Oh good Lord, Brett Ranter is actually making a movie from Rob Liefeld's Youngblood.

Lock all the doors and windows, clean out the underground bunker, stock up on canned goods and non-perishable milk, stockpile weapons, and get a generator or two. The friggin' Apocalypse is upon us.

Some time ago, there was a "Coolness Meter" on the back page of a Marvel Handbook. Stan Lee and the OHOTMU series were at the top, and "Greedo shooting first" and "bankruptcy" were at the bottom. And guess what was also on this list? "Guys who leave to work for Image"!

I wonder who they were referring to. They must not like them very much as they put them on the Uncool end of the Meter!

Does anyone know who they might be referring to?

Given that Marvel later let some of those Image guys do Heroes Reborn that would qualify as Hilarious In Hindsight.

Hey Keith, I went to that website you showed me in your hyperlink, and I looked under "Comic Books", but the example of Marvel letting the Image guys do "Heroes Reborn" was not listed.

Is that because you made it up? Perhaps you could suggest this example to them at some point.

BTW, who was it specifically that "left Marvel to work for Image"? I'm afraid I'm not too clear about that. Also, what was "Heroes Reborn" about? Was that the storyline with the "Pocket Universe" created by Franklin Richards?

If you could let me know, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

I thought it sounded fitting for that Trope. I'd like to actually see the page in question before I make an entry on the page. Do you remember what month & year that Coolness Meter appeared?

According to Wikipedia they were Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino & Whilce Portacio.

I'm not an expert on the Heroes Reborn stuff (I've read the Fantastic Four issues, but can't remember if I read any others). For some reason Marvel decided to rework/reboot some of their characters (Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America & the Avengers) & Jim Lee & Rob Liefeld were given the jobs of "updating" the characters. & the explanation was that the heroes after fighting Onslaught ended up in a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards & the whole experiment lasted a year before the Heroes went back to the normal Marvel Universe.

Thanks for the info, Keith. Interesting stuff.

Anyway, the Coolness Meter appeared at the end of "The 1990's Handbook" which came out in 2007.

Other items on the Uncool end of the Meter were "Monica Lewinsky", "Mullets", "The Macarena", "Cannon-size handheld guns", "Pagers", "Pogs", "Y2K", and another funny one possibly aimed at former employees, or maybe the competition, "Gimmicky covers".

Just to let you know!

2007? That was long after Heroes Reborn, so wouldn't qualify. I thought it was something that came out before Heroes Reborn.

Thinking about it, Heroes Reborn is basically an early version of the Ultimate Marvel books. The main difference being that with Ultimate they had the rebooted series side by side with the old series.

I don't follow Ultimate Marvel, but I have read the three handbooks that profiled the characters in the various titles.

I prefer the mainstream Marvel Universe, otherwise known as "Earth-616". I also have read titles from the Age Of Apocalypse reality (Earth-295) and the MC2 reality (Earth-982).

There is also the New Universe, that was made fun of and parodied at times, but I have not read the actual comics from that reality, I just read the "1980's Handbook" which had numerous entries concerning it's inhabitants, as well as the Star Brand. In recent years, there were "Untold Tales Of The New Universe" titles released for it's 20th Anniversary.

And there were also 1960's and 1970's Handbooks released as well. I look forward to the "2000's Handbook", which Marvel will probably do, but maybe not for a few more years!

BTW, the New Universe has been designated "Earth-555". Also, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (where all the recent big-budget superhero movies take place) has been designated "Earth-199999".

If you'd like to know more, look up "Marvel Multiverse" on Wikipedia. I did!

Correction: the New Universe is actually Earth-148611. My mistake.

Also, the "House Of M" reality created by the Scarlet Witch in 2005 is Earth-58163. I have read the handbook "Secrets of the House Of M", but none of the other related comics.

Anyway, back to talking about Image Comics. I had read some of them, namely the first few Voltron titles years ago, but that was it. Truth be told, I stick to the Big Two these days, and I rarely if ever buy indy titles any more. I used to, but to save money, I stick to my very favorite comics. Them's the breaks!

Well, I have just viewed the Youngblood #1 review that Linkara (of the web-series Atop The Fourth Wall) did back in 2009, and he also spoke of what Luigi mentioned on this board, also in 2009. The fact that there was a Brett Ratner-directed "Youngblood" movie in the works.

