Tuesday, December 27, 2016

"The End" Week: Rune #7!


It's weird that we've already seen the conclusion to this story, but this is the last issue. Confused? We'll clear up some of it. From 1996, Rune #7, "Fire with Fire" Written by Len Kaminski, pencils by Gabriel Gecko, inks by Stephen Baskerville.

For this series, the vampiric god-monster Rune was only part of the equation. Twin brothers Noel Robinson and Erik Johnson, as part of a government conspiracy/experiment, were fused into a single, superpowered body. Noel had the godlike powers of the Shu-ji during the daylight, while Erik took control as Rune for the night. (During the other's shift, the brother not in control was just a disembodied and usually ignored caption box voice.) This month, Noel was having a hard time of it against cybernetic Rune clones sicced on them by the government's super-computer Genie. At sunset, Rune tags in, and takes the clones apart. Literally.

Meanwhile, visiting from the Marvel 616, Adam Warlock helps a young woman with Ultrapowers control her killer instinct, which gives her inner soul...a makeover. And a falcon. I...huh. The issue closes with Noel back in control the next day, and he's decided he's "taken all the crap (he's) going to from this miserable planet," and is going to start destroying cities until mankind shapes up! Even the more brutal Erik is like, too much, bro. Warlock arrives to confront Noel, which would be wrapped up in Ultraverse Unlimited #1, which we've seen already. The letters page promises a new Rune mini-series in the fall, but I'm not sure it ever appeared. (I thought they might've meant Curse of Rune, but that was before this one.)

1 comment:

Anon said...

Actually, the new Rune mini-series did come out. It was a three issue series called Rune: Hearts of Darkness, and the covers make it look bad even by late-Malibu standard.

Have you read Ultraverse: Future Shock? It was the last Malibu comic, and tried to wrap up the universe and is filled with "things would have been better if it wasn't for Marvel." It's really dense and weird.