Cyberspace 3000 #6 (December 1992)

After a period lost in the time vortex, the randomizer has finally landed at its location, Cyberforce 3000 #6.

Whilst Dark Guard, is right at the end of the Marvel UK era, we are at the height now. This is also supposed much more linked to the mainstream Marvel comics than some of the rest of line, as shown by the cover tribute to Avengers #57.

But let’s see what’s inside:

Once again, this very much seems to be trying to appeal to the Malibu fans with its art style and has a frustrating feature of some of the characters speaking in space slang, that I just found irritating. This issue isn’t quite as focussed on action as the other I reviewed but there is still quite a bit.

The actual plot, appears to have five different threads, a quite bold choice for short issues with a lot of large splash pages. First up, we have Captain Jennifer Cabre-Rios, who is getting used to a new cyber-augmented clone body.

Yes, Adam Warlock comes to visit and keeps yelling helpful warnings such as “Beware! Beware! Beware!”. At first it is unclear if he is really there, a hallucination from her new body, or a meeting in cyberspace. However, towards the end of the issue her Doctor also sees him.

Next up we have Onan, Angel and Shan, who are down on a planet, seemingly caught in the middle of a fight between Termies (I presume this mean prisoners?) and their guards. After defeating the Termies they discover they were just androids. They cannot investigate further as they are captured and thrown in a prison cell.

They are being watched by a mysterious man who sees them as more pieces on the board. He clearly did not expect them and ponders who the opposing king could be.

We also get a one page interlude where teenager Myke Townsend sees his parents get murdered on his way back from his graduation in computer studies. What relation this has to the rest of the story, I cannot guess.

The final thread concerns the Clan Cyrose, some kind of cult who had apparently once been powerful but something happened to them following Galactus’ departure. Gui Askran blames other’s betrayal for this but the one they worship arrives, turns him to stone and takes over. Who could this possibly be?

Thanos, of course! I mean who else would Adam Warlock want to turn up to warn about? Paste-Pot Pete?

This features among the earliest work comics work of two great talents, Gary Russell and Steve Tappin, but feels distinctly mediocre. I am not sure this can be said to be lack of experience because both of them are soon afterwards to go on to do amazing work (on Doctor Who and Rogue Trooper respectively).

And given how similar the flaws are to Dark Guard (from a different but unequally unutilised set of great names) I suspect this is what the publishers wanted.

Even though I still have issues with it, I will say I found it a bit of a step up from Dark Guard. It is trying to approach more complicated story telling than the initial action heavy approach would suggest and there are attempts to add in moments of humour to break up what could be a very po-faced story. Jenn’s Doctor in particular gives some great lighter moments.

I still don’t think it is enough to make me checkout the rest of the series, but interesting nonetheless.

Next up, we are going right back to the 30s with Fairyland Tales:

How will it be? See you soon.