Also, Linkara talked about what Keith and I were talking about last year: some Marvel Comics artists/writers who were dissatisfied with the company at the time and left to start Image. Like I pointed out back then, apparently whoever works at Marvel now think that "the guys that left to work for Image" are uncool, and put them down low on the Coolness Meter that was revealed in 2007.

Anyway, Linkara also referenced the so-called "Dark Age" of comics that began in the early 90s. It being when characters were darker and grittier, many of the male characters were overly muscular, and the women had such large breasts and such thin waists that they could not possibly exist in real life. Also, many of the classic Golden/Silver Age characters in both Marvel and DC were now more brooding and angry, and some were now doing and saying things that probably would not ever have happened in the earlier eras of comics. And another thing: many of these characters, especially the ones from Image, were just plain badly drawn.

And who did we have to thank for that? None other than Rob Liefeld, who is one of Linkara's favorite targets in his "AT4W" videos. Apparently he is not the greatest artist in the world, and Linkara and other comic book fans and reviewers are often keen to point that out.

And yes, Liefeld was "one of them" Marvel guys who quit to form Image.

So, basically, to be the quintessential "Dark Age" comic character, you had to be:

a. overly muscular/overly large-breasted
b. be disturbed in some way and in some cases be psychotic and kill criminals at the drop of a hat
c. be drawn disporportioned and carry gigantic cannon-size weapons like handguns

That last one was used in the DC Elseworlds "Superman: At Earth's End" and ruthlessly mocked by Linkara ("I am a MANNNNN!!")

Well, I guess that's about it. Good ol' Linkara, he has really opened up my eyes to the world of truly bad comics. And believe me, Youngblood #1 definetly qualifies as one.

Now I shall have to go through my comic archives and see if any of my 90s Marvel or DC comics were ever drawn by Liefeld. I would not even have known who he was if it wasn't for.....

Atop The Fourth Wall...Where Bad Comics Burn!

I believe he did DC's Hawk And Dove (just as he's doing the New DC 52 Hawk And Dove), and pissed off the authors because he drew a sequence sideways.

For Marvel he did New Mutants & X-Factor, as well as coming back to do the Heroes Reborn version of Captain America.

Not sure what else he did for the Big Two.

Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss 2 was seized by UK Customs.

The Sword Of Viracocha Lynch #1

This book has a cover date of May, but inside a promo lists it as one of the books coming out in June.
Someone has trouble reading a calendar.

Page 3, Panel 4. Jack Lynch says, "Still doesn't help us locate what we cam for."
Came not cam.

Page 8, Panel 1. Caption reads, "With him it was always what lay just under the surface, the hidden truth that needed discovered."
That should be either 'needed discovering' or 'needed to be discovered'.

Strangeways Here We Come Strange Girl #1

Page 2, Panel 1. Jeremy is trying to ask Beth a question and he says "you don't think it's way too gay" and then we find out he wanted to ask her to a dance.
How exactly is a boy asking a girl to a dance gay?
(Yeah, yeah, some kids use "gay" to mean stupid rather than homosexual.)

NNAN. Beth's parents are the stereotypical holy rollers.
Subtlety? We don' need no stinkin' subtlety in this book! *rolls eyes*

The rapture comes and takes Beth's parents & brother away leaving Beth.
If Beth's parents are the standard I'd expect around 6-7 billion people should have been left behind. ;-)

Page 8, Panel 7. God says, "Earth will no longer enjoy my grace, nor my protection from evil, from Lucifer."
*Looks at the world and its history* When did we EVER have protection from evil???

Page 10, Panel 1. The devil says, "Time has come for Hades dominion over Earth!"
You're mixing your pantheons, Remender.

Lynch #1

Forgot to mention this, but the cover has a May cover date, but an interior advertisement lists it as a June release.
Did anybody at Image know how to read a calendar? ;-)

NANJAO. I got a bunch of comics, most from the '90s, and among them was an Image promotional mag called Inside Image #6. One of the covers mentioned a new upcoming comic called Gen-X which seemed odd to me since Marvel had one called Generation X. Reading the inteview with the artist he mentioned designing a character named Freefall when it dawned on me that this was the book called Gen-13.
Guess Marvel's book (or lawyers) caused them to change the name.

Something Fishy Sharky #3

This was the letter column for the title. 2 thoughts.

