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Psi-Force #1-9
Psi-Force Classic: Volume 1
Gathered together by the mysterious Emmett Proudhawk, five paranormal teenagers struggled against government operatives, renegade superhumans and, most importantly, each other. Telepathy, astral projection, telekinesis, psychic empathy, and psionic detonation merge to form something even greater: the Psi-Hawk.
- GenresGraphic Novels
216 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2008
About the author
Steve Perry
312 books372 followersLibrarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.
Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West
Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.
Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 6, 2023
I was an absolute mark for the New Universe books - I believed the hype and excitedly bought every first issue except one: Psi-Force, the (in the heaviest imaginable scare quotes) “hottest” of the New U comics and the only one to have sold out of its meagre allocation by the time I found a UK stockist. I knew it only by reputation - the new line’s equivalent of the original X-Men, troubled teens facing persecution.
Like most of the New-U-curious my excitement didn’t survive contact with the actual comics* and while I eventually read some later Psi-Force these nine issues were all new to me. They show the slim strengths and plentiful weaknesses of the New Universe approach.
The strengths: some of Psi-Force are interesting characters, and the commitment to realism (no costumes, no supervillains, minimal fantastic elements) forces the creators to tell stories about the characters and their choices. The bulk of this volume is the five leads figuring out that no, they can’t just go home and forget the whole thing. They have to stick together.
At which point it becomes all too clear that there’s no coherent plan for what the five kids are actually going to DO once stuck together. Psi-Force is unusually directionless even for a New Universe book, and while a couple of the cast feel worth exploring, more of them are irritating cliches. And none are helped by flat dialogue, hackneyed teen angst and interpersonal conflict and writing which takes pains to spell everything out.
Which leads to the other big weakness of Psi-Force - the revolving door of creators on most New U books, caused by the project becoming suddenly underfunded within Marvel. The hastily produced titles that eventually came out are written and drawn in a Minimal Viable Product version of the Marvel mid 80s house style, stiff figures moving about generic mean streets. There’s one issue - drawn by Mark Texeira early in his career - where the art suddenly has a character and moody energy which makes you realise what you’ve been missing. But the moment immediately passes.
Psi-Force isn’t a bad comic but it’s a deeply mediocre one, hobbled by its own best intentions - ‘realism’ defined as making standard issue Marvel books but without any of the exciting bits. It’s fascinating in a way that despite huge behind the scenes turmoil and a frosty reception, the New Universe remained so doggedly committed to boring its readers.
*the honourable exception being the doubtfully titled D.P.7 which I intend to revisit sometime
Like most of the New-U-curious my excitement didn’t survive contact with the actual comics* and while I eventually read some later Psi-Force these nine issues were all new to me. They show the slim strengths and plentiful weaknesses of the New Universe approach.
The strengths: some of Psi-Force are interesting characters, and the commitment to realism (no costumes, no supervillains, minimal fantastic elements) forces the creators to tell stories about the characters and their choices. The bulk of this volume is the five leads figuring out that no, they can’t just go home and forget the whole thing. They have to stick together.
At which point it becomes all too clear that there’s no coherent plan for what the five kids are actually going to DO once stuck together. Psi-Force is unusually directionless even for a New Universe book, and while a couple of the cast feel worth exploring, more of them are irritating cliches. And none are helped by flat dialogue, hackneyed teen angst and interpersonal conflict and writing which takes pains to spell everything out.
Which leads to the other big weakness of Psi-Force - the revolving door of creators on most New U books, caused by the project becoming suddenly underfunded within Marvel. The hastily produced titles that eventually came out are written and drawn in a Minimal Viable Product version of the Marvel mid 80s house style, stiff figures moving about generic mean streets. There’s one issue - drawn by Mark Texeira early in his career - where the art suddenly has a character and moody energy which makes you realise what you’ve been missing. But the moment immediately passes.
Psi-Force isn’t a bad comic but it’s a deeply mediocre one, hobbled by its own best intentions - ‘realism’ defined as making standard issue Marvel books but without any of the exciting bits. It’s fascinating in a way that despite huge behind the scenes turmoil and a frosty reception, the New Universe remained so doggedly committed to boring its readers.
*the honourable exception being the doubtfully titled D.P.7 which I intend to revisit sometime
October 4, 2010
Wow. Very, very '80s, in look and dialogue. Like many of the New Universe properties, I felt like this was ahead of it's time. It's non-costumed metahumans, which would have been right for the late '90s and early '00s, but with '80s superhero sensibilities behind it, it mostly comes off as cheesy.
There are some good ideas here, notably a beyond-the-grave psychic push that keeps the bickering teens together, but the cheesy nicknames, bad dialogue and melodramatic plots make it mostly a miss. From what I gather, the book got stronger when Fabian Nicieza took it over, but only one of his issues is in here, and it's a clunky, heavy-handed message book about suicide.
There are some good ideas here, notably a beyond-the-grave psychic push that keeps the bickering teens together, but the cheesy nicknames, bad dialogue and melodramatic plots make it mostly a miss. From what I gather, the book got stronger when Fabian Nicieza took it over, but only one of his issues is in here, and it's a clunky, heavy-handed message book about suicide.
June 16, 2020
A long time ago, in a universe not all that different from our own there was a bright white flash in the sky and a whole bunch of people were never quite the same again.
That’s basically how the whole thing started in Marvel’s (failed?) experiment at a second attempt at world building. The White Event. The New Universe. Unfortunately, it didn’t exactly capture the imaginations of comic book readers.
This series is more than a bit disappointing. While there is potential in the concept, 5 teenagers who each have a unique psionic ability can combine their will and manifest a kind of physical force with the capabilities of each of them combined, the execution is pretty substandard, even for the era in which this was originally produced. The characters themselves are rather stereotypical and cliched and the stories feel like they’re ripped right from the scripts of badly written and cancelled TV shows. Back when originally published, I had picked up the first issue or two and then never really gave it another thought. Now I can understand exactly why.
That’s basically how the whole thing started in Marvel’s (failed?) experiment at a second attempt at world building. The White Event. The New Universe. Unfortunately, it didn’t exactly capture the imaginations of comic book readers.
This series is more than a bit disappointing. While there is potential in the concept, 5 teenagers who each have a unique psionic ability can combine their will and manifest a kind of physical force with the capabilities of each of them combined, the execution is pretty substandard, even for the era in which this was originally produced. The characters themselves are rather stereotypical and cliched and the stories feel like they’re ripped right from the scripts of badly written and cancelled TV shows. Back when originally published, I had picked up the first issue or two and then never really gave it another thought. Now I can understand exactly why.
May 24, 2019
It's weird. This is almost exactly the same comicbook as DP7, except all the characters are teenagers! Why did they both exist? Why doesn't the New Universe seem to recognize the breakout of superpowers the same way, e.g., they hate and fear mutants?
What is up with these youth shelters?
What is up with these youth shelters?
December 14, 2021
Read the first four issues.
December 28, 2018
This is an interesting concept to have a superhero team of teenagers who don’t have costumes or traditional villains. It would have been executed better if there weren’t different authors writing each issue.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews