The Mutant Force was inspired most obviously by the X-Men,
though several “mutant creature” themed cartoons such as Mutant League and TMNT
informed some of the ideas. Ironically, I knew very little about the X-Men
initially, just that “mutants” were people who had super powers due to
genetics. However, rather than be born with powers, most mutants of the Power
Universe were almost universally humans genetically engineered to have super
powers and/or monstrous forms.
The Mutant Force’s adventures usually involved the team
operating as a secretive outlaw group that tried to not only fight rogue
mutants unleashed by the Company on the unsuspecting public, but also to
protect other mutants and humans from falling into the Company’s clutches. They
didn’t tend to actually go out of their way to battle other unrelated supervillains,
or deal with alien and demon threats, unless said threats were knocking down
their door, or they got wrapped up in the big crossover events.
As such, the Mutant Force was a lot less like the X-Men in
practice, and instead was much closer in concept to the television show Mutant
X, which wouldn’t even come out until years after I conceived of the Mutant
Force. I always thought that was a little funny.
THE COMPANY
The Company is a mysterious, Illuminati-esque organization
with a particular obsession for unlocking the potential for superhuman powers.
To this end, they routinely kidnap homeless folks, the populations of remote
villages, and life-long criminals to experiment on. Many do not survive
experimentation, but those that do are transformed in superhumans of some form
or another. They also experimented with animals, cyborgs, clones, and even
built creatures “from scratch” using DNA splicing.
No one knows the origins of the Company, how long they have
existed, or who is in charge. Even the highest-ranking agents the Mutant Force
has caught are implied to be in the lower levels of management. The Company may
also be involved with numerous other conspiracies around the globe, agents in
numerous governments and corporations may have a hand in its operations, but
even when these connections are sussed out, there is always some degree of
plausible deniability.
Knowledge of the Company is highly limited. Even most
government organizations cannot fully confirm their existence, though how much
of this is due to agents being compromised is unknown. Even among the superhero
and villain communities, there is skepticism of just how far-reaching the
Company’s grasp is. There is, of course, no denying the existence of the mutant
populace; nearly two-third’s of the planet’s extant superhumans claim to be
have experimented on by the Company. But no one has ever managed to learn its
secrets.
What is eventually discovered, however, is that the true
origin of their mutant experiments lies with the mad scientist Dr. Mathworths.
The genius roboticist and geneticist once had numerous secret laboratories
across the country. During a time when he was incarcerated for several decades,
the Company’s agents raided his labs, and stole the secrets of perfect genetic
engineering. Thus, Dr. Mathworths is truly the “grandfather” of the modern age
of superhumans, and among his agendas is vengeance against the organization
that stole his work. But even a genius of his caliber seems to have only
scratched the surface of their organization.
ACROSS THE ERAS
The Mutant Force team existed in at least three time periods
in the Power Universe. The Mutant Force of the 1990s fought alongside the like
of the Fabulous Five and the New Force. During this time, there was some
implied prejudice against mutantkind, mostly due to a smear campaigns secretly
funded by the Company. However, because many mutants joined the superhero
community, and the Power Universe heroes had good relationships with the public
and authorities, these attempts did little to spark the sort of public tensions
that were hoped for.
Indeed, it is implied that their whole generation of mutants
went on to adapt into normal society and have children who naturally manifested
super powers, thus creating “natural mutants.” Mutants hence become a
sub-population of humanity, continuing to grow well after the Modern Age of
heroes came to an end.
In the year 2426, however, much of the world has fallen into
a cyberpunk dystopia, and many mutants have been slaughtered, as their powers
are a natural threat to the Technocratic Elite who rule the world with
hyper-advanced technology. The Mutant Force of 2426 is a resistance movement
fighting to overthrow the oppressive regime. Although consisting of humans,
rogue cyborgs, and even a few noble demons among the resistance network, the
core Mutant Force group is indeed a large squadron of mutants who perform most
of the actual combat missions and terrorist attacks. It is implied that the
Technocracy may have its origins in the Company.
In the year 3001, the Technocracy was long-since defeated,
and the mutant population has slowly recovered. However, due to genetic drift,
most mutants manifest weak abilities, as the bloodlines have thinned.
Technically as much as a third of the planet may have mutant ancestry, but
barely a fraction manifest powers, and of those that do, barely a fraction more
manifest anything worth while. The Mutant Force of this time period is a
fully-fledged superhero team sanctioned by the government to operate as one of
several global peace-keeper groups to deal with the sudden rise of new villains
and the return of demonic forces from Hell.
ROSTERS
There is admittedly not much to say about the vast majority
of the characters, so most descriptions are brief.
1990 TEAM
The 1990s team was formed slowly over the course of two or
three years as an initial group of mutants managed to break free from a Company
testing facility, then subsequently hit every laboratory they could locate.
