Union #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeUnion #1 marks the debut of Ohmen of Aegena — alias Union — one of the few WildStorm characters whose origin was deliberately built around character psychology rather than pure spectacle, making it an outlier in the 1993 Image landscape. Writer Mike Heisler structured the story around an unreliable narrator and withheld information from readers in a way that was uncommon in early WildStorm books, grounding the title in human emotion more than the typical action-first approach of its contemporaries. As the fourth title to join WildStorm's fold, it also introduced the first WildStorm hero whose powers and backstory had no explicit connection to the Kherubim/Daemonite mythology anchoring WildC.A.T.s and Stormwatch, giving the shared universe its first genuinely alien-outsider perspective. The issue's cover — a die-cut, metallic-ink embossed design on the direct edition — was also a textbook example of the premium gimmick-cover era that defined early-'90s Image publishing.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Union was co-created by Jim Lee and writer/letterer Mike Heisler, with Lee providing the concept and Heisler — primarily known at the time as a letterer — taking sole scripting duties in a relatively rare authorial role for someone of his background. Mark Texeira, who had built his reputation at Marvel on Ghost Rider and Punisher, was brought in as artist; his raw, ink-heavy linework stood apart stylistically from the slicker house style of most WildStorm titles, though early digital coloring created some visual tension with his rougher pencils. Edited by Joe Mendoza and published in June 1993 (on sale August 1, 1993), the first volume ran four issues through March 1994, with a supplemental issue #0 in July 1994; a second ongoing series of nine issues followed in 1995. The debut issue was later selected for inclusion in Genesis: The #1 Collection (Image, 1998), a hardcover anthology assembling the first issues of nine foundational WildStorm titles.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Union (Ohmen of Aegena), an alien warrior from a parallel world called Aegena whose powers derive from a living symbiotic organism called a Justice Stone embedded in his chest.
- First appearance of Jill Monroe, a painter living in Maine who rescues the crash-landed Ohmen and serves as the series' primary human anchor character.
- Co-created by Jim Lee (concept) and Mike Heisler (script); Heisler also served as letterer and would later write an extended run on the Gen13 spin-off DV8.
- Interior art and cover by Mark Texeira, previously known for Marvel work on Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Sabretooth.
- The direct-edition cover features a die-cut format with metallic (embossed) ink — a premium variant — while the newsstand edition has a standard cover with barcode and no enhancements.
- Stormwatch members Battalion, Hellstrike, Fuji, Winter, and Diva appear in this issue, investigating the destruction of the fictional town of Chichester, New York — their appearance here is a guest role, not a debut, as Stormwatch first appeared in Stormwatch #1 (March 1993).
- The lead story is titled 'The Modern Icarus'; Union's backstory involves a civil war between two factions — the Protectorate and the Directorate — on his homeworld, with the conflict driving his accidental transit to Earth.
- Reprinted in Genesis: The #1 Collection (Image Comics, June 1998), an anthology collecting the debut issues of nine WildStorm titles including WildC.A.T.s, Stormwatch, Wetworks, Gen13, Backlash, DV8, Grifter, and Deathblow.
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Reprinted in Genesis: The #1 Collection #[nn] (1998)
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