| Strikeforce: Morituri | |
|---|---|
Strikeforce Morituri, art by Brent Anderson |
|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | , science fiction, superhero |
| Publication date | December 1986 - July 1989 |
| Number of issues | 31 |
| Main character(s) | Jason Edwards Dan Baker Yoko Watanabe Fiona Windsor Tam Van Ok Zakir Shastri Julio Gonzales Aaron Ray Leonard Patricia Lynne Sobrero Clinton Brian Rogers Bruce Higashi Woodrow Joshua Green Carol Rayweick Macintire Kenlin Lorna Leigh Raeburn Harold Carl Everson Robert Greenbaum Jelene Anderson Louis Armanetti Aline Pagrovna Pilar Lisieux William Deguchi Ruth Mastorakis Greg Mattingly Domenica Contreras Burke O'Halloran Walther Feyzioglu Akiya Bandaranaike John Crenosa |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Peter B. Gillis |
| Artist(s) | Brent Anderson |
| Creator(s) | Peter B. Gillis Brent Anderson |
Strikeforce: Morituri is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics from 1986 to 1989. The series was created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson.
The premise is that aliens have invaded Earth and nearly succeeded in conquering it and stripping it of its resources. A scientist discovers a process which can provide humans with superhuman powers, effectively creating a group of defending superheroes. However, the process would also ensure that the empowered humans would die within a year of being empowered. The series thus focused on the heroism of the main characters in fighting the invaders, while living with the knowledge that their fates were sealed regardless of whether or not they prevailed.
The title comes from the Latin phrase: "Morituri te salutamus" (We who are about to die salute you!), a salute that according to popular legend (not academically agreed) was uttered by Roman gladiators before battle in the arena. (See Wikipedia's article on this expression: Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant). The subtitle of the comic was "We who are about to die".
Gillis and Anderson left the series within two years. The series ended after thirty-one issues, while under the tenure of writer James Hudnall and artist Mark Bagley.
In 2069, an alien race called "the Horde" arrived in Earth's solar system (it was later revealed that the actual name of the race was the 'Va-Shaak'). Although they were technologically advanced far beyond humanity at that time, they were extremely savage. Examples of this savagery include the retaliatory slaughter of human slaves (this was shown after the victory of the Black Watch), the nuclear destruction of San Diego (also in response to the Black Watch's assassination of the Earth Commander of the Horde Forces), and the decapitation of children (especially by literally ripping their heads off) in order to establish dominance over newly captured human slaves (one particularly brutal terror-tactic favored by the Horde early in the war was to capture large numbers of humans in order to take them just outside the Earth's atmosphere and then eject them from the ships, allowing them to burn up in re-entry so watchers on the ground could see the streaks representing their burning forms. This tactic became known to humans as 'a Highdive').[1]
It was later discovered that they had stolen their technology from a kindly alien race that visited their planet who were attempting to rescue the Horde species. The Horde had caused severe environmental damage to their planet due to excessive pollution which laid much of the world an uninhabitable wasteland. After pulling the Horde back from the brink of extinction the aliens planned to leave the Horde planet in peace once their rescue mission was accomplished. Before they could leave, however, the alien pacifists were ruthlessly and mercilessly attacked and slaughtered by the Horde. The Horde stole the aliens' ships and advanced technology for themselves and set out into space to establish their savage and war-like empire.[2] The Horde traveled the galaxy in order to steal resources, food, and technologies, since they had no knowledge of how to fix the ships they used. They viewed the Earth and other such planets as a resource to be plundered and discarded once all resources have been used up. If the Horde had wanted to completely conquer mankind, then they could have easily done so. Instead, they satisfied themselves with brutal raids that left the Earth functioning, but reeling under their vicious onslaught. The Padeia Institute, which governed the entire planet at the time, began to organize Earth defenses against these attacks.
Humankind's best hope was discovered in 2072, when Dr. Kimmo Tuolema perfected the Morituri Process. This was a two-step process that allowed people with a specific type of genetic structure to have a new metabolism overlayed on top of their original one, granting them enhanced physical attributes. The second phase of the process would allow for unique superhuman powers. However, there were three mitigating factors inherent in the use of the Morituri Process:
The first group of test subjects, later known as "the Black Watch", were volunteer soldiers. Of the five members, two died before seeing active service during a power activation exercise in a specialized testing area known as 'Biowar Facility Alpha' (nicknamed 'The Garden'). The remaining three had their first field test in Cape Town, taking on Horde forces there; though they were successful in battle, none of them survived (one was killed in battle, another succumbed to the Morituri Effect as they were escaping, and the last was killed with a Hordian nuclear device moments afterward). Commander of the program, Beth Luis Nion, had also secretly undergone the Morituri Process, after starting an affair with a member of the Black Watch, although she kept her powers a secret. Tuolema later deduced that the older the subject, the quicker their system would reject the process - it was at this point that Dr. Tuolema realized recipients between 18 and 21 were the optimal choice regarding maximized life expectancy.
