Jab’s Builds! (Nightmare Creatures/Circus! Lawnmower Man! Metroid!)

[Spectrum]

I'm still trying to get a good grips on it myself, but from what I've been able to figure out so far...

In general, there isn't a single universe. More, each artist was able to create their own. Every once in a while, they would blend together, but that was more of a putting chocolate with my peanut butter and keeping the two jars separate sort of thing? Except that in this case, the peanut butter was actually motor oil and the peanut butter was navel lint. Or potassium and water. Not really things that should go together and were often antagonistic.

I've seen a couple of bundles on HumbleBundle from time to time that let you get a deep dive on a given artist.

[Jabroniville]

SCUD THE DISPOSABLE ASSASSIN
Created By: Rob Schrab
First Appearance: Scud the Disposable Assassin #1 (March 1993)
Role: Comedy Character, Disposable Assassin
Marvel Character Most Ripped Off: None
'90s Ratio: 4/10 (gun-toting assassin, but a funny one)
Group Affiliations: None
PL 7 (98)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA -- AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Deception 4 (+4)
Expertise (Mercenary) 5 (+6)
Insight 2 (+3)
Intimidation 4 (+4)
Perception 6 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+7)

Advantages:
Equipment 4 (Guns), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Guns), Quick Draw, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
"Disposable Robot Assassin"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 4 [4]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Guns +9 (+4-5 Ranged Damage, DC 19)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +4, Fortitude --, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Keeping Jeff Alive)- Scud must keep the deformed mutant alive- if she (yes, she) dies, he will self-destruct, as per his programming. He takes on mercenary assignments in order to pay Jeff's hospital bills.
Enemy (Sussudio)- Sussudio is a female bounty hunter hired to bring in Scud.

Total: Abilities: 32 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 11 / Powers: 34 / Defenses: 9 (98)

-Oh man, I remember this one from YEARS ago- The Anti-Gravity Room, a Canadian show about nerdy pop culture, detailed it during an interview with its creator. The notion is that in a satirical futuristic world, assassins are sold out of vending machines- these robots will kill their target, and then self-destruct. However, Scud, an average "Disposable Assassin", suddenly feels the desire to LIVE- he's meant to assassinate a rampaging mutant with mousetraps for hands, a plug for a head, and a squid for a belt, but refuses. Instead, he maims his opponent and places her on life support, allowing him to survive indefinitely. He thus carries on, now acting as a freelance mercenary in order to pay his target's medical bills.

-On the 20th issue, Scud went on an indefinite hiatus, as Rob Schrab, the creator, grew dissatisfied with the way his story was going- working for Hollywood, he took a ten-year break from the book, having his small-press company go out of business after an argument with his co-owner over rights. He returned to it in 2008, finalizing four issues for Image Comics (so this only kinda counts for this set).

-The series is pretty wacked-out and obvious silly, which makes for some fun recaps, such as his interactions with Sussudio (named for a Phil Collins song), a female bounty hunter hired to bring him in... before revealing that she is a closet "robosexual" and stating she's fallen in love with him. His assistant Drywall can only speak to beings without souls (like Scud) and has unlimited space within his body, making him ideal to hide an arsenal. Enemies include Voodoo Ben Franklin and System, the Lord of Hell. Despite being very obscure, a shocking amount of stuff has been made of the book, including a pair of video games in 1997 for the Sega Saturn and the PC. Oliver Stone of all people optioned a Scud film, but nothing came of it, and MTV failed to adapt the series to an animated show. The creators of Rick & Morty have said that Mr. Meeseeks was directly ripped off from the idea of Scud, as well.

-Scud isn't overly powerful- just your everyday PL 7 gun-toting robot. He has enough skills to be semi-competent, but not enough to avoid being funny.

[Ares]

I am really enjoying these builds overall and I'm learning a lot. The Image universe/multiverse is a lot more complicated than I thought. I'm a big fan of what I *think* is called the Wildstorm universe, with WildCATS, Storm Watch, Cyberforce, Wetworks, Gen 13, DV8, I/O, Team 7.

Were Savage Dragon and Spawn (just to use 2 examples) also part of that universe originally?

If I wanted just to read that whole early Wildstorm, what series would it include and when would it stop? I have tried looking up Image universe reading orders online and just got more confused.

