|
|
Post by rberman on Jul 28, 2018 6:35:33 GMT -5
#6 (May 1987) “Foray for Holowood”
Cover corner box features: Marathon The Story: Dr. Tuolema has given the next generation of Morituri the same treatment we saw the first team get in issue #2; one of them permanently injured his leg during his activation ordeal in The Garden. New characters are entering fast and furious, now that we’re seeing the old ones start to exit. Also, Vyking’s insight power gives him an unexpected reading off of Commander Nion, suggesting that she may be a Morituri also.  Adept convinces Commander Beth Luis Nion that the Morituri are going stir crazy in their mountain fortress and need a night on the town, so it’s off in a flying convertible to “Holowood” in Los Angeles. In a nightclub, Blackthorn gets kissyface with Guy, one of the actors from the Morituri TV drama whom she had met at the TV premiere in NYC, while Adept bonds with her teammate Marathon.   Vyking is putting the moves on a local girl when the team gets summoned to a nearby conflict. The Horde are raiding a Holowood film archive. Apparently they value movies highly, which may mean that they’re claiming these film canisters as a prelude to nuking Los Angeles. Note the one alien with the Citizen Kane themed buttons. We later see that he has committed suicide by decapitation after being captured.     As seen in the last panel above, not only do the Morituri foil the raid, but they also get their hands on a space-worthy Horde craft, which they immediately take into orbit to attack the Horde fleet head-on. (Commander Nion is not around to give her usual "We're not ready for you to go on a mission" speech.) But just as they near the enemy flagship, Everson shockingly incinerates; his Morituri doomsday has arrived at an importune moment, decompressing the spaceship with the explosion of his body.  After the ship is mended, the remaining four Morituri debate returning home, but they decide to press on with their impromptu mission, now leaderless. Marathon in particular is quite firm on this point. His demeanor has become successively more grim with each passing issue.  My Two Cents: The issue title is an obvious pun on “Hooray for Hollywood,” a 1937 song known today in instrumental form as the theme for the Academy Awards, a.k.a. “The Oscars.” here's the original version, before the reference to the casting couch was censored in later iterations: I continue to be as mystified as the Morituri why they aren’t being deployed more frequently and more strategically. Thankfully they have learned not to wait for Commander Nion to find them missions; they seize every opportunity to advance their position personally. The death of Vyking genuinely shocked me. As the apparent protagonist, he was the “least expendable character” on the team. By offing him just as the big mission commences, Peter Gillis demonstrates his commitment to follow through on the premise of the series, in violation of all comic book convention. Former Morituri editor Carl Potts had some interesting things to say in a 2008 blog post about the relationship (and lack thereof) between Strikeforce: Morituri and the “New Universe” titles which Marvel was publishing simultaneously:
|
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Jul 28, 2018 10:42:20 GMT -5
The New Universe was a complete disaster and Shooter tied up so much of Marvel's resources in launching it that books like Strikeforce Morituri just kind of appeared on the stand. Marvel's sales, at the time, were fairly solid, across the line, so even relatively ignored books still got to run for a few years, when they would have been yanked 5 years before (speaking in general, not about SM). Strikeforce was kind of lost in the crowd; but, the crowd was doing well, which served the series well. I was certainly different from the rest of Marvel, especially once Shooter was ramming his concepts of storytelling down people's throats.
I still say the NU debacle is the main reason Shooter was fired, with the disharmony in the Marvel offices as icing on the cake.
