Why MTV Had To Cheat The Maxx’s Ending

MTV's cult adaptation of Sam Kieth's comic The Maxx had to wrap up its story long before the comic reached its end, resulting in an odd ending. I revisit the final episode this week at CBR.

GEN 13/GENERATION X #1 - July 1997

Generation Gap

Credits: Brandon Choi (writer), Arthur Adams (penciler), Alex Garner w/Peter Guzman (inks), Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Dave Lanphear (letters), Joe Chiodo & Martin Jimenez (colors)

Summary: Trance and his Freaks kidnap Jamie, a young mutant teleporter, from government custody. Gen 13 investigates the kidnapping, while Generation X detects Jamie’s presence with Cerebro. Gen X arrives as Gen 13 battles the Freaks, and mistakenly assumes they also want Jamie. The two teams fight, until their battle is interrupted by Emplate. When Trance suggests a partnership with Emplate, they teleport away. The heroes convince Jamie to take them to Emplate’s dimension, where they join forces against Emplate and Trance. With the help of Gen 13’s robot, Anna, the villains are fought to a standstill and the heroes return home. Jamie doesn’t join either team, but knows that both are his friends.

Production Note: This is a thirty-two page, standard format one-shot. Rather than twenty-two pages, however, the story runs twenty-eight. The cover price is $2.95.

I Love the ‘90s: Grunge exclaims “You go, grrl!” as Fairchild charges into battle. Also, there’s a character named “Grunge.”

Review: This one should’ve been a big deal. A huge deal. A Generation X and Gen 13 crossover, drawn by J. Scott Campbell’s inspiration, the legendary Arthur Adams? The two hottest teen superhero groups together in one book? People waited years for this comic, and yet it’s been consigned to the dollar bins of history. Perhaps not as embarrassing as the fifty-cent bins that house back issues of Fantastic Force and Doom’s IV, but it’s still a sad fall from grace.

Gen X and Gen 13 have an odd history, one that predates this comic by a good four years. Jim Lee first announced Gen X in a Wizard ad in the early ‘90s, only to be informed by Marvel that while the letter “X” might not legally be theirs, it is closely associated with Marvel, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were also working on a book called “Generation X.” I’m sure Marvel didn’t have a leg to stand on legally (they didn’t invent the phrase, and it was used everywhere between 1992 and 1996), but Jim Lee respected their wishes. When the series launched, it was titled Gen 13, and it became an instant hit. Not only was it a bit racier than anything Marvel or DC were offering at the time, but artist J. Scott Campbell’s amalgam of Arthur Adams and Jim Lee was a revelation to the adolescent audience.

Gen 13 was so big, I would go so far as to say it helped to fend off the inevitable bust of the ‘90s for a few years. Marvel’s promised teen mutant series took a few more months to materialize, and while Generation X was a very successful launch, it never really seemed to have the heat of its Image counterpart. And while it was certainly possible to be a fan of both series, it was hard for the readers not to perceive at least some sort of rivalry between the books. I mean, Generation X “stole” Gen 13’s name!

So, a few years pass, the industry tumbles, and Marvel and Image decide working together is in their mutual interest. Between Wildstorm and Extreme Studios, a plethora of Marvel crossover comics are published, beginning in 1996. Maybe one reason why this comic didn’t have an impact is because it came at the tail end of the fad; its heat stolen by the likes of Spider-Man/Backlash. Gen 13 scribe Brandon Choi’s story, however, probably deserves the bulk of the blame. What do people like about Gen 13 and Gen X? Gen X’s popularity was built on its characters, and while that’s partially true of Gen 13, much of its audience probably came for the T&A and stayed for the sheer zaniness. If you’re pairing the two teams together, your best bet is to create a minimal story that gives the characters plenty of room to interact with one another. With Arthur Adams drawing it, you know it’s going to look good. People probably won’t even miss Chris Bachalo or J. Scott Campbell.

What does the actual Gen 13/Generation X crossover bring us? Plot. Lots and lots of plot. I tried to boil it down to basics in the summary, but a more detailed recounting goes like this:

- A cold war flashback. Interpol agent Banshee and Lynch of the Black Razors stop a terrorist, Carlos Ramirez, from exploiting young Jamie’s teleportation powers.

- Lynch places Jamie in government care, against Banshee’s wishes.

- Today, Trance finds Ramirez and orders him to reveal Jamie’s location.

- Under Trance’s orders, Ramirez kills himself. Lynch is notified of the death.

- Lynch informs Gen 13. They use Freefall’s alien pet, Qeelocke, to track Jamie.

- Emplate senses Jamie’s presence.

- Cerebro locates Jamie, spurring Generation X into action.

- Gen 13 attacks Trance and his Freaks.

- Generation X interrupts the battle. A misunderstanding fight commences.

- Emplate arrives. He decides he’d rather have Qeelocke.

- Trance promises to hypnotize Qeelocke for Emplate if they join forces.

- They escape through a portal. Grunge, who still has Husk wrapped around his back, leaps after them.

- Jamie awakens. The teams convince him to help him locate their friends.

- Trance turns on Emplate, as Grunge and Husk face the Freaks.

- The heroes arrive in Emplate’s dimension, although for some reason they emerge in two different groups a few minutes apart.

- More fighting.

- Trance hypnotizes everyone. Anna is unfazed. She agrees to let him ago if he doesn’t hurt the team while they’re entranced.

- The heroes return home. Jamie is left alone, but decides the two groups of people he’s known for five minutes are his friends.

- Neither team fulfills their mission, as Jamie doesn’t go back into government custody and Generation X doesn’t gain him as a member. No one seems bothered by this.

Who gives something like that to Art Adams to draw -- especially if you know it’s going to be crammed into twenty-eight pages of story? There’s enough material here for at least a three-issue miniseries. In order to make everything fit, Adams has to resort to numerous multi-panel pages. Sometimes he packs over ten panels on to one page. Want those large, bold Adams drawings with insane levels of detail? Look elsewhere. Want to see Grunge hit on M, or Jubilee and Freefall’s trip to the mall, or Fairchild’s reaction to Chamber’s face? Too bad. Want to even see Emma Frost? Sorry, she’s inexplicably away, although having one less character to draw is probably a relief for Adams’ drawing arm.

The story does try to build up a rivalry between Banshee and Lynch, and portray Jamie as conflicted over what to do with his powers (he mistakenly believes Carlos was his friend and distrusts the heroes). Due to the ultra-compressed nature of the story, though, the small character moments don’t have any resonance. There’s simply no room for the characters to express any personality, or to do anything together, which is a shame. That’s what people wanted to see. No one bought either of these books for the plot, so the decision to go with such a dense plot that skimps over the characters was baffling.

