Noble Causes: Extended Family #2

History

Jay Faerber conceived Noble Causes in 2001 as a superhero soap opera modeled on the interpersonal drama of shows like Dynasty, deliberately prioritizing family dysfunction and celebrity spectacle over traditional villain-of-the-month plotting. The series spent its first several years navigating Image's market realities as a string of miniseries rather than the ongoing title Faerber originally envisioned, and both Extended Family issues—published in 2003 and 2004—served as between-arc anthologies that allowed other writers to inhabit the world while Faerber prepared the pivot to an ongoing monthly, which finally launched in July 2004. Extended Family #2 specifically was positioned as a prologue to that new ongoing direction, with Faerber's own lead story setting the stage narratively while the guest-written backups filled in character history. The anthology format also gave the book a rotating-artist structure throughout, with pencillers including Fran Bueno, Ian Richardson, Cory Walker, Roger Robinson, Jamal Igle, Mike Norton, and Kelly Yates each handling a different segment.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published June 2004 by Image Comics; the second and final issue of the Noble Causes: Extended Family anthology miniseries, which bridged the prior miniseries era to the Noble Causes ongoing that launched in July 2004.
• Written by seven writers: Jay Faerber, B. Clay Moore, Robert Kirkman, Devin Grayson, Antony Johnston, Tom Peyer, and Fabian Nicieza—with seven corresponding artists including Fran Bueno, Cory Walker, Roger Robinson, Jamal Igle, Mike Norton, Ian Richardson, and Kelly Yates.
• Faerber and Bueno's lead story features the entire Noble family and was designed explicitly as a prologue to the new ongoing Noble Causes series, setting up its revised status quo.
• Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker contributed a segment depicting Krennick's rite of passage—notable because Kirkman and Walker were the co-creators of Invincible, making this a crossover of creative talent within the early Image Universe revival.
• Invincible (Mark Grayson) appears in the issue—according to a reader account, in two panels alongside Brit and the Teen Team members Robot, Atom Eve, Rex Splode, and Dupli-Kate—cementing the book's place in the interconnected 2004 Image Universe.
• Devin Grayson and Roger Robinson's segment puts Frost in a tense domestic situation when Zephyr runs away from home and seeks refuge with him; Fabian Nicieza and artist Valentine De Landro contributed a dark story from Zephyr Noble's past.
• Antony Johnston and Mike Norton's segment goes behind the scenes of the in-universe Noble Causes TV series, while Tom Peyer and Kelly Yates present a comedic story centered on the Noble household's demonic domestic staff.
• The issue—along with Extended Family #1—was later collected in Noble Causes Archives Vol. 2 (October 2008, ISBN 978-1-58240-931-3), a 598-page black-and-white omnibus that also collected trade paperback volumes 6–10 of the ongoing series.

Cast · 19 characters

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