For more Brigade, click here!

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This guy is literally just a 1990s Batman: The Animated Series toy where he’s wearing, like, Aquatic Armor that never showed up in the cartoon! You know, when they wanted to sell a “Blue Batman with a rebreather” or “Arctic Batman” or whatever! That’s Seahawk!

Seahawk and his brother Coldsnap were wealthy brothers who were given powers when a “mysterious object” penetrated their father’s submarine, killing him and making them both superheroes. Battlestone heard about them, and immediately recruited them, hoping to use them to fund Brigade. Seahawk was the more impetuous of the two brothers, being a “hot-blooded” teammate on a team full of psychopaths and edgelords. However, Coldsnap was eventually killed by Kombat, and the team disbanded after Battlestone was taken away by the U.S. government to serve them as a loyal dog. The final remaining original member of the team, Seahawk, now more mature and reasoned, gathered a third incarnation of Brigade, but with established Image characters like Shadowhawk & Kaboom- this proved short-lived, however. He hasn’t been seen since.

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Glory is the kind of character who would have totally appealed to me if she wasn’t drawn by Rob Liefeld and his cronies- even at the peak of my fandom for him, I never found his women anything but off-putting. She’s a Half-Amazon, Half-Demon warrior woman who clearly apes Wonder Woman, but ramps up the bad-assedness. She was raised by Lady Demeter of the Amazonians, though her father was Lord Silverfall of the Underworld- the two mated as part of an alliance against the human world. She emerged as a fine warrior, but had a savage streak a mile wide owing to her demonic heritage- not feeling at home in either world, she entered the “world of man”.

Her backstory consists of WW-like stuff such as joining the World War II fights alongside Supreme, and she joined the third incarnation of Brigade, made up of then-current characters- her original work was drawn by a newbie named Mike Deodato, Jr., and her solo book went 15 issues- a huge run by Image standards. When Alan Moore joined Image Comics, he created a Glory book alongside his Supreme work, again visiting Silver Age tropes. He added a bunch of mythos, adventure and romance to the series, to the point where it comes off as a dry run for his later work, Promethea . Glory takes the identity of a waitress named “Gloria West” in her attempts to experience humanity. However, this was short-lived- only one issue was published by Moore- two more came out in 2001. In an intercompany crossover, she teamed up with Angela to fight an evil angel named Celestine, fighting back an army of the dead to do so. I don’t believe the character’s been used in years- her book lasted another 12 or so issues after a revamp redesigned her entirely.

Most versions in the early days look like your standard-issue ’90s Comic Book Babe- 80 feet of leg, giant spheroid boobs and an ultra-bendy spine, but modern artists tend to draw her with a spunky, childish face on a preposterously swole muscle-bod. I… find it hard to argue against that look. Though some artists make her look downright malformed- an arm that was badly injured by an insane Supreme got modified with cybernetics or ice-powers or something and looks freakish at times. I actually didn’t even recognize Sophie Campbell’s art, here- her stuff was mostly cutesy ( TMNT ) or girly ( Jem & the Holograms ) from what I’ve seen- though I guess some of these Glory shots would count as “Ugly Cute” in a way.

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The Four… who of course number five.

They’re great examples of how slack-ass Liefeld’s art gets around this time. The flying dude says “Bodyslide” just like Cable does, and his costume is nothing but random bits on brown armor, including those “Rob Liefeld Dildos” on his back. One chick is just “yellow bodystocking & shoulder-pads”. Strongarm is just a big guy (he’s the one constantly shifting in size in the first issues). Even Showdown has nothing going on besides that mask.

BLOODSTRIKE:
Yes, BLOODSTRIKE. About as “Image Comics” as a name could get. This team was led by Battlestone’s brother Cabbot Stone, and based around the idea of once-dead superhumans being resurrected and turned into government agents- the gimmick was that the members could be resurrected after every battle, so it didn’t matter if they died so long as the body could be found. And yes, even THEY got their own ongoing series, debuting in April 1993 and running for 22 issues. After this, a solo “Bloodstrike” character was seen, and later revealed to be Battlestone. The team was largely antagonistic to other Image squads, with Bloodstrike assaulting Brigade in one of their issues, killing Stasis and wounding some others.

The team is… horrific. Based off of even more of Rob’s sketchpad designs, many membering include no touch more deep than “looks like Wolverine” or “has four arms”. A teleporting computer named Roam sent them from place to place. Youngblood’s Chapel was later added to the team, but this is short-lived. Eventually, everyone but Cabbot was killed when their government supervisor revealed himself to be a member of a “cyborg conspiracy”.

The book has popped up once in 2012 and again a couple of years ago, but nothing much becomes of it- it’s the most unknown of Rob’s Image properties, and the lowest priority.

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If you can believe it, there’s only ONE MORE Liefeld chapter left! Come back next time!