Awesome Cover Friday: Strikeforce Morituri

The first issue of Marvel's The Order (which I will review soon) got me thinking about Strikeforce: Morituri which is one of the best comic series ever created. It's from the late '80s and it pushed all the right buttons for me at the time. I have recently found some back issues and the stories hold up. The premise is that there Earth has been invaded by The Horde, really nasty looking aliens who are total jerks and have us outgunned.

Earth's response to this is to give superpowers to volunteers. This new strikeforce is powerful enough to fight the invaders but there's a catch. The process which gives them their powers is unstable and any of them could die in a horrible, literal flameout at any time. This is such a cool premise for a comic. One of the reasons it worked so well was that it did not take place in the regular "616" Marvel Universe. The writers could make up their own rules.

Anyway, here are some cool covers from the series:

#1

The first cover of a series is often the one most associated with it and Morituri is no exception. It's iconic, it looks neat, the colors are cool, and it has dudes shooting lasers at stuff. Mission Accomplished!


#8

First off, I really like the layout of this cover. It's one of the most visually interesting images I've seen on a comic. Also, this one carries some weight because any time a new character was introduced I'd think "How long is this one gonna last?". Sometimes the answer was "Not very long" because some characters died before their powers even manifested.


#11

This one shows a nice slice-of-life from the war against The Horde. Covers which don't show the title characters can be very effective and giving us a look into the average Joe's life (or the lives of Joe's kids, anyway) is a nice touch. Also, that Horde dude is wearing a NAZI nose ring. That's wrong on so many levels.