The following contains spoilers from Local Man #1, on sale now from Image Comics.

An Image Comics character just revealed that they once went toe-to-toe with one of Spawn's worst enemies and saved the world from the evil demon's influence. It not only opens up possibilities of a shared universe with other Spawn titles but also places the hero in the middle of a holy war between angels and demons, sometime in the past. The '90s were abuzz with outlandish tropes and crossovers, with the comic book industry seeing a boom in team-based superhero comics.

It was during this time when Image Comics came into being, and in subsequent years they rolled out a steady flow of super-teams themselves. Local Man #1 (by Tim Seeley, Tom Fleecs, Brad Simpson, and Felipe Sobreiro) captures that nostalgia through the lens of a more grounded approach. While name-dropping a big bad like Malebolgia can be written off as an Easter egg, in this particular situation, the name of the dastardly villain gives credibility to the protagonist's heroic ventures.

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Malebolgia Is Spawn's First Nemesis

Spawn vs. Malebolgia in Mortal Kombat 11

Local Man #1 tells the story of Jack Xaver, aka Crossjack, a former member of the super-team Third-Gen and now a disgraced superhero forced to return home to the sleepy town of Farmington. From the get-go, it is evident that no one, including his parents, is happy about the situation as they neither want him in their establishments nor do they want to interact with him. The climate gets even tenser when Jack enters the local watering hole and instead gets suspicious looks and snarky remarks directed at him under their breath. The gloomy atmosphere makes Jack reminisce about his old days as a celebrated superhero who once took on the Lord of Hell Malebolgia himself, undoubtedly saving lives and families from being annihilated by Hell's forces.

Making his debut in Spawn #1 (by Todd McFarlane, Steve Oliff, and Tom Orzechowski), Malebolgia is one of the most powerful demon lords from the eighth circle of Hell. After killing his master, Malebolgia's first order of business was to raise an army worthy of storming the pearly gates of heaven. And to that end, he needed a tactician to lead his war party. He colludes with Albert Simmons' commanding officer, Jason Wynn, to send him to his death so that Malebolgia could turn him into his hellspawn. Over the course of the story, Spawn learns how despicable and dangerous his demon overlord can be. Eventually, as Simmons regained his memories, the two came to blows against each other, and Simmons, with the help of Angela, finally kills Malebolgia in Spawn #100 (by Brian Holguin, Todd McFarlane, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, and Dan Kemp), putting an end to his reign of terror.

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Defeating Spawn's Enemy Malebolgia is an Impressive Feat

Jack claims defeating Malebolgia in Local Man #1

In the following years, Malebolgia has come back to life but has primarily been on the sidelines, lying in wait for the right moment to strike. Yet, during this time, the demon lord has appeared in multitudes of pop culture properties, including video games like Soul Caliber and Mortal Kombat. Hence, it is not a stretch to think that Malebolgia has found time to terrorize Image's other worlds, or that Local Man itself is part of Spawn's sprawling franchise. Either way, by designs of crossover or not, the fact remains that Crossjack has had a chance encounter with Malebolgia. More than that he even seems to have defeated the demon, but his recent fall from grace has unfortunately written it off from the list of his achievements.

As terrifying a figure as Malebolgia is, both physically and figuratively, it is no small feat to fight the lord of the eighth circle of Hell and live to tell the tale, much less lament about it. Despite his current predicament, defeating Malebolgia will always be a highlight of Jack's life, even though he is pretty much a loser as of right now. The sheer amount of storytelling avenues this simple premise opens is immense, and hopefully, there will come a time when fans will get to see the moment as it happens on the pages of comic books.