Strikeforce: Morituri 3

Strikeforce: Morituri #27-31

by James D. Hudnall, Mark Bagley (Illustrations)

The war against the Horde is over, and mankind is victorious - so what do the Morituri do now? As the Earth heals from its lengthy occupation, the surviving Strikeforce members must come to terms with their own looming mortality, even as new and deadly threats arise on the post-war planet. A group of Morituri-empowered assassins target the Prime Minister, and a secret conspiracy threatens to sunder Earth's united government. And what is the sinister hidden agenda of the alien VXX199? The epic sci-fi sensation of the '80s concludes here! COLLECTING: STRIKEFORCE: MORITURI 27-31, STRIKEFORCE: MORITURI - ELECTRIC UNDERTOW 1-5

Genres: Comics, Fiction, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Dystopia

376 pages, Paperback

First published June 6, 2012

About the author

James David Hudnall has been a professional writer since 1986. The majority of his work has been in the graphic novel field. He has had one television show made from his comics (Harsh Realm, Fox 1999) and has several comics properties in development.

His Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography has been called one of the best comics of all time by “Wizard Magazine.” It was cited in TV guide as an inspiration for an X-Files Episode.

He currently writes Blue Cat with Val Mayerik on art and Thracius with Mark Vigouroux on art for Acesweekly.co.uk.

His first novel is: The Age of Heroes: Hell's Reward. His book The Secrets of Writing is expected at the end of 2013

He is a professional writer and has been a writing teacher, lecturer, publisher, and software developer for many years. He’s also a U.S. Air Force Veteran.

He currently lives in San Diego, California.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent ending to the regular series and then a great mini series that deals with the aftermath of the main story line. Nice art and a very good plot and writing make this a entertaining and very enjoyable read. Very recommended

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one took a lot longer to read than the prior two volumes, which is kinda amusing to me. It was an odd mix, I guess, and I do wish they would have had "Easter Eggs" in it, where the authors and artists talked about their vision of the 'book,' of how it developed and changed and the eventual storylines that were never told. In any case, the artwork started out sloppy for me in the comics and ended just as sloppy. The artwork in the subsequent Electronic Undertow issues was phenomenal. I loved that artwork! Just like the end of Gillis' run, the latter part of Hudnall's run felt rushed and incomplete. The character development was so-so; it was over so fast it was hard to develop any real connection with the four surviving (heroic) Morituri. I am grateful they kept the series going for five more issues (via the bookshelf format in which they were released), if only to “finish the ‘current storyline’” in the comics.

I was not too impressed with or happy with the final issues of the comic book series. As bad as was with the way the war the Horde ended, it felt even worse with how the series itself ended. It felt rushed, hurried, and “cheapened” what had gone on before. I did not like how a “war of survival” became a political game where three individuals vied to keep power by ensuring the war never ended just so they could get richer and “more powerful.” I didn’t really care for three “Morituri assassins” being created to further the geo-political-industrial goals of Lamont and his two cronies. I suppose it could have made sense, on the one hand, but I still did not care for it in the least bit. It felt like the series devolved into political intrigue and nonsense, that any “global government issues and security concerns” were trivialized by the actions of Lamont. Not only that, but he is the only one who “pays for his crimes” in the end; his two cronies get off scot-free and nothing happens to them.

Also, I wish there had been more of a sense of closure on the part of Aline’s baby. I mean, what happens to her? She was the child of a Morituri, for Pete’s sake! Aline’s genetic structure was altered, somehow, and she was fundamentally both more than and less than human! That change in her DNA should have changed the baby, somehow, too! So, it would be interesting if they ever did some kind of follow-up series involving Aline’s child and the children of Dan and Yoko. One might have thought something would have come of it in the mini-series, that something might have been mentioned about Guy and his daughter, but nothing is ever said about the two of them again. In addition, I find it hard to believe that Doctor Tuolema would have just left Aline’s child alone and “abandoned” without keeping track of her or staying in her life.

The ending was really abrupt and weird to the series, too; the first time around, I hated it and never realized there was a subsequent mini-series, so that was my loss. When I did read the Electronic Undertow series, I had forgotten what happened in the comics, so did not place the events of one with the events of the other. This time around, I did find myself wondering it the new aliens had something to do with the change(s) in how the story quickly resolved itself in the comics, and it turns out my suspicions were correct (just not completely how I assumed it to have been, as was revealed in the Undertow series). So, I was ‘happy,’ on the one hand, that Undertow tied directly into the first series and did continue aspects of that story.

