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The Image Universe is a fictional shared universe wherein many of the comic books published by Image Comics take place.

Publication history

The Image Universe began with the founding of Image Comics in 1992, launching with series such as The Savage Dragon, Spawn, Youngblood and WildC.A.T.s.

Image Comics' nature of allowing comic creators to retain the rights to the characters they publish with Image had led to many characters entering or exiting the Image Universe as the creators move from or to other publishers. Image co-founder and Savage Dragon creator Erik Larsen generally treats the Image Universe' continuity as though each title exists in its own universe, and any crossovers between different creators' characters are events that occur simultaneously in each respective characters' universes.[1]

When Jim Lee was an Image partner, his WildStorm properties such as WildC.A.T.s, StormWatch, Gen¹³, Union, Deathblow, Wetworks, and Backlash regularly crossed over with other Image characters, but when he sold his studio to DC Comics, this ceased, and the WildStorm characters have since been incorporated into the post-Flashpoint DC Universe. Most of the comic characters in the Image Universe however are originally individually creator-owned from when the company was established.

There were several Image crossover mini-series in the 1990s, such as Shattered Image and Altered Image, but only Mars Attacks Image had any direct impact on the titles represented, as the Martians' attack was also shown and referenced many times in the Savage Dragon series.

In 2009, the Image Universe had its first major crossover in several years with Image United.

Concept

The basic concept of the Image Universe is built upon an Omniverse based reality. It is created with simultaneous realities of different companies and crossovers. It is a experimental universe, for instance the creator-owned characters live in their own universe but frequent other universes. Whilst DC and Marvel contain a multi-verse of parallel dimensions, the Image Comics Universe is too small therefore creates its own realities. Image has a separate continuum which never ends. Therefore their characters have no relation with each other or basically do not live in the same reality. Each archetype has their own ego. Spawn is a dimensional creature living in New York City, whilst Youngblood is a group or project of government mutants. These characters bear some resemblance to high profile characters in Marvel and DC Comics such as X-Men and Batman. Although the company does not outline that particular character specifically it takes qualities from their creation and other characters such as Alpha-Flight and Dr. Fate. Their origins build up a premise of comic stories made up already within the industry. The superheroes all gain powers from various sources which have been outlined already in comic book history. They do not frequent each other, and various crossovers are made as plot collaborations as if introducing the characters themselves. The plots almost never relate in their own story or creation of the universe yet do so in other universes as a serious parody of that universe.

Superheroes in the Image Universe

Superhero Teams in the Image Universe

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