The Morituri Process consisted of two distinct phases: In the first phase, candidates underwent a procedure which granted them an enhanced physicality (in some cases, Morituri gained physically impressive forms), as well as enhanced physical strength and endurance, which made it easier to endure the second phase of the Morituri Process (designed to grant actual metahuman powers). After completing this stage, the volunteers would be placed in 'The Garden', a booby-trapped test facility designed to heighten stress levels and precipitate the emergence of each candidate's powers (Dr. Tuolema based 'The Garden' on the vid-comics his daughter had shown him of the X-Men's Danger Room). In 2073, the first of the new Strikeforce: Morituri entered active service.
The Morituri suffered heavy fatalities during their conflict with the Horde - sometimes from enemy action, but principally through the Morituri Effect, the term given to the body's rejection of artificial metabolism implanted by the Morituri Process. The threat posed by the Horde meant that there was never a shortage of volunteers willing to give up their lives defending mankind. Right from the start, the Morituri showed a propensity for disobeying orders in order to grasp opportunities to attack the enemy; knowing their time was short, they resented being kept out of action for any length of time.
It was the fourth generation of Morituri who saw a real change to the process. The fourth generation was sub-divided into two groups; one was created without the input of Dr. Tuolema, with disastrous results - the volunteers eventually choosing to be euthanized rather than continue in the twisted bodies they ended up with.[3] The fourth generation of Morituri created under Dr. Tuolema's supervision benefited from a major breakthrough; Jason Edwards (aka Revenge), who had been a captive of the Horde prior to becoming a Morituri, contracted a virus which eventually proved to counter the body's rejection of the Morituri Process.[4] When this was discovered, the surviving Morituri regained a chance to live a full lifespan (too late for the first and second, and all but one of the third generation).[5]
The war with the Horde was unexpectedly brought to a close. A new race of aliens, dubbed the VXX199, entered Earth orbit, destroyed the Horde fleet, and then departed without explanation.[6] Other problems soon arose: the Morituri process being performed on a trio of killers with the intent to assassinate the surviving members of the Strikeforce and the Prime Minister, and the fragmentation of the Paideia back into independent nation-states due to the exposure of the conspiracy (by a high-ranking government minister) to kill the Prime Minister in order to seize power.[7]
From December 1989 to March 1990, Marvel published an additional five-issue miniseries, Strikeforce Morituri: Electric Undertow. This took place ten years after the events of the last issue and dealt with the fate of the VXX199. They were waiting behind the moon, slowly modifying mankind's culture to their requirements, planning to induce spontaneous combustions in the population and then harness the psychic energies released. The four remaining Morituri learned of this, thanks to some bizarre allies (including a sentient A.I. which had taken the holographic form of dead Morituri Scatterbrain, and usually only appeared to and communicated with Scanner; Random - an information specialist/broker with cybernetic neural implants; and Dr. Tuolema's private Morituri squad), and travelled to the VXX-199's base, where they destroyed its CPU, ending this second alien threat.[8]
Unidentified Morituri #1 - massive psionic powers, including telepathy and psionic energy blasts which he used to enhance Scatterbrain's powers so that the Morituri could gain the upper hand and ultimately defeat their opponents (the Super Hordians) in one particular battle.
Unidentified Morituri #2 - Powers unknown, but appeared to have growth or super-strength.
Unidentified Morituri #3, most likely Carol Rayweick as this was the only noticeable female of this group - Powers unknown, but appeared to have some sort of avian/aquatic growths.
Unidentified Morituri #4 - Powers unknown but energy-related; mutated into an unstable energy form contained in a special shielded area.
It should be noted that this series was unique in that it did not have a set "roster" such as the X-Men, Avengers or Justice League of America. With members dying routinely, the mixing of generations was gradual and tragic. Several issues feature the last of a previous generation mixing with the new guard.
The setting of Strikeforce: Morituri is a continuity of its own and resembles no future seen in any other Marvel title. The Horde appear to have gathered trophies from residents of the Marvel Universe, including Captain America's Shield, the Silver Surfer's board and Galactus's helmet, as well as shelves of what appear to be power batteries used by DC's Green Lantern Corps.[29] At the time, that appeared to be an in-joke rather than a serious plot point.
Due to a mistake in the pages of Exiles #83 the Morituri world was designated as the home of Weapon X's version of Maverick.
Marvel has designated the Strikeforce Morituri universe as Earth-1287 of its shared multiverse, as seen in the 2005 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes.
In 2002, the Sci Fi Channel announced that they were going to bring Strikeforce: Morituri to television under the name A Thousand Days, obviously changing the length of time a Morituri could live. Although targeted for 2003, nothing ever came of this, because ownership of the property proved to be in question. Marvel and original creator Peter Gillis have disputed the matter.