1. An actual nit. They used a picture of something as the background which made reading the text very difficult as some sections would be very dark and the text just blended in.

2. The creator was explaining why the issue was late. He explained that Image is made up of units, of which his was a small unit so he was responsible for submitting solicitations, ads, making sure the art was at the printers, etc. Which kind of explains Image's problems with meeting schedules. Rather than one unified department, each group was responsible and if the guy who had to do that got busy or distracted... Whoops!

Was this an early Image comic? Or a recent one?

The issue I have is from 1998, possibly the first issue might have been 1997 as it's listed as a bi-monthly.

Oddly enough, a Sharky series has been uploaded on Keenspot, but I'm not sure if the issue I have is included as what I've read hasn't encouraged me to read through the whole thing.

Untitled Boof #4

Preview of an issue of Boof and the Bruise Crew, but one page says it's for issue 3 and another page says issue 4.

The pages are also printed out of order.
Although given the quality of the "humor", maybe that was intentional?

Untitled SuperPatriot #1 (first miniseries)

Probably a nit for SuperPatriot's first appearance, but...
Why does SuperPatriot's costume have just a shirt over his upper torso? As I understand it he's just a cyborg, an ordinary human with robotic parts, so wouldn't covering up his (apparently) human torso with something besides an easily damaged shirt be a good idea rather than making it an unprotected target?

NANJAO. The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide lists the opening as "one of the most shocking scenes ever presented in a comic".
Guess I've become jaded to "shocking scenes".

That being said a local policeman leads a special agent to the scene where 47 people are up on burning crosses. He tells the special agent that there should be a stink, but the lab guys figured the perpetrators used some kind of chemical.
I mean really, it sounds like the crime scene was discovered, at least, half an hour before what with counting the bodies, having the lab guys come and calling in a special agent, and yet... despite the presence of a fire truck on the first page, there is no evidence that anyone is trying, or had tried, to put the fires out.


Untitled SuperPatriot #4 (first miniseries)

The cover has the cover date as December, but the indicia says November.
Then again the letters page apologizes for being late, so I'd guess it was to be November, but changed it to December and they forgot to update the indicia.

NANJAO. At the beginning of the story Diehard says, "Back off! I'll handle this! He's my friend."
Shame they forgot to add, "If anyone has the right to beat him up, its me!" ;-)


Untitled SuperPatriot: Liberty & Justice #1

I'm not that familiar with SuperPatriot's history, but the previous miniseries showed he was active in the 1940s & 1960s and here in 1995 he discovers he has two children, either late teens or early twenties, so is there any reason why he wouldn't have known that he knocked up his girlfriend and she raised two kids?

SuperPatriot's kids have taken on superhero identities Liberty & Justice. At the end of the first issue we learn their real names are Liberty Farrell & Justice Farrell.
1. What drugs was their mom on to give them those names?
2. How stupid do you have to be to put on a costume and fight crime using your real names???

Prologue Four Weapon Zero #T-1

There are so many computer colorists credited that the editor overlooked Richard Isanove being listed twice.

Untitled The Wood Boy #1

Dirk has come from Lord Paul at White Hill, which had been taken over by the Tsurani who are at war with the unnamed monarch that Dirk tells his story to. He has also brought Lord Paul's daughter & another, both either unconscious or dead (the story doesn't specify). The majority of this issue is Dirk telling the monarch about the Tsurani taking over and what life was like, etc., etc.
It would have worked much better had Dirk told an abbreviated version of events and had the flashback to fill-in readers rather than using the conceit that Dirk is telling all this to the monarch.
I mean really, look at it from the monarch's point of view. Here you are leading an army, a boy has just come from enemy territory bringing with him Lord Paul's daughter and a murderer and when you ask for information he tells this long, dull, rambling story which has very little information about the Tsurani, their weaknesses, their numbers or where they may happen to have troops at the moment. For all the monarch knows, this story may be to distract him while the Tsurani surround his position and attack.

StormWatch was a United Nations superteam tasked to stop terrorism.

