Here's a story about something that didn't happen. Was talked about quite a bit. But never made it into the outside world, not even to me. Until now. You can consider this an exclusive if you want.

Picture the scene. DC Comics, after acquiring Wildstorm and Jim Lee, were going through a bit of a reorganisation. Jim Lee is made Co-Publisher. The New 52 is still a pipe dream in Dan DiDio's head, Jim is mostly busy on the DC Universe game, although Bleeding Cool keeps posting these persistent rumours that he and Geoff Johns are doing a Justice League book together.

But Jim Lee has a plan for a major project of his own. Just Imagine DC Comics Creating The Image Universe, or some such.

He talks to the rest of the Image founders. Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri and Rob Liefeld. What if DC Comics was to license on a non exclusive basis, the central Image characters. Dragon, Spawn, Shadowhawk, Cyberforce, Darkness, Witchblade, Youngblood, Glory and combine them with WildCATS, Deathblow and the rest into a year long story across multiple comics, created and published by DC Comics, with DC and Wildstorm freelancers working on the books and totally revooting the characters from scratch. While Image creators continue to publish the standard books from Image. A Heroes Reborn, but rather than Image creators recreating Marvel, DC creators recreating Image. And paying Image a stack of cash for the privelege.

There were some excited noises and then… nothing. It didn't happen. But something that did happen was the New 52, where Rob Liefeld played a significant part. And Jim Lee got to bring back his Wildstorm characters integrated into the DC Universe…