WILDC.A.T.S/X-MEN: THE GOLDEN AGE #1 - February 1997

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Travis Charest w/Homage Studios (art), Richard Starkings & Comicraft’s Dave Lanphear (letters), Wildstorm FX (colors)

Summary: During WWII, Wolverine runs into Zealot while pursuing the Nazi, Eikert. He discovers Eikert is actually a Daemonite, who is in possession of the mysterious Lazarus Scroll. After Eikert is killed, Zealot sneaks away with the scroll. Wolverine follows her on a train, where they’re soon attacked by more Daemonites. Daemonite agent Kenyan steals the scroll and takes it to their hidden lair. Wolverine and Zealot follow, as the scroll is used to resurrect the Daemonite queen Ebron. Zealot uses the Daemonite’s magic crystal to kill Ebron, then disappears.

Continuity Notes: This is another one of the Marvel/Image crossovers to come out of the “Heroes Reborn” deal. These crossovers never count in Marvel continuity, but it’s worth noting that Zealot gives Wolverine a glove with metal claws grafted to it before they face the Daemonites. At this point, everyone was working under the assumption that Wolverine didn’t have bone claws in the past, and their emergence after the loss of his adamantium was a mystery.

Production Notes: This is a forty-eight page one-shot, with no ads and a $4.50 cover price.

Review: The premise behind the WildC.A.T.S/X-Men one-shots is that each one would take place in a different era of comics history. Appropriately enough, the first installment is set in the Golden Age, and it stars the seemingly immortal members of both teams. The actual style of the comic, however, has nothing to do with the Golden Age, even if the story is set in the 1940s. I’m not sure if anyone wants that look out of Wildstorm anyway, and it’s a thrill to see Travis Charest in one of his early, “Jim-Lee-clone-no-more,” jobs.

Charest’s work combines stylized art, hyper-detailed rendering, and photorealism without falling into the same morass that ensnares many of the artists who try just one of these looks. Imagine Lenil Francis Yu’s work at its best, without any of the rushed detours that often drag it down. The colors compliment Charest’s art perfectly, using a limited palette and a watercolor style that adds even more depth to the images. This comic is over thirteen years old, yet it still looks better than the vast majority of titles the major companies are putting out right now.

There’s also a story in-between the pretty pictures, one that doesn’t aspire to be more than an action thriller with some clever dialogue. Outside of giving Wolverine and Zealot an argument over civilian casualties, Lobdell doesn’t do a lot of character work, but he at least establishes the protagonists’ personalities quickly and gets on with the story. If you’re not already a fan of the Wildstorm Universe, this probably won’t make you a convert, but I’m sure a Wolverine/Zealot team-up is what WildC.A.T.S readers had been demanding for years. If this had been published in the earliest days of Image, before the market’s collapse, I could see Wizard going absolutely insane over this book.

BALLISTIC/WOLVERINE & WOLVERINE/WITCHBLADE

BALLISTIC/WOLVERINE #1- February 1997

Credits: David Wohl & Joe Benitez (plot), Larry Hama (script), Joe Benitez (penciler), Aaron Sowd (inker), Dennis Heisler (letters), Dean White (colors)

Summary: On New Year’s Eve, Wolverine receives a message from Zoe Culloden to meet him at LL&L’s Times Square branch. He passes through the “WC” room, which sends him to another dimension. In this Times Square, a fascist police force is terrorizing innocent citizens. Ballistic arrives and helps Wolverine fight the police. She informs him that “the Mayor” is her Cyberforce teammate Heatwave, mind-controlled by Mephisto. Zoe Culloden is his aide. At the Mayor’s office, Wolverine and Ballistic try to stop his mysterious plan, which strikes at midnight. Zoe fights against Mephisto’s mind-control and turns against the Mayor, but can’t stop his scheme. At the stroke of midnight, everyone in Times Square disappears.

Continuity Notes: This is a chapter of the “Devil’s Reign” crossover event, which pitted Marvel and Top Cow characters against Mephisto. Ballistic is a member of Cyberforce, who’s protected from mind-control by cybernetic implants (Heatwave is a cyborg, too, so I don’t know how Mephisto ensnared him).

Production Note: “Devil’s Reign” is another Marvel/Image crossover that partially wasn’t published by Image. Although the inside front cover has a “special thanks to Image Comics,” this issue was published during the very brief period Marc Silvestri broke away from Image and self-published.

Not Approved By The Comics Code Authority: Landau, Luckman, and Lake’s Times Square office is attached to a fetish nightclub.

Review: Hey, it’s another ‘90s inter-company crossover I barely remembered. A few months after Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were handed a chunk of the core Marvel Universe, we have this crossover with the remaining Marvel characters and Marc Silvestri’s Top Cow studio. I don’t recall a lot of promotion for this crossover on Marvel’s end. In fact, I think I only knew of its existence from the ads Marvel ran from comics retailer American Entertainment, which bragged about all of the variant covers they had to sell. On Top Cow’s end, this seems like something of a big deal, as the crossover apparently leads into the next storyline in Cyberforce. Image titles seemed to be okay with incorporating outside properties into their actual continuity (WildC.A.T.S. apparently did this all the time), but I’ve never seen that willingness on Marvel’s end.

Larry Hama, who wrote Wolverine during Marc Silvestri’s stint as artist, seems to be the only Marvel writer involved with this event, and he’s merely providing the script for this issue. Hama’s always able to capture Wolverine’s voice, and his fight scene dialogue is usually fun, so this issue does at least have some personality. The plot covers a surprising amount of ground, given the number of fight scenes, and splash pages and double-page spreads. Joe Benitez is one of the better Top Cow artists. He’s obviously following the Silvestri model, but Benitez isn’t doing a bad impression of him, and he doesn’t have the obsession with wrinkles and scratchy lines that so many Top Cow artists share.

WOLVERINE/WITCHBLADE #1- March 1997

Credits: David Wohl & Christina Z (story), Michael Turner (co-plot, pencils), D-Tron (inker), Dennis Heisler (letters), Jonathan D. Smith (colors)

Summary: Ballistic leaves to find her sister, while Zoe Culloden departs to find backup. Wolverine follows the scent of evil, searching for the missing crowd in Times Square. Meanwhile, Sara Pezzini begins to wonder if her past as Witchblade was an illusion. Her powers have disappeared, and her former enemy Ian now claims he’s her boyfriend. She begins to fall for the illusion until Wolverine crashes through the window and attacks Ian. Sara realizes that she’s had the Witchblade all along, as Ian transforms into Mephisto.

Production Note: Look how much larger the Image logo is now. Silvestri's back with Image by this point.