Untitled StormWatch #1

On the one hand I suppose the Image boys are to be applauded for coming up with a type of superhero team that doesn't follow the JLA/Avengers model. On the other hand it's not really a good model. Basically the premise is "let's give the UN a super-army". Yeahhhhh... *rolls eyes*

The leader of StormWatch, Weatherman One, is described as a bureaucrat, because, hey, who doesn't think the solution to the world's problems requires a bureaurocrat?
Intelligent people, that's who. Bureaucrats are more likely to be a problem then ever be a solution. They are the weeds in the garden of democracy.

Synergy, basically second-in-command, is a manipulative b****.
Frankly, whenever she gets kidnapped and has to be rescued, I root for the villain(s) to kill her.

Battalion, the leader of StormWatch One (basically the strike force sent into the problem areas), is a whiny dude constantly moping about how most of the rest of the original StormWatch Prime team was killed and how he feels he should have done more to try and save them.
This is the sort of guy who should in therapy, not put in charge of a super-commando squad and loaded down with big guns.

The rest of the team is um... there. With so much time spent on Battalion's inferiority complex the rest of the team rarely gets anything resembling character development and it's only through things like the StormWatch Sourcebook (a Who's Who type book) that we learn anything about backstory & personalities.

Oddly enough, despite the lack of personalities most of the "main team" has kind of a contractual immunity to getting killed for real. (The one exception was also the only one who got anything resembling character development in the actual comic.)

Why would members of StormWatch, and their families, get diplomatic immunity?
Do UN peacekeepers get diplomatic immunity?

Why doesn't Fuji's containment suit have feet? It really makes me wonder how he can walk and move so easily with his legs basically ending at where his ankles should be.


Untitled StormWatch #2

The cover makes a big deal of Fahrenheit & Cannon being introduced, but only Cannon gets focused on.
Off-hand I don't think Fahrenheit ever really got character development (certainly not in any of the issues I have).

Cannon is in charge of StormWatch Two and he's an impulsive, reckless fool who has little regard for tactics.
Yeahhhhhhhh... just the sort of guy you want in charge of a super-commando team and give big guns to. Well, at least, he doesn't seem to whine about losing redshirts Ion & Lancer in future issues.


Untitled StormWatch #5

Page 17, Panel 1. Winter thinks, "All this devastation caused by four of the Warguard!"
Three. Talos, Hexon & Nychos were the only ones released by the Daemonites.


Untitled StormWatch #6

Battalion, who has telepathic abilities, is talking to a man to get information from him.
What?!?


Untitled StormWatch #7

In the flashback to Kuwait when StormWatch Prime was attacked by the Mercs, we see Razor as one of the Mercs, but in issue 1 Diva said that Razor "used to be one of us".
How could Razor have been a member of StormWatch when she attacked the very first StormWatch group?


Untitled StormWatch #15

Page 7, Panel 2. Diva is talking to Cannon and she mentions Rwanda and there is an asterisk indicating that there should be a caption box explaining this, but there isn't. (Fortunately an earlier reference to Rwanda was brought up earlier, but still...)

For some reason Winter's hair is dark rather than white.


Tango At Lantico (Part One) StormWatch #29

Cover lists this as November, but the indicia lists it as October 1995.


Untitled StormWatch #30

So what happened behind the scenes? Last issue, written by Jeff Mariotte, was part 1 and also introduced some new characters to the team. This issue, written by H. K. Proger, is not part two and proceeds to apparently toss the new people under the bus to introduce a new, deadly supervillain group.

StormWatch is overseeing a transfer of weapons, when a superpowered terrorist group attacks and takes the weapons.
You know... StormWatch does have teleporters so why not use them in this weapons transfer? Heck, we even see some old members get transported to Skywatch Two by the teleporters so it's not like the writer forgot about them.


Strange Weather Two of Three Red Sky In The Morning StormWatch #2 Volume 2

The team has become cruder than they used to be.
I can't imagine the discussion of sex coming up in previous issues.

The reason why Fuji has an orgasm every five minutes doesn't seem to make much sense.
It sounds like he's a gas inside his suit, but the suit was supposed to compress his gaseous form which is why he's invulnerable and if he's compressed and invulnerable then his gas molecules shouldn't be moving to every vibration.

In the original series Hellstrike was British, but now he's Irish.

Union was an alien warrior accidentally transported to Earth who became a superhero because he believed he was responsible for destroying a small town.

