“Dang it, I DID leave a cake in the oven!”
Hardcase #13
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (June, 1994)
“Turning Point”
WRITER: James Hudnall
PENCILER: Kelly Krantz
INKER: Jeff Whiting
COLORING: Moose Baumann & Foodhammer!
COVER ART: Scott Benefiel (penciler), Jasen Rodrigues (inker) & GCOX3 (colorist)
LETTERER: Dave Lanphear
EDITOR: Hank Kanalz
Already shocked by the revelation that Choice’s brain was spliced with part of Starburst’s, which is why she’s still in a coma, our heroes read more of the files obtained by Tech. Fathered by an American during the Vietnam War, Amy Tran Kwinty came looking for him after the death of her mother. She never found him, but Aladdin used her in early experiments to create their own Ultra and then let her go without her memory. After the death of the Squad, she was picked up again and that’s when the brain splicing of Amy began, also using the ultra center of Forza’s brain. Now programmed to believe she was always an Ultra she was positioned to work with Choice Corporation as Choice, while the owner manipulated her life and used her as plaything in the same way (they even call it out) J.D. Hunt used Candy before she became Electrocute. However, her memories and some of Starburst’s awakened in her so she escaped and found Hardcase. As part of those experiments led to Tech’s wetware Ultra powers, the two women declare themselves sisters. Hardcase wants to punish Aladdin and Choice Corporation but won’t turn murderer, so Tech suggests exposing the secrets instead…just as Choice/Amy is magically transported to Xuria, with two people who look like they could be Shadowmage’s people. They want her help fighting the Xorn.
What they got right: The full origin of Choice is revealed. From a story perspective (because from a human one it’s really scummy, to put it mildly), it’s an interesting origin story. We also set up the next storyline with the Xorn and the two people who want Choice’s help. Hardcase is suggested but ignored by the other, though we don’t know who. For all I know the male wanted her and the female wanted Hardcase. At least Choice has a healthy response. For as horrible as this backstory is, finally knowing where she came from and got her powers gave her a sense of relief. Not everybody handles trauma the same way, and her initial response to hearing she has part of someone else’s brain in hers did cause a bit of a breakdown, which you’d expect.
What they got wrong: While I’m neutral on the presentation, I didn’t plop money down on a book with a few comic pages and a bunch of illustrations with text on the right side giving the whole exposition dump. These are supposed to come from the files Tech managed to download, I get that. On the other hand it’s more like an illustrated book than a comic for most of the pages and I could see someone being less than happy with that instead of text boxes and showing us more than “photographs” of events, including ones Aladdin shouldn’t have been able to take. How long were they monitoring her after the initial experiments. I’m also not sure why Choice Corporation thought having a mixed race woman would benefit them and then operated on her eyes to make her look less Vietnamese. Seems pointless to me.
What I think overall: As a narrative, the origin story works but the presentation may make some less than excited. Overall it continues to be an interesting series.
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