Let's Talk About Image United

Oh boy! It’s Image United!! The massive crossover story from a company that has openly criticized Marvel and DC for making giant crossover stories! Hypocrisy is awesome, especially when it is used to make money!

All of the original Image founders have returned to this story (Jim Lee on covers), and they’re bringing their original characters with them. Each creator will be drawing their own characters for this story. That means you will get to see characters brought back from comic obscurity, like Shadowhawk and Youngblood. Does this excite you? I’m not excited, that’s for sure. The majority of this cast is dead to me. They exemplify the dark ages of comics, which was the 90’s. The gathering of these characters is like going to a high school reunion. It’s awkward and you feel forced into it. Not to mention the original founders were not that great when it came to deadlines. The reason why most of these characters fell into obscurity is due to their books being late all the time. Whether all of these issues ship on time is anyone’s guess.

They also announced that Al Simmons, the original Spawn, will be the big bad for this story. You probably just thought “What does he mean ‘original’”? I thought Al Simmons was Spawn.” I know, that’s what I thought when I heard that information too. Apparently Spawn blew his own head off and there is a new Spawn, not that you probably care. Now Al is mad! How mad? He grew big horns on his head and started using HGH! You’ll see him in all of his evil glory in the picture above. You may notice that he looks just like Darkness from Legend. Tim Curry should be suing the pants off of these guys! On a side note, no make-up was used in the move Legend. Tim Curry appears in his natural form.

In true 90’s fashion there will be about 7 seven different covers to collect. There will probably be a foil, hologram, embossed variant of each at a later date. At $3.99 a piece, Image is really helping out their devoted fans in these difficult economic times. Thanks guys, I always thought paying my power bill was overrated anyways!

In the midst of this 90’s reunion, a new character emerges. His name is Fortress, pictured to the right, and here is what creator Whilce Portacio had to say about him.

Fortress is introduced as the ultimate mysterious new character with almost no understanding of what he is. He fumbles through the event, eventually finding it in his heart that he is part of this new whole and gives his all to protect Image.

What does that even mean? It sounds like Portacio doesn’t even know what’s going on with anything. Fortress better do something cool in the story, he has to make up for that costume somehow.

Thankfully, it was recently announced that Invincible will be in the event at some point. Why you don’t put your most popular character at the center of this story is beyond me, but at least he shows up. If you read Invincible on a regular basis you already saw an “Image United” in the “Invincible War” story. In my opinion, this was a crossover story that held true to what Image has been preaching for a while now. A self contained issue, with a huge story, that featured all of the characters from Image United. Not a seven issue blowout that will cost you about $25.00 to collect.

Either way, you’re probably going to read Image United #1 when it arrives at Coast City this Wednesday. I’ll be right there with you. Despite my complaints, I’m curious and I want to know what happens. I hope that I’m pleasantly surprised and I really love this story. It has potential to be really cool, despite the hypocrisy from it’s creators.

If you guys think I’m totally wrong about what I said above, then I want to hear about it! Please email me at chad@coastcitycomics.net. That’s right guys! I’m official now! I desperately want to hear from you. Tell me your hopes, dreams, anything you want. I have a lot of free time, so I’ll read anything you want.

Until next time!
-Action Chad