Now they’re littering outer space with broken logos.
The Strangers #7
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (December, 1993)
“Prototype-A Behavior”
WRITER: Steve Englehart
CO-PLOTTERS: Tom Mason & Len Strazewski
PENICLER: Rick Hoberg
INKER: Tim Eldred
COLORING: Robert Alvord & Prisms
LETTERER: Dave Lanphear
EDITOR: Roland Mann
Continuing from Prototype #5 and the Break-Thru crossover event, Prototype and his team confronts the Strangers, but they’re interrupted by aliens who ate the crew and see them as their next meal. When they finally stop fighting each other, the two groups join forces to destroy the goop-like aliens. During this they learn Empire-7 was part of a Russian attempt to create their own Ultras before the fall of the Soviet Union, but he believes himself to be the only survivor…until he’s killed by one of the aliens. While the heroes do manage to destroy the aliens by separating their parts too far away to reform so they dry out, Supra’s orders were to destroy the station, and she’ll have to stay behind to see it through. Deciding that learning the source of the Jump-Start might score some points with Ultratech to cover for this disaster of a mission, he opts to join the Strangers on their trip. Also, Supra reveals she was Empire-1, part of the same experiment as Empire-7.
What they got right: Spectral learns that the indigo flame creates an atmosphere, which he would only need in space. Clearly the Strangers were meant to go to space, or so they figure, and that the reason the chief didn’t tell them anything was so they could become a proper team to face whatever is going on and reach the moon. Nice bit of worldbuilding, and it adds to just what the Jump-Start effects means for Ultras created by it. We already saw with Prime that the force behind it was creating heroes and needed protecting, though we still don’t know for what. (Points to the reading order for at least getting this part of the event’s storyflow right.) We also learn more about the attempts to create artificial Ultras like the two Empires and Prime. We’re finally shown Lady Killer’s powers, as she can turn her outfit into a weapon. Odd power, but it does match her personality.
What they got wrong: Heroes have a misunderstanding and fight each other. Of course they do. It was the 1990s and some of these guys come from Marvel. There’s this weird segment at the end of the book where the writer and penciler do a recap of the comic from a convention as people ask about all the other comics they worked on before this, wanting their copies signed. It’s unnecessary, but at least it doesn’t take page space away from the story. The artist makes a mistake when the dialog tells us Yrial shut down Prototype’s armor on the left side, and yet it’s the left boot jet that fires in deep space. There was also no reason to remind us of her voodoo ties in that same space battle. I don’t see the part Zipzap mentions about Yrial giving a “yelp” when Bob was in trouble. Either that was in the other comic or someone forgot a word balloon. If Atom Bob can turn objects into rocket fuel and restore his own arm, couldn’t have set a timer so Supra could escape with them? The threat was gone.
What I think overall: This is becoming one of my favorite Ultraverse titles. The reading order called this essential, and given how much we learn about the Strangers and how this ties in to the event while balancing both the Stranger’s story and Break-Thru’s story that seems accurate to me if you’re following the full shared universe.
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