I'm mildly surprised to have the last issue of this miniseries and not, say, the first: I feel like the orders probably spun downwards a bit after the hit of a #1. From 1993,
Battle Tide #4, written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, art by Geoff Senior.
Genetically engineered super-soldier/immature gun nut
Killpower would eventually come to a bad (and not entirely deserved) end, but he's co-lead in this one with Marvel UK's Wolverine, Death's Head II. And Wolverine. That feels a bit like a hat on a hat, I think the expression is; but Sabretooth, Psylocke, Hercules, and Marvel UK's Dark Angel also guest-star. While KP and DHII were already trying to kill each other, everybody gets sucked into a
Contest of Champions-type thing on an alien world, that gets derailed when the bad guy couple "Termagent" and "Megaira" tap into the titular Battle Tide, "the demonic embodiment of eternal war." Even weirder, Termagent and Megaira may or may not have been a couple, but they were actually two halves of the same entity, and merge into "Termagaira," demon warlord! Not the best design, but if you're bringng him (them?) out in the last issue, fine.
After the usual team-up shenanagans, Killpower uses his engineering knowhow to modify Death's Head II to be able to stop the Battle Tide, at the cost of the robot's life. While the other heroes are just ready to go home, Killpower is distraught over the loss of his pal: he was basically an 8-year-old, so he thought DHII was just the coolest thing ever. Later, on a beach in the South Pacific, Killpower's partner Motormouth returns from an epic shopping trip with Death's Head II's partner Tuck, that sounds like more fun than the rest of this series? Also, they went to
Aldebaran, which is an actual star but here almost certainly is a reference to
Halo Jones! But, the series ends on a happy note, as Killpower has rebuilt Death's Head II. Except all these parts that were leftover...which I wonder if that came up later? Ah, probably not.
I never really took to Killpower: I liked
Motormouth's book more, before he elbowed his way into second-billing! They're probably best remembered for guesting in
Incredible Hulk #409 with their original artist, Gary Frank.
1 comment:
I actually remember that Killpower & Motormouth Hulk appearance! If only the main Marvel titles had been willing to do that, the Marvel UK characters might've stood more of a chance with US fans don't you think?
Killpower definitely went out bad, but was definitely redeemed with his more recent appearance.
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