“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Strangers #1

The costumes live up to the name anyway.

The Strangers #1

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (June, 1993)

“Jumpstart”

WRITER: Steve Englehart

PENCILER: Rick Hoberg

INKER: Tim Burgard

COLOR DESIGN: Paul Mounts

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

EDITOR: Chris Ulm

This is an odd comment to make but I need to make it anyway. These credits were all over the place. There’s a pattern I’m used to when it comes to comic credits: writer, penciler, inker, colorist & letterer sometimes get switched around, and then the editors. This just seemed to be whatever name the responsible party wanted to put up next.

It’s just a normal day in San Francisco. On a simple cable car a rather…passionate couple is getting attention. The man, rick guy J.D. Hunt, just misses the cable car being hit by what appears to be a bolt of lightning, his lady friend suddenly running off. Later, some of the riders start experiencing strange powers. Highly sought after fashion designer Elena la Brava develops superhuman precision and an urge to draw superhero costumes like she’s Edna Mode. Leon Balford develops superspeed, which he uses to get away from some punks who want him in the gang life. Friends Bob Hardin and Hugh Fox return to their college to learn that they can explode metal shards from his body and alter matter respectively. The girl, Candy, realises she’s a robot but is now thinking clearer, which isn’t good news for whatever plans Hunt has for her. Finally, baker Dave Castiglione gets a different power from every different flame color he goes “human torch” with. We also see a nurse who was on the car get sick as the old man she was caring for suddenly feels better, and they may not be the only results of the bolt, while a man in a car the cable car crashed into has a shard in his brain both keeping him alive and killing him. The others converge at the site of the accident when a strange woman appears speaking an odd language and attacking everybody. (The wiki I used to confirm everyone’s names calls her Yrial.) She manages to escape when the group works together trying to stop her and get some answers about their condition. Spying an odd cloud, Elena suggests taking her private jet after it, thinking it may be connected.

What they got right: This is actually a decent introduction to the characters. We get bits of their lives due to the mysterious event, and see their powers in action as they learn them on their own and fighting Yrial. We get not only a mystery about the powers and the girl, but whatever role JD Hunt’s plans for the android Candy will be, and none of it feels like too many subplots to start the story because the focus are on the two that seem most connected, namely the powers and Yrial.

What they got wrong: It’s been a while and I forgot how rough early Malibu art was. They also haven’t developed the signature coloring system that led to Marvel strip-mining Malibu and destroying the Ultraverse, which they still haven’t even considered relaunching or just giving/selling back to the creators. You can’t get more wrong than that, Disney. Fix the mistakes of the company you bought instead of continuing to make more.

What I think overall: This is a decent start to the series, and at least one more issue is marked essential, so I may keep an eye on this title. According to that list, next week will be the next issue so we’ll see where these characters go from here.