No, Savage Dragon and Spawn weren't part of Wildstorm, nor was Cyberforce (that was part of Top Cow). Wildstorm was the the company Jim Lee started and included all of the characters created under his banner. While originally fully integrated in the Image-verse, they eventually split off to become their own setting, until they actually jumped ship from Image to DC.

The Wildstorm books include:

WildCATs / Majestic / Mr. Majestic / Savante Garde
Stormwatch / The Authority / Jenny Sparks / Midnighter
Wetworks
Gen13 / Gen 12 / DV8 / I/O / Team 7
Team One
Deathblow
Union
Kindred
Backlash / Wildcore
Divine Right
Welcome to Tranquility
Number of the Beast

I'm still trying to get a good grips on it myself, but from what I've been able to figure out so far...

In general, there isn't a single universe. More, each artist was able to create their own. Every once in a while, they would blend together, but that was more of a putting chocolate with my peanut butter and keeping the two jars separate sort of thing? Except that in this case, the peanut butter was actually motor oil and the peanut butter was navel lint. Or potassium and water. Not really things that should go together and were often antagonistic.

I've seen a couple of bundles on HumbleBundle from time to time that let you get a deep dive on a given artist.

That's generally accurate for how things eventually became.

Early on Image was very integrated, and many steps were made to make it feel like a true shared universe like Marvel or DC. Heck, they went the extra mile to try and link their characters and their histories. One of Rob's character was responsible for the murder of Spawn, one of Jim's villains was the same species as a member of Youngblood, Warblade and Ripclaw had a shared past, Bedrock and Dragon fought in the 3rd issue of the Dragon's original mini-series, Pitt showed up in the original Gen13 mini-series, etc.

My guess is the idea was that this linkage served two purposes: 1) it made the universe feel more alive and 2) it would incentivize the various Image partners to continue to play well with each other.

As you can see, neither 1 or 2 lasted very long. Rob was kicked out for gross mismanagement of Image funds and personnel, Jim Lee left after deciding he was tired of being a publisher, Top Cow parted ways to do its own thing, and eventually it was decided that while you could use other Image characters with their creators permission, it was better to focus on building up your own universe with the characters you solely owned rather than try to integrate the various settings together.

On the one hand, it did kind of suck since Image felt like a real, breathing universe initially, and it became much more compact and segregated after the fact. At the same time, it did encourage the creators to really develop their own settings with total freedom, so there were some positives there.

[drkrash]

Thank you, Ares. When did "2nd wave" Wildstorm begin, like when Moore took over WildCATs? I like the military excess of the original, but I'm not interested in the Moore and Ellis excesses.

[Ares]

Thank you, Ares. When did "2nd wave" Wildstorm begin, like when Moore took over WildCATs? I like the military excess of the original, but I'm not interested in the Moore and Ellis excesses.

You're welcome.

Alan Moore's WildCATs ran from issue 21 to 34, and Ellis took over Stormwatch from issue 37 to 47 before being rebooted at the Authority. So roughly between 1995 and 1997 was when the "second wave" started. There was also a decent Fire From Heaven crossover that actually had ramifications for the setting. Wildstorm's also been rebooted a couple of times.

[drkrash]

Looks like I could see what month/year WildCATs 20 came out and get the Wildstorm stuff up through that date or thereabouts. Hmmm...

[Shock]

I never read any of the Maxx comics but the MTV series was super cool. It was barely coherent weirdness but it was on the good side of style over substance. I'm still disappointed the Batman/Maxx crossover never finished

[Davies]

Department of Utterly Irrelevant Trivia: The Maxx was also the first Image comic to have its own role-playing game, in the form of a solo adventure for the not very good Heroes and Heroines system that came out in 1993. From what I remember, it was as weird as the comics.

[Jabroniville]

I never read any of the Maxx comics but the MTV series was super cool. It was barely coherent weirdness but it was on the good side of style over substance. I'm still disappointed the Batman/Maxx crossover never finished

Was Batman/Maxx a comic, then? What was the reason given for it never finishing? I assume Sam Keith is a flaky weirdo who might be hard to pin down, just from... well, reading a Wikipedia history of The Maxx. That tends to stifle timely releases of anything.

[Shock]

I never read any of the Maxx comics but the MTV series was super cool. It was barely coherent weirdness but it was on the good side of style over substance. I'm still disappointed the Batman/Maxx crossover never finished

Was Batman/Maxx a comic, then? What was the reason given for it never finishing? I assume Sam Keith is a flaky weirdo who might be hard to pin down, just from... well, reading a Wikipedia history of The Maxx. That tends to stifle timely releases of anything.

