Tags
Black Watch, Brent Anderson, Marvel Comics, Peter B Gillis, Scott Williams, strikeforce morituri, wilce portacio
Strikeforce Morituri shows up on comic book nostalgia blogs every once in a while. The series had a great premise, one that would bear re-imagining at today’s Marvel. You get some random superpowers as an experimental soldier to combat an alien invasion of earth, and the powers kill you within one year.
Our favorite aspect of the first issue is the contrast between a heroic comic book adventure the protagonist reads and the harsh realities of a film he views. In the comic book, the Black Watch confront and heroically destroy some aliens with their Morituri powers, their last act alive. This inspirational piece of propaganda turns out to have little to do with the final tragic moments of the Black Watch.
Below, we have an abridged version of the pages from this issue. You can buy it as Strikeforce Morituri #1, Marvel Comics, 1986. In 2012, Marvel collected the series as Strikeforce Morituri trade paperbacks. The third paperback includes the Undertow series, which took place ten years after the end of the story in the original series. Undertow had artwork by Mark Bagley in 1990, long before he set the record for longest-running Spider-man artist on Ultimate Spider-man.
Brent Anderson & Scott Williams on pencils and inks, with Peter B. Gillis scripting. Wilce Portacio provides the artwork for the comic-book-within-a-comic-book story of the Black Watch.