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Jul 29, 2018 6:40:50 GMT -5
#7 (June 1987) “Rode the Six Hundred”
Cover corner box features: Radian The Story: The Morituri, piloting a stolen Horde transport, make it into a docking bay on the enemy flagship. They discover the gravity is twice earth normal. The team splits up, and Blackthorn happens upon the throne room of the Horde commander, The Stark Fist, who unnerves her with the decapitated head of one of the Black Watch, which he’s kept as a trophy. (We've seen that of the last three Black Watch members, another exploded from the Morituri effect. What happened to the third?)  Adept accesses the Horde computer and is able to travel through cyberspace to spy on their fleet stationed further out, in orbit around Jupiter. She loads up a pile of memory crystals with Horde data and calls the team back together so they can depart, bringing this military intelligence back to earth. But Marathon elects to stay behind on the Horde ship to do as much damage as possible. The sudden death of Vyking last issue is making him feel pressed to make the most combat use of every moment. So now the team is down to three members: Radian, Adept, and Blackthorn. We see Blackthorn pondering the insignia of the decapitated Black Watch member Clint Rogers, which she seized from the trophies of the Stark Fist.   My Two Cents: The issue title is another literary reference, this time to Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” which described a disastrous British cavalry attack during the Crimean War. "Light" here means "Not Heavy" rather than "Not Dark": Gillis and Anderson give us numerous Easter Eggs on board the alien ship. One alien wears Mickey Mouse ears. Adept finds a trophy room with Galactus’ helmet, Silver Surfer’s board, Batman’s giant penny, the Forbidden Planet robot, three Green Lantern batteries, Captain America’s shield, and some other genre geegaws.  The notion of the senior Morituri deferring to a newcomer with a strong personality is quite reasonable. None of them were leader types except Vyking, and his unexpected death left them looking for an officer to follow. This is why the real military has chains of command all spelled out so the soldiers don’t have to wonder where to look when the current commander dies. This is just one of the many ways that Strikeforce:Morituri, like so many comic books (and genre TV shows), fails to show any awareness of how armies actually function. Throughout these reviews, I’ve elected to refer to the team by their code names, even though they have no secret identities and no need for code names within the story. The Morituri refer to each other by their given names, but others sometimes use their code names. Also, I don’t talk much about their individual powers, because it rarely matters whether given soldier is fighting with energy beams (Radian) or fists (Marathon, Vyking) or the power to melt solid objects (Blackthorn). However, Adept’s non-combat based power of threat analysis and solution is integral to the plot, which is why it gets called out when the others do not.
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Jul 30, 2018 5:53:00 GMT -5
#8 (July 1987) “Freshmen”
Cover corner box features: Toxyn The Story: Adept, Blackthorn, and Radian return to Earth incident-free. They are introduced to three new Morituri recruits: Toxyn, Scatterbrain, and Scaredycat. Jelene’s data crystals yield massive military intelligence about the Horde; “We’ve learned more about Horde civilization in the last hour than in the previous four years they’ve been here!” Apparently the Horde are scavengers who killed the builders of their spaceships. They don’t know how to build the ships or even use their full capabilities; they just cruise the cosmos looking for easy prey. Earthforce brass tell Adept that her abilities are needed for analysis of the data she retrieved, so she shouldn’t act as a field operative anymore.  The spaceship on which Marathon stayed behind explodes, presumably taking both him and the alien commander The Stark Fist with it.  In retaliation, the Horde send a giant floating weapon to bake San Francisco, so Radian, Blackthorn, and the three new recruits board it to save the city. Jelene gets in her requisite moment of Christian encouragement to a teammate:  Because Toxyn seems cool and collected, everyone defers to her, but she doesn’t want the burden of leadership any more than the rest of them.    My Two Cents: Dr. Tuolema frets about his place in history, perhaps rightly so. We haven’t seen evidence that Earth society is on the brink of disaster; the alien threat seems mainly an inconvience that prevents air travel. So a suicidal Super-Soldier treatment may not be called for, especially until Earth Gov has figured out what to do with the Morituri besides have them sit around and wait for threats to respond to. A real response to the alien fleet would be multi-pronged, probably involving lots of missiles.  Adept’s power (analyzing solutions to any problem) is a great example of a non-combat oriented ability, and its uses in the war planning room are obvious and manifold. That’s where wars are usually won and lost, not out on the battlefield. Each alien seems to have a theme with his decorations. This guy is sci-fi themed, for instance.  I thought at the beginning that Blackthorn and Vyking were being set up as a couple, but that notion went up in a puff of smoke when he did. Now it appears that she’s attached quite firmly to Guy, one of the actors from the Morituri TV show. She’s in awe of his celebrity, and he with her military reputation and super-powers.  As noted above, the newly deceased alien commander is named “The Stark Fist.” This term comes from the parody religion The Church of the Sub-Genius, founded in 1979 and enjoying some satirical popularity in the 1980s. Writings of this group held that the Christian God is vengeful, having a “stark fist of removal.” This phrase gave its name to the Church’s official newsletter. By including the Stark Fist as a villain in the story, is Gillis giving a positive or negative or neutral hat tip to the Church of the Sub-Genius? Could be any of the above. If you want to take a trip back in time to the early days of HTML, follow this link to the Church’s web page about the Stark Fist, such as it is. R. Crumb reprinted Church material in Weirdo, resulting in some exposure to comics fans.  
