Back in 2010, when Robert Kirkman’s Invincible series entered its Viltrumite War arc, Image started a 6-issue spin-off mini-series titled Guarding the Globe. This series focused on the earth base superteam of Invincible, known as the Guardians of the Globe, and what they were doing while Invincible and friends were off in space defending the universe. Despite being only 6-issue, the series took over a year to be released, begining in summer 2010 and not finishing until late 2011. The mini-series was done by writers Benito J. Cereno III and Robert Kirkman, with art by Ransom Getty.

Now it is 2012, the Invincible book still has too many characters and stories to contain in just 22 pages a month. The solution Kirkman and Skybound entertainment have come up with? Make Guarding the Globe an on-going series! Now the adventures of Brit, Robot, Monster Girl, and the others will take place in the new series, with our first taste appearing in the image comic for Free Comic Book Day (May 5th!). The new series will be handled by Phil Hester (Green Arrow, The Darkness) and Todd Nauck (Amazing Spider-man,Young Justice), as Kirkman has enough comic series on his plate as is (Invincible, The Walking Dead, Thief of Thieves, and more). Kirkman says “The Invincible Universe has outgrown its parent title and I’m very excited about being able to tell larger, more in depth stories with some of the key players from that book in this series. Phil Hester and Todd Nauck are well known to fans of superhero comics and I think people are fully aware that they’re going to knock this book out of the park.” Nauck, who has worked with Image comic before on his creator owned Wildguard series, seems quite excited to be on this new project and finally doing interiors again. He stated that he “really [respects] what Robert’s accomplished so far with the series and I’m having a blast drawing this book. I feel it’s my best work to date. It’s great to be working with Image Comics again!”

While the series doesn’t currently have a release date, the FCBD preview sets us up with a time frame for the opening issue’s storyline, as Bulletproof is still running around in the Invincible costume. The series will consist of 32 color pages an issue, and run for just $2.99 a copy (as opposed to the $3.50 per issue of the Guarding the Globe mini-series). Make sure you pick up your preview in the free Image FCBD comic next weekend, and check back here for more updates as they’re announced.