It was “funny” how “cyber-punk” the Undertow series was. I had forgotten that was the case. I loved the artwork in the mini-series; I thought it was pretty awesome with some individually beautiful shots throughout the series. I would even go so far as to say it was exponentially far and beyond “better” than the last few issues of the comics; I don’t know if it was the type of paper used or what, but Bagley’s art improved dramatically between the “old” format and the “new” format. Color me impressed! I do believe his artwork helped to “sell/tell” the story, too, as I think poor artwork would have either detracted from or destroyed the story (that, and how distracting bad art can be, how it can remove a person from the narrative).

I loved the Undertow series, although I would have liked to have seen more Morituri involved in the storyline. Well, “heroic” Morituri, anyway. It was ‘fun’ to see the surviving members (the “old gang”) of the original series back together again. I liked how things had changed and developed for them over the decade since the end of the Horde War and the break-up of the world government. The whole “sentient computer that ‘secretly takes over the world’ and orchestrates events from behind the curtain” was a bit cliché, but I guess it still works. It felt like a little bit of retconning was going on, though, in terms of the four individuals involved in the creation of the Morituri process. I guess “Will” (the name the sentient AI takes on for itself) does admit he made some mistakes in who he chose to hold the reins of power of the four individuals, so that was something “positive” despite the “cheesy whateverness” of what the AI was describing having taken place. I did like how this mini-series did “wrap up” so many dangling plotlines from the original series, but I also wished that another three-or-four more series had been published to wrap up the plot lines left dangling at the end of the final issue. There were at least five potential plot-lines that were left dangling, so it would have been interesting/fun to see how the author was going to go about wrapping those stories up as well (assuming it would still have been him doing the writing, Bagley doing the artwork, and Garzon doing the inking – I do think that was a pretty amazing team and loved the work they did over the course of these issues). I think it is a shame the author was not able to do anything more with the series, because he did finish strong, in my opinion, after a ‘weak start’ in the comics themselves.

I remember reading after the Horde fled Earth, how they left for the fourth planet of the solar system. I always thought that was odd, considering how barren the planet was, how it was going to have to be terraformed in order for the Horde to survive at all. That was always one thing about the Horde that struck me as odd – they travelled from solar system to solar system, plundering and raiding and killing, but they never seemed to develop any new technologies on their own. Sure, they somehow created their own Horde versions of the Morituri, but we are never told how they managed to accomplish this feat. I always felt it was beyond them, since they should have done a better job “conquering the Earth” due to their controlling the “high ground” of Earth’s gravity well. They often complained about no longer having any nuclear weapons with which to devastate the Earth, yet they could very easily have dropped asteroids of various sizes upon the planet to get the same effect (and without the nuclear fallout). Also, they somehow managed to capture all of Earth’s remaining nuclear weapons (if I remember correctly), so that also shows they did not really know how to use what technology they had available to them, let alone any captured technology. It truly is a wonder they were able to wreak as much havoc amongst the stars as they did. The Undertow series claims that the Horde were somehow deceived by the VXX199 alien race into populating the planet of Mars, that the VXX199 subsequently began terraforming the planet for the Horde to survive there but also so that the Horde would themselves be changed into a “form” that the VXX199 could harvest after finishing with the Terrans of Earth.

I thought it was “funny” and “interesting” (fascinating?) that “Will” was able to take over the alien spacecraft and make it his “new body.” Not only that, but his returning Random’s body to Random’s control also seemed to have zero ill-effects. Random seemed to take the hijacking of his body in stride pretty easily. So, yeah, it would have been pretty cool to see how things would have either changed or progressed, what with “Will” in charge of the former alien mothership and all of the possibilities that such a situation would have entailed.

It was also interesting to me that Doctor Tuolema had obviously “perfected” his process if he was going to allow his wife to be transformed by the Morituri process. I can hardly see him letting a loved one undergo the process, willingly, unless it was a matter of life-or-death. So, it also made me wonder if he had undergone the process and why no mention was made of his having perfected it so that people who undergo the process no longer have to worry about burning out and exploding within a year’s time-frame. He also had a body-guard who seemed to clearly be some kind of Morituri – one would have thought he would have had more people who were also “real” Morituri who worked with him that could have joined the Fab Four from the comics on their quest to solve the mystery of who was trying to kill them and what it could mean.