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Jul 31, 2018 9:19:12 GMT -5
#9 (August 1987) “The Undiscovered Country”
Cover corner box features: ScatterbrainThe Story: Scatterbrain tests out new jet boots. His left leg was permanently maimed during his trial in The Garden to activate the Morituri process. So he wears a leg brace. The Morituri insist on being allowed to see Adept, who is working hard in strategic planning. They threaten the “No visitors allowed” guards until Commander Nion shows up to defuse the situation and grant them entrance. In the process, we get another hint that Nion herself is secretly Morituri, as she grimaces from some internal pain after commenting that she doesn’t expect to outlive the soldiers in her command. This would explain how she survived a laser blast in issue #1, and a beating from Vyking in issue #2.  The next surprise comes when Marathon, presumed dead when the alien flagship exploded, shows up at the gates of Morituri Mountain. Turns out he’s tough enough to survive orbital re-entry, and he conveniently splashed down just “75 miles off of Northern California,” swimming the rest of the way to shore. Tough dude! New Morituri soldier Scaredycat follows a mystical New Age religion. She tells Scatterbrain that his rocket boots are powered by “spiritual energy,” and that the Morituri powers are spiritual in nature as well. This makes for an amusingly awkward exchange later between her and Adept the Christian.  Up in orbit, another Horde ship has arrived at Earth from their fleet stationed at Jupiter. Thundercrush of the Chasm Tent is the new commander, and we get our first hint of factions within the Horde, vying against each other for control of the fleet. The series is also starting to feel a little bit like the original Voltron cartoon, in which the defeat of one wave of alien ships just cleared the field for another one. Sirens sound to announce an alien attack somewhere. For inexplicable reasons, the Morituri insist that Adept be allowed to come with them into combat, despite the obvious big-picture advantages of leaving her home to continue the research that might actually end the war instead of just win individual battles. Nion says as much before keeling over from “a heart attack or something.” The Morituri turn their backs on Nion's prone form and run to their transport. Cold! Marathon even declares that “Strikeforce Morituri’s mission is to attack and destroy the Horde.” I’m pretty sure there ought to be something in the mission statement about “following orders to win the whole war,” though. There’s a line of dialogue about “The medics are here,” but we don’t see any medics, and I wonder whether that dialogue was added at a late phase when Marvel editors questioned this scene, which makes the Morituri ruthless, as well as traitors.  To add insult to injury, this latest Horde attack is on the chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania. This is the second time that the aliens have raided for chocolates (and not the last), so I really hope we’re going to find it’s some sort of addictive narcotic for them instead of just a guilty confection. Anyway, it’s a short battle- maybe suspiciously short.  Sure enough, when Radian gets back to home base (where Dr. Tuolema is understandably upset about the Morituri abandoning Nion in her moment of apparent mortal peril), he finds a recording stashed in his costume. It contains a message from the Horde, offering him a cure for Morituri so that he can live out a normal lifespan. As evidence, he’s shown that Bruce Higashi of the Black Watch is a captive of the Horde, but alive long after his one year expiration date. This offer tempts Radian, but he doesn’t take action yet.  But not long afterward, he discovers that Dr. Tuolema has been ordered to terminate his research on extending Morituri lifespan, and concentrate on honing the process in on making more Adepts, rather than just random super powers for each candidate. This upsets Radian for some reason, and so he contacts the Horde. Where will this go?  My Two Cents: This issue’s title was also the subtitle of the film Star Trek VI (1991). It comes from the soliloquy in which Hamlet discusses how the fear of death motivates men to stay alive even through great adversity and suffering: This fits Radian's temptation exactly. You might well believe that soldiers with a death sentence would be tempted to grasp at straws, even at the cost of treason. However, the particular last straw in this case is supposedly Dr. Tuolema ending his research on a cure. But why would anyone expect him to have been researching a cure in the first place? Surely winning the war is top priority. The best way to stop the Morituri process from killing more people is to end the need for more Morituri. That may be small comfort to those who have already been transformed, though. While falling from orbit and swimming 75 miles, Marathon also had time to grow some stubble, and I must sadly report that it has the worst coloring job on any beard I have ever seen in any comic book. Is it just in my trade paperback reprint, or did it look this horrid in the original as well? Whose job was it to give his stubble blue highlights as if it were shiny? His hair is also shorter than it was when we last saw him, though I suppose we could assume it was singed off by re-entry from space and is now regrowing. 
