“Yesterday’s” Comic> Hardcase #7

“Did you leave the hot tub running?”

Hardcase #7

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (December, 1993)

“Break-Thru: Sudden Surprises”

WRITER: James Hudnall

PENCILER: Scott Benefiel

INKER: Mike Christian

COLOR DESIGNER: Moose Baumann

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

EDITOR: Hank Kanalz

Hardcase and Choice stop a carjacking before meeting with Hardcase’s people, who hope to find a way to get Choice away from the namesake company. Then they meet with Regina, who tells them that the Jumpstart event that created the Strangers is similar to  how Hardcase and the Squad got their powers, and that the source is on the moon. (Didn’t we leave someone on the moon?) It’s here where we catch up with the Solution from last week. Regina wants to sent them to the moon and beat Rex Mundi’s team to whatever is behind the Jumpstarts before it activates again. Then the explosion from the end of Exiles turns out to be off the shore near Hardcase’s home, so he and Choice try to stop the resulting tidal wave. Unfortunately they can’t save everyone, including one child’s pet cat. Regina arrives to bring our heroes to the ship that will take them to the moon, with the Solution waiting inside.

What they got right: Okay, I do feel sorry for the boy who lost his cat. They even made the last days of a raccoon before NM-E added him to his new body a sad affair. A lot of this story ties into other events as the crossover event “Break-Thru” begins. And yet it still manages to keep up with other events in Hardcase and Choice’s lives.

What they got wrong: The Ultraverse isn’t even a year old and we’re already doing a crossover? It appears to be a small one from the reading list I’m using, but still way too soon. Personally, I find NM-E’s new design, made of a person and the raccoon and some random junk, kind of gross. It’s the 90s. Did I read Regina’s dialog wrong? It looked to me like she was blaming the explosion of the Exiles rather conveniently placed island base on the moon object and not a bunch of morons blowing themselves up. She didn’t know about the Exiles as far as I know, but I also don’t know how she knows the history of the creation of Ultras, that Mundi killed any Jumpstart-created Ultras prior to the Squad with NM-E for centuries, or anything else related to either of them thus far.

What I think overall: If I sound skeptical, it’s because I am. It’s too early for this opening symptom of Eventitis to show up here, but this series at least has been interesting, and if it gets us back to Prime I’ll deal with it.