http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/bobro/101408288568256.htmLen Wein's Image... And More
By Bob Rozakis
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Well, I could talk about the Image but, believe it or not, I might have other uses for him in the future, so I think I'll keep my own council for now.
- Len Wein
And I hope you do find a profitable use for him, Len. Meantime, my official unofficial researcher John Wells has dug up every bit of info that has actually appeared:
Much of the groundwork for the Image had been laid in 1984 issues of GREEN LANTERN by Len Wein. They related the story of Clay Kendall (#172), a Ferris Aircraft scientist whose psionics experiments had created a psi-chair (#173), which fueled his desire to become a super-hero (#175). He attempted to do just that when the Demolition Team attacked Ferris, only to have his chair short-circuit and explode (#179), severing his spinal cord (#180). A devastated Kendall was encouraged by his girl friend to rebuild the chair and become a super-hero anyway (#183).
Where all of this was headed had been detailed months earlier in AMAZING HEROES #39 (Jan. 15, 1984), which revealed that Clay's experiments would ultimately come to fruition in the form of the Image, a hero Wein described a "everything that Kendall wishes he was" and whom he hoped would spinoff to his own series. Accompanying the article was Dave Gibbons' portrayal of the Image.
Unfortunately, the Image never made it onstage before Wein left the series with #186. Clay Kendall, for what it's worth,went out with a bang as a representative of the millions killed in Coast City's demolition in SUPERMAN #80 (1993).
*****
Never actually seen the image for The Image.
