This comic was produced in association with the Red Cross after the Great Flood Of 1993, where Mississippi and Missouri got hit by a huge flood. Its continuity is questionable so this is where the reading order decided to shove it in. Malibu and Spartan Printing took on the printing costs and the donations went to relief efforts.
Prime lifts a school bus from flood waters during a rainstorm.
Flood Relief
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse/Red Cross (January, 1994)
WRITERS: D. Danko, H. Kanalz, & T. Mason
PENCILERS: A. Lopresti & R. Pace
INKER: J. Lowe
COLORING: ‘Bu Tones
LETTERER: D. Lanphear
Hardcase and Zip-Zap are in Des Moine, Iowa when wetware previously lost there during a failed attempt by Prototype to recover it infects a girl, giving her the uncontrolled ability to create a water creature based on her imaginary friend, Droplet. Combined with the rain, it causes a flood in the Des Moine River, a tributary of the Mississippi if I didn’t screw up my research, and the ever-helpful Prime flies to help out. Together the quartet tackle Droplet when he turns into a full on water monster. Rescuing the girl, Prototype flies her to New York to get the wetware removed but it can’t be done safely. So Leland decides to let her father believe she drowned in the flood.
A lot of what qualifies as “right” and “wrong” is going to be based on personal perspective. We can all agree that a comic that did all it could to ensure all the proceeds would go the Red Cross for help with relief efforts along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The story itself is quite good, and there is potential for the little girl in future Prototype or other Ultraverse stories. (Speaking of which, I wonder when I get to read Prototype again in this reading list. I keep joking about Prime on the moon because it’s a cliffhanger, but I do want to read more of “what if Iron Man really was the secret bodyguard of the company”.) Zip-Zap meets with Hardcase’s image consultant and even pays for the meal when he runs off to help Hardcase at a charity event before the flood starts. All four show themselves to be heroes, though Prototype comes off as a real jerk in this story, especially in his continuing feud with Prime, both of which at least put their differences aside. Then Prototype uses Prime’s “cape”, which is actually part of his second skin, so he feels the pain and Prototype doesn’t care. It’s typical of their association.
Where I have concerns is right during this disaster and the relief efforts we have a tale where Ultratech is sort of responsible, the other cameo Ultra heroes don’t help because people are not comfortable with Ultras at this point, and the story doesn’t really have a happy ending as this poor girl is now taken from her already despondent father who needed the rain to grow his crops only to lose his daughter to essentially the rain. We don’t know her fate, but based on how little we already know about Leland I’m betting nothing good.
The negatives hurt less in September of 2024 of course, and the story isn’t bad. It’s a personal judgement if some of this was a good idea at the time or not.
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