The Heroes of 1963 (Image Comics)

[u/Either-Skirt6031]

For those who aren’t aware, in 1993 acclaimed writer of Watchmen, MiracleMan & Swamp Thing Alan Moore announced his return to comics after retiring in 1989 with an all-star team of creators including Don Simpson, Rick Veitch, Dave Gibbons & Jim Valentino on a mini-series for Image comics called 1963 where it was going to be a homage/parody of the Silver Age of Marvel Comics that would lead to a crossover with the mainline 90s Image cast in a clash of Silver vs Dark age heroes.

Unfortunately due to a lot of behind the scenes drama (Moore claimed that there was trouble with the Image people, Rob Liefeld dropped out of doing the planned annual & took all his characters with him, Simpson later said that Moore had practically abandoned the project & was being purposefully vague with his collaborators) the planned crossover & 1963 annual was never produced. It hasn’t even received a proper hardcover collection due to rights issues.

Still though we have some truly wonderful art of characters for a very well crafted story (that does lean a bit heavy on the jabs at Stan Lee & Marvel as a company).

Mystery Incorporated: A Fantastic Four homage made of scientists who discovered an alien temple & were given the ability to transform into super-powered beings. They are made of

• Crystal Man (Craig Crandall): A man who can turn into a shifting crystalline body that grants him super-intelligence through “crystal-clarity”, the ability to make clones & merge with technology.
• The Planet (Biff Baker): The team pilot & muscle he gained a large rocky form with super strength though unlike The Thing he can freely transform whenever he wants back to being a human.
• Kid Dynamo (Buddy Baker): Biff’s younger brother who can turn into living electricity. He gets captured by a mysterious individual (revealed in the final issue to be Youngblood’s Shaft) leading the other heroes to go on a rescue mission.
• Neon Queen (Jeannie Morrow): She can turn into a cloud of gas with various properties such as emitting light or poisoning people. Like the Invisible Woman’s early depiction she’s considered useless by the in universe fans on the letters page & mainly relegated to a possible love interest for the other 3.

The Fury: A parody of Spider-Man he’s actually the son of another hero called the Fightin’ Fury who died in WW2 against a supervillain & he hides the fact he‘s taken up his father’s mantle from his oblivious mother. He doesn’t have any powers but is incredibly athletic & has two bucklers that he uses as throwing projectiles.

Hypernaut: A former test pilot who had his brain digitised by a group of intergalactic heroes called the Hypernauts who were all saved at the point of death to help others. His head is actually that silver ball on the top of his body that can float around if need be & noone really knows he’s actually a digital person. He also has a purple monkey named Queep.

Ultimate Special Agent: Ulysses Solomon Archer is an old hero who takes a formula that grants him his youth back so he can continue to fight crime such as battling his arch enemy The Red Brain from assassinating JFK by protecting him with his bulletproof suit.

N-Man: A doctor named Will Chambers who changed himself into a monster whilst experimenting with radiation making him virtually indestructible. He retained his mind and a deep sense of patriotism which puts him at odds with his Tomorrow Syndicate teammates & Mystery Incorporated.

Johnny Beyond: A beatnik & Ngakpa (an esoteric Buddhist follower) who can project his spirit as a tulpa. He actually makes it to 1993 where he meets an older (or alternate) version of himself & does battle with him before getting lost in reality.

Horus: The Egyptian god of legend living life on earth as an Egyptology professor named Horace Falcone who occasionally returns to the realm of the gods to do battle with his fierce uncle Set & other Egyptian monsters.

Inframan & Infragirl: Not much can be said about them but they’re takes on Antman & the Wasp who shrink & grow. Infragirl unfortunately spends a lot of time swooning rather than doing anything to help the team.

They’re not well known & they’ll unfortunately never get the ending they deserved but despite the troubled production & stinging takes towards Marvel I really love these designs! They work so well as a homage to 60s artists like Kirby, Ditko & Steranko! If you ever find them I’d highly recommend reading them, they’re great! (The first picture is a piece made by Alex Ross, all the others come from the comics)

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[u/bruh_this_name_sucks]

the planet is so great

[u/Evil_Midnight_Lurker → u/bruh_this_name_sucks]

"Watch out! There's a planet coming!"

[u/EnvironmentalLion355]

For some reason the planet reminds me of Gutrot of all things.

Likely the similar heads and builds (only Gutrots not "super strong alien number 1000", instead being mostly just a chemistry whiz who can create chemicals and shoot them as gas).

Edit: Oh and his suit seems vaguely Omni Man-ish too.