Writer
Steve Englehart and artist Rick Hoberg’s superhero group the Strangers in
Malibu Comics’ Ultraverse line of books featured a great line-up of seven
vastly different characters and their interesting private lives. Unfortunately,
after just 24 issues plus an annual and various guest-appearances in other
Ultraverse books, the series got cancelled in 1995 when the company was bought
out by Marvel Comics. But it was fun while it lasted. Here’s a look back at the
series.
When the debut issue appeared in June 1993, the
concept was that a group of 59 people riding a cable car in San Francisco got
hit by “the Jumpstart” – an Ultraverse event granting people superpowers. Six
of the passengers banded together as the Stangers at the end of the fist issue
after having battled a mystery woman who would soon become the group’s seventh
member.
No stranger to writing superhero team books, Steve
Englehart, who had previously written Marvel’s Avengers, Defenders, West Coast Avengers and Fantastic Four,
knew how to put together an interesting cast. The seven members of the
Strangers even had cool names. They were Atom Bob, Grenade, Spectral, Zip Zap,
Electrocute, Lady Killer and Yrial.
The
relationships
The team leader became Lady Killer, a fashion designer
and accomplished businesswoman who felt attracted to the younger Atom Bob. The
19 years old art student Bob was interested in other women at first, but they
were unavailable, so he settled for the 12 years older Lady Killer as the
series progressed.
Electrocute was an android built as a sex toy for men,
but who had now gained independent will. Still, she quickly entered into a
relationship with the macho Grenade who was also kind of a sex object himself –
running around in a costume showing off his hairy, muscular torso.
The youngest member of the team was the black,
street-smart teenager Zip Zap. He entered into a platonic friendship with the
group’s other black member Yrial, who came from an exotic off-spring of
civilization, a magic island hidden in a cloud in the sky, to learn about
humanity.
And finally, there was Spectral – a baker who readers
learned in the very first issue had been practicing safe sex to avoid AIDS. In
Strangers #5, Spectral tried to use his superpowers to cure a friend who was dying
of AIDS, but it didn’t work out and the friend died. When Spectral told the other
members of the Strangers about this, Grenade asked Spectral if he was gay, and
Spectral admitted that he was, but was met only with acceptance and support
from the entire team.
Raising the bar
Strangers #13 featured a crossover with another Ultra
hero, Mantra. S/he was the spirit of a macho man trapped inside a sexy female
body with magical power, S/he had an intimate conversation with Spectral, about
him being gay and wondering what s/he was – a lesbian, perhaps? – before
concluding that “it’s complicated”. Electrocute sensed the man inside Mantra
and gave him/her a big kiss in Mantra #12. These were indeed daring issues for
mainstream comics to play with back in the mid-90s. Malibu Comics was definitely
raising the bar with these controversial issues.
Meanwhile, with Lady Killer marketing the Strangers as
a media phenomenon with toy lines, TV cartoons, comic books, a fashion brand
and public appearances, the team had become very famous by now. When venturing
out in public, the team members often got recognized by fans and had to write
autographs and give demonstrations of their powers. Atom Bob got carried away
with all of this celebrity business and cheated on Lady Killer in Strangers #16
with an old high school crush who couldn’t have cared less about him back then,
but now that he was a star…
Lady Killer and Atom Bob slugged it out in Strangers
Annual #1, and then, much to the dislike of Grenade, Electrocute started
showing interest in new team member Teknight – a machine like herself imbued
with the ghost of an ancient king. And then the series got cancelled, just as
Spectral was introducing his boyfriend to the team in the final issue. And of
course, they all welcomed the boyfriend, even Teknight.
The complete reading-order
If you feel like giving the Strangers a try, the
issues go cheap at your favorite back issue comics dealer. They’re full of
superhero action and there’s even a surprise twist as the Strangers get
betrayed by one of their own. Here’s a complete list of the Strangers’
appearances to collect:
Strangers #1-3
Hardcase #4
Strangers #4-6
Break-Thru #1
Prototype #5
Strangers #7
Break-Thru #2
Strangers #8-13
Mantra #12
Strangers #14-18
Night Man Annual #1
Strangers Annual #1
Strangers #19-24
This definitely brought back a lot of memories, including the inception of our friendship, Michael, and the fact that my late grandmother described Rick Hoberg's art as "beautiful" after I showed her the first issue of this team. Your article overall was a decent timeline layout of the history of "The Strangers." Perhaps the boys and girls over at Marvel will revive this team, even as a momentary event, like DC Comics did with "The Mighty Crusaders" of "Archie Comics." I remember what a disappointment it was that this great comic was cancelled (not to mentioned Atom Bob's transformation which made sense, but it still sucked) because the team had so much potential in re: to touching on various social and personal issues that could have added so much to this comic, i.e., the man and machine relationship between Grenade and Electrocute could have been explored more in depth, sort of a similarity to Marvel's Vision and Scarlet Witch, Spectral's further challenges as a gay man outside of the team, Zip Zap's personal life beyond the team, although I really didn't put too much stock on the writers efforts to tap into the nuance of black life fully; and we really didn't get the full scope of Yrial's origin either. All and all, diversity wasn't the only piece of good fortune that was tacked on to "The Strangers," but the possibilities of other aspects that would have blended so marvelously with it. Thank you for this, Michael. -Jarrod
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