Review: Okay, the previous chapter balanced the two characters well and told a passable action story. This does not. Wolverine barely appears in this comic, and most of his appearance is spent dryly recapping the storyline thus far. The story is really about Witchblade, and it appears to be set after a specific storyline in her book as it has her mourning the deaths of several friends, then discovering (as a part of Mephsito’s illusion) that they’re alive. I never understood the appeal of Witchblade or Michael Turner, and this doesn’t do anything to win me over. Obviously, Witchblade is a mostly-nude female hero with an inhuman body, but look at her. She’s covered in hideous gray scabs that take the form of skeleton hands that cup her breasts, Janet Jackson-style. She’s also rail-thin and has virtually no facial features, with the exception of her lips, which are bigger than her fists. People were into this?

While Turner can mimic the surface elements of Silvestri’s style, and draw an impressive Mephisto, his characters designs are pretty appalling. Most of the cast barely looks human, and it’s impossible to tell Witchblade’s friend Michael apart from the villain, Ian. What’s worse, looking back over the comic, I think they’re not even supposed to be the same race! Maybe the rest of this crossover isn’t so bad, but I’m not curious enough to find out. This storyline is continued in Witchblade/Elektra, but since that doesn’t fit into the X-Universe, I’m thankfully off the hook.

DEATHBLOW & WOLVERINE #2 - February 1997

Credits: Aron Wiesenfeld (story & breakdowns), Richard Bennett (finishes), Mike Heisler (letters), Monica Bennett (colors)

Summary: The mysterious man transports Deathblow and Wolverine to a mystical library where they meet the Librarian, a figure from Chinese folklore. The robed figure explains that Sung Li is the descendant of a priestess who placed the souls of her tribe in an urn. Sung has reached maturity and now has the power to bring these Chinese warriors to life. Descendants of the tribe want Sung to revive the warriors and have brought the urn to Chinatown. Its presence is causing the residents to behave oddly. Wolverine and Deathblow return to San Francisco, where they locate the urn and rescue Sung. After saying goodbye to Deathblow, Wolverine reveals to Sung that he knows she’s the Librarian. Sung claims that she was never using Wolverine, but he chooses to leave anyway.

Review: Well, of course Sung Li couldn’t just be a normal girl. Characters with foreign backgrounds are legally required to have ties to whatever folklore might be associated with their homelands. If the first issue didn’t make it clear, it’s now obvious that this mini is essentially an “art book” and the story isn’t a major concern. It is a ‘90s Image comic, after all. Although a few pages are spent on detailing the plot, the majority of the issue is dedicated to dialogue-less fight scenes. The parallels with the original Claremont/Miller Wolverine miniseries are more obvious now, as an extended sequence gives us several shots of Wolverine fighting a horde of ninjas against a white background (Miller’s cover of the Wolverine trade paperback). Although the art isn’t as finely detailed as the first issue’s, this is a nice looking comic. Is the art enough to carry the thin story? Not exactly, although I think the story is bland more than it is terrible. (The only major issue would be the lack of resolution to the story of Deathblow’s missing friend. The plot thread isn’t even brought up, which is ridiculous since it’s the reason why Deathblow is involved in this story in the first place.) Two issues of extended ninja fight scenes are a little much, but I probably wouldn’t have minded if it was just a one-shot. It is curious that Image produced a Deathblow/Wolverine team-up that was essentially a Wolverine story guest-starring Deathblow. I wonder how Deathblow’s fans felt about this.

DEATHBLOW & WOLVERINE #1 - September 1996

Credits: Aron Wiesenfeld (story/breakdowns), Richard Bennett (finishes), Mike Heisler (letters), Monica Bennett (colors)

Summary: In 1982, Wolverine is living in San Francisco with his girlfriend Sung Li. Sung’s mother is acting odd, so the couple goes to visit her. The elderly woman, who now inexplicably speaks English, slaps her daughter, just before a group of ninjas crash through the window and attack. An injured Wolverine is rescued by Deathblow. Deathblow learns that Wolverine’s address is the same address used by his friend Phil Chang, who just wrote a letter asking him for help. After facing more ninjas, they return to Wolverine’s apartment. A mystery man informs them that Sung Li is in great danger.

Continuity Notes: Deathblow is a paramilitary Jim Lee character from the Wildstorm Universe. Why this story is explicitly set in 1982 is beyond me. You would think this was done to place the story in Wolverine’s pre-X-Men, secret agent days. However, Deathblow finds a photo of Wolverine with the X-Men in his wallet, so that clearly wasn’t the reason.

Review: Another Marvel/Image crossover I’ve only recently discovered, Deathblow and Wolverine teams Wolverine with the hardened soldier whose name isn’t amusing at all. Not one bit. Despite the brief acknowledgment of the X-Men, the story is played as your standard Wolverine prequel story. Wolverine has an Asian girlfriend, some ninjas are involved, and he nearly dies but is saved by his miraculous healing factor. At least he hasn’t fought back his berserker rage yet. Deathblow is brought into the story through what appears to be coincidence, but we later learn that he’s in Chinatown to respond to an urgent letter from a friend. Why exactly Phil Chang is using Wolverine’s address adds some intrigue to the story, along with the bizarre behavior of Sung’s mother. The main draw of the mini is the art, which has Aron Wiesenfeld and Richard Bennett emulating the “open” style of European and Japanese comics, with little or no shading and a bit of Geoff Darrow thrown in. The architecture looks beautiful, and while we’ve seen a thousand Wolverine/ninja fights by now, this one is visually exciting.

PROPHET/CABLE #2 - March 1997

Credits: Rob Liefeld (plot), Robert Napton (script), Mark Pajarillo & Paul Scott (pencilers), Norm Rapmund & Jonathan Sibal (inker), Kurt Hathaway (letters), Laura Penton & Extreme Colors (colors)

Summary: Prophet and Kirby convince Cable that Crypt is actually Domino’s kidnapper. Using Prophet’s technology, the trio follows Crypt’s trail to the end of time. While investigating Kang’s hideout, they come across the Cosmic Cube. Cable refuses to touch it, which forces Kang and Crypt to attack. With Domino’s life in jeopardy, Cable agrees to hand the Cube over to Kang. Kang is immediately consumed by the Cosmic Cube and trapped inside. Crypt escapes, and the heroes return to the DOCC station with Domino. Prophet sends Cable and Domino home, knowing that they’ll meet again.

Continuity Notes: Cable says that he’s responsible for placing the Cosmic Cube at the end of time. This is, perhaps, a reference to an X-Force story Rob Liefeld never got around to. Cable’s also, apparently, the only person who can touch the Cube without being harmed. He claims that he allowed Kang to hold it because he knew the energy would consume him.