The Modern Icarus Union #1 (mini-series)

A town is missing, StormWatch shows, runs into Union and assumes that he might be responsible because his power signature is similar to the villain Regent, then they mention that they've been there for hours and Union appeared five minutes ago.
I don't know about you, but if I'd been searching for hours and a guy just shows up, while I would accept the possibility he might be responsible, his absence would indicate that maybe he wasn't. Then again Battalion's not the most competent person around, so...

Union tells a story of fighting some villains and their setting off the self-destruct, later he tells Jill a more involved story about how he had stumbled onto a town filled with Directorate soldiers and then how they set off the self-destruct. So why did Union not mention the hundreds of alien soldiers on Earth? Heck, if you think about it it's possible that some soldiers might not even have been in Chichester when it blew up and this would seem to be something that StormWatch would be interested in pursuing.


Exercise In Futility Union #2 (mini-series)

Page 8, Panel 1. Jill thinks, "What is his superhero fixation all about anyway?"
Well, last issue you told him to tell any supers he ran into that he was a superhero, so maybe he's just following your advice? (Okay, there actually is more to it than that, but the way the writer phrased it, Jill looks like an idiot.


Crusade Union #1 (regular series)

Union thinks to himself that he told Battalion of his arrival on Earth from Aegena and fighting Directorate soldiers in their hidden base on Earth.
No, you said nothing of coming to Earth just that you fought some people and they destroyed themselves and the town.

Angela was an angel who hunted Hellspawn.

Limbo Curse Of The Spawn #9

A flashback shows the ancient Egyptians building the pyramids with slave labor.
Now we know that the builders were actually hired to do the job.

Earlier Angela established that she was thousands of years old, but in this story we learn she was the amalgamation of various women's souls from the days of the cavemen to the "present day".
Guess after she was "combined" she must have been sent back in time.

normalman & Megaton Man were parodies of superhero comics that ran as separate series back in the '80s.

Lest No Bridge Be Unburned normalman - Megaton Man Special #1

Page 22. Caption reads, "And so it came to pass that our heroes found the righes that they so long desired".
Riches, not righes.

Brigade was an outlaw superhero team that fought crime without government sanction... or quality writing.

Sabotage! Brigade #1 (mini-series)

NNAN. This is supposed to be a spin-off of Youngblood and the lead was the former head of Youngblood yet, the main characters make their first appearances in this issue.
Was the main guy even mentioned in Youngblood?

Kayo, who is Japanese, has yellow skin.
Did the colorist not realize that it wasn't the 1940s? Later issues give him a normal skin color.

The team is based in Malibu (which I assume is an in-joke reference to Malibu Comics which published Image at this point) when the news reports that terrorists have wired the Maruka Tower in Washington DC to explode. Two pages later, without any apparent passing of time, Brigade is in DC. Now if they went by plane it should have taken them 6 hours.

The Maruka Tower looks like it violates the building height restrictions in DC.

Oh, how quaint, terrorists have rigged a skyscraper to explode and the police cordon off just the block the tower occupies.
Riiiiiiiiiight...

Unintentionally amusing moment. On Page 8, last panel, Lt. Harding says, "until help arrives from either Youngblood or..." You turn the page and there's a full page ad for Shadowhawk (completely overshadowing Brigade's "big, darn heroes" moment on the next page.)

The bomb goes off and the top of Maruka tower falls over like a tree.
How many people, cars and businesses were destroyed is not important enough to mention.


Eve Of Destruction Brigade #2 (mini-series)

You know, given the simplicity of the hero & villain names at Image, I'm surprised that title isn't the introduction to a new character. ;-)

Last issue Diana Jimenez was broadcasting from Washington DC, now she's broadcasting from LA.
Don't field reporters usually work the same area, unless there is some big story they are sent out to specifically cover?

This issue mentions that Brigade is a rebel superhero group with an outlaw status.
You'd think that might have come up last issue when they showed up to help with the Maruka Tower.
I suppose it's possible that the Maruka Tower incident might have led to the outlaw status, but then 1. one would expect that to be mentioned & 2. Brigade #0 later established that earlier versions of Brigade were involved in murder and theft.


Battlefront Brigade #3 (mini-series)

Page 3, Panel 2?*. "Now that we have anything to discuss. My judgment is final - You are to face execution immediately!"
That should be Not not "now".

* The first panel is a two-page spread, so it's technically the second panel on the page, but others might argue it should be counted as part of the overall sequence.

