Darker Image #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDarker Image #1 is the single issue that introduced three of early Image's most distinctive characters — Sam Kieth's The Maxx, Jim Lee and Brandon Choi's Deathblow, and Rob Liefeld's Bloodwulf — in one March 1993 anthology package, representing the publisher's deliberate push into grittier, more psychologically complex storytelling beyond the superhero team books that had launched Image. Kieth's Maxx segment in particular proved genuinely unlike anything else on the stands: a surreal, dual-world narrative about a homeless would-be hero and social worker Julie Winters that later sustained a 35-issue solo series and a 13-episode MTV animated adaptation, demonstrating that early Image could produce work of lasting cultural reach. The issue is also a capsule of the era's creative ambitions and contradictions — Deathblow bringing Jim Lee's painted, morally weighted aesthetic against Liefeld's knowingly over-the-top Lobo riff — making it an unusually rich artifact for understanding how the Image founders individually defined their creative identities in the publisher's first year.
In the gritty, high-stakes world of Darker Image #1 (1993), a terminally ill soldier turned rogue, Commander Michael Cray, takes a deadly mission into his own hands to eliminate General Manuel Ortega. With a relentless pursuit unfolding, Lieutenant Conrad is sent by Director Lynch to stop him—setting off a tense, personal clash rooted in duty, desperation, and the cost of vengeance. Written by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee, with art by Jim Lee and cover by Sam Kieth, this first issue launches a story where every choice carries weight.
In the 1993 sci-fi anthology *Darker Image #1*, galactic mercenary Bloodwulf makes a deadly visit to Prime Administrative Director Butts on his moon, ending his reign in violence before vanishing into the void—only to destroy the moon itself in a final, explosive act.
In the shadowed corridors of a crumbling military machine, Commander Michael Cray, dying of cancer, turns his final mission into a personal reckoning—hunting General Manuel Ortega. Assigned to stop him, Lieutenant Conrad finds himself drawn into a deadly game where loyalty and vengeance blur.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Darker Image was planned as a four-issue miniseries intended to launch three separate ongoing concepts under a shared 'darker, grittier' Image banner, but only this debut issue was ever published. Each of the three founders wrote and drew their own segment entirely: Sam Kieth plotted, penciled, and inked the Maxx story (scripted with William Messner-Loebs), Jim Lee and Brandon Choi created Deathblow, and Rob Liefeld solely handled the Bloodwulf segment. Lee conceived Deathblow as a deliberate departure from superhero convention — a terminally ill CIA operative whose impending death forces moral reckoning — and planned for the character to be introduced across four Darker Image installments before transitioning to a solo book, a plan that collapsed when the series stalled after this single issue; the Deathblow story was later reprinted, with a new conclusion, in Deathblow vol. 1 #0.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of The Maxx (created by Sam Kieth) and his supporting character Julie Winters, who together debuted in the issue's lead story set in both a street-level reality and a parallel dreamscape called the Outback.
- First appearance of Deathblow (Michael Cray), an International Operations black-ops soldier created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi; Miles Craven (IO chief) and Director of Operations John Lynch also make their first appearances in this issue's Deathblow segment.
- First appearance of Bloodwulf, an intergalactic bounty hunter created, written, and drawn entirely by Rob Liefeld; the character is a deliberate riff on DC's Lobo — Lobo himself appears as a background figure in the Bloodwulf story.
- The series was conceived as a four-issue miniseries but only this single issue was ever published, making it a de facto one-shot.
- Cover date: March 1993; cover art by Sam Kieth. Writers and artists include Sam Kieth, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Brandon Choi, and William Messner-Loebs; editors listed are Chris Ulm, Dan Danko, and Deborah Marvin.
- Each copy was originally polybagged and came with one of three trading cards — The Maxx, Bloodwulf, or Deathblow — distributed across the print run.
- Two variants exist beyond the standard direct edition: a gold logo incentive variant and a platinum edition (black-and-white interior with a silver foil logo).
- The Maxx story from this issue was later collected in The Maxx vol. 2 trade paperback; the Deathblow story was reprinted in Deathblow vol. 1 #0, which added new material to complete the interrupted plot. The Maxx went on to inspire a 13-episode animated series as part of MTV's Oddities block, which aired April–June 1995 and covered material beginning with this issue.
Cast · 28 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Maxx Trade Paperback #1 (1995), Deathblow #0 (1996), The Maxx #2 (2004)
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