Creative Differences: Blaquesmith has a copyright notice in the indicia, but he never appears in the comic.

Review: You know, if Badrock/Wolverine didn’t suck, this didn’t have to suck either. The only advantage over the first issue this one has is the art, which seems to be handled mostly by Mark Pajarillo. He’s a nondescript Image-style artist, but he’s at least working on the level of an Ian Churchill. I have no idea who Paul Scott is, but if he’s responsible for the Liefeld-esque pages in this issue, he’s the most loyal Liefeld clone I’ve ever seen. I honestly wonder if Liefeld drew a handful of these pages uncredited, since they’re virtually identical to his style (and by “style,” I also mean his crude anatomy and nonexistent backgrounds).

The plot is just as nonsensical this time, as the Cosmic Cube shows up as a convenient plot device. Why exactly Cable can touch the Cube when no one else can is never explained, and there’s also the question of why Cable waited so long to hand it over to Kang. If he knew the Cube would just consume Kang, why did he see the Cube, turn back, get into a fight scene, and then finally give Kang what he wanted? If Kang knew that only Cable could hold the Cube (which is why Domino was kidnapped in the first place, to lure him to Kang’s base), why did he just grab it when Cable handed it to him? Did he think Cable gives off some magic energy that enables others to touch the Cube? I realize I’m criticizing the plot holes in a mid-90s crossover with a forgotten Liefeld character, but this one is weak even by the standards set by the other Extreme crossovers.

PROPHET/CABLE #1 - January 1997

Credits: Rob Liefeld (plot), Robert Napton (script), Mark Pajarillo & Rob Liefeld (pencilers), Norm Rapmund & Jonathan Sibal (inker), Kurt Hathaway (letters), Laura Penton, Andy Troy, & Extreme Colors (colors)

Summary: Crypt travels to the Marvel Universe, hoping to find a means to defeat his enemy Prophet. He arrives at the X-Men’s mansion and fights Cable and Domino. After winning the battle, Crypt unmasks and taunts Cable with his face as he teleports away with Domino. A computer scan points Cable towards Prophet, who lives on the Direct Orbiting Commander Center. Cable teleports to Prophet’s base and begins a fight. Prophet’s companion Kirby ends the fight by putting a gun to the back of Cable’s head. Meanwhile, Crypt presents Domino to Kang the Conqueror.

Continuity Notes: In a text piece, Liefeld reveals that Prophet was originally intended to be an X-Force character. Prophet would’ve been a police officer from the future sent by Kang, a warlord in this era, to bring back Cable.

Production Note: Although these characters are associated with Image, this was actually published by Liefeld’s Maximum Press company. Judging by the cover dates, this was released around six months after the Marvel/Extreme crossovers began in Summer 1996. By this point, Liefeld was out of Image.

Review: Wrapping up the Extreme crossovers with the X-universe (unless there are even more I never knew about), we have the Prophet/Cable miniseries. Jim Valentino and Rob Liefeld had a falling out shortly after “Heroes Reborn” began, so he’s not going to be writing this. Jeph Loeb and Eric Stephenson might’ve been good candidates, but they’re sharing the editor credit. No, this is a Rob Liefeld joint, so to the surprise of no one, the plot consists of two extended fight scenes glued together with a flimsy setup. The story can’t even seem to decide if the Marvel and Extreme universes are separate realities, as Crypt has to travel across dimensions to reach Cable while Prophet just seems to be hovering over Marvel’s Earth a few pages later. Maybe the idea is that Cable teleported across realities, but it’s not clearly explained, and it would be a large leap in his teleportation abilities (Cable’s not even supposed to be able to teleport at this point in continuity, but I’ll cut the story some slack and just assume it’s not trying to adhere to any strict Cable continuity).

Now, who are Prophet and Crypt? Beats me. Crypt is apparently some sort of time thief, and Prophet is a warrior from various time periods. I guess they’re supposed to look like one another, or maybe they’re the same person from different points in the timeline. Or, perhaps Crypt is shapechanger and he’s framing Prophet. Who knows. Oddly enough, the script gives a detailed explanation of Cable and Domino for new readers, but just assumes everyone knows who the Extreme characters are. Shouldn’t this be the other way around? I do remember the Prophet series getting some hype when Chuck Dixon and Stephen Platt were briefly on the title. I certainly don’t recall this hairstyle in any of the promotional art, though:

X-FORCE/YOUNGBLOOD #1 - August 1996

Credits: Eric Stephenson & Robert Napton (writers), Stephen Platt, Dan Fraga, Richard Horie, Ching Lau, Michael Linchang, Mark Pajarillo, & Andy Park (pencilers), Marlo Alquiza, Eric Cannon, Robert Lacko, Sean Parsons, Norm Rapmund, & Lary Stucker (inkers), Kurt Hathaway (letters), Dan Shadian, Extreme Color, & Quantum Color (colors)

Summary: X-Force rejoins Ricochet Rita in the fight against Mojo. Mojo enlists the aid of Youngblood’s enemies, the Four, to squelch the rebellion. Meanwhile, Youngblood member Sentinel develops a transdimensional accelerator that enables the team to return to Mojoworld. With Youngblood’s help, X-Force defeats the Four. The heroes are shocked when Dazzler emerges from Youngblood’s craft. She takes Shaft and Shatterstar to Mojo’s dungeon to release Longshot, as the united teams confront Mojo. Outmatched, Mojo triggers an explosion. Badrock and Caliban protect their teammates from the debris, but Mojo escapes.

Continuity Notes: Dazzler reveals that she was actually Mojo’s servant, the Agent, from the first chapter of the crossover. After Mojo’s nexus in the Extreme Universe was destroyed, his magic wore off and she returned to normal. She hid out in Youngblood’s ship and emerged when they reached Mojoworld.

Gimmicks: There’s an alternate cover by Rob Liefeld that manages to get the title mixed up.

I Love the ‘90s: Badrock calls breaking through a wall his impression of the sitcom Home Improvement.

Review: Okay, this one is the mess you were probably expecting. I’ll start with the art. Apparently, each individual pouch on a character’s costume required its own artist, so approximately nine thousand people were brought in to draw this thing. The issue opens with Stephen Platt doing his standard McFarlane/Adams impersonation:

It ain’t pretty, but you at least have the impression that some effort went into this. As the story progresses, the amount of detail lines drop, and the composition somehow manages to get even worse:

By the time you reach the final pages, the art looks like a napkin sketch that was blown up to standard comic size:

Why, it’s almost as if the book was thrown together at the last minute to meet a deadline.