Stasis's power worked on Genocide, so why don't they work on the member of the Factor?
I suppose it could have been explained in the final issue of the mini-series which I don't have.


Changes Brigade #4

Battlestone calls Roman by name despite Roman not identifying himself and nothing indicates that they had met before.

BTW Roman is the leader of an underwater city.
Good thing they came up with an original name for him rather than something silly like taking the name of another company's famous underwater character and writing the name backwards...

A World Below Brigade #6

In issue 4 Coldsnap was complaining that he couldn't drink because every liquid he touched would freeze. This issue starts with Coldsnap swimming underwater.
Now I am missing issue 5 and this issue states that magic is common in Neuport, so maybe a wizard did it?

Seahawk & Coldsnap's father recognizes Coldsnap despite him now looking like an ice monster rather than a human.
Should have shown him surprised by Coldsnap's new appearance.

Seahawk & Coldsnap's father had spent his life searching for Neuport.
Now if he had said Atlantis it would be understandable, but how could he know that the underwater denizens called their city Neuport?

Supreme was a fairly blatant Superman knock-off.

The Final Fury Supreme #8

The editor's box says that Baldr was Thor's brother and was killed by another sibling, Loki.
Only at Marvel comics was Loki Thor's brother. (And technically it was Hoder who killed Balder since he threw the mistletoe that Loki gave him.)

Shadowhawk was a vigilante who broke bad guys backs.

Enter The Dragon Shadowhawk #4

The Dragon calls Shadowhawk a criminal and Shadowhawk replies that he's a hero, but later he wonders if he is a criminal.
Let's see, Shadowhawk has been breaking criminals' backs which makes him a vigilante and being a vigilante is usually a crime. He's worked to avoid & escape from the police because you'd think he'd know they'd want to arrest him for what he's been doing. When Dragon shows up here Shadowhawk thinks that he knew this would happen, so he must have figured that at some point a superhero would be after him. So why is he so surprised that he's called a criminal? Too many blows to the head?


The Shadow Of The Hawk Shadowhawk II #1

Shadowhawk's actions have inspired a copycat calling himself Hawk's Shadow, who is going around killing criminals which Shadowhawk thinks crosses a line.
I don't know, crippling criminals for life vs. killing them... While being crippled may cause them to reflect on the mistakes of their life and repent it also makes them a burden on society and even if they do repent there's not a lot they can do about it. Being killed on the other hand means that they will never commit a crime again.
Of course the whole morality of the situation is moot since Hawk's Shadow is also a racist who kills a couple for the crime of an interracial marriage, so...
Also in issue 3 of the first miniseries Shadowhawk did kill (or thought he did) the Liquifier by using his grapple to rip out his heart. Although one could argue that since the Liquifier is a giant insectoid that couldn't speak English that he thought he was killing an animal not a human (but he did wonder if it was intelligent).

Splitting Image was a parody of the founding of Image Comics and its creators & characters.

This Bullpen, This Battleground!!! Splitting Image #2

Page 4. Lotus Jee says, "If you turn the page you'll find out! I think I'll call it..." Turn the page and there's a house ad for Youngblood Strikefile, the next page has the continuation of the parody. (WildK.I.T.S. if you were wondering.)

Page 7. Vapor says, "I'll bet we can expect to be attacked just on the other side of this page turn!!!" and there's a house ad showing the Savage Dragon bursting through the wall, guns blazing.
It's sad that wasn't actually a part of the intended comedy, because it was a lot funnier then what Don Simpson went with.

Trencher

Can ugly art be considered a nit? Hard to believe that once upon a time Keith Giffen was capable of drawing well, but looking at this series it's hard to believe that it wasn't drawn by someone having an epileptic fit. Probably the worst art I've ever seen him do (which is saying something.)
The amazing thing is the colorist, Lovern Kindzierski, actually managing to stay in the lines and make it appear semi-coherent without (apparently) going insane.

Prophet was a man involved in a super-soldier project in the 1940s to battle an evil in the future and is aided by a satellite in the sky and a man called Kirby. (Basically a mash-up of Omac, Rip Van Winkle and the Bible.)

Prophecy Prophet #1

NANJAO. Liefield is credited as the writer, which is amusing when the first couple of pages is nothing, but bible quotes.


