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Welcome back for another peek inside my sketchbook. First I'd like to thank the readers who e-mailed me, this month. Feedback is always welcome, as are suggestions for future columns.
This month I'm stepping outside the Marvel/DC comics mainstream and looking at an independent favorite of mine from the early 1980s. The late 70s and early 80s were an interesting time to be a comic book reader. At no time since the demise of the Golden Age were there so many choices comic readers. This was the time when Marvel and DC were just starting to boom with the huge popularity of comics like the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans. At the same time, new publishers were popping up every few months.
One of these new publishers was a little company called Noble Comics. During it's short publishing history, it would make an impact that would carry on for most of the decade. The only title published by the small company was a super hero team book unlike any other. It featured a team of government sponsored heroes called the Justice Machine. Now, government sponsored heroes are pretty old hat, but this team was unique. The government that sponsored them was a totalitarian regime ruling an earthlike planet in an adjacent universe called Georwell. At the time the Justice Machine first appeared, I was just becoming politically aware and the idea of a team of idealistic heroes sponsored by a brutal Marxist government was quite intriguing. The dynamics of the team made for interesting situations, as well as the team's relationship with the less idealistic bureaucrats, people like the ruthless prosecutor Zarren, whose jealousy of the Machine leads him to maneuver the heroes into a situation where they are declared Enemies of the State.
The Justice Machine is a mixture of super-human and extraordinarily skilled normals who sought to destroy corruption, injustice and evil wherever they found it. Six strong, they are:
Blazer- youngest member of the Justice Machine, whose powers to generate heat and flame are controlled only by her containment suit.
Demon- swashbuckling martial artist and gymnast, he must always be the best at everything he tries, driving himself to the limits of human ability and endurance, and beyond, with the aid of performance-enhancing drugs.
Titan- the gentle giant, whose mutant power gives him great strength and the ability to grow to 20 feet tall. Challenger- gifted leader, skilled strategist, a prinicipled and idealstic hero who uses his skills and weapons, a pair of multi-purpose firearms to fight for truth and justice.
Diviner- Challenger's ex-wife, whose extraordinary senses, amplified by bionic implants, enable her to perceive the slightest sound, see in the blackest night or feel, taste and smell the tiniest trace of her quarry, thanks to the sensor web woven into her cape, without which she is utterly insensate.
Talisman- computer and math genius, lucky beyond belief and twice as obnoxious, he must always balance his Karma, lest his luck take a turn for the worst.
Prosecutor Zarren presented the J.M. with evidence that their greatest enemy, the dissident known as Maxinor, had fled through the Dimensional Lock to Earth, a planet in an adjecent reality. Zarren provided the Machine with forged authorization to pursue Maxinor through the Dimensional Lock. While they were away, Zarren denounced the J.M. to the District Tribunal as traitors. The Council Central, the ruling body of Georwell, feared that the J.M. would be converted to Maxinor's viewpoint while they were away from the watchful eye of the Council's agents. Unable to monitor the J.M. while they were on Earth, it became imperitive to eliminate the Justice Machine. Zarren was ordered to pursue the J.M. to Earth and execute them.
For their part, the J.M. knew nothing of Zarren's treachery, their idealism and loyalty blinding them to the reality of the corruption and tyranny of Georwell's government. They believed the government propaganda that painted Maxinor as a ruthless evil genius, an anarchist whose sole aim was to overthrow the government they served. Imagine their surprise when it was Maxinor who rescued them from Zarren's "Deathspencers", robotic killing machines, dispatched to destroy the Justice Machiners.
Even after being attacked by the raving Zarren, they refused to believe Maxinor's "lies". Preferring to believe that Zarren has simply gone mad, the J.M returned to Georwell to find themselves branded as traitors, hunted and despised. Worst of all, Titan returned to his home to find his family terrified of him, so complete was the propaganda campaign against them. His wife attempted to protect her children with an improperly adjusted energy weapon. The gun exploded when she fired at Titan, blasting her and the children to ashes before his eyes. The others found similar traps awaiting them, Talisman accidentally killed his landlady, striking her when she attempted to call for the authorities.
The Justice Machine determined that they had to flee Georwell. Making their way to the government laboratory where the Dimensional Lock was kept, they found the building strangely deserted. The government has laid a trap. The J.M. found themselves facing their darker government counterparts, the Guardians. When one of the Guardians, Monolith, was injured by Blazer, the Machiners were able to escape through the Dimensional Lock, sabotaging the Earthside lock, to prevent immediate pursuit.
On Earth, the Justice Machine came into contact with Earth heroes and villains, and their old enemy Maxinor, among others.
It's a pity that the series didn't last. The potential for character developement and exploring interesting political questions was enormous. Even now, after so many years I find myself leafing through the Justice Machine source book, for Heroes Unlimited (an excellent super hero role-playing game from Palladium Books) and thinking about the possibilities, which of course, leads directly to this column.
There are a couple of characters I wouldn't change at all. Talisman, his personality simply doesn't suit the usual super hero costume, and Demon, whose costume (I think) was almost perfect, to begin with. I would only lengthen Demon's cape a bit.
For the others, well, Titan's weird bare-chest look just doesn't work for me. I try to keep some of the flavor of his original costume, beefing up the belt and boots a good deal, and making that mask more of face-plate. The colors, blue-black and white, remain the same.
With Blazer, I went a bit more extreme. Part of Blazer's character profile is that she is trapped in her costume. The energy containment suit that regulates her power, also cuts her off from human contact. For my version, I took that to the fullest extreme, enclosing her in a full-body costume. The oval patches, white on her original costume, I domed and made glowing red, used to help her regulate her power output.
Challenger's original suit was functional and dull. As I've said in past columns, I think brown is an under-used color in comic book costumes, so I did like that his costume was brown and tan. I used these same colors, but made the tunic more stylized, body armor, perhaps. The goggles, I attached to the headpiece, to hold them in place. The guns I gave a complete rework, the bulky "caulking-gun" look of the originals just doesn't suit my taste in firearms. The still fire a variety of projectiles and even energy charges.
When it came to Diviner, I tried to capture the lines of her original costume, while streamlining it. If I was doing a Justice Machine series, myself, I would rework her sensory implants, to make her less reliant on the external sensor web.
Here we have the Justice Machine fighting some of Georwell's Terror Troopers.
That's my take on Mike Gustovich's Justice Machine. If anybody knows what he's up to, these days, I'd like to hear from you. I've been a fan of his, for years.
As always, I'm looking for ideas for future columns. See you next month!
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