Mass-escapes of mutants numbered in the hundreds, with many disappearing into
the human populace. Several of the escapees, however, banded together as the
Mutant Force, adding members here and there as they found them.
Racksile – Fired
lightning bolts from his hair. Racksile is the new recruit at the series
beginning, living on the streets and evading capture since one of the more
recent mass-escapes. He is rescued by the Mutant Force team and, having been
unable to transition back into normal society, joins their group. Racksile is
earnest in his desire to see justice done to the Company, and is hot-headed and
sometimes reckless, but eventually learns to become a tactical thinker and
leader.
Mindmaster –
Powerful telepathy, mind-control, and telekinesis. He is quite blatantly a
Professor X rip-off, being a wise, bald mentor with psychic powers. However,
unlike his inspiration who keeps ending up in a wheelchair, Mindmaster is able
to walk. The Power Universe had few active psychics among the superhuman
community, but Mindmaster was notably one of the more powerful.
Icemaster – Cryokinesis,
cold-immunity, ice-constructs. He’s an Iceman rip-off, power-wise and
personality-wise.
Massmaster – Able
to transform into living mist. He often forms a duo with Icemaster. He is
possibly an alternate universe version of Cloud Kid from the Power Team; at the
very least, he shares the same inspiration point (Marvel’s Mass Master), even
going so far as to steal the name!
Chameleon – Humanoid
lizard mutant, complete with prehensile tail, extendable tongue, sticking to
walls, and changing his skin color. Weilds a weaponized skateboard. I don’t
remember if he was initially a human being, or one of the Company’s animal
experiments, and Chameleon doesn’t either. A Mondo Gecko rip-off, both in form
and personality.
Radian – Her body
glowed pink with energy when her powers activated, and she could fire
concentrated beams of radiation, as well as fly. Personality-wise she was a
typical nice girl.
Psychopath – He
had a blood-red skull for a head not unlike Marvel’s Red Skull, except his
whole body was crimson. He wore bullet-proof black armor, and wielded a
diamond-tipped spear. He was strong enough to lift up to three tons, and had a
low-end healing factor that kept him alive through injuries that would normally
kill a person, let him recover in days what would normally take weeks.
Psychopath affected an air of a creepy, crazy killer while on missions, but in
truth, he just played up this personality for a laugh. He took a shine to
Racksile.
2426 TEAM
My memory is quite hazy on this group, and I honestly don’t
remember most of the characters involved. In fact, I only remember the
characters who actually got carried over across the eras. The Mutant Force of
the 1990s met their end during an adventure that involved a battle over a time
machine. The machine was destroyed, scattering the Mutant Force across the
timeline.
Mindmaster, Racksile, and Psychopath ended up in the year
2426. It is assumed the rest of the team either died or got lost in some other
era. In any event, the three modern day mutants are caught up in the resistance
against the Technocracy, with Mindmaster using his leadership to successfully
unite the scattered resistance fighters and win a decisive blow against.
The only memorable new character in this group was Rogden, who looked like Marvel’s Power
Man, but had the powers and personality of Marvel’s Bishop.
Somehow or another, probably involving another time machine
exploding or misfiring, Rogden and Racksile end up making another timejump from this era. Psychopath notably died at some
point, and Mindmaster was left to carry on the fight, and presumably his
leadership is what allowed mutant kind to make a come back, and help fully
topple the Technocracy.
3001 TEAM
This era was a return of superheroes in a world both more
technologically advanced, while being overtly attacked by supernatural forces.
Racksile and Rogden land in this future. Seeing that the world was now safe for
mutantkind, but recognizing the rising villainous threats, they decide to
revive the concept of a superhero team, and form a brand new Mutant Force as an
all-around global defense group. They call together mutants from all walks of
life, but who have powers that are at least somewhat potent, and have some
level of experience in combat.
This more or less makes the Mutant Force the premier team of
this era, as they are the ones who get the ball rolling for new teams to form,
and even for some immortal heroes to come out of retirement.
Aside from Racksile and Rogden, the group consists of:
Lectro – he eventually
became the team leader; can fired “electric lasers”; lover of Thorna
Thorna – three
horns on her head which fire lasers; skilled with electronics; lover of Lectro
Bionic – she had
bionic energy blasts
Optic – optic
lasers, multi-spectrum vision
Solar-Flare –
Pyrokinetic flyer
Blades – retractable,
organic-metal arm blades; brother to Bullets
Bullets – arms
turned into guns which fired heated bullets; brother to Blades
Titanium – he had
super strength, metallic body
Colt – a woman
with cloven feet, she could send shockwaves along the ground by stamping her
hooves, also could lift up to three tons and run up to fifty miles an hour for
long stretches at a time
No comments:
Post a Comment