It's recent. Late 2018 for issues 1-3 of a 5 issue miniseries. Haven't seen word of the last 2. I never went digging for reasons behind the stoppage

[Jabroniville]

PITT
Created By: Dale Keown
First Appearance: Pitt #1 (Nov. 1992)
Role: LSD-Inspired Nightmare
Marvel Character Most Ripped Off: Hulk/Wolverine (huge, muscular, vascular, clawed monster-man)
'90s Ratio: 10/10 (pretty much all of '90s excess in one person- heavy metal hair, chains, lipless & noseless features, claws & leather)
Group Affiliations: None
PL 11 (111)
STRENGTH 13 STAMINA 13 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE -1

Skills:
Expertise (Intergalactic Assassin) 6 (+6)
Insight 2 (+4)
Intimidation 12 (+11)
Perception 4 (+6)
Technology 2 (+2)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Fast Grab, Improved Critical (Claws), Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Power Attack, Startle, Takedown

Powers:
"Claws" Strength-Damage +1 (Feats: Split) [2]
"Big Dude" Features 2: Increased Mass [2]
Immunity 5 (Pain Effects, Detect Aggression- Ranged & Accurate) [5]
Regeneration 6 [6]
Leaping 10 [10]

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+13 Damage, DC 28)
Claws +8 (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +13, Fortitude +13, Will +7

Complications:
Relationship (Timmy- Brother)- Pitt's brother is an innocent child.
Enemy (The Creed)- These aliens created Pitt as an artificial egg inside his & Timmy's mother, hoping to birth a super-weapon.

Total: Abilities: 58 / Skills: 26--13 / Advantages: 8 / Powers: 25 / Defenses: 7 (111)

-Among the more notorious solo characters at Image Comics, Pitt is one of those things that did NOT help their perception to the comics-buying public. While the grim 'n' gritty edgelord-loving audience was no doubt enthralled by this huge, veiny-armed, clawed menace, the fact that a Hulk artist just plopped a character with an identical build plus some things swiped from Wolverine into his solo work was NOT a good look, and added to the perception that Image was just full of guys ripping off their Marvel shit and cashing in on it.

-Pitt is a human/alien hybrid created by aliens known as The Creed, and genetically-engineered to be a killing machine. He managed to escape execution by the Creed and was trained by one of their agents- a guy named Quagg, and worked as Emperor Zoyvod's assassin for a number of years- someone on a spiritual world melded him with a more peaceful soul, causing a change in him- he esacped to Earth, helping out his twin brother, Timmy. A noseless monster with sharp teeth and long fingernail-claws, he was the '90s in a nutshell- like somebody took Venom and exaggerated him. The book and character came off as very generic- Image crossed him over into Cyberforce and Gen-13 right away, and he had a Cute Innocent Kid sidekick, just like Wolverine had in Elsie-Dee in the comics of the time.

-Pitt stuck with Image Comics for three years, until Dale took him to his own imprint. Near as I can tell, the character didn't make it out of the '90s- Pitt lasted only 21 issues, and there were a handful of spin-offs and one-offs (including Hulk/Pitt- a crossover book), but he did show up in the background during "The Invincible War" in Robert Kirkman's Invincible- he was one of the only heroes to solo-kill an alternate version of Mark Grayson.

-Pitt is one of the most powerful characters in the Image universe, given Class 100-tier stats, vicious claws, and more, but like a lot of Powerhouses, he comes in on the cheap side, having little else other than ass-kicking-related powers to fall back on.

[Jabroniville]

IMAGE CREATORS- DALE KEOWN:
-One of the least-famous of the early Image creators, Keown debuted in the mid-80s and worked for Marvel on Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja, but developed his '90s-esque style while working on The Incredible Hulk, where he specialized in drawing big, vascular muscles that made the Hulk look like an exaggerated version of a steroid behemoth from a bodybuilding competition or the WWF. This really helped push the Hulk as a kind of "male ideal" for the young nerds in the audience, I think- there was nobody more masculine-looking that this top-heavy, veiny guy with arms the size of motorcycles. Peter David has said that Keown is one of three men whose art most closely matched the visuals he conceived when writing comic book scripts- the other two are George Perez & Leonard Kirk, which puts Keown in rare company.