The artwork in the final issue was pretty amazing, too. It was weird and beautiful and amazing and somewhat-psychedelic and not like anything I remember seeing at that point in comics (maybe in some of Marvel’s Epic line of comics or graphic novels). I thought Bagley and Garzon did a great job of capturing and depicting the “otherworldliness” and “alien-ness” of the alien vessel. It was crazy and intense and beautiful. It was probably the best issue of the mini-series, if not the whole series, in terms of artwork, in my opinion. I loved the idea of the “bad Morituri” being perpetual clones, how if they were killed, their consciences were immediately uploaded into a new body while retaining all of the experience and knowledge of their former selves/lives/bodies. That was pretty cool, in my opinion, especially as it did not involve having to have prior recordings made up to a point so that “current information” could be included (like “upgrades”) in the minds and consciousness of the “newer bodies.”

It was a nice, solid, satisfying end to the series. As I have already said, I do wish that the series had continued on, that they would have expanded the Morituri universe (as it were) and told more stories. I think it did have a of potential in the format in which it was produced (considering how large the books were, how amazing the artwork was, I think the price was well-worth the price of the quality of workmanship you were buying), so it is a shame it did not ‘catch on’ and more stories get published as a result. Granted, I would have loved to have seen the series continue on for several hundred issues, but that was not going to take place. In any event, it was a fun series to revisit and reread, and I am glad I took the time to do so.

[Stolt-man · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume is a great finish to this series. James Hudnall's writing keeps getting better. The story comes to a nice conclusion, although some things were left open for follow-up series which never happened. Mark Bagley draws nearly every issue so the art is great.
I had forgotten quite a bit about these stories, so this reread was a lot of fun.

[Michael Bertrand · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strikeforce: Morituri 3 contains the ending of the original run (issues 27-31) and the entire run of Strikeforce: Morituri Electric Undertow.

The team that took over in issue 21 wrote a more consistent plot, and the art did improve in 27-31, but...

They lost sight of what made Strikeforce: Morituri work in the first place. The Horde gets defeated, but not by the Morituri. A shadowy conspiracy arises that threatens all. The ever present mortal grind, where the old guard die and are replaced by the new, is removed.

And then everybody gets married. Seriously.

The improved art continues in Electric Undertow, and the plot's consistent. Even so, the plot appears to be cribbed from every late 80s, early 90s William Gibson cyberspace thriller on the market at the time. Oh, and they mix in a dose of old-school film noir notes. The whole thing feels like a cut rate Blade Runner.

There's more blood, violence, and sexuality in Electric Undertow compared to the original run. But it's got nothing on The Boys or other modern grimdark comics.

I can't recommend this one, unless you're a completist like me.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the second volume of S:M, James Hudnall takes over the writing duties from Peter Gillis and the story takes a 90-degree turn. In the past I've been a little harsh in my opinion about Hudnall's work on this series - I was much more interested in where the story was going originally. This volume shows where Hudnall was going in more depth, and although it's not what I WANTED, it's still interesting in its own right. Fun stuff if you like 80s cyberpunk stories.

[Simon Kissam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third volume of Strikeforce Morituri, which really contains two story lines. The first is finishing of the Strikeforce Morituri ongoing series dealing with the aftermath of the Horde leaving and certain people in the government creating "killer" Morituri to overthrow the government. This part was pretty good, and was a lot like the other stuff, cool political scheming with frequent fight scenes with cheesy dialogue. The art was was the same as everything else, meaning cheesy 80s art. The second part was the collection of the Electric Undertow miniseries. This was quite different seeing as it was set ten years later and the art is more gritty. This has less cheesy dialogue, which was good, and was generally better. The basic idea is the alien race who beat the Horde at the end of Vol. 2 are secretly controlling Earth's events to their advantage. They know this because one of the Morituri "Scanner" is having visions from the ghost of Will DeGuchi. So the old Morituri get back together for one more adventure. Overall, it was pretty goo, I recommend it not for the cheesy dialogue and fight scenes, but rather for all the reasons why the Morituri are fighting. Also, the end has some really weird but good art.