Peter B. Gillis Big Comics Readthrough

Stan Lee was a fan of humour magazines and had tried to get a few MAD style knock offs up and running over the years. One such effort was Not Brand Echh , which, like MAD occasionally did, lampooned superheroes. Here Marvel creators (well, mostly Roy Thomas and Marie Severin) got to work on presumably cathartic parodies of their own creations, in exaggerated cartoony styles. This bi-monthly series only lasted 13 issues in the late 1960's. 20 years later, Marvel decided to revive the concept in the same style as a 4 issue mini,  What The--?! . It proved reasonably successful enough to continue on an occasional schedule, eventually clocking up 26 issues over 5 years, twice as many as its predecessor. By this point Peter Gillis was on the outs with Marvel, when Warp inker Hilary Barta called him up and asked if he wanted to work on a Punisher parody for the first What The. Neither of them had any love for the ridiculously popular at the time and frequently brainless vigilante co...

According to a fascinating interview with Brent Anderson on Morituri Mondays podcast (which I can no longer locate on the internet), Peter Gillis "had an idea of exploring just about every possible character type or personality type" over the course of a planned 50 issue run. Some characters naturally became fan favourites, others were less developed or harder to love. The third generation of Morituri proved a little of both from the start. Strikeforce: Morituri #13 (1987) Pencils: Brent Anderson Inks: Scott Williams With Beth dead, a new hardline commander is chosen in veteran soldier Yuri Pogorelich. His first task is to command a generation of six brand new Morituri to capture the original Strikeforce, who have gone rogue and just returned from space in a Horde ship. It's a bit of a stretch that Earth's government would treat the Morituri as traitors just for zooming off in the enemy's ship, but it provides a good excuse for that old classic misunderstanding,...

We're nearing the end of the original Morituri's era, as the team make one final desperate stand. Their relationship with the Earth government becomes increasingly strained, as the contrast between their heroic ideals and the grim reality of a production line of soldiers that underscores the Morituri process begins to set in.  Strikeforce: Morituri #9 (1987) Pencils: Brent Anderson Inks: Scott Williams A few major plot developments occur this issue, as Robert returns from blowing up the Horde mothership, seemingly indestructible. As Louis discovers the Paideia Government are more concerned with creating stronger, more reliable Morituri than finding a solution to the one year limit, the Horde dangle a possible cure in front of his nose. Can it be genuine, or a trap? You can probably guess which, but it certainly creates a dilemma to divide the Morituri forces. The Horde mission of the month is largely forgettable, yet Gillis was never afraid to devote the majority of space to su...

If ever there was a perfect match between creator and creation, it's Peter Gillis and Strikeforce: Morituri . It provided him with the ideal stage to explore age old themes of love, heroism and of course death over a science fiction backdrop. It remains his masterpiece, not only due to the quality of the writing, but the genius pairing with Brent Anderson's beautiful, expressive art from the Neil Adams school of realism. Anderson also discovered young inker Scott Williams, who brings a lovely crispness to his willowy figure work. The fantastic art combined with sympathetic colouring and lettering (by Max Scheele and Jim Novak respectively) makes for a lovely looking book. So as you may have correctly assumed from that preamble, this is likely to be an overwhelmingly positive series of reviews.  What would you give to save your family, your friends, your entire planet from vicious marauding aliens? Would you give your very life? The Morituri genetic enhancement process imbues an...