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Aug 1, 2018 6:24:47 GMT -5
#10 (September 1987) “Cats!” Cover corner box features: Scaredycat. She is not the "cat" mentioned in the title, but it's a clever touch all the same. The Story: And now, a very special, Morituri-free episode of Strikeforce Morituri. Art is by Whilce Portacio, who provided scattered art for Black Watch comic books in previous issues. The frame story involves D’Cheir and Lalla’ch, a pair of Mellidar aliens in the Horde base in Capetown, South Africa. D’Cheir narrates the origin of the Horde threat. It began when a team of benign travelers from an advanced civilization landed on the Horde homeworld. The Horde slaughtered their guests, took over their starships, and began rampaging across the galaxy, taking slaves and booty as they marauded from planet to planet.  The two critters give readers a tour of the Horde base. We see loinclothed, chained human slaves. We see Horde officers debate the protocol for apportioning booty among their troops. We see an elderly Horde shaman delighted to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key—does he even know what it would mean for an American? And then the Black Watch attack! The little critters decide to aid the Watch, guiding them through the base to a room full of human slaves. The Watch are both appalled and overwhelmed, since they have no capacity to rescue any of the slaves.    One Guard falls in battle, and the Horde kill Lalla'ch and all the human captives, in retaliation for their own battle losses.  The two remaining Black Guard withdraw for parts unknown, leaving the surviving critter to hope for a future opportunity to rebel against his overlords. Bruce Higashi, the black-haired soldier, is drawn with a rather feminine face in the panel below, but I don't know whether this represents miscommunication about the character or just bad art.  My Two Cents: It doesn’t seem right to call this just a fill-in issue, though it does give artist Brent Anderson a respite to prepare for some double-sized work to come. The revelation of the Horde’s back-story makes some sense of their savage nature contrasted with the technology which they struggle to bring to bear. It does strain credulity that they would be able to operate these spaceships for hundreds of years without really understanding the underlying technology. I guess we can assume a high degree of automation, since the untrained Morituri also have little difficulty flying those same ships when they get the chance. That being the case, the smart move for the Morituri is to capture as much of the alien tech as possible, since humans have a better chance of reverse engineering it to use against the Horde down the line. Eleven issues in, the Morituri have only been sent on one official combat mission by their bosses. Every other mission they either took upon themselves or else fell into while they were supposed to be doing something else. This is totally bizarre. The Horde are facing a similar quandary, with their troops restless for plunder and wanting to be sent on more attack missions to Earth. It would be nice to see another Horde faction that thinks all this piracy is a waste of resources. For that matter, where are all the Horde women and children? The need to provide for a family becomes a powerful incentive to sue for peace. We haven’t seen any indication of the Horde as an actual society; they operate more like a street gang.  The “cats” in the title of this episode are the Mellidar, whom the Horde treat like pets, giving them free roaming on their ships. Do they have jobs? They are sentient. The Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical “Cats” was a hot Broadway theater ticket throughout the 80s, though Gillis may have been just reflecting on his own experiences as a pet owner.  Easter Eggs" D’Cheir eats a can of “Spum” lunch meat which I assume must be even more generic than “Spam.” The “5150” on the door behind him on the first splash page is probably a reference to the 1986 Van Halen album of that title, rather than to the “Escaped mental convict” police code which that number represents. Or maybe both? 
|
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Aug 1, 2018 7:56:43 GMT -5
Spum would be necessary; Spam is a brand name and would require Hormel's permission to reproduce.
The Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical “Cats” was a hot Broadway theater ticket throughout the 80s,-and the most boring night of my life. My mother treated me to it, at the St Louis Muni, after I got back from my first midshipman training cruise. The first act had the only songs I thought were decent and there is absolutely no story. Just a random selection of TS Elliott's poems (from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats) set to rather bland music. Give me Rogers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Lowe any day!
Your panel example comes dangerously close to illustrating why the name Clint was all but officially banned at the Big Two, until they had better printing. Surprised Gillis didn't have "flick" in there somewhere, too.
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Aug 1, 2018 9:20:01 GMT -5
Spum would be necessary; Spam is a brand name and would require Hormel's permission to reproduce. The Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical “Cats” was a hot Broadway theater ticket throughout the 80s,-and the most boring night of my life. My mother treated me to it, at the St Louis Muni, after I got back from my first midshipman training cruise. The first act had the only songs I thought were decent and there is absolutely no story. Just a random selection of TS Elliott's poems (from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats) set to rather bland music. Give me Rogers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Lowe any day! Your panel example comes dangerously close to illustrating why the name Clint was all but officially banned at the Big Two, until they had better printing. Surprised Gillis didn't have "flick" in there somewhere, too. Yes, Cats hearkens back to the early days of Broadway when musical revues were dominant, radio not having yet ascended as the place where you could hear a random collection of songs lacking a central narrative. It's not one of my favorite musicals either, but I guess the slinky catsuits (literally) were quite a draw in the 80s. |
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Aug 1, 2018 11:10:25 GMT -5
Yeah; MTV even had a music video from the Broadway production (of the timeframe) for the song "Rm-Tum Tugger"...
