In the decades since its founding, Image Comics has become the home of some groundbreaking and incredibly memorable comics and characters. While many of Image’s books have found ways to overlap or flat-out cross over in the past, a new issue of Local Man included a surprising number of the publisher’s characters. Spoilers for Local Man: Gold #1 from Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs below! Only look if you want to know! Local Man follows the journey of Jack Xaver, who has returned to his small town and become a vigilante after years of serving as the flashy superhero Crossjack. In the Gold one-shot, Jack is visited by a younger version of Crossjack and his team — which already includes a crop of faces familiar to Image readers. Stryker from Cyber Force, Scrap from Dynamo5, Street Angel, Firebreather, and even BOOF are all a part of this team, and have been transported to the 2020s after a multiversal war. The group is tasked with finding a woman who is a key to the fate of the universe — a Wal-Mart cashier several states over.
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After the team travels to the woman, and she brushes off Crossjack’s advances, it is confirmed that she’s none other than Joan Peterson from Image’s Love Everlasting. As the issue goes on, we briefly see the multiversal war in question — a fight between a number of Image heroes and public-domain superheroes, led by Fantomah, mystery woman of the jungle. The battle scene includes (but absolutely is not limited to) Shadowhawk, Cassie Hack from Hack/Slash, and even Battle Pope. Battle Pope’s war cry even calls on the heroes to “unite.”
Will Image United Be Completed?
This crossover comes amid the the long-running speculation about the conclusion of Image United, the crossover involving a number of established Image heroes and creators. As Image President Todd McFarlane told ComicBook.com earlier this year, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the series could be finished one day.
“I would say there’s a chance. I think the chance is small, but there’s a chance,” McFarlane told ComicBook.com. “If I was going to bet on it, the way to get there is not necessarily that we have to get all the boys back together, because everybody might’ve moved on. And as time goes by, maybe even one of us isn’t even standing on the earth. So you can’t have your band reunion anymore, which was the first thought I had when I heard the news of John Lennon. It was like The Beatles will never be together again. And I’m not saying we’re The Beatles. I’m using a big example, but I think what is more likely is that two or three of us may take up the torch and just finish it, because we want to finish it, and just do the rest of the work and not worry about whether everybody’s doing their own life and things, which is what got it [bogged down with]. So I think that’s the bet. If I was going to Vegas, that’s the bet of how it gets done.”
What do you think of the massive Image Comics crossover in Local Man? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
