There's an ad for something-or-other on TV, where a young woman seemingly has an epiphany: "Oh, that 'book club' that always wants to meet in the woods, that's a cult." Sure, maybe, but the woods are awesome, books are great, and hey, what are the odds they want
you for their wicker man? Anyway, the phrase "culty weirdos" came up for me multiple times today; finally in today's book, which doesn't have any woods but does have a neat cover: from 1993,
Cyberspace 3000 #1, "Judgment Day" Written by Gary Russell, pencils by Stephen Tappin, inks by Michael Eve and Andy Lanning. Cover with glow-in-the-dark accents by Liam Sharp and Andy Lanning!
This was another Marvel UK book, like
Warheads, that despite a plethora of guest-stars and references still feels more like a
2000 AD somehow: the feel of the coloring or the lettering, perhaps. And it also feels a lot like another Marvel book with a similar title, that may not have been related:
Seeker 3000, which would get a mini-series in 1998. Both feature a massive ship in space, on a lengthy voyage, with a fair-sized cast, and wearing their
Star Trek influences on their sleeves. Maybe more literally for
Seeker, since the costuming and designs in
Cyberspace are so 90's: the intrepid Captain Jennifer Cabre-Rios really looks like Dazzler, in the kind of short leather jacket and tights look Black Widow had in
the Avengers then. Still, the Captain spends much of this issue missing or unconscious, as a massive disaster seemingly destroys half the ship, the
Sol III (it's shaped like a dumbbell, imagine the weights falling off one side) but that might be just the tip of the iceberg. (Aside: I'm mildly surprised we hadn't hit
Seeker 3000 yet? The first issue was very, very 70's.)
The
Sol III seems massive and not particularly fast in sci-fi terms--think
Red Dwarf rather than the
U.S.S. Enterprise--and more populous: there were the insectoid Trilexia aboard, who seem to have discovered a mysterious portal; and the religious order/doomsday cult the Clan Cyorse. It feels very British, as the cult takes to the proverbial streets, to cheerily tell everyone the end was near and they'd all be dead soon. The Clan Cyorse's "god" is not a friendly, benevolent force; in fact, they seem to be worshipping a familiar looking fist...And Captain Cabre-Rios is worried the cult might be up to something, when Galactus arrives!
Kind of like
Warheads, I wonder if this might not have been more successful in
2000 AD: with other characters to help carry the load, it maybe could have continued and been allowed to build up its own fanbase. And it maybe might have gone somewhere interesting, faster, without Marvel guest-stars? (
More were coming!) There already felt like a bunch going on here, we don't know this issue why they're even out there at this point, and
then Galactus? But, you maybe need him for that cover, so...
Of course, with the glow-in-the-dark gimmick, I think the print run for this first issue was pretty big: you could probably find it in quarter bins near you. But later issues...well, if you find them cheap, let me know!
5 comments:
Likewise I hope you find more back issues of this & Seeker 3000 to give us a further glimpse into their worlds.
Marvel UK definitely felt like 2000AD lite/The Marvelization of 2000AD. Whether that was intentional or not( probably not) is up for debate, but at least it gave Marvel fans in the 90’s a taste of that 2000AD flavor as alternative to mainstream Marvel, much like how Marvel’s attempt at copying Vertigo.
Looking at the good Captain, you could say that she really was Dazzler, and that she was trapped in one of Mojo’s imaginary tv shows.
Not really- there’s never been anything like this or Warheads in 2000 AD, even in this same time period where things were all over the place tonally. Maybe if Image had a UK branch this would have fit there, but no- there’s nothing 2000 AD about any of this. Colors and letters don’t seem to match anyone from 2000 AD as far as I can tell either. I’ve admittedly been getting really into 2000 AD the last 5, 10 years though so I might be overly picky about this sort of thing.
Could just be vibes on my part! Most of the Dredd/2000 AD stuff I've read was back from the old reprints, and the print quality could be dodgy.
I can see that- the 2000 AD people didn’t have much input in the coloring and layouts for the reprints, and most of the covers were by artists who had nothing else to do with 2000 AD. Plus, some non-2000 AD stuff got mixed in there as time went on and Egmont took over the reprints.
There’s definitely a noticeable 2000AD vibe & influence on the Marvel UK stuff & very understandably so given the creative teams involved in making Marvel UK content often times also worked for or worked with individuals who worked for the imprint.
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