I have made some updates to the earliest portion of the Reading Order.
While Youngblood (1992) #1 was the first Extreme Studios title, it was also part of a universe that started-out united and slowly became more splintered.
The first year of Image Comics were solicited under Malibu Comics. These books saw solicitation in Malibu Sun (1991). (After Image became independent from Malibu Comics, Image Comics solicitations would be found in Inside Image (1993).)
Many of these comics would experience shipping delays, but I wanted to partially-base this Reading Order on the originally intended publication schedule.
This first year was planned to be a shared universe and so I have included all comics originally solicited under Malibu Comics.
These “Malibu Era” books include: Youngblood (1992) #0-5, Youngblood Battlezone (1992) #1, Brigade (1992) #1-4, Spawn (1992) #1-10, The Savage Dragon (1992) #1-3, ShadowHawk (1992) #1-4, WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams (1992) #0-4, Pitt (1992) #1-4, Darker Image (1992) #1, Cyberforce (1992) #1-4, Supreme (1992) #1-6, Image Zero (1993) #0, StormWatch (1993) #1-3, Savage Dragon Vs. Savage Megaton Man (1993) #1, Splitting Image (1993) #1-2, Wildstar Sky Zero (1993) #1-4, and more.
1963 (1993) #1-6 were teased during the Malibu Era (I believe that the first time was in ShadowHawk (1992) #2 with graffiti for “1963” alongside “Pitt,” “Wetworks,” “Cyberforce,” “Wildstar,” and “Tribe”), but didn’t publish until April 1993 when Image was entirely independent. 1963 (1993) was designed to give the shared Image Comics Universe an instant “Silver Age” with pastiche characters mimicking the earliest days of the Marvel Comics Universe.
(Wetworks (1994) #1-3 were originally solicited under Malibu Comics but didn’t see print until 1994. Because these books were re-solicited so much later they have not been included here.)
(Tribe (1993) was referenced alongside 1963 (1993) in ShadowHawk (1992) #2’s graffiti, but Tribe (1993) #1 wasn’t solicited until Inside Image (1993) #1.)
I am confident in this Reading Order through 1963 (1993) #6.
I have included my notes under each issue explaining my placement and highlighting the times Early Image Universe characters appear in non-native titles. I have made note of not only appearances/cameos, but also mentions of Extreme Studios characters.
Extreme Excursus 