The first chapter of the crossover was at least coherent and enjoyable on its own terms. This just reads like a generic team-up of generic ‘90s heroes fighting generically ugly ‘90s villains. The wit of Stephenson’s first script is gone, as the characters are now incredibly stiff and barely anyone shows signs of a personality. Not only is the plot an awkward fit with the first chapter (Ricochet Rita is given a lot of attention in the opening, while Mojo II, a fairly prominent character in the first chapter, has just disappeared in-between issues…plus, the idea that Badrock would be a “savior” to Mojoworld is forgotten), but it also introduces ideas seemingly at random that are never resolved.

After the issue opens with a lengthy monologue by Ricochet Rita, lamenting Dazzler’s death, Rita disappears without explanation. Dazzler’s “death” is resolved, but Longshot is thrown into the story for no real reason. He’s freed during the final pages, as Mojo escapes the fight, and has literally nothing to do. There’s also an abortive plot thread about Shatterstar, Siryn, and Warpath abandoning Cable during the fight with Mojo’s minions because they feel he’s wasting time. Shatterstar perks up when he hears Longshot’s name, reviving the long-forgotten hint that he’s Shatterstar’s father, but it’s another idea that isn’t addressed by the story’s end. Another abandoned idea is the concept that the X-Force and Youngblood team-up is actually helping Mojo, since it boosts his ratings. There’s no resolution, as the issue just ends with a big explosion and another hint that a sequel is on the way. The story isn’t as much of a mess as the art, but it’s close. It’s a shame, since the first installment proved that these comics don’t have to suck.

BADROCK/WOLVERINE #1 - June 1996

Savaged

Credits: Jim Valentino (writer), Chap Yaep (penciler), Jonathan Sibal (inker), Steve Dutro (letters), Brian Haberlin & Extreme Colors (colors)

Summary: Tyrax, the inter-dimensional warlord, establishes a base in the Savage Land. Sauron joins the Savage Land Mutates as a supporter, hoping that Tyrax’s mutagenic machine will rid him of Karl Lykos forever. Wolverine arrives in the Savage Land on a vacation and is spotted by Sauron. After learning of a “master plan,” Wolverine sends a distress call to the X-Men. A freak electrical storm allows Youngblood’s Badrock to pick up the call. Badrock arrives in the Savage Land and teams up with Wolverine, one of his favorite superheroes. After helping Zabu free Ka-Zar, the heroes face Tyrax and his mutated Dinosauroids. When Tyrax insults Sauron, he absorbs Tyrax’s life energy. Karl Lykos asserts his personality and uses the mutagenic machine to force Sauron to become human again. With Lykos’ help, the Dinosauroids are defeated. Tyrax escapes through his dimensional portal, and Badrock offers Wolverine a ride home.

Continuity Notes: Karl Lykos is mistakenly called “Lypos” several times in the script.

Review: Badrock is probably the closest Liefeld came to creating an endearing character during the Image days, isn’t he? He also teamed up with Spider-Man during the 1996 crossover season, so I guess he was Extreme Studios’ default mascot. Like the Youngblood/X-Force crossover, this fails to live down to the horrible reputation Extreme picked up in the ‘90s. There is a ghastly Badrock/Wolverine pinup by Marat Mychaels in the back, but the interior art is acceptable. Chap Yaep started out with an extremely distorted manga/Image style, but he’s more subdued here. It’s pretty much on the same level as Jeff Matsuda’s later X-Factor work, if you catch my drift. This might not be my favorite style, but I can live with it.

Jim Valentino was writing for Marvel before leaving to co-found Image, so he’s a respectable choice to write the book. The story’s really just straightforward action, but it never degenerates into totally mindless violence. Badrock is presented as a likable, teen hero (he has to stay behind while Youngblood’s on a mission because he hasn’t finished his homework), and Valentino has a decent grasp on Wolverine as well. It’s not deep, but it’s not pretending to be. Thankfully, it evokes a Silver Age superhero team-up vibe instead of an “x-treme” one.

Oddly enough, Valentino is treating the crossover as if the Marvel and Extreme characters live in the same universe. In fact, Badrock is a huge fan of Wolverine and loves the X-Men’s TV show. Not only does the Youngblood/X-Force crossover go the opposite route, but the alternate reality angle is an important component of the actual story. If these books were being published years apart, I could understand the inconsistencies. However, these comics were all released at the same time, as installments of the same event. Why would some stories treat this as a shared universe and others go out of their way to establish the universes as separate?

YOUNGBLOOD/X-FORCE #1 - July 1996

Smokin’ Mojo

Credits: Eric Stephenson (writer), Roger Cruz (penciler), Lary Stucker (inker), Steve Dutro & Kurt Hathaway (letters), Dan Shadian & Extreme Color (colors)

Summary: A representative of Mojo, the Agent, tricks the members of Youngblood into signing contracts that take them to Mojoworld. Youngblood’s leader, Shaft, escapes through a portal that takes him to the Marvel Universe. He lands in the Danger Room, where he’s confronted by the X-Men and X-Force. Professor Xavier confirms that he isn’t a threat, and Cable declares that X-Force will aid Shaft. Meanwhile, Major Domo informs Mojo that Youngblood will be Mojoworld’s new ratings champions, and that their world is ripe for exploitation. Ricochet Rita and Mojo II offer to aid Youngblood, as X-Force arrives with Shaft. The united teams split up to destroy Mojo’s teleportation nexuses in Mojoworld and Youngblood’s reality. With the aid of the Extreme Universe’s heroes, they succeed. X-Force disappears back into their reality, as Badrock ponders if he should go back and overthrow Mojo. Elsewhere, Mojo is ecstatic with his ratings and plans a sequel with more Extreme heroes.

Continuity Notes: The members of Youngblood are Shaft, Vogue, Riptide, Badrock, Diehard, and Knightsabre. The story takes place right before the Onslaught crossover, so X-Force consists of Cable, Domino, Sunspot, Meldown, Shatterstar, Caliban, Siryn, and Warpath. Shatterstar’s past with Mojo is used as Cable’s justification for X-Force taking on the mission. When freeing the Extreme Universe heroes from prison, Cable runs into someone from his past. His name is Bravo, and he’s an exact duplicate of Cable. I don’t know if this is an actual Extreme character, or a parody of the dozens of Extreme characters who look like Cable.

I Love the ‘90s: Beast laments that he’s never able to watch “Regis and Kathy Lee” when Shaft arrives.