Prophet & Loss Prophet #3

At the end of last issue, Bloodstrike showed up to arrest Prophet & Kirby and Cabbot said, "You can come along peacefully, but I think I speak for all involved -- that we'd rather you didn't!" This issue has Cabbot saying, "We can do this one of two ways, sport. You can come along peaceful an' quiet or we haul you outta here by force. Before you decide, it's only fair you should know we're specialists where the latter is concerned. So... what'll it be, sport?"

Untitled Prophet #4

FBI agent Mary McCormick captured Prophet last issue and used the government team Bloodstrike to slow him down, but here Prophet & Kirby have been turned over to private businessman Philip Omen.
Wha...?


The Seed Of The Beast Prophet volume 2 #5

NANJAO. The back cover has cameos of Wolverine, Mr. Fantastic, Hulk and Captain America.
I assume this was done at the time Marvel had the Image boys working on the Heroes Reborn books, as you'd think Marvel would otherwise be annoyed at the use of their characters this way.

Page 19, Panel 4. Shaft's word balloon is pointing to Task and Task's word balloon is pointing to Shaft.

Doom's IV were Grimm, a man from the future, Burn, a woman who could set things on fire, Slider, a man who could pass through walls, and Brick, who could turn to sand, they, and Brick's two children, were on the run from the Doom's Corporation who wanted to study their powers and Grimm's future technology.

Untitled Doom's IV #1

"The Doom's Corporation".
Seriously? Why didn't they have a scene where the guy running this has to deal with the market researchers trying to tell him to go with a softer and fluffier name so the general public didn't think there was something dangerous about this company? For that matter, what were the rejected names like? Kill-Em-All Corp.? Murder Millions, Inc.? Tortures Puppies & Kitties Co.?

Such an amazing mash-up of a ripoff, as well.
Doom's IV = Fantastic Four
Brick = The Thing + Sandman
Burn = Sue Storm's original personality + the Human Torch's power
Slider = Johnny Storm's personality + Kitty Pride's power
Grimm = Cable + Ben Grimm's last name
and, of course, Dr. Doom's last name was used for the evil corporation.

Extreme Sacrifice was a crossover that ran through Rob Liefeld's Extreme Image books. Basically Chapel killed himself and became a Hellspawn, then in the future he became the lord of Hell and sent Crypt back in time to... uh, kill off characters that no one wanted to write anymore, I guess. (Does anyone with the whole crossover know if it got any clearer than that?)

Untitled Extreme Sacrifice Prelude #1

Just think, if it had been "Extreme Sacrifice Quaalude" this might have actually been entertaining. ;-)

Okayyyyyy... After Chapel deposed Lucifer in the future, Lucifer came back to the past and took over a guy named Graves who created the Youngblood program.
The same Youngblood program that Chapel was a member of... sooooooooo... why the hell didn't Lucifer try to mess up Chapel's ability to become so powerful in Hell in the first place???

Extreme Destroyer was a crossover that ran through Rob Liefeld's Extreme Image books. It revealed that an alien race named The Keep had visited Earth in the distant past, released a virus that created the Nu Gene that gave some Earthlings superpowers and they would periodically visit Earth and harvest those with Nu Gene powers and abilities, such as trolls, leprechauns & other mythological entities, and now they have come for the Nu Gene superbeings.

Epilogue Extreme Destroyer Epilogue #1

Page 17, Panel 1. The Shepherd says, "For good or ev l".
It's all fun and games until someone loses an i. ;-)

Page 17, Panel 2. In Panel 1 Shepherd told Dash that he couldn't turn his back on The Keep. Here Dash asks, "Would you rather turn your back on me?"
Which is funny because the artist has drawn The Shepherd with his back to Dash in this panel, so he's already turned his back on her.

Page 17, Panel 3. NANJAO. Dash wraps her arms around Shepherd.
You know... maybe if she had had her hands lower she might have been able to do something that would have convinced him to stay on Earth with her? *whistles innocently*

Page 25. Dash is now in her New Men uniform, but in New Force #1 (the preceding part of the crossover) and 2 pages earlier she had been wearing this black and red outfit instead.
I guess between Shepherd taking her off the ship and bringing her to Earth she must have changed clothes. Or possibly with the forty gazillion artists* they had on this issue someone goofed up.