He left in 1993 soon after the other Image guys to create Pitt, which has one of the worst reputations of the era for '90s excess and "they just took their Marvel work and copied it". In 1995, he took Pitt from Image to his own company, "Full Bleed Studios". He would drawn for The Darkness and did a couple of Hulk books with David again, but has largely kind of faded away from comic consciousness. He only has a single post-2009 credit listed on Wikipedia!

[Davies]

He's made a recent return, once again teaming with Peter David to tell the origin of the Maestro, the evil-er future Hulk from Future Imperfect.

[Jabroniville]

CYBERFORCE:
-oh, man. Dear God. While Image Comics was full of a lot of writers doing modifications of their work for Marvel, but with "ORIGINAL CHARACTERS DO NOT STEAL" characters that they owned the rights to, there is no single team book on the face of the Earth that reeked more of plaigiarism than CYBERFORCE. Created by former X-Men artist Marc Silvestri, this book was absolutely embarrassing in the shameless way it would trot out rip-off after rip-off in its edgelord-y characters- one of the first heroes seen is a bad-ass guy with claws named "Ripclaw". We get a guy with cybernetic limbs on one side of his body and a ton of guns on his person. There's a big metal guy covered in banded steel-looking plates. And HOLY SHIT CYBLADE.

Cyberforce is now by far the most notorious for being a knock-off book, to the point where I find it borderline unethical. I mean, Jim Lee at least CREATED Gambit and the redesign for Psylocke, so him making knockoffs in Grifter & Zealot isn't quite so bad- it's more thumbing your nose at your old bosses and taking your idea elsewhere (do we shit on Peter David for bringing Supergirl into Dark Angel? I mean, I do because it's weird, but other's don't! And MICKEY MOUSE of all characters was created because Walt had Oswald the Lucky Rabbit taken from him!). But Marc Silvestri DIDN'T- he's just tracing over what's popular and copying it. I can see ripping off "Claw Guy" or "Strong Guy" or whatever, since many books had those. But... everyone at once? A team of Cable, Wolverine, Cyclops, Colossus & Psylocke? This is just snapping up another company's characters and doing your own thing.

Cyberforce #1 came out in October 1992, and I actually bought the first issue- the only one of the Image line I ever purchased. A while later, I sold it to a friend of mine, Robbie, who actually SHUDDERED when he say that it wasn't protected- "Cyberforce #1 without a BAG..." he went, horrified at me leaving this ageless classic unprotected. So I traded it for an Excalibur one-shot where Meggan did a weird naked dance and turned into a sexy Female Nightcrawler and I felt I got the better end of that deal . In any case, I can't even pretend I thought this excessive, edgelord-y garbage was lame because I immediately thought Impact was the greatest name of all time and named my own "Strong Guy" hero the same thing, and I found Stryker's "three metal arms on one side" thing to be so awesome that I immediately created an ORIGINAL CHARACTER DO NOT STEAL who had the same gimmick, but with FIVE arms.

I WAS ELEVEN!!

So Marc Silvestri created them for what he called "Top Cow Studios", and... well, I already said he ripped off the X-Men. But like... they're a team of MUTANTS. They actually use that term repeatedly (even Rob Liefeld of all people invented legally-distinct not-Mutants). And they're all dealing with prejudice and scary stuff and whatever. But unlike the X-Men, it's just a backdrop to fight scenes and isn't developed at all (a guy named Bluestone is running for mayor, but only appears in one of the three issues I have). Also, the team are cyborgs- like Cable in the popular X-Force was. The gimmick was that they were all Cyborg Mutants who were captured and modified by an evil corporation called "Cyberdata", which was now chasing them now that they'd escaped. Cyberdata of course wants to rule the world, which and then a side-group shows up featuring a blue nudist and a deer-man named "Warbuk".