Review: This is another Image crossover, made possible by Marvel’s “Heroes Reborn” deal with Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. Liefeld didn’t finish “Heroes Reborn,” and he left Image during this time, but that didn’t stop a collection of Extreme/Marvel Universe crossovers from being released (including one I only recently discovered…Cable/Prophet). First of all, I will say that this is not a terrible-looking comic. I realize that’s extremely faint praise, but the idea of a 1996 Youngblood/X-Force crossover is probably going to evoke images of a horrid Liefeld-clone setting a world’s record for the highest number of clinched teeth in a comic. The art comes from Roger Cruz, still in his Joe Mad fan club days. It seems like he only provided rough pencils and the inker simply didn’t flesh them out. There’s barely any shading throughout the comic, and it occasionally seems as if the lines connecting the figures are barely meeting. At the same time, this prevents any of the ugly, excessive crosshatching of the ‘90s. So, not terrible, but rushed. Visually, the only aspect that’s truly ugly is some of the lettering. Random pages of the book go from traditional hand lettering to an amateurish attempt at computer lettering and the result is a mess.

The story parallels the art. Not as bad as you probably expected, but it’s not exactly setting a new standard for inter-company crossovers. I’ve only read a few Eric Stephenson comics, but I do know he has his fans and tends to be viewed as one of the few talented writers to be working at Image in the early days. Some aspects of the plot don’t work at all if you dwell on them (Why would Mojo’s portal take Shaft directly to the Danger Room? How exactly does X-Force reach Mojoworld?), but the majority of the story works as standard superheroics. Stephenson seems to have a grasp on all of the characters, and he even uses Shatterstar’s long-forgotten original motivation to justify X-Force’s role in the story. I get the impression that I would have more fun with this if I had any investment in the Extreme Universe, but Stephenson does at least give most of Youngblood’s members a tiny bit of personality. Connecting Youngblood, the media stars of their world, to Mojoworld’s “ratings equal power” gimmick makes sense and it works as a natural segue into the X-Universe.

Stephenson throws in a lot of meta-commentary, which even makes the often-tedious Mojoworld slightly more amusing (at least the members of Youngblood get annoyed with the constant media references). At one point, Mojo declares Youngblood the solution to disinterest in the X-Men, who aren’t the ratings champs they once were. I’m surprised Marvel let this one slip through, since it’s not exactly a hidden swipe at the line. Besides, it’s not even true. The X-books were still dominant in 1996, and any hopes that the new breed of Image heroes would replace Marvel and DC were pretty much gone by this point. At any rate, this was more enjoyable than I would’ve expected, and I’m actually curious about how the other crossovers turned out.

WILDC.A.T.S/X-MEN: THE SILVER AGE #1 – June 1997

Credits: Scott Lobdell (writer), Jim Lee (penciler), Scott Williams w/Sal Regla (inkers), Joe Chiodo & Martin Jimenez (colors), Comicraft (lettering)

Summary: Years in the past, Nick Fury recruits Grifter from prison to fight the Brood/Daemonite alliance. Meanwhile, Marvel Girl leaves the X-Men for a modeling assignment. While on her flight, she mentally connects to an undercover SHIELD agent, who is under psionic assault by the Brood and Daemonites. Grifter arrives at the airport to meet up with the agent, who is soon killed by the aliens. Marvel Girl reads the agent’s final thoughts and learns about the alien alliance. Grifter and Marvel Girl combine their powers and escape to safety. Grifter kisses Marvel Girl to show his gratitude, but she reluctantly rebuffs him. Soon, following the clues in the deceased agent’s mind, the duo attends a party on a cruise ship. Pike arrives with more Brood/Daemonite hybrids. The plan is to kidnap the world leaders at the party and bring them below deck, where Mr. Sinister is waiting. Grifter and Marvel Girl’s fight with Pike leads them to Sinister’s lab, where he’s experimenting on Zealot. The remaining X-Men follow Jean’s message and arrive, forcing the villains to retreat. As the X-Men fly away, Zealot proposes a partnership to Grifter.

Production Note: This was published through Image/Wildstorm, not Marvel. It has 48 pages with a cardstock cover and slick paper. The cover price is $4.50.

Continuity Notes: Since this is an intercompany crossover, attaching continuity to it is a little silly since it can’t really be referenced in the future. For the sake of nitpicking, I’ll point out that Marvel Girl is shown flying, which I’m almost positive she wasn’t able to do until she became Phoenix. The X-Men also didn’t meet the Brood until years after the Silver Age ended, of course. One significant aspect of Marvel continuity is addressed here, as Sinister takes a sample of Marvel Girl’s DNA when she’s briefly unconscious (which explains how he had the genetic material needed to clone Jean in the first place). I’m sure no one at Marvel decided this “counts”, but it’s amusing that Lobdell threw it in. Some Wildstorm continuity is also established, as Grifter receives his trademark red mask from SHIELD, and Zealot and Grifter meet for the first time (I’m sure none of this counts in Wildstorm continuity either).

Review: This is another one of the Marvel/Image crossovers that was published after the “Heroes Reborn” deal. I had no idea this comic existed when it was released, which is odd since it seems like Jim Lee drawing the X-Men again would’ve been treated like a big deal (I don’t remember ever hearing about any of the X-Men/WildC.A.T.S crossovers, but it turns out there were enough of them to fill a trade paperback). Judging by the cover date, I’m assuming that Lee began work on this after he finished his six-issue commitment to Fantastic Four. It’s a nice looking comic, with a lot of energetic artwork and vibrant colors. It’s supposed to take place during the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams run of the title, which explains why Jean Grey is working as a fashion model and the team believes Xavier is dead. Lobdell only seems interested in the basic status quo, though, as the Brood and Mr. Sinister show up as villains, and even Gambit makes a cameo as Grifter’s fellow prisoner in the opening. It’s as if the creators want to show some reverence to the time period, but are openly acknowledging that the “good stuff” only came years later.

Just to make the timeline more confusing, the story drops hints that it takes place in the late 60s, as Jean wears a vintage miniskirt and younger versions of John Lennon, Mick Jagger, and Ronald Reagan make cameo appearances during the party scene. It’s obvious the goal is to have fun, so obsessing over the details seems pointless (although I would like to know why exactly Sinister is working with the Brood). The story doesn’t succeed in making me care about the Wildstorm characters that much, and the “romantic tension” between Grifter and Jean is forced, but it does turn out to be an entertaining action comic. It’s sad that the comics market has shrunk to the point that creator-owned characters don’t have the popularity to star in these types of stories anymore.

IMAGE COMICS WEEK –SAVAGE DRAGON

SAVAGE DRAGON #1 – July 1992

Baptism of Fire

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer, artist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Gregory Wright (colorist)

Summary

The Dragon wakes up in a burning field with no memory of his life. Police officer Frank Darling gets him a job with his cousin, while trying to convince him to join the Chicago Police Department. Super-freaks are overrunning the city and the police need help. The Dragon refuses the offer until Frank’s cousin is murdered by a pair of freaks. Dragon joins the police force and begins fighting Chicago’s super-freaks, drawing the attention of the Vicious Circle.

