Man to assist against the attack.
Shaft continues to speak with Fortress, with Fortress explaining everything, only for Shaft to doubt his story. Shaft rushes off to assist in the fights as Fortress yells that they need all the help they can get.
In New York Sara Pezzini sees Youngblood and Shadowhawk engaged in a fight with more villains, and rushes in to assist with the Witchblade.
In Chicago SuperPatriot is attempting to fight off even more villains as Dragon enters the fray. After defeating them, they are called in to assist at the hospital where Mighty Man and Diehard are still engaged in battle. Dragon and SuperPatriot enter the fray to assist, but are interrupted by the timely intervention of Spawn who dispatches the villains with ease as the other heroes assist in evacuating the Hospital.
Over in Hartford, Cyberforce is still engaged in battle, which is ended due to the intervention of apparently newcomer, Barricade, who apparently also got his powers from Cyberdata. Cyberforce decides to keep Barricade with them, and check in with Youngblood to see if they have a better understanding of what is going on.
Flashes are shown of Seattle, Huntington, St. Louis. Orlando, Detroit and Los Angeles, showing The Darkness amongst others engaged in battle with multiple villains who all appear to be getting the upper hand.
In Chicago, Spawn is explaining the situation to Diehard and Dragon, and reveals Al Simmons, the Omega Spawn as the villain to them. At that moment, Youngblood arrives to pick up Diehard, who takes Dragon and Spawn with him for any help and information they can provide.
Back at Youngblood HQ, Fortress continually tells himself that it's too late. The New York Youngblood team has defeated their villains and Shadowhawk is telling his dad that is fine. Shaft and his father are at the HQ, and await their return.
In New York a massive group of villains has assembled, poised to destroy New York City, under the orders of the Omega Spawn. They run towards the Statue of Liberty in a group attack.[8]
Reception
The first issue selling just over 42,000 copies,[9] and the second selling around 27,500.[10] Both issues sold out, warranting additional printings. Despite the good sales, the series thus far has received poor reviews. Comic Book Resources awarded the first issue two stars out of five, another review from the website gave it one-and-a-half stars out of five.[11][12]IGN gave similar reviews, awarding issue #1 a "Mediocre" score of 5.8 out of 10[13] and issue #2 a "Bad" score of 4.3 out of 10.[14]
Delays
Additional criticism fell upon the delays between the second and third issues. Rob Liefeld commented on his Twitter, saying, "It goes without saying that Image United is a massive embarrassment. Damn shame the enthusiasm for the book not shared by all."[15]
Said delays have also caused multiple spin off books to be produced. First was Image United #0, also written by Robert Kirkman, featuring the same jam style art contributions from Erik Larsen and Whilce Portacio, drawing Savage Dragon and Fortress respectively, and additional art by Image mainstay Ryan Ottley, handling art chores for Doc Seismic.[16] It was initially released as a four-part back-up ran in Savage Dragon, Invincible, Witchblade, and Spawn.[17] It was meant to act as a prelude to the series and was collected in a single issue (with a bonus parody story, Image United by G-Man creator Chris Giarrusso) in February.
The second book was to be called Image United Interlude, also written by Kirkman, featuring art by Ryan Ottley. Solicitations for the book focused on the effects of the story on other characters within the Image Universe, including Invincible. It was meant to follow the "cataclysmic events" of Image United #3.[18]
Image United #4 and #5 were solicited for an April and May 2010 release and another fill-in issue titled Image United: Interlude was solicited for March 31, 2010. That interlude would feature other heroes from the Image Universe such as Invincible but was not published.[19] In December 2010, Kirkman stated in a video interview that Image United was definitely going to finish the book.[20] In January 2011, Erik Larsen stated, "Image United #4 is about 60% done. The thing is, there are pages that are completely done and sitting there finished and there are others out there that need one guy to come in and do his character then it's done. There's a few pages where more work is needed and three or four guys all need to be jamming and not everybody showed up. It's kind of a mish-mash in terms of that." As the "defacto middleman and editor" of the book, Larsen explained that other commitments prevented the creators involved from finishing their work on time, but stated that McFarlane took responsibility for the nine-month delay between the second and third issues.[19] In March 2011, Erik Larsen commented that issue #4 was 'about 60% done,' and that he was laying out issue #5. By 2014, Larson described the project as "dead" and said that there was nothing he could do to advance it.[21]
By early 2019, Rob Liefeld said he was still determined to finish the Image United series.[22] However he later confirmed that the series is unfinished as it is officially 'dead'[1][2][3]
Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share.Its best-known publications include Spawn, The Walking Dead, Kick-Ass, Invincible, Jupiter's Legacy, Witchblade, The Maxx, Savage Dragon, Bone, Saga, Radiant Black and Stray Dogs.
Marc Silvestri is an American comic book artist, creator and publisher. He is CEO of Top Cow Productions and Image Comics.
