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Comic book

Deathmate is a six part comic book crossover between Valiant Comics and Image Comics published in 1993–94. The series is remembered for its negative impact on comic book retailers and the industry as a whole due to its late, over ordered but poorly selling books. The plot revolved around a chance interdimensional meeting of two characters, Solar from Valiant and Void from Image's WildC. A. T. s. The two became lovers, but their joining would mean the destruction of both the Image Universe and Valiant Universe.

The project was the result of a series of conversations Image Comics co founder Jim Lee and then Valiant Comics publisher Steve Massarsky and Vice President of Marketing Jon Hartz had in 1992 over the possibility of a crossover. In late 1992, Lee, Image Comics co founder Rob Liefeld, Massarsky, and Hartz met in Kansas City and agreed that each company would create two issues of the crossover, and jointly provide personnel to create the two book end issues, Deathmate Prologue and Deathmate Epilogue. In a retrospective interview on the rise and fall of Valiant, former editor in chief Bob Layton claimed he was not consulted on the project. "Deathmate was thrust upon us because (Steve) Massarsky and Jim Lee were best buddies at the time and had privately arranged the crossover," Layton said. There, in a dimension between what is real and unreal, he encountered a creature of incredible power, a woman from a distant universe, Void. The two fell in love, a love that wound end all time literally. Upon consummating, their combined energies fused, unwarping the fabric of time, spiraling backwards and eating away at their distinct timelines. In an instant, things were not as they should be: heroes fought alongside those who had been their enemies in a different world; great men who would bring justice to the world died horrible, untimely deaths. Only men with the gift of foresight, Geoff McHenry and Prophet, knew that all was not as it should be. Where they had seen a future so clearly before, there was now nothing. Geoff and Prophet are resolved to gather the heroes of this amalgamated universe together to fight the battle to save all time.

Deathmate had a negative impact on retailers that heavily ordered the series only to find that fans lost interest by the time the books shipped. "Not necessarily in the numbers, but in the consequences of their release I think that Deathmate sounded the beginning of the problems, and when Image couldn't get their side of the cross over out on time, it hurt everyone," he said. The Topps set would be based on the Deathmate Red and Black issues and would include artwork from Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee. This set was to be 90 cards in total and would feature two types of chase cards: A prismatic laminate covering called "Deathmatrix" and a chromium covering entitled "Deathchrome". Upper Deck’s Valiant Deathmate cards did not fare well on the market.

As of now the issues of the crossover have yet to be collected. This is likely due to the (often confusing) truth of the involved characters being owned, licensed, and printed by a large number of separate publishers. The respective owners and publishers consist of Gold Key Comics, Image Comics, Valiant Comics, Wildstorm Comics, DC Comics, Dynamite Comics, and Dark Horse Comics.