Not Approved By The Comics Code Authority

There’s a lot of blood, thongs, and naughty words. The series will continue to push the envelope for years.

Review

Savage Dragon wasn’t as popular as many of the other early Image titles, but it’s outlasted almost all of them. It’s the only founding Image title that’s maintained its original creator, with Larsen writing and drawing well over one hundred issues of the series so far. Unlike most of the other Image comics I’ve looked at this week, Dragon is actually fun to read. Like many of the other Image founders, Larsen has a thousand characters he wants to introduce, but he manages to do it without cluttering the story. He accomplishes this by not giving his characters any complicated backstories or mysterious connections to one another. Dragon is a big green guy with amnesia. There are a lot of super-powered criminals in the city and he has to stop them. Who needs origins? It’s an interesting take on the superhero concept. Larsen skips ahead to the action, and you learn about the characters as the story goes along. Everyone has straightforward motives and no one has years of complicated backstory behind them. It kind of reminds me of the way Bruce Timm and company would later handle the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. Almost none of the heroes were given origins; many of them were never even named. They’re there to be the heroes and fight the bad guys. In Dragon, you’re told that super-freaks are taking over the city and that the Dragon has to stop them. How exactly that bank robber turned into a giant shark-man isn’t important. I will say that Larsen is a little too eager to get the action going, though. Dragon sees his friend blow up right in front of him, and is cracking jokes the same night as he joins the police force. He comes across as kind of a jerk, although that might have been intentional.

SAVAGE DRAGON #2 – October 1992

Born Again Patriot

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer, artist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Gregory Wright (colorist)

Summary

The Dragon continues to fight Chicago’s super-freaks. Dragon is called in to stop a group of freaks who have taken hostages inside a shopping mall. While fighting the freaks, a superhero-turned-cyborg called Superpatriot arrives. He shoots the villains, apparently killing them in cold blood. Dragon tries to stop him, but loses a lot of blood and collapses.

Continuity Note

Fabian Nicieza is given a “thank you” credit for helping to design Superpatriot. Nicieza and Larsen pitched for the relaunched X-Factor title in 1991. Superpatriot is a redesigned version of Crimson Commando, who was going to be a member. Before showing up in Savage Dragon, another version of the character called Cyborg X appeared in Erik Larsen's run on Spider-Man.

Review

It’s very light on plot, but that’s refreshing after reading so many cramped comics this week. Spawn was also light on plot, but plodding and kind of boring to read. Savage Dragon never drags. Larsen’s philosophy is to cut out the boring parts and get on with the action. Background details that don’t seem that important can come back and affect the main story. For example, Superpatriot’s assault and hospitalization takes up just a few panels in the first issue, and the info is given out as a TV news report. Initially, it seems as if this is just setting the scene for Dragon to replace the fallen heroes of Chicago. In this issue, Superpatriot is back as a cyborg (hey, it was the early ‘90s) and plays a part in the actual story. Larsen doesn’t waste time by having his hero mope around and feel sorry for himself (there’s only one scene where Dragon seems bothered by his amnesia), his character actually does something.

Larsen’s editorial in the first issue was free of any Marvel bashing, but he brings it into the actual story with this issue. As the issue opens, Dragon stops a “child devouring, web spinning, mutant ‘Spider-Man’”. The Dragon comments: “the bloated maggot was feeding on children…the years have him soft, fat and lazy. He’d gotten too big for his own good…still, it’s amazing the damage he’s done. Somebody had to put an end to this inhumanity.” A fellow officer replies, “Look at him. He got away with it for years because there was nobody around who could stop him. How could he do it?” So, Marvel was feeding on children? And now the fine folks at Image are going to stop Marvel’s evil? After all these years, I still don’t understand why so many of the Image creators were apparently so angry at Marvel. All of these guys had well paying, high profile jobs. The industry was healthy. They had their own series, and were given the option to write titles if they wanted. If you want to bring up the “Marvel stole my creations” argument, most of these guys weren’t creating too many new characters for Marvel anyway, and I’m sure all of them were well aware of the stipulations of a work-for-hire contract. Plus, almost all of these creators have done work for Marvel since leaving. If Marvel was so immoral, why go back? As an adolescent Marvel Zombie, I hated these attacks, and they initially soured me on the whole concept of Image. Thankfully, the attacks didn’t last for long and the industry moved on to other controversies (like a little project called Heroes Reborn…).

SAVAGE DRAGON #3 –December 1992

Rock This Town

Credits: Erik Larsen (writer, artist), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Gregory Wright (colorist)

Summary

After going into a coma for nine days, the Dragon recovers from last issue’s attack and stops the super-freak Inferno. While at a press conference, Dragon is attacked by Youngblood member Bedrock. After proving his strength to Bedrock, he offers Dragon a membership to Youngblood. Dragon refuses and arrests him. Meanwhile, the Vicious Circle has learned that Frank Darling tipped the freaks off about his cousin’s warehouse, in an effort to convince Dragon to join the force.

Review

This is the weakest issue of the original mini-series. Almost all of the issue is devoted to a pointless fight between Dragon and Bedrock. Having the main character point out that the fight was stupid and pointless at the end of the story doesn’t negate the fact that the audience just had to read almost a full issue devoted to something stupid and pointless. Larsen does a fine job on the actual fight (his page layouts remain interesting, except for when he relies on too many two-page splashes), but it goes on for too long. Thankfully, Larsen would later learn how to balance story and action.

Since Larsen knew that he was continuing with a regular Dragon series, he begins to set up a few future plotlines with this issue. Savage Dragon earned a reputation early on as the “the good Image book” amongst many fans and pros. Everyone from Kurt Busiek to Mark Evanier to Chuck Dixon would have fan letters published in future issues. Larsen’s art would lose a lot of the trendy crosshatching and become more streamlined, a look that suits his style. For a while there, Dragon really was one of the best superhero comics on the market.

IMAGE COMICS WEEK - CYBERFORCE

CYBERFORCE #1 – October 1992

The Tin Men of War - Part One

Credits: Marc Silvestri (artist), Eric Silvestri (writer), Mike Heisler (letterer), Joe Chiodo (colorist)

Summary

Ripclaw and Heatwave save a teenage girl named Velocity from a group of cybernetic hunters from Cyberdata, led by a woman named Ballistic. Meanwhile, Stryker, Cyblade, and Impact stop the assassination of a mutant mayoral candidate. Velocity is brought to a secret base where she meets Chip and his robot friend Timmie, who looks like a little boy. There’s a sudden explosion, and Ballistic appears with a new group of cyborgs.

