Strikeforce: Morituri

Strikeforce: Morituri was a comic book published by Marvel Comics from 1986 to 1989. The story, created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson, does not take place in the Marvel Universe.

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.

The title comes from the Latin phrase: "Morituri te salutant" (We who are about to die salute you!), a proclamation gladiators made to the emperor of Rome before they would 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 was eventually ended after 31 issues, under the tenure of writer James Hudnall and artist Mark Bagley.

In 2002, the Sci-Fi Channel announced that they were going to bring Strikeforce: Morituri to television as A Thousand Days, obviously changing the length of time a Morituri could live. Although targetted for 2003, nothing ever came of this.

Plot Summary

In 2069, an alien race called "the Horde" arrived in Earth's solar system. Although they were technologically advanced far beyond humanity at that time, they were extremely savage. It was later discovered that they had stolen their technology from a kindly alien race that visited their planet. The aliens were slaughtered by the Horde. The Horde traveled the galaxy in order to steal resources, food, and technologies, since they had no knowledge of how to fix the ships they used. They viewed the Earth as a resource to be plundered. If the Horde had wanted to completely conquer mankind, then they would easily have done so. Instead, they contented themselves with brutal raids that left the Earth functioning but reeling under the impact. The Padeia Institute which then ruled the planet began to organize Earth defenses against these attacks.

Humankind's best hope was discovered in 2072, when Dr. Kimmo Tuolema perfected the Morituri Process. This allowed people with a specific type of genetic structure to have a new metabolism implanted over their original one, granting them unique superhuman powers. However, as became clear with the first group of test subjects, the host would eventually reject the implant as a foreign body, resulting in a violent death that would occur anytime between the completion of the process and a year afterward.

The first group of test subjects, later known as "the Black Watch", were volunteer soldiers. Of the five memebers, two died before seeing active service, at the point of activation of their powers. The remaining three had their first field test in Cape Town, taking on Horde forces there; though they were successful in battle, none of them survived. Tuolema later deduced that the older the subject, the quicker their system would reject the process, and the decision was taken that all subsequent Morituri recipients were to be between 18 and 21 to maximize life expectancy.

All new Morituri candidates started the process with a process which enhanced strength and endurance, making it easier for them to live through the rest of the treatment, designed to grant individual powers. After completing this stage, the volunteers would be placed in the Garden, a booby-trapped test facility designed to heighten stress levels and precipitate the emergence of each candidate's powers. In 2073 the first of the new Strikeforce: Morituri entered active service.

As was to be expected, the Morituri saw many deaths in their ranks during the war, sometimes from enemy action, but mainly from the Morituri effect, the term given to the body's rejection of the process. In spite of membership being a death sentence, the threat of the Horde meant that there was never a shortage of volunteers willing to give up their lives in the defence of mankind. Right from the start, the Morituri showed a propensity for disobeying orders in order to grasp opportunities to attack the enemy; knowing their time was short, they resented being kept out of action for any length of time.

It was the fourth generation of Morituri who saw a real change to the process. In fact, there were two sets of fourth generations. One was created without the input of Tuolema, with disastrous results, and the victims chose suicide over life in the twisted bodies they ended up with. But one of Tuolema's fourth generation of Morituri proved to be the group's salvation; Revenge, who had been a captive of the Horde prior to becoming a Morituri, carried a virus which eventually proved to be the counteragent which stopped rejection. When this was discovered, the surviving Morituri regained a chance to live a full lifespan (too late for the first and second, and all but one of the third generation).

The war with the Horde was unexpectedly brought to a close. A new race of aliens, dubbed the VXX199, entered Earth orbit, destroyed the Horde fleet, and then departed without explanation. Other problems soon arose: the Morituri process being performed on a trio of killers with the intent to assassinate the surviving members of the Strikeforce and the Prime Minster.

