WORD BALLOONS

The comics antihero Spawn is returning as the villain of the Image Comics crossover “Image United,” it was announced at the Baltimore comic-book retailer summit.

“Image United” brings together six of the seven founders of Image Comics for a crossover to be written by the newest Image Comics partner, Robert Kirkman.

Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman

Spawn, created by Todd McFarlane, launched with sales of 1.7 million in 1992. Al Simmons was a murdered CIA agent who made a deal with the devil to return to Earth to be with his wife. Simmons was returned, but it was five years later, and his wife had remarried. Simmons wielded supernatural powers as a result of his resurrection; the comic book series was about the battle between good and evil waged over Simmons.

In the 2008 “Endgame” story line in the “Spawn” title, Simmons died, and a new character, Jim Downing, took up the mantle of Spawn. Now, the original Spawn character, Al Simmons, returns as the villain of “Image United.” The first issue of “Image United” is scheduled to go on sale in November.

Rob Liefeld, one of the Image founders working on “Image United,” wrote on Twitter that “the original Spawn returns to destroy the Image Universe.”

In addition to Liefeld and McFarlane, the Image founders working on “Image United” are Marc Silvestri, Eric Larsen, Jim Valentino and Whilce Portacio.

McFarlane and Kirkman also are working on “Haunt,” a new horror series featuring brothers who become bonded by a mystical force.

“Haunt” sold out from the distributor less than 24 hours after its release Oct. 7. A second printing is set for release Nov. 4. Individual comic-book stores may have copies of the issue.

Ryan Ottley and Greg Capullo round out the creative team on “Haunt.”

Kirkman has written some of Image’s biggest hits of recent years in the superhero tale “Invincible” and the zombie thriller “The Walking Dead.”

“Haunt” features a downtrodden priest who hears confession from his espionage agent brother. Neither is happy with the other, or, seemingly, their lives. Through the course of the first issue, they discover they’re going to have to work together, like it or not.

Will the return of the Image Comics creators mark a return to the high-flying sales of Image Comics of the 1990s?

Those numbers are unlikely, but it is clear that some excitement is brewing over these new projects.

- By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

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