Brigade #1

Name: Brigade #1
Brand: Image

Aug 1992 · Image · 1.95 USD; 2.35 CAD

“Sabotage!”

About this Issue

Brigade #1 marks the debut of Rob Liefeld's second Image Comics title, launching the entire core cast of the Extreme Studios' Youngblood spin-off universe in a single issue: Battlestone, Atlas, Coldsnap, Kayo, Seahawk, Stasis, Thermal, and the alien antagonist Genocide all receive their first appearances here. As the fifth Image Comics title released in the publisher's founding wave of 1992, it documents the rapid expansion of the creator-owned superhero model and Liefeld's ambition to build a shared fictional universe — the Extreme Universe — that would sustain crossovers for years. The book also reflects the era's enthusiasm for paramilitary anti-hero teams, positioning Brigade deliberately as the outlaw shadow of Youngblood: a disgraced ex-government squad operating outside official sanction, a narrative tension that would fuel the series through multiple volumes and company-wide events.

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writer, artist Marat Mychaels · writer Hank Kanalz · writer Eric Stephenson · writer Rob Liefeld · inker Paul Scott · inker Norm Rapmund · colorist Brian Murray · colorist Digital Chameleon · letterer Kurt Hathaway · cover Rob Liefeld, Paul Scott

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History

Brigade was created, plotted, and co-scripted by Rob Liefeld as a direct spin-off of Youngblood, published through his Extreme Studios imprint at Image Comics. Primary interior art was handled by Marat Mychaels, with scripting contributions from Hank Kanalz and Eric Stephenson; Paul Scott and Norm Rapmund provided additional art and inking duties. The series launched in August 1992 as a four-issue limited series, its first issue titled 'Sabotage!' — setting up Battlestone's estrangement from Youngblood, the assembly of his independently financed vigilante team, and the lurking alien threat of Genocide as the serialized antagonist. The issue also included a centerfold insert coupon for Image Comics #0 and two bound-in Brigade trading cards, reflecting the promotional intensity standard to the early Image publishing model.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of the Brigade team as a whole, including all seven founding members: Battlestone (John Annex Stone), Atlas (Sean Welch), Coldsnap (Alexander Barros), Kayo (Hiroshi Kuramoto), Seahawk (Marc Barros), Stasis (Katherine Pearson), and Thermal (Rebecca Hailey).
First appearance of Genocide (Crown Prince J'Nissyde of D'Vor), the alien warlord who serves as the series' primary antagonist; he appears in a cameo role here, observing Brigade from his spacecraft and ordering a course set for Earth.
Published August 1992 by Image Comics under Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios imprint; story titled 'Sabotage!' Written/plotted by Rob Liefeld and Marat Mychaels, with scripting by Hank Kanalz and Eric Stephenson; art by Marat Mychaels, with Paul Scott and Norm Rapmund on inks.
Brigade is established in-story as a Youngblood spin-off: Battlestone was expelled from Youngblood after the deaths of members under his command, and he assembles this independent mercenary team — funded by the inherited wealth of brothers Seahawk and Coldsnap — as an alternative to government-controlled superheroics.
The issue was published with at least two cover variants: a standard Direct Edition and a Newsstand Edition, plus a Gold Edition variant; the Direct Edition and Newsstand Edition each included two bound-in Brigade trading cards (featuring Stasis, Battlestone, and other members) and a centerfold insert coupon for Image Comics #0.
Characters listed in our catalog under the names Supreme, Pitt, ShadowHawk, and the X-Men characters (Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue, Psylocke/Kwannon, Jubilee) appear in this issue only as subjects of house advertisements and promotional pin-ups bound into the periodical — they are not part of the Brigade narrative itself.
The series was later revisited with a 30th-anniversary Brigade #1 Remastered Edition published by Image Comics in 2022, featuring newly illustrated pages by contemporary artists including Viktor Bogdanovic, Clay Mann, Philip Tan, and returning original collaborators Marat Mychaels and Norm Rapmund.
ShadowHawk (Paul Johnstone) would later become a member of Brigade's second-incarnation roster in the ongoing series, though he has no story role in this debut issue.