This thing even got serious rotation.
Of course, the pinnacle of Cats was when tv's Fall Out Boy, Buddy Hodges, played Rum-Tum Tugger in the 2nd national touring company of Cats...
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Aug 2, 2018 7:49:55 GMT -5
#11 (October 1987) “The Cure”
Cover corner box features: Blackthorn
The Story: First comes a two page recap, in the form of a Sesame Street-type kids’ TV program. It explains the “alien invasion” premise of the series and runs through the names and abilities of six of the surviving Morituri of the moment: Marathon, Adept, Blackthorn, Scaredycat, Scatterbrain, and Toxyn. ( Radian is omitted, to his chagrin.)  Beth Luis Nion admits to Dr. Tuolema that she underwent the Morituri process herself but only gained “the power to make roses bloom.” This is why when Vyking looked at Nion several issues ago, he saw a flower.  On a Horde ship, we learn a little bit about the dynamics within the Horde. Warlord Thundercrush and his "tentmate" (brother) Hammersmith are in charge. Their lieutenant Gentle Inquirer plots to get Hammersmith killed in combat with the Morituri. Intrigue! Hammersmith leads an attack on the cruise ship on which Vyking’s parents were vacationing, taking them hostage. The Morituri are once again lounging around the base, grousing about not being sent on anti-Horde missions, and it’s hard to disagree with their concern, which has been both amply demonstrated and expressed in the series to date.  Marathon has been all weird since falling from orbit. He’s tattooed a big ol’ “M” (for Morituri) across his face with an industrial laser.  When they learn of the cruise ship attack, they leap into action, though Toxyn is rankled to find out that they’re not going on a more strategically important mission than "rescuing a deceased compatriot's parents." Once the Morituri have won the battle on the cruise ship, they commandeer a Horde spaceship, taking Hammersmith captive in the bargain. In retaliation, the Horde launch an all-out nuclear assault against the whole Canadian Rocky Mountains, figuring that if they use enough missiles, they’re bound to hit the Morituri base, wherever it may be. That’s pretty hardcore, especially considering it will cause massive fallout that may ruin Earth’s value as a takeover target for the Horde.   My Two Cents: A big issue! Lots of meaty story. The theme of this issue is internal conflict and betrayal: • Gentle Inquirer plots a coup against Hammersmith and Thundercrush within the Horde. • The Morituri once again take matters into their own hands, leaving the base on a mission of their own devising. They also spring Adept from her cloistering to join them, which involves assaulting some hapless guards again. • Once en route to rescue the cruise ship, Toxyn is irked by the sentimental nature of the mission. She assaults Blackthorn with a sedative poison to express her displeasure.  • Once the Morituri have control of a Horde ship, Radian reveals his intention to defect to the Horde in hopes of getting the Morituri process reversed.   The cover is another nice bit of propaganda. It has a Paideia recruiting poster in the window of a store that sells “Strikeforce Morituri Action Playset!” for children This makes me wonder how the television audience reacted to the deaths of Snapdragon and Vyking. Or what the TV show episodes are even about, given how few missions the Morituri are sent on by their commanders. What was the public response to all this? The Morituri are so isolated from human society, cooped up in their mountain fortress with surprisingly little romance going on in their midst. 
