Geiger #22

History

Geiger was launched in April 2021 as the first creator-owned comic from writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank — their first collaboration outside DC Comics following their celebrated run on Doomsday Clock — with colorist Brad Anderson (also a Doomsday Clock veteran) completing the team. Johns has cited the early days of Image Comics, and titles like Spawn and Savage Dragon, as direct inspirations for making the leap to a creator-owned project at Image. The series was initially published under Johns' Mad Ghost Productions imprint, which was later expanded and rebranded as Ghost Machine in 2023 — a co-owned creative company whose founding members include Gary Frank, Bryan Hitch, Jason Fabok, Peter J. Tomasi, Francis Manapul, Brad Meltzer, and others. By the time Geiger #22 arrived in March 2026, the series had grown into the narrative spine of Ghost Machine's 'Unnamed Universe,' a shared world threading characters across American history. The issue was also published during a period of behind-the-scenes leadership change at Ghost Machine, with key executives Jamie Iracleanos and Cory Salter having departed the company in the months prior.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published March 18, 2026 by Image Comics / Ghost Machine; written by Geoff Johns, art and cover by Gary Frank, colors by Brad Anderson, letters by Rob Leigh, editing by Brian Cunningham.
• Story arc title: 'The Northerner: Dead America,' Part Three (of three chapters in this arc, concluding in #23).
• The issue continues the first major inter-series crossover between Geiger and The Northerner (Malcolm North), a time-displaced Union soldier who previously appeared in the Redcoat series before being dropped into Geiger's post-nuclear future.
• Central plot engine: The Northerner believes he can uncover the origins of the Unknown War — the nuclear catastrophe that transformed Tariq Geiger into the radioactive 'Glowing Man' and killed his family — and that this knowledge could allow them to go back in time and prevent it.
• The issue takes Geiger and the Northerner on a road trip toward Detroit and the Department of Historical Preservation, an in-universe organization established in earlier chapters as the group that helped the Northerner fix an alternate Civil War/WWII timeline.
• Four cover editions were released: Cover A (Gary Frank & Brad Anderson); Cover B (Corrado Mastantuono variant); Cover C (Lee Kohse variant); Cover D (Gary Frank 'Invincible Team-Up' variant, tied to Image's publisher-wide Invincible Month promotion in March 2026).
• Geiger #22 falls within the Geiger, Vol. 5 trade paperback collection, which collects issues #16–23 of the second volume and was solicited for June 2026 release; it is also slated for the forthcoming Geiger Deluxe Edition HC, Vol. 3 (collecting Vol. 2 #10–23 and Ground Zero #1–2, due January 2027).
• The broader Geiger series is currently in development as a television adaptation at Paramount Television Studios, with Johns writing the pilot and serving as showrunner, and Justin Simien attached as a producer.

Full credits

Variants (1)