Characters

The Blackwatch

• Aaron Ray Leonard - died before manifestation of powers
• Patricia Lynne Sobrero - died before manifestation of powers
• Clinton Brian Rogers - Strength
• Bruce Hagashi - Speed
• Woodrow Joshua Green - Energy Projection (from eyes)

The First Generation of Morituri

• Carol Rayweick - died before manifestation of powers
• Macintire Kenlin - died before manifestation of powers
• Lorna Leigh Raeburn (Snapdragon) - plasma blasts
• Harold Carl Everson (Vyking) - Energy redirection, lifeform detection (refered to as 'imaging'; could detect primarily other Morituri and alien lifeforms)
• Robert Greenbaum (Marathon) - Strength, strength grew the longer he refrained from using it, charging up as time passed; also carried a defensive shield
• Jelene Anderson (Adept) - Hyper-invention and hyper-intelligence (limited to physical contact with object to be examined), Chemical Mimicry/Creation (can create objects and organic substances beneficial or harmful to the object analyzed. Was developing cosmic awareness before death due to the 'Morituri Effect'.
• Louis Armanetti (Radian) - Full spectrum E-M emmissions. Needed 'focusing sleeves' on his uniform to concentrate his emissions effectiely.
• Aline Pagrovna (Blackthorne) - Disrupt molecular bonds, causing things to melt and break.

• Col. Elizabeth Luis Nion - Plant Control

The Second Generation of Morituri

• Pilar Lisieux (Scaredycat) - Projecting Empathy (limited to fear projection), superhuman speed
• William Deguchi (Scatterbrain) - Telepathy (initially could only use to project to all individuals in a given area and only thoughts; later cound peoject mental states - drunkeness, perfect clarity, etc. After encounter with the Fourth Generation Morituri telepath, his power began to expand into clairsentience (if not for the 'Morituri Effect' Deguchi may have achieved 'cosmic awareness'). Because of neural damage sustained during training session in 'The Garden', Deguchi wears a leg brace.
• Ruth Mastorakis (Toxyn)- Produce beneficial/harmful biochemical agents capable of affecting organic/inorganic materials and lifeforma

The Third Generation of Morituri

• Greg Mattingly (Backhand)- Redirect energy
• Domenica Contreras (Brava) - Superhuman strengh
• Burke O'Halloran (Hardcase) - Molecular control (limited to enhancing the molecular density of any object to make it nearly indestructable. Could perform this on living beings, but rendered them immobile - and was possibly fatal if they closed their mouths so they couldn't breathe).
• Walther Feyzioglu (Shear) - Slice through objects on the molecular level Could only do this up to one meter away.
• Akiya Bandaranaike (Silencer) - Vibration Control (could nullify vibratory patterns to inhibit sounds). Also used this power to induce fatal heart attacks in members of Fourth Generation Morituri (as one member was an energy-based being, there was indication that her power was progressing into a EM-controlling ability similiar to Radian's).
• John Crenosa (Wildcard) - Power Duplication (limited to other Morituri)

The Fourth Generation of Morituri

• 4 unnamed members

Morituri #1 - massive psionic powers, including telepathy and psionic energy blasts.

Morituri #2 - unknown, but appeared to have (possible?) growth or super-strength.

Morituri #3 - unknown, but appeared to have some sort of avian/aquatic growths.

Morituri #4 - unknown but energy-related; mutated into unstable energy form contained in special shielded area.

The Fifth Generation of Morituri

• Jason Edwards (Revenge) - Energy conversion - on touch, could cause solid objects to convert to any chosen form of energy.
• Dan Baker (Scanner) - Clairsentience (believed at first that he had 'superhuman senses')
• Yoko Wantanabe (Burn) - Pyrokinetic
• Fiona Windsor (Lifter) - Telekinesis, telekinetic flight

The Assassins

• Tam Van Ok (Ghost) - Invisibility (limited to the EM spectrum; could be detected by psionics)
• Zakir Shastri (Tiger) - Energy claws capable of cutting through most objects
• Julio Gonzales (Wind) - Supersonic speed

Electric Undertow

From December 1989 to March 1990, Marvel published an additional five-issue miniseries, Strikeforce Morituri: Electric Undertow. This took place five 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 the sentient A.I. hologram of dead Morituri Scatterbrain), and travelled to the VXX-199's base, where they destroyed its CPU, ending this second alien threat.