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Aug 3, 2018 7:13:43 GMT -5
#12 (November 1987) “The Birthgrave”
Cover corner box features: Blackthorn (the first time we’ve had the same image two issues in a row) The Story: Vyking’s parents, Justin and Hilary Everson, are below decks in the Horde cruiser, not knowing that it’s been commandeered by their rescuers the Morituri. They wander to the command deck and meet the team, who are in an imbroglio over Radian’s treason.  Marathon reveals that Radian isn’t actually turning traitor; rather, the two of them hatched a plan to bring Adept into the heart of the Horde fleet orbiting Jupiter so that she can analyze as much direct Horde data as possible. Toxyn makes the absurd demand that they turn around and take Everson’s parents back to Earth first. Yeah, as if!  Hammersmith, their captive Horde leader, tries to self-destruct the cruiser carrying the Morituri toward Jupiter. A fist from Marathon foils his plan. Hammersmith also has some tentacle creature adherent to the side of his head, but no one appears to notice it. We learn at some point that this is a rare translator critter. Less of a bablfish, more of a babelsquid. Mr. Everson is surprisingly non-appreciative for having his life saved by Marathon. He’s been embittered by the death of his son in defense of his planet. Later aboard the Horde base he announces his intent to fly the Horde ship back to Earth himself without the Morituri, which seems frankly insane on several levels. This was set up back in issue #1, when he had an argument with his son Harold about joining the army. Many Americans in the late 1980s were still bearing the familial effects of sons who went off to Vietnam who "came back different, if they came back at all," in the words of a song.    Adept drops another bombshell: She can discern that Blackthorn is pregnant, presumably with the child of Guy Harding the movie star. As if that wasn’t enough, Marathon can tell that he’s about to have his own deadly Morituri explosion. The team rapidly evacuates the Morituri treasure ship, leaving him behind to destroy the ship along with himself.  The gravely ill Commander Beth Luis Nion is with Doctor Tuolema in The Garden, an unspecified underground rural location where the Morituri previously underwent a Danger Room ordeal to activate their powers. Religion is on their minds as they look back over their professional regrets.  Brent Anderson gives us a neat spash page of overlapping concentric circles depicting the simultaneous deaths of Marathon near Jupiter and Nion in The Garden:  My Two Cents: Characters are really dropping like flies now! Beth Luis Nion’s Morituri experience was kind of a bummer since she didn’t get a super-power relevant to combat, just the power to make roses bloom. We’re reminded of this in the bottom half of the death splash page above. This was the first issue of Morituri published since Jim Shooter was removed from his post of Editor-in-Chief at Marvel. Now Tom DeFalco fills that chair. It may be tempting to read that conflict into the internal squabbles of both the Paideia and Horde, but I see no particular evidence of it in the details of the story. The Radian plot twist is a bit of a cheat. We were privy to his thoughts in previous issue, and he clearly was not planning anything like what Marathon claimed. He really did want to get his life expectancy extended by the Horde. I’d like to think that Marathon was just showing initiative and covering for Radian by transforming treason into an attack opportunity. But more likely, this was just a narrative cheat by Gillis, retconning Radian’s motive for surprise value. The alien base ship contains another store room full of classic sci-fi treasures including a Dalek and props from “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “War of the Worlds.” 
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Aug 4, 2018 6:39:57 GMT -5
#13 (December 1987) “Johnny, We Hardly…Knew Ye”
Cover corner box features: Adept
The Story: With the death of Commander Beth Luis Nion last issue, new character Yuri Pogorelich (who looks a lot like Peter Gillis) is promoted to lead the Morituri project – and we discover there’s already a new team of six heroes making up the fourth generation of Morituri recruits. A three page sequence introduces them, their code names ( Hardcase, Shear, Brava, Backhand, Silencer, and Wildcard), and powers.  Adept absorbed all sorts of tech information while on the Horde treasure ship near Jupiter. Now headed back to earth, she’s in a trance, babbling as her mind processes all these new insights, some of which seems to be about actual legitimate science topics rather than just nonsense.  As Adept dies (without an explosion), Toxyn makes the ridiculous suggestion that the team not return to Earth. And go where? And do what? And wasn't she the one last issue who wanted to take Vyking's parents back to Earth before gallivanting off into space? Anyway, nobody supports her notion, so the team returns to Earth, where they can see the effects of the previous Horde nuclear strike covering a large section of Western Canada, including their mountain base. The Morituri’s incomplete understanding of their ship’s warp drive causes them to “crash” in Detroit, materializing partly inside a local building. Apparently all of their disobeying of previous orders has caught up with them, as a warrant for their arrest leads to a scuffle with local police. They steal a police hovercraft and hide in an old factory to ponder their next move.  Somehow the new Morituri squad tracks down the old one in Detroit, and of course a big ol’ fight breaks out between the two squads. While fighting Scaredycat, Wildcard abruptly bursts into flames and dies, consumed by the Morituri effect, though Scaredycat takes some convincing that it wasn’t her fault. Brava is surprisingly callous toward her teammates’ death, calling it “not unexpected.”   Backhand (an actor who played Morituri member Vyking on TV before joining the military), freaks out and flees the scene, and the battle peters out. However, the old Morituri refuse to return to The Garden with the new guys, saying that the military doesn’t know how to use them properly, and they’re going to decide their own targets from now on.  My Two Cents: The title refers to a Civil War song describing a maimed soldier. Within this issue, it probably refers to Wildcard, since we "hardly knew him" before he died. But within the context of the original song, "I hardly knew ye" means "I could not recognize you when I saw you, because you were so changed by the war." That too fits the Morituri experience in particular, and of many soldiers in general, even those who do not lose limbs: Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, Ye're an armless, boneless, chickenless egg Ye'll have to put with a bowl out to beg Oh Johnny I hardly knew ye This extra-large issue contains a couple of other features to fill it out. One is a five page “handbook” with explanations of creatures, spaceships, and the backstory of the Earth Government’s division into seven large segments of the world: USSR, Asia, Canada, Americas, Europe, Oceania, and Africa. I have no idea why Canada merits its own grand division. The other important fact revealed on these pages is that the Black Watch originally contained five members, not just the three that we have hitherto seen.  Also at the end is a humorous five page story depicting Peter Gillis and Brent Anderson in a conference call to discuss what new Morituri they’ll create, and which current characters will be knocked off next.. One panel shows a Marvel staffer with a red beard (John Byrne?) chained to the wall behind Carl Potts with an “I was bad” sign. Marvel used to do a lot more of this “wacky bullpen” stuff in the Bronze Age, and I kind of miss it, at least in small doses.   