Robert Liefeld is an American comic book creator. A prominent writer and artist in the 1990s, he is known for co-creating the character Cable with writer Louise Simonson and the character Deadpool with writer Fabian Nicieza. In the early 1990s, Liefeld gained popularity due to his work on Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and later X-Force. In 1992, he and several other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which started a wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than by publishers. The first book published by Image Comics was Liefeld's Youngblood #1.
ShadowHawk is a comic book antihero created by Jim Valentino for the Image Universe.
Youngblood is a superhero team that starred in their self-titled comic book series, created by writer/artist Rob Liefeld. The team made its debut as a backup feature in RAMM #1 before the next month appearing in the one-shot Megaton Explosion #1 before later appearing in April 1992 in its own ongoing series as the flagship publication for Image Comics and the wider Image Universe. Youngblood was originally published by Image Comics, and later by Awesome Entertainment. Upon Rob Liefeld's return to Image Comics, it was revived in 2008, 2012, and 2017. In 2019, Liefeld revealed that he has not owned the rights to Youngblood for several years.
Erik J. Larsen is an American comic book artist, writer, and publisher. He currently acts as the chief financial officer of Image Comics. He gained attention in the early 1990s with his art on Spider-Man series for Marvel Comics. In 1992 he was one of several artists who stopped working for Marvel to found Image Comics, where he launched his superhero series Savage Dragon – one of the longest running creator-owned superhero comics series – and served for several years as the company's publisher.
William "Whilce" Portacio is a Filipino American comic book writer and artist noted for his work on such titles as The Punisher, X-Factor, Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Wetworks and Spawn. Portacio was also one of the seven co-founders of Image Comics, though he did not become a full-partner in the company, and is therefore not a member of its board of directors.
Deathmate is a six-part comic book crossover between Valiant Comics and Image Comics published in 1993–94. The series is remembered for its negative impact on comic book retailers and the industry as a whole due to its late, over-ordered but poorly-selling books.
Brigade is an American comic book published by Image Comics and later by Awesome Entertainment, created, plotted, and originally written by Rob Liefeld and first illustrated by Marat Mychaels as a spin-off from the then-popular series Youngblood.
Cyber Force is a comic book series created by Marc Silvestri in 1992 through his publishing studio, Top Cow Productions, and published by Image Comics.
Badrock is a superhero appearing in comic books published by Image Comics. Created by Rob Liefeld, he was originally named Bedrock and first appeared in Youngblood #1.
Splitting Image is a 2 issue comic-book limited series created in 1993 by Don Simpson and published by Image Comics. It satirizes the founders of Image and their initial titles such as Savage Dragon, Spawn, Youngblood, WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams, Cyber Force, Shadowhawk, Wetworks, and Pitt. Issue #2 ends with a cliffhanger ending featuring Megaton Man, Captain Everything from normalman, and Mr. Spook from Tales of the Beanworld which was continued in the Megaton Man/normalman Special. In 2017, to celebrate the publisher's 25th anniversary, Image released an 80-Giant Special collecting both issues of Splitting Image along with the Normalman/Megaton Man special and supplementary material.
Judgment Day was a limited series published by Awesome Comics from June to October 1997 written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Rob Liefeld, with additional art by Gil Kane. This story features several characters created by Liefeld for both Awesome Comics and the Image Universe, including Supreme, Youngblood and Glory, dealing with the concept of superheroes being tried for murder. The series also features characters created by other Image Comics creators such as Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon.
Shaft is a superhero created by writer/artist Rob Liefeld. Liefeld created the character for his Extreme Studios as the leader of superhero team Youngblood.
Hank Kanalz is an American comic book writer and editor. He was the Senior Vice President of Vertigo and Integrated Publishing at DC Comics, and was formerly General Manager of the WildStorm brand for DC Comics. He also serves as Head of Publishing for Immortal Studios, a content provider that specializes in comics and more in the wuxia genre.
Barack Obama has appeared as a character in comic books published by a number of publishing companies, sometimes appearing as a realistic fictionalized version of himself and sometimes as a spoof.
Haunt is an American comic book published by Image Comics. Created by Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman, the series debuted in October 2009 and ended in December 2012 after 28 issues. The comic was originally written by Kirkman with pencils by Ryan Ottley, layouts by Greg Capullo, and inks by McFarlane, to a mixed to positive critical reception. Joe Casey and Nathan Fox took over as the book's creative team as of Haunt #19 to a universally negative reception, abandoning the original storyline and supporting cast and serving as a tie-in to the pair's Spawn series, in which Haunt is featured as a supporting character.
Khary Randolph is an American comic book artist. He has worked on such series as Starborn, Charismagic, Tech Jacket, Mosaic, and Excellence; and for such publishers as Marvel Comics, Epic Comics, DC Comics, Aspen Comics, Image Comics, and Boom! Studios.
This is a bibliography of the comic book writer Robert Kirkman, the co-creator and writer of Invincible and The Walking Dead.
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