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Image United

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Image United
Variant cover of Image United 1 (Nov 2009),
art by Whilce Portacio
Publication information
PublisherImage Comics
ScheduleMonthly
FormatLimited series
Genre
Publication dateNovember 2009 – April 2010
No. of issues6
Main character(s)Youngblood
Shadowhawk
Spawn
Savage Dragon
Invincible
Witchblade
Cyberforce
The Darkness
Creative team
Written byRobert Kirkman
Artist(s)Whilce Portacio
Jim Valentino
Marc Silvestri
Rob Liefeld
Erik Larsen
Todd McFarlane

Image United is a 2009 six-issue comic book limited series published by Image Comics, with two issues released so far. Art for the series is done by six of the seven Image co-founders (Jim Lee having left for DC Comics) Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen and Todd McFarlane, with each artist drawing the characters he created. It was recently revealed the Seventh Image Founder Jim Lee is contributing covers to the series. The series is written by Image partner Robert Kirkman.

Plot

Image United is a crossover event featuring the characters created by the six remaining founders including Youngblood, Spawn, Savage Dragon, Pitt, Shadowhawk, Witchblade, Cyberforce, and The Darkness. Whilce Portacio—whose sole Image Comics creation Wetworks is owned by DC Comics subsidiary Wildstorm—will be creating a new character for the series. The villain has been revealed as the original Spawn, Al Simmons, now known as Omega Spawn.

Reception

The series has sold solidly if unspectacularly, with the first issue selling just over 42,000 copies and the second selling around 27,500 . However, despite lower than most titles, both issues sold out, warranting additional printings.

Despite the good sales, the series thus far as received poor reviews. Comic Book Resources awarded the first issue 2 stars out of 5, another review from the website gave it 1 and a half stars out of 5. IGN awarded similar reviews, awarding issue #1 a 5.8 out of 10, and issue #2 a 4.3 out of 10..

Additional criticism has now fallen on the massive delays the project is suffering, while issues #1 and #2 shipped on time, issue #3 has yet to appear, it was originally scheduled for a January 2010 release, it has now been pushed back multiple times, and is now sitting at a May 19th, 2010 release date, a full 5 months after issue #2.

Rob Liefeld commented on his twitter regarding the delays saying:

"It goes without saying that Image United is a massive embarrassment. Damn shame the enthusiasm for the book not shared by all."

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 also additonal art by Image mainstay Ryan Ottley, handling art chores for Doc Seismic. The #0 was released to act as a prelude to the series and saw release in February.

The second book was to be called 'Image United Interlude,' also written by Kirkman, featuring art by Ryan Ottley, solicitations had to the book focusing on the effects of Image United on other characters within the Image Universe, including Invincible. It was meant to follow the 'cataclysmic events' of Image United #3, but due to the delays with Image United #3, this book has also yet to see release and is currently slated for a May 1st release, but due to the additional delays to Image United #3, this seems unlikely.

Notes

  1. ^ Phegley, Kiel (July 25, 2008). "CCI: Image Gets "United"". Comic Book Resources.
  2. Wigler, Josh (November 16, 2009). "Jim Lee Covers "Image United"". Comic Book Resources.
  3. Newsarama Staff (October 16, 2009). "Teaser: IMAGE UNITED "His Evil Knows No Limits"". Newsarama.
  4. Wigler, Josh (October 15, 2009). "Al Simmons Goes Bad In "Image United," Kirkman Talks". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved November 20, 2009.
  5. http://imageunitedinfo.blogspot.com/2009/12/image-united-2-sells-out.html
  6. http://imageunitedinfo.blogspot.com/2009/11/image-united-1-sells-out.html
  7. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=1614
  8. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=1601
  9. http://comics.ign.com/objects/036/036342_list.html
  10. http://imagecomics.com/issue.php?item=10634
  11. http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/04/quote-of-the-day-rob-liefeld-on-image-united/
  12. http://comicbookrevolution.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=235:image-united-0-review&catid=57:image&Itemid=71
  13. http://imageunitedinfo.blogspot.com/2010/02/image-united-0-out-022410.html
  14. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/091223-image-united-interlude.html
  15. http://imagecomics.com/issue.php?item=10691

References

External links

Interviews

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