Well, not the new one, anyway! From 2009,
Bionic Commando: Chain of Command, written by Andy Diggle, art by Colin Wilson. Cover by Dave Gibbons!
No number, since this was a promo comic, no UPC, for the
2009 game, based on the
'87 arcade game and its
later ports and a 2008
enhanced remake, which retconned the unrelated 1985
Commando as part of the continuity! Nathan 'RAD' Spencer was the Bionic Commando, a decorated soldier after rescuing the captured Joseph "Super Joe" Gibson: Super Joe had been the player character in
Commando as well as one of three choices in
Mercs. Here, Joe was no longer a field officer, but gives Nathan his orders; to prevent a pair of bionically-augmented soldiers from defecting out of Alaska. In the course of the mission, Nathan discovers the soldiers weren't really defecting as much as running for their lives: bionic components had been forced upon them, but the government had maybe decided they didn't cost out and was decommissioning them, which would've been fatal. Taking their side, Nathan tries but seemingly fails to save them, when the army betrays him. His backup Magdalene is forced to retreat, while Nathan is arrested and court-martialed, ala the
A-Team; setting up the start of the new game.
Plotwise, that's a little grim; and the original game was basically fighting neo-Nazis! Not necessarily here, but the remake also pulls a bit I didn't like from the first
Mission: Impossible movie...I had only played the original arcade game, but I still got the update's
NECA action figure in early 2009. Sadly, the update only got middling reviews, even though it had
Mike Patton as Nathan's voice actor! Much later--maybe this year, even?--I got the
Rearmed soundtrack from
Internet Archive and love it. It's mostly remixes of the original game's music. Still, Bionic Commando hasn't been completely forgotten: he's managed to turn up in later
Marvel vs. Capcom installments: you'd think I might play those, but honestly I haven't bought a system since PS2, and I still play that on occasion. Including the ported
Bionic Commando! Maybe I'll take a run at it now...
2 comments:
I’m trying to remember if I ever played the original Bionic Commander or not but I can’t be sure. Not sure how I didn’t but it is what it is. Definitely news to me about the 2009 remake. If you played it was it any good? I’d imagine it should’ve been given the technological advances since the NES days.
In the current AI era, you’d think the Bionic Commander franchise would be hot right now. The Contra franchise too.
What part in the 1st Mission Impossible movie are you referring to? I kinda like the twist off killing off the first MI team in the first 20 minutes.
Jim Phelps--Peter Graves in the TV show, Jon Voight in the movie--the hero for like six seasons of the show, turns traitor in the movie. Likewise, Super Joe--the player character for Commando and Mercs--turns traitor in the 2009 Bionic Commando. (The Alaskan separatists are described as traitors by Joe, but it's also the 'Federal States of America' and the name change implies they aren't 100% cool, either.)
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