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Aug 5, 2018 18:39:45 GMT -5
#14 (January 1988) “All My Trials”
Cover corner box features: Radian
The Story: When the Morituri warped their stolen spaceship into half a building in Detroit last issue, they appear to have forgotten that Hammersmith the alien commander was still aboard. This issue follows his escape from human-controlled territory. He hijacks a family car which has a navigation system not too far off from what we actually have in cars today. So, well done with your prognostication, Peter Gillis!  The dad of the captured family eventually runs the car off the road in an attempt to wrest Hammersmith’s gun away from him. The gambit fails, but Hammersmith respects the human family’s warrior courage and leaves them alive as he journeys on (in their now-stolen car) to a rendezvous point in New Orleans. This is the first hint of nobility we have seen in any Hordian. Is this the shape of things to come? (Spoiler: Alas, no.)  The whole Morituri team, new and old alike, has made a hidden base in the “Research Triangle” around Duke University in North Carolina, an area now known as “Triad. “ They help out with a building fire, which further boosts their standing in the court of public opinion. Paideia authorities are far less pleased with the Morituri’s independent actions, though.  Toxyn has an emotion-fraught Skype session with her ex-husband. She accuses him of “beating” and “humiliating” her, which makes it sound like the “beating” was “besting” rather than “assaulting.” Maybe we’ll learn more about this down the line. Or maybe Toxyn will explode before we find out. In Strikeforce Morituri, who can predict? (Spoiler: We don't find out more.)  A Paideia tribunal convenes. The top brass accuse the Morituri’s unsanctioned mission of being the proximate cause of the Horde getting a lock on Morituri Mountain to destroy it with nukes. Scaredycat points out that without the unauthorized trip to Jupiter, Marathon and Adept would still have died, but without destroying the enemy base or capturing all that valuable intel. Toxyn uses her poison powers to give each of the old Morituri a “kiss of death” which will kill them in an hour, unless the Paedeia withdraws its charges against them and lets them go on missions. Her ultimatum works; the official reprimand is withdrawn, and the Morituri get a promise that they will be sent on regular official missions instead of having to sneak out. (Spoiler: They won't.)  My Two Cents: Another issue titled after a popular folk tune. This one was first recorded by Bob Gibson in 1956 and attracted covers by the likes of Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary; the author is unknown, and the key line is “All my trials, Lord, soon be over.” Nice to finally get a Horde perspective on all this to humanize the conflict and inject at least a sliver of grey. Humans seem to instinctively empathize with the underdog. Even Satan comes across as a hero when cast as someone struggling against great odds in Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” We like to see people triumph over adversity, so the story of Hammersmith’s escape from Detroit evokes in us a sympathy that quickly evaporates when he holds up a civilian family at gunpoint, making them the underdogs instead of himself.  At one point, Hammersmith says, “I’m a warrior, not an engineer.” Star Trek reference? His people use a base 60 numbering system, like ancient Babylon. This is the basis for our system of minutes and seconds.  We haven’t seen much about the fictionalization of the Morituri for a while – no TV shows or comic books. We have seen some newscasters, but that’s expected. I guess Gillis ran out of new angles to play with that concept, and dropped it. Why does Toxyn kiss her comrades on the lips? I feel like we’ve seen her administer her poisons by kissing regular skin on other occasions. It reminds me of how the X-Men character Rogue often kisses people to steal their powers, even when any skin-skin contact would do.  In this particular case, the kiss on the lips is shown when administered to two men Radian and Scatterbrain, but is only implied (with heads blocking the action) when administered to the two women Blackthorn and Scaredycat.  A woman-woman kiss was a pretty big deal in 80s comics; remember this scene in Camelot 3000 (1982), between Tristan (reincarnated as a woman) and Isolde? But wasn’t that a direct-market book, not sold on news stands? But for Strikeforce:Morituri, a Comics Code issue may have been at work still in 1988. 