Imitation & Flattery

Stryker is a no-nonsense military man with a cybernetic eye and arm(s), just like a certain Rob Liefeld creation.

Mutants are feared and persecuted in the world of Cyberforce.

Review

Did you ever think that X-Men comics would be better if they only had more cyborgs? If so, Cyberforce is the comic for you. The original Image creators were heavily criticized for just knocking off old Marvel concepts, and this complaint had some validity. Cyberforce is shamelessly taking the “mutants as a persecuted minority” concept, and applying it to a book about…cyborgs. A blue-skinned mayoral candidate (actually named Perry Bluestone, I swear) is attacked by a group of assassins who don’t want to see the “freak” win. The member of Cyberforce protecting the mayor has a lot of “can’t we all just get along?”-type thought balloons. Later, a group called the “Mutant Liberation Army” firebombs city hall as a response to the assassination attempt. It’s like someone took an X-Force script and used “Find and Replace” to change the names to Cyberforce characters. I almost admire how shameless they are about it.

As an action-oriented story, it’s more fun to read than the other Image books I’ve reviewed so far. There’s a lot of cliché dialogue and (very) unoriginal ideas, but so far, it’s not as cluttered as WildC.A.T.S and doesn’t stall the way Spawn does. Silvestri’s art is great, bringing a lot of energetic action with clear storytelling. Amongst artists, Silvestri tends to be labeled the best artist of the original Image Seven, and I agree. He seems to favor energy over slickness, which is probably why Jim Lee became more commercially successful. The Top Cow house style of today seems to be a heavily exaggerated variation of what he’s doing in these issues.

Many of the editorials in the Image first issues were filled with resentment towards Marvel (I remember Liefeld’s editorial in Supreme #1 as being particularly harsh), but Silvestri doesn’t have any bad words to say. He says that he joined Image because it seemed like a good idea, and then thanks the people he worked with at Marvel, calling them friends. Classy.

CYBERFORCE #2 – March 1993

The Tin Men of War - Part Two

Credits: Marc Silvestri (artist), Eric Silvestri (writer), Mike Heisler (letterer), Joe Chiodo (colorist)

Summary

Cyberforce face Cyberdata's soldiers, the S.H.O.C.S. They want to take Velocity back with them, but Cyberforce forces them to retreat. With their base destroyed, Cyberforce moves into an underground bunker hidden beneath a gas station. After grocery shopping with Velocity, Timmie runs into the path of a van being driven by outlaw mutants. The mutants take Velocity and Timmie hostage, but are stopped in their getaway by another S.H.O.C.S. member.

Production Note

According to the cover dates, this issue came out five months after the previous one. Who needs editors?

Review

And now Cyberforce falls into the “creator introduces every cool character he’s come up with since the fifth grade in one issue” trap. The opening fight scene looks nice, but who are these guys? There’s no real introduction given to anybody, they’re just there to fill pages in a fight scene. I get the idea that Cyberforce and Cyberdata are mortal enemies, and that they fight in a G.I. Joe/Cobra, Autobots/Decepticons way, but throwing even more villains out there without any introduction doesn’t work. Calling them S.H.O.C.S., when they work for Cyberdata, is needlessly confusing. This is only the second issue, but the bad guys already have their own sub-division of members. Later on, yet another group of mutant villains debuts without a proper introduction either, making this issue as cluttered as the early WildC.A.T.S stories.

Like a lot of the early Image books, this reads as if it ought to be the two hundredth issue of the book instead of the second. Following Marvel’s lead, the creators want to give all of these characters extensive backstories with one another, but without the benefit of Marvel’s decades-long continuity. This doesn’t work, you can’t just have someone shout, “It’s the S.H.O.C.S!” and expect us to care.

CYBERFORCE #3 – May 1993

The Tin Men of War - Part Three

Credits: Marc Silvestri (pencils), Eric Silvestri (writer), Dan Panosian, Marc Silvestri, & Trevor Scott (inks), Mike Heisler (letterer), Joe Chiodo (colorist)

Summary

The S.H.O.C.S. fight mutants Slam, Wyldfyre, and Splitzkrieg in order to kidnap Velocity, and steal some disks stolen from the Megasoft Corporation. The disks have been swallowed by Timmie, who is soon captured by the S.H.O.C.S., along with Velocity. Cyberforce traces their stolen van to the mutants’ hideout, where Pitt is coincidentally spending the night. The S.H.O.C.S. set a bomb to blow up the van and attack. Pitt, the mutants, and Cyberforce team up to fight the S.H.O.C.S. Meanwhile, Stryker, working undercover, joins Mother May I’s mutant terrorist group.

Imitation & Flattery

The mutant terrorist group is lead by Mother May I, a blue-skinned female who looks exactly like Mystique.

Review

More characters you don’t know anything about fight each other. And then something called Pitt shows up. It still looks nice, even if some of the storytelling is getting shaky, but it’s exactly what you would expect from an early Image comic.

CYBERFORCE #4 – July 1993

The Tin Men of War - Part Four

Credits: Marc Silvestri (pencils), Eric Silvestri (writer), Scott Williams (inker), Mike Heisler (letterer), Joe Chiodo (colorist)

Summary

Cyberforce invades Cyberdata’s skyscraper in order to save Velocity and Timmie. Mother May I is using the virus inside the stolen disks to destroy New York’s power grid. Her relationship with Cyberdata comes to an end when her jilted lover Kimata shoots her. Before she dies, Mother May I reveals that she is Velocity and Ballistic’s mother. Cyberforce defeats the S.H.O.C.S. and Cyberdata’s men, stopping the virus and taking Velocity back home with them.

I Love the ‘90s

Timmie the robot sends an e-mail to the team. This is the first reference to e-mail in any of the books I’ve reviewed so far.

Gimmicks

This issue has a cardstock, metallic cover, for a $0.55 higher cover price.

Review

It’s the big fight finish (as opposed to the big fight beginning and middle). Just like WildC.A.T.S, Cyberforce is filled with too many characters and too much action. At least this issue doesn’t introduce too many new characters, except for the mystery man behind Cyberdata (the mysterious group we know nothing about in the first place). I was hoping to at least enjoy these issues as fun action comics, but they turn out to just be a cluttered mess.

Cyberforce never really caught on (I can’t even remember if it’s published today; I know that Pat Lee was drawing a revival but I haven’t heard much about it sense). Even if there were a full-scale ‘90s nostalgia boom, I wouldn’t expect Cyberforce to really take off. Marc Silvestri introduced Witchblade in 1995, setting up Top Cow’s future as a publisher of dark fantasy titles, with no shortage of T & A. It seems to have worked out for them.