“Yesterday’s” Comic> Prime #9

“Somehow I know I’m going to get blamed for this.”

Prime #9

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (February, 1994)

“Atomic Lies”

WRITERS: Len Strazewski & Gerald Jones

ARTIST: Norm Breyfogle

COLORING: Keith Conroy & Violent Hues

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

EDITOR: Hank Kanalz

Mantra should have stayed around after dropping Kevin off. Colonel Samuels has his mom tied up and kidnaps Kevin with a necklace that restricts his ability to become Prime. Using the fake Clinton again, they convince Prime that a military base is filled with terrorists, but in truth they’re protesting resuming nuclear tests, which the real Clinton shows up on TV against. The real reason Samuels sent him down there was to hide a cache of nuclear weapons, including one he rigged if the base was ever invaded. Prime manages to sink the missile underground but isn’t able to escape when the nuke explode. Now he’s radioactive and after Samuels while Kevin’s dad find his mom…and some backup.

What they got right: Prime may be a kid but he’s smart enough to know when he’s being lied to. We may get some resolution to the oblivious mom subplot.

What they got wrong: As much of a jerk as Samuels has been, it feels like he’s being written especially evil this issue, with the secret nukes and the treatment of Kevin’s mom. It’s like they really wanted to make a statement so they upped Samuels’ villain levels to do it. He even threatens a soldier who grows a conscience. “Just following orders” has its limits and Samuels is bordering on treason or at least some other level of military crime when it comes to this base.

What I think overall: I’m a bit put off by Samuels’ new vein of villainy, the cliched military a-hole with too much power. I really hope this leads to him getting taken down but it’s at the cost of a potentially interesting antagonist by making him cartoonishly evil. We’ll see how this get handled in the future. Too bad the reading list is making me read Firearm, which I assume is the guy in shadows Kevin’s dad called for help.