|
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Aug 6, 2018 0:17:21 GMT -5
Camelot 3000 was a Direct Market book; but, note that in Morituri, you only see the women from behind, while the male is kissed in profile. Bolland had it in profile in Camelot 3000, for greater impact. It's not quite so groundbreaking when it is deliberately obscured. Marvel was especially squeamish (see Alpha Flight and the whole Northstar, where everything is very veiled).
I'm netting the political divisions had a bit to do with how Marvel sold, internationally, with Canada being a big market (for comics, in general, and Marvel, specifically). Might have been a marketing bone to the Canadian market. Might also reflect the more direct involvement of the US in Latin American affairs, while maintaining cordial relationships with Canada (after 1815, apart from a few border squabbles and hockey games).
|
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Aug 6, 2018 7:54:22 GMT -5
#15 (February 1988) “That Is the Question”
Cover corner box features: Brava The Story: Radian must have been thinking about his previous religious conversation with Adept, because he shows up in a Catholic chapel, asking the nun if it’s a sin that he has signed up for an assignment which is sure to mean his death. The nun assures him that he is doing God’s work, and that sacrifice is different from suicide. Radian stalks away, unconvinced. He calls Dr. Tuolema, who confirms that a scientist researching a cure for Morituri is missing, presumed dead. But what if he was kidnapped by the Horde instead of killed? (The “New Haven Instititute for Human Potential” sounds suspiciously like “Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.”)  During a mission to India, the Morituri face a new breed of “Super-Hordians” who have corrosive tentacles. Radian allows himself to be captured by the Horde. He’s taken to Capetown, where the Horde sub-commander, Gentle Inquirer, confirms that the human Dr. Ledbetter did give the Horde a Morituri cure before dying. Radian is released to betray his teammates. Instead, he reveals that his defection was a ruse to investigate the cure. He fed the name “Dr. Ledbetter” to Gentile Inquirer, who foolishly repeated it back. But the name was fictitious; therefore, so is the cure. Radian underwent this dangerous mission for the sake of Blackthorn’s unborn baby, knowing that the baby will never be born if Blackthorn experiences a Morituri death before the nine month pregnancy concludes.   Unfortunately, Radian’s clever ruse is only revealed after Shear has struck Radian a fatal blow, thinking him a traitor. Radian dies on the lawn, relieved that he has not committed the mortal sin of failing to save Aline’s baby, or the mortal sin of committing suicide out of despair. He has died in battle, on a mission of mercy. A good death – except after everyone else goes inside, Shear spits on the face of the corpse.   My Two Cents: This issue had several surprises. The Morituri were surprised by the Horde super-soldiers, and then by Radian’s apparent defection, and then by the explanation of what he was really up to. The reader is surprised that Radian, who was formerly irreligious, has apparently accepted at least some elements of Roman Catholic belief; the concept not just of sin but of mortal sin is a distinctive of Roman Catholicism, whereas Adept’s use of a plain cross rather than a crucifix would tend to mark her as a Protestant, as would her emphasis on “accepting Christ in your heart.”  Shear spitting on Radian’s corpse was pretty shocking as well and doesn’t speak well of him, Gillis has set up plenty of believable conflict among the humans, even as the specific pieces on the battlefield keep changing. The issue title is again from Shakespeare, namely Hamlet’s famed “To be, or not to be” soliloquy expressing his existential angst. As Radian dies, Aline quotes the words of Horatio to dying Hamlet: “Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” “Gentle Inquirer” is a fascinating name for a barbarian alien invader under-chieftain, and I looked in vain for the first usage of the term. No such luck, but it’s a common Britishism to politely refer to someone who investigates something. I’d love to know whether Gillis drew the name from some particular instance in literature; perhaps one day I’ll have the opportunity to ask him. The cover is mis-colored, making it look as if Blackthorn’s legs are bare, when actually she wears grey tights. (Or maybe they are yoga pants. Who knows?) Note also the arrow in the bottom left which helpfully points out which member of the team is doing the betraying.  One of the Super-Hordians has a superman-shaped insignia on his chest. Cute.
|
|
