Ahh, it’s always nice when the community gets involved with the Highlight On/Spotlight features, and I really appreciate FR member GogglesPizanno surprising me with this little number on an obscure Marvel team and comic from the 80s. Although it’s probably one of the shorter highlights on the site, it’s still a good read, so continue on after the jump and get learned! And keep in mind that if you want to contribute a Highlight of your own, just give us a ring!

Once upon a time, aliens invaded the Earth. Not cool, creepy, scary Xenomorph looking aliens but more of an Elephantman meets John Travolta in Battlefield Earth kind. OK, not so scary, but they had spears, lasers, and costume jewelry, so naturally Earth freaked out. Enter the Morituri Process. Human volunteers who met the right genetic markers could undergo a procedure that would give them some sort of random power. It might be good; it might be bad, but it would always be useful for at least one issue. The flip side was that the process that gave them power, also jacked up their biological process, which would eventually cause a rejection. All volunteers would die (usually horribly involving an explosion of some kind) within a year. So you got silly looking, but apparently bad-ass, aliens being fought by genetically created superheroes who would die at some point within a year. This is what the kids call High Concept.

Strikeforce Morituri is a very adult and intriguing idea that would lend itself well to a comic book produced today. In 1986, however, things were simpler. It’s hard to create a monthly, ongoing super hero book when the whole concept dictates that you have to keep killing off your main characters. The stories were also a little light on moral ambiguity. You could see the writers playing and pushing a bit where they could, and they did play up some interesting themes about patriotism, propaganda, and being in the media spotlight. But times being what they were, it was still a super hero book, and it had to hit certain beats (superhero names and costumes even though they were essentially a military special ops team). It didn’t last long, and they attempted a couple of story revamps (bye bye aliens, hello evil gov’t!) as well as a mini series after cancellation, but it never really struck with the public at large. Partly because it was always a plot/concept driven book as opposed to a character driven one, and partially because John Byrne and/or Chris Claremont had nothing to do with it. It was a comic somewhat ahead of its time, and with the current “reboot” fad the media has, it would make an interesting candidate. Just make the aliens better.

Quite a concept, right? Unfortunately, I don’t have any links to skins, meshes, or hexes of these characters although I’ve been told some do exist and were hosted on a defunct site known as Skindex. If you happen to know of them, please alert us. Otherwise, maybe some of you skinners/skopers are now interested in creating newer stuff for the masses, eh? One can hope. If you want more information on Strikeforce: Morituri, you can check out their wikipedia entry, Toonopedia, or International Hero.

Update: Thanks to President Raygunn, I now have a semi-working link to some skins for the characters. Check them out here while you can.