Foxfire was bred as a super-weapon fifty years in the future and then hidden, from an evil alien race, in the present day in order to be able to mature- so she could, in time, defeat them... Her "parents" were secretly robot guardians assigned to protect her but eventually her "father" is killed, and her "mother" malfunctions and is now trying to destroy her.
Written by Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett, and penciled by Kevin J. West- it only lasted four issues before the entire Malibu Universe was folded away, buried, and forgotten in Earth-93060.
Issue #1 had a really nice cover by Steve Lightle. I know this particular gimmick is something that has been done before- but I still love it...
...seeing the front, and back view of the same image- on each side of the book. He even adjusted the lighting accordingly! Noice.
Barry Windsor-Smith did an amazing cover in this style to Swords of Cerebus Vol 5.
Anyways- there was this awkward scene in issue #2 after she runs into UltraForce (remember them?) as they're working on the same case- because you know the deal in comics when superheros meet for the first time; they're instantly distrusting of one-another.
But what made it awkward is what Prototype (the Ultraverse version of Iron Man) does:
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-Okay... ummm......
...because, you see...... she's only around sixteen years old!
...because, you see...... she's only around sixteen years old!
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I know, I know- she's not exactly drawn that way, but still- they know this about her... And he's a grown-ass-man using his suit to peep a panty-shot on a minor.
And if his armor can do that- you know it can see through those as well- and you just know he did!
-Yikes.
Oh, yeah- and that is Marvel's Black Knight. He's leading the team now- in place of Hardcase. See, after all the Marvel crossovers they did- some characters were trapped in the Ultraverse. Juggernaut is around here someplace too...
Issue #3 had a couple little things that made me laugh:
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"Star-Lord, man… Legendary outlaw? -Aw, forget it.”
That's Foxfire in her powered-down form up there, by the way.
There's also a character named Jack Dancer- who I insist on calling Tiny. Here she is holding him closer:
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| "Can you walk Mr. Dancer?" "No... but I can... DANNNCCCE!!!" *jazz-taps away* |
-Followed by a shot of her left butt-cheek for some reason.
*cough*jail-bait*cough*
The issue ends with them teleporting into the Marvel 616 and immediately running into The Punisher!
-You gotta love comics.
I remember the ads for the exclusive comics from that series. I wasn't a super big fan of malibu myself, so I don't have the attachment for those characters others might have. They were definitely of their time, bad versions of popular old marvel and DC characters. I guess they had their charm, but were still b-, c-list compared to Image. Yeah, That bad.
ReplyDeleteMarvel gave the very definition of a half-ass effort with Malibu after they bought them. A better effort than Vince McMahon did with WCW, but in the same spirit. No one way there going to support a bunch of knock-offs long-term, when they were the very institution that owned the real things.
Should at least show up during that big Secret Wars event going on in May 2015. We'll se I guess right?
I know right? The girl's jailbait, and yet so many gratuitous ass-shots. You pervs;)
I always liked Malibu. And I always forget this too- but Malibu was the main company- Ultraverse was just an imprint for their "superhero" comics. Yeah- a lot of the Ultraverse characters were facsimiles of characters from The Big Two... actually, more DC than Marvel: Prime/Captain Marvel, Ghoul/Deadman, Topaz/Wonder Woman (kind of more Artemis), Prototype/Iron-Man, Solitaire/Batman, Sludge was Swamp Thing-ish... The Exiles had similarities to The X-Men, while Ultraforce was kind of Avengers-ish... But that was honestly just superficially- they still did things differently- I mean; The Watchmen are the Charlton characters- but they're not rip-offs exactly. And there was nothing like Foxfire, Rune, Night Man, The Strangers, or (my favorite) Mantra by any other company. Shit- look at all the DC characters that have a rip-off Marvel counterparts, and vice versa...
DeleteMalibu also had the Bravura, and Genesis imprints. The latter using characters from Centaur, Adventure, Aircel, and Eternity Comics like: Dinosaurs For Hire, Ex-Mutants, Ferret (I did an entry on his series!), The Protectors, New Humans, Men In Black, and Man of War... And the former having stuff like: Breed, Dreadstar, The Man Called A-X, Nocturnals (another favorite!), and Power & Glory.
I probably should have put all this information IN the post- but; oh, well...
But, you are correct- Marvel gave NO FUCKS about the characters when they acquired Malibu. They only bought them for their coloring technology/equipment. A lot of Marvel books had that "Colors by Malibu" or "Malibu Color" credit in them for a long time...
They milked a bunch of crossovers to try and get any Ultraverse readers into Marvel Comics, and then axed the whole line. It would be AWESOME if they showed up in the new Secret Wars... but I'm not gonna hold by breath.
Man- at least the Ultraverse knock-offs were fully developed characters in their own right- the Image rip-offs are hollow, soulless shells- devoid of any character at all.
At any rate- thanks for stopping by! I didn't think Foxfire was gonna get ANY love. -Now you are under arrest! It was a sting!!! HAHAHA! Literal jail-bait!!!
(there are seriously sooo may ass-shots in the book... The first issue tells you how old she is in the first few pages! I guess they were subscribed to the anime/manga philosophy on teens...)
No problem man.
ReplyDeleteYeah I've read that too, about Marvel acquiring them only for the coloring process. Was it really that revolutionary though to buy an entire comic company though?
And that's but one of many reasons why Marvel went bankrupt in 1997.....
You are correct sir, My bad for making it seem like the Ultraverse was he only offering from Malibu at the time. Their past lines and imprints were probably influential in imprints like Vertigo being started, especially because those line were more adult, and less for the kiddies.
I had one issue of Dreadstar once. It was about these killer ants, and had awesomely gorgeous and gruesome art by Angel Medina.
Solid stuff.
And Badger too right? Wasn't he also @ Malibu?
Oh, it really was THAT revolutionary- keep in mind- this was before the age of computer-coloring. Malibu's coloring process was TITS!
DeleteI think that was an attempt to NOT go bankrupt... but the writing was already on the wall- they exploited the comic-boom like everyone else, but made no plans for sustaining them after. DC would have went the same way if not for Warner Bros.
But, yeah- their Bravura line, while not being 'mature readers' per say, was not your usual "kiddie-shit" in comics. And their main line did have super-heroes in it- but I'd compare them more to Dark Horse's super-hero universe... Still silly, but more serious than Marvel and DC at the time... Badger was not Malibu- he went from Capital Comics, to First, to Dark Horse and then (regrettably) to Image, then IDW- both of which SUCKED ASS. You may be thinking of The Ferret: http://littlethingsincomics.blogspot.com/2014/01/littlethingsincomics6.html -Who was a bit similar in looks/name but really just liked to smoke, date-rape, and kill mother-fuckers...
Angel Medina worked for Megaton back in the day (Image 1.0), and on the title Berzerker- which is a comic I will eventually be making a blog-post about because it's INSANE!