Retro Review

After 20 excellent issues, series creator Peter B. Gillis left Strikeforce: Morituri, to be replaced by James D. Hudnall, who would see the story of the Morituri to its conclusion. Brent Anderson also departed, and after a couple of fill-in artists (Huw Thomas and John Calimee), Mark Bagley, now best known for his long run on Ultimate Spider-Man, took over as the regular artist. With the new creative team came a change in the status quo and the style, and by its cancellation in mid-1989, it had become a very different book.

 The rest of this review contains some spoilers.

The first couple of issues of Hudnall’s tenure set up the new status quo. Most of the remaining Morituri die, either killed in action or succumbing to the Morituri effect, and new characters are introduced. Within a few more issues, the Horde are written out as the main antagonists. While this was inevitable, as the status quo of an Earth under siege by aliens that can only be opposed by super-human defenders needed to be resolved eventually, it does take away the Morituri’s whole reason for existing. The main focus of Hundall’s run is the Earth’s political situation, something that had been touched on earlier, but would be explored now in greater detail. Who runs the Earth? What place will super-humans have now that there is no external threat to defeat? What will happen if new super-humans be created for other purposes, such as espionage or assassination?

 A further major change is the elimination of the fatality of the Morituri process. It is quickly revealed that there is something that will prevent at least some of the new characters from dying within a year, although they do not know of it initially. This eliminates the themes of mortality and martyrdom from the comic, leaving it without the one thing that made it really stand out, and allows for the creation of new super-humans for just those purposes. Inevitably, the good Morituri who survived the war with the Horde come into conflict with these new super-humans who threaten world order.

 Therein lies the main problem with the second run of Strikeforce: Morituri. Without the Horde, without the threat of death, without the concepts that drove the story previously, and with super-humans fighting super-humans, it feels like a regular super-hero book. There are other super-hero books with political intrigue and futuristic technology, and other science-fiction comics with super-humans. It’s not that it isn’t a good read; it simply isn’t special anymore.

James D. Hudnall’s strength is in the complex plots he creates, and he does a good job on this year’s worth of comics. Whether you like the change in direction or not, there is potential in it, and he uses it to tell a good story. His weakness is in characterization. None of the new characters stand out or have a unique voice. The two women are particularly bland, just powers and a nationality, and the three ’super-villains’ are clichés, whose personalities are only in evidence when they are being described in a psyche profile by another character. It weakens the story to have such cookie-cutter heroes and villains.

 The art is among Mark Bagley’s early work for Marvel - he had been with the company for just a couple of years, doing filler work and back-ups - and his inexperience shows. While you can already see the great sense of page layout and motion that would characterize his later work, the art lacks depth and emotion, further contributing to the lack of a sense of character.

 Strikeforce: Morituri #21-31, from Marvel Comics. B for plot, D for characterization and C for art, for a C overall. Not a bad comic book, but not an essential one either, pick it up for completism’s sake, or if you like well-plotted conspiracy theory stories. The issues retail for $2 and up, as they were printed in lower quantities on the better quality paper that was being used for direct-sales market comics at the time. The story of the Horde ends in #24-26, so if that’s all you’re interested in, focus on finding those.

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