* Seriously the credits on this issue list Jim Valentino on layouts, pencilers Carlos Moya, Andy Park, Mark Pajarillo, Chap Yaep, Dan Fraga, inkers Jon Sibal, Marlo Alquiza, Sean Parsons, Robert Lacko, Lary Stucker with assists from Alan Martinez & Kyle Roberts. Did they really need that many people to draw a 32 page story?

Okayyyy... Byrd has decided to leave Earth with The Keep, mainly because he loved Dash, but she fell in love with The Shepherd.
Now while I can understand accepting that the gal you love doesn't love you and wanting to get some distance from her, most people would just move to another city rather than take a one-way trip away from the planet. Especially funny when you realize that the guy that Dash fell in love with is also leaving on the same spaceship. Ohhhhhh, I guess the writer thought this would lead to wacky shenanigans. *rolls eyes*

New Men were a group of heroes from a Nu Gene community forced to live with the rest of humanity when the Brotherhood of Man destroyed their community.

NNAN. Reading Extreme Destroyer Epilogue #1 got me thinking about the character of Byrd and realizing what a useless character he was. Now I don't have every issue of New Men, but the ones I do (plus appearances in other books) his primary "power" seems to be whining & complaining. His real power is he has wings and claws, but I don't recall him actually using said claws in a fight. You'd think Byrd was created mainly to show what a useless superpower flight is as he basically just stays up in the air and maybe carries someone. I'd almost consider him The Load except he hadn't been the cause of any trouble the team encountered.

Hellshock was about a guy who was half-angel & half-human.

Hellshock #1

A 14 page story, 4 pinups, and 4 pages (which reprint 7 pages) of the original version of the story.
Frankly it's a shame that the original story was "consigned to hell", not that it's great, but because there is more story in those 7 pages than the whole 14 pages of moody artwork. Then again the company is called "Image" not 'Story' soooo...

Gotta love the Slings And Arrows snarky comment in their review of this book though, "While anyone having the gall to fill their first issue with pin-up pages and ads would normally be castigated, here it spares us the tedium of more poorly portrayed angst."
*snicker*


The Sins Of The Father Hellshock #4

Page 5, Panel 4. Jonakand says, "was strong enough to see me throu the deepest espair."
Through & Despair.

Wetworks #22 really moved some **** past the radar.

The cover features, to a casual viewer, a werewolf fighting some kind of male troll, but when you read the story the troll isn't a troll, but the vampire form of the Blood Queen.

Yes, the cover has a naked woman on it. And the story inside has no problem showing off her naked chest in this form.
Admittedly the vampire form looks more masculine than her '90s bad girl human form and chances are very, very few readers would be turned on by it, but still I imagine there was much snickering from the creators about what they did.

One nit. The cover shows the Blood Queen completely naked, but in the story she wore purple panties.

Bloodpool were a bunch of Youngblood trainees who were cut loose by the program and set-up shop on their own.

The Hills Are Alive! Bloodpool #2

Fusion identifies the animals that attacked him and Wylder as coyotes, but the artist has drawn them closer to wolf-size than coyote-size.
Also the faces indicate that the artist used Wile E. Coyote as reference rather than photos of real coyotes.

The villain is... The Eyrth Mover...
Yes, I consider that horrible spelling to be a nit, even for comics it's way too bad. Maybe if the villain had it written down somewhere and the heroes were mocking the stupidity of that spelling I would have let it pass, but no, the name is used only in dialogue so there is no way anyone but the villain should know how he spells it.

Spartan was the android leader of WildC.A.T.S.

Untitled Spartan: Warrior Spirit #2

In issue 1, Spartan was revived without his memories of being the WildC.A.T.S. leader and is told he is Zachary Krieger. Later in that issue Dr. Able says to his daughter, Allison, "You've got your husband back" referring to Spartan who is no where around for this conversation. This issue Allison says Spartan "looks so much like Zachary" revealing to the readers that Spartan isn't Zachary.
So why did Dr. Able say what he said last issue? He knew Spartan wasn't Zachary. (Although, assuming what he says in issue 3 isn't a lie, Spartan was made in Zachary's image.)

Page 19, 3rd caption. "They know the terrain too well, the know all the defensive points".
That second "the" should be a they.


Spartan Part 3 Wildstorm! #3

Page 6. Spartan thinks, "I felt... something. A lurching, unsettling sensation I can only describe... as feat. Healthy fear."
Feat should be fear.