“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Solution #1

The Riddler’s least favorite comic.

The Solution #1

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (September, 1993)

“The Problem”, the most fitting first issue title they could go with, admittedly.

WRITER: James Hudnall

PENCILER: Darick Robinson

INKER: John Lowe

COLORIST: Keith Conroy & Tim Divar (design), and The ‘Bu Tones

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

EDITOR: Hank Kanalz

Some group of baddies has been breaking into Russian installations and stealing their nukes. Desperate, the KGB go to Aladdin for help, but not wanting to get involved, the boss points the agent to The Solution, a team of ultra mercenaries: Tech, Shadowmage, Outrage, and Dropkick. Right now they’re taking on a Hong Kong Triad called Dragons Fang because they stole Tech’s company and she wants it back. Once that’s done they decide to take the KGB’s job, but when Shadowmage tries to spy on their new enemy with her magic, one of them senses her. This could be a problem.

What they got right: If you want action, this has it. We get an introduction to the team.

What they got wrong: That’s pretty much all you get. This comic is so 90s it’s amazing in all the not-good ways. We have Comics Code-allowed levels of nudity with Tech in the shower, an almost full body shot with her hair covering her privates, while Shadowmage almost appears to be wearing a bathing suit. Outrage is a Hulk wanna-be and Dropkick is a martial artist. We get the barest hints of their personalities. The baddies very bloodily kill the Russian guards and the comic makes sure to do as much violence on panel as they can get away with. Speaking of the Russians…why is the KGB showing up in a book from 1993? They were shut down two years ago, and it didn’t take that long to make this book. Or are these one of those stories suggesting the KGB were still operating in secret at the time?

What I think overall: I want to drop this series, but there a few marked “essential” in the reading list. So at least for now I’m going to have to put up with this one for a while. Maybe it will get better, but this certainly doesn’t feel like my kind of comic.