Re-reading it while doing these builds, they're drawn fairly well, and are certainly more lucid and immersive than Youngblood, and less wordy than WildC.A.T.s, but it's still pretty convoluted. You have Cyberforce and Cyberdata, but both groups are split up constantly so you never see the whole group at once- there's a band of mutant mercenaries halfway through that barely matter, a fight with Pitt that lasts only a couple of pages (he punches Impact and Ripclaw then explains things- Pitt replies "it's an honest mistake"), and a bunch of different inner factions and people with hidden agendas, like they just want to pile on more "mystery"- this costs the book a lot of readability and coherence. The writing is pedestrian and a bit pretentious at times, as Erik Silvestri (Marc's brother was writing) pops in a faux-mystical poem by Riplcaw doing his best "Noble Savage" stuff, plus a scene where Impact notes that Ripclaw & Cyblade's sparring is "it's almost like a dance". "Yes", replies Not-Cyclops, "A dance of DEATH". That's what you're getting, here.

Hilariously, Velocity meets up with the entire team of Cyberforce exactly once, and immediately thinks this disparate group of weirdos and freaks is "like a family" and desperately wants to be a part of them. But then in the very next scene she's kidnapped by a SEPARATE group of bad guys, so the next issue is Cyberforce fighting THEM. This group is so haphazard that it's just a Fire Chick, a Strong Guy and a Nazi & Upper-Class Twit who are joined at the waist, and their fight scene is barely a couple pages long.

The pacing is so bad that team member Heatwave, the LEADER of the group, is seen giving orders exactly once and is taken out quickly in almost every fight, and numerous important characters aren't even given time for motivation or snark. Megawatt & Psychotron of Cyberdata get less characterization than the three mutant mooks who are supposed to be throwaways. Like... every villain has an assistant or two, and nothing is really explained. Mother May I is a "Mutant Queen of Crime" who is also working with Cyberdata, but not really with them and has her own agenda, which never becomes clear. Her aide, Saburo, is also called Kimata a bunch (ComicVine has his name as "Kimata Saburo"), and talks to a guy who's in shadows.

The Roster Issue:
-Like nearly all of the Image Comics, Cyberforce has a major issue with a cast that's just INCREDIBLY huge. It's the weirdest thing, as some of these guys are total throwaways and not interesting to draw, but... the Silvestris don't seem to know how to rein it in. In a FOUR-ISSUE LIMITED SERIES, we have...

1-6) CYBERFORCE: Heatwave, Ripclaw, Velocity, Impact, Cyblade, Stryker
7-10) BASE COMMAND: Chip (helper/robot builder kid), TIMMIE (android boy), C.C. (android cat with one line, but TIMMIE mourns him being damaged later on), Dr. Corben (the guy who formed Cyberforce and freed them from Cyberdata's control- he appears in ONE PANEL, by the way, and is never explained- they just act like he was always there)
11-15) CYBERDATA: Ballistic, Buzzcut, Psychotron, Killjoy, Megawatt
16-18) MOTHER MAY I'S GROUP: Mother May I, Warbuk (minion; gets shot once), Kimata Saburo (aide/contact with Zadrok; appears to go by two names alternately)
19) DOMIN ZADROK: Mysterious guy in shadow who is manipulating things from behind the scenes.
20-22) MUTANTS: Slam, Wyldfyre, Splitzkrieg (there to steal something and then get chased off).
23) BLUESTONE: Would-be mayor of NYC... gets shot at and doesn't appear again.
24) GUEST STAR: Pitt.
25-26) GUYS WHO GIVE STRYKER HIS MISSION: It's not clear who these guys are or who they're with- Stryker just takes the job. I guess they're the government?

This cast is COMPLETELY INSANE, and overloads the book with way too much stuff. Warbuk's only contribution is to get shot once, and all the exposition and scheming is done by this "Kimata" guy who looks like a generic nobody. The two guys who hire Stryker are not seen doing anything else (but are in a background scene later), there's way too many guys sitting around Cyberforce's base, and more. Never mind how confusing the backstory is (Mother May I is a mutant terrorist/crimeboss who wants to black out New York and make a mutant paradise, but also convince people she's their mother and sleep with Stryker, but works with Cyberdata even though she's not one of them, and she's also the mother of Ballistic & Velocity I guess).

The Book's Run:
-Cyberforce ran for a four-issue limited series, then a single volume lasting 35 issues from 1994-1997, making it a semi-decent success by Image standards. Silvestri had a LOT more success with a titty-book you might have heard of. It was renewed by Ron Marz in 2006 for a six-issue limited series, and six years later, another short run came out. Most of these were only short runs.

[slade the sniper]

I still like Image. It was a distillation of 90's angst and so am I

When I saw that you did The Maxx, I was wondering if you would do Pitt, and you did. Well done.

-STS