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In 1992 a bomb went off in the comic book industry, and that bomb was Image Comics. The new publisher sought to disrupt the hold Marvel and DC Comics had on the industry, showing that there was more to the market than 'The Big Two.' Image Comics gave creators the opportunity to retain ownership of their characters, something Marvel and DC were unwilling to do.

Image Comics already had the industry’s attention, but nothing could prepare anyone for the news that they had poached Jim Lee from Marvel. In 1992 Lee was one of the hottest artists in the industry. Lee’s work on X-Men had broken sales records, and Marvel wasn’t eager to lose him. Jim Valentino, who helped found Image Comics, compared the news of Lee’s departure to an atomic bomb exploding.

“I remember calling up [Image Comics executive director Larry Marder] and going, ‘Remember that avalanche we were talking about all summer?’ He goes, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘I think it just became an atomic bomb,’” Image Comics co-founder Jim Valentino says during an episode of Robservations with Rob Liefeld.

“[Marder] goes, ‘What did you guys do?’ And I said, ‘They just signed Jim Lee.’ And he went dead silent. And you know Larry, he doesn’t go dead silent. He went and he goes, ‘You guys are going to do so much damage.’ And I just burst out laughing.”

“The thing with Jim that we all have to kind of reiterate, he was Marvel’s favorite,” Image co-founder Rob Liefeld says. “There’s somebody else, I won’t say their name, but Todd McFarlane has reminded me over the last 20 years about another person in the comic book industry. He says they were never momma’s number one, and it just bothered them. It was none of us, somebody else, because they were never momma’s number one, he would say. Jim Lee was momma’s number one.”

“They didn’t make any mistake of letting everybody know it. To the point where, to Jim Lee’s credit, he did not tell us till way later. And I was a little shocked when I heard it. Bob Harras, Tom DeFalco, Terry Stewart, and Carl Potts. That is what Jim told me. Those four people flew to San Diego to take Jim out and said, ‘Don’t go with these guys. Stay with us. We’ll make it worth your while.’ Jim was being heavily incentivized. And to this day, I give him major credit,” Liefeld continues.

“Most people would have folded and just said, ‘I’m going to get the sun, the moon, the stars, and I’m going to rule the roosts.’ To Jim’s credit, he did choose. It’s the reason he came on last.”

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