As part of Image Comics' 30th anniversary in 2022, company co-founder Marc Silvestri's earliest Cyberforce stories will be collected into a massive 664-page hardcover. Cyberforce was one of Image's six original launch titles.
The series was created by Silvestri (and his brother, Eric) as a superhero version of the resistance from the Terminator movies. These resistance fighters weren't just humans, however, but cyborgs experimented on by the company they're fighting against (Cyberdata). Taking cues from Silvestri's ultra-successful work on the Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine titles in the late '80s and early '90s, Cyberforce blended sci-fi, high-tech, with lavishly illustrated art to be one of the standouts of comics of the time.
Scheduled to debut in the fall of 2022, Cyberforce Complete Collection Vol. 1 will collect the original four-issue limited series from 1992, Cyberforce #0, the first thirteen issues of the ongoing series launched in 1993, as well as the one-shots Cyberforce Origins: Cyblade, Cyberforce Origins: Stryker, and Cyberforce Annual #1.
(And yes, this will also include Cyberforce's half of the 'Killer Instinct' crossover with Jim Lee and Brandon Choi's WildCATS, now owned by DC).
"It's wonderful, surreal, and a bit crazy that we're celebrating 30 years since Cyberforce first burst on the comic scene!" says Silvestri in the announcement. "The Cyberforce Complete Collection is a love letter to the '90s and to all the talented creators and amazing fans that made the whole Cyberforce adventure possible."
Following a string of Kickstarter-first projects, Top Cow (Silvestri's imprint at Image Comics) will also be offering Cyberforce Complete Collection Vol. 1 as a Kickstarter-first book. With the crowdfunding campaign already exceeding its $30,000 goal, the hardcover is expected to be delivered to the Kickstarter supporters in August 2022.
"The 664 page hardcover is a nostalgic masterpiece in itself, but the Todd McFarlane and Stjepan Sejic prints, the 30th anniversary commemorative edition...along with all the other rewards make this one a HUGE celebration!" says Top Cow president (and former Cyberforce writer) Matt Hawkins. "30 years is a milestone for any project or company and we look forward to 30 more."
This will be the first time that the original Cyberforce limited series has been reprinted since 1994 (we triple-checked and confirmed that), and the first time the material is being prepared to be sold as digital comics.
Top Cow plans to announce more "unprecedented and revolutionary" projects in 2022 as part of Image Comics' (and Top Cow's) 30th anniversary. That would presumably include the announced-but-delayed new series for Witchblade and the Darkness.
Get ready for all of Image Comics' 30th anniversary plans.
