Strikeforce: Morituri

Strikeforce: Morituri is a science fiction comic book series published by Marvel Comics from 1986 to 1989. The series was created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson.

The premise is that aliens have invaded Earth and nearly succeeded in conquering it and stripping it of its resources. A scientist discovers a process which can provide humans with superhuman powers, effectively creating a group of defending superheroes. However, the process would also ensure that the empowered humans would die within a year of being empowered. The series thus focused on the heroism of the main characters in fighting the invaders, while living with the knowledge that their fates were sealed regardless of whether or not they prevailed.[1]

The title comes from the Latin phrase "Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant" ("Hail Caesar, we who are about to die salute you"), a salute that according to popular legend (although not academically agreed) was uttered by Roman gladiators before battle in the arena. The subtitle of the comic was "We who are about to die".

Gillis and Anderson left the series within two years. The series ended after thirty-one issues, while under the tenure of writer James Hudnall and artist Mark Bagley.

Within the Marvel Comics Multiverse, the Strikeforce: Morituri universe is designated as Earth-1287.

Plot summary

In 2069, an alien race called "the Horde" arrived in Earth's solar system (it was later revealed that the actual name of the race was the 'Va-Shaak'). Although they were technologically advanced far beyond humanity at that time, they were extremely savage. Examples of this savagery include the retaliatory slaughter of human slaves (this was shown after the victory of the Black Watch), the nuclear destruction of San Diego (also in response to the Black Watch's assassination of the Earth Commander of the Horde Forces), and the decapitation of children (especially by literally ripping their heads off) in order to establish dominance over newly captured human slaves (one particularly brutal terror-tactic favored by the Horde early in the war was to capture large numbers of humans in order to take them just outside the Earth's atmosphere and then eject them from the ships, allowing them to burn up in re-entry so watchers on the ground could see the streaks representing their burning forms. This tactic became known to humans as 'a Highdive').[2]

It was later discovered that they had stolen their technology from a kindly alien race that visited their planet who were attempting to rescue the Horde species. The Horde had caused severe environmental damage to their planet due to excessive pollution which laid much of the world an uninhabitable wasteland. After pulling the Horde back from the brink of extinction the aliens planned to leave the Horde planet in peace once their rescue mission was accomplished. Before they could leave, however, the alien pacifists were ruthlessly and mercilessly attacked and slaughtered by the Horde. The Horde stole the aliens' ships and advanced technology for themselves and set out into space to establish their savage and war-like empire.[3] The Horde traveled the galaxy

Electric Undertow

From December 1989 to March 1990, Marvel published an additional five-issue miniseries, Strikeforce Morituri: Electric Undertow. This took place ten years after the events of the last issue and dealt with the fate of the VXX199. They were waiting behind the Moon, slowly modifying mankind's culture to their requirements, planning to induce spontaneous combustions in the population and then harness the psychic energies released. The four remaining Morituri learned of this, thanks to some bizarre allies (including a sentient A.I. which had taken the holographic form of dead Morituri Scatterbrain, and usually only appeared to and communicated with Scanner; Random – an information specialist/broker with cybernetic neural implants; and Dr. Tuolema's private Morituri squad), and travelled to the VXX-199's base, where they destroyed its CPU, ending this second alien threat.[9]

Characters

Continuity

The setting of Strikeforce: Morituri is a continuity of its own and resembles no future seen in any other Marvel title. The Horde appear to have gathered trophies from residents of the Marvel Universe, including Captain America's Shield, the Silver Surfer's board and Galactus's helmet, as well as shelves of what appear to be power batteries used by DC Comics' Green Lantern Corps.[31]

In 2014, Marvel's X-Force referred to scientists from the mainstream Marvel universe who reached the "Strikeforce: Morituri" universe and stole the Morituri Process technology used to create their superhumans.[32]

Creators

Reprints

Strikeforce: Morituri is being reprinted in Trade Paperback Format by Marvel comics during 2012:

Additionally in January 2012 Marvel released Strikeforce: Morituri – We Who Are About To Die #1, reprinting issue 1 of Strikeforce: Morituri.[33]

• Volume 1 Released 25 January 2012 Collects Strikeforce: Morituri issues 1–13 ISBN 978-0-7851-6471-5 [33]
• Volume 2 Released 22 February 2012 Collects Strikeforce: Morituri issues 14–26 ISBN 978-0-7851-6473-9 [34]
• Volume 3 Released 06 June 2012 Collects Strikeforce: Morituri issues 27–31 and Strikeforce: Morituri — Electric Undertow 1–5 ISBN 978-0-7851-6474-6 [35]

In other media

External links

• Strikeforce: Morituri at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017.