Strikeforce: Morituri Omnibus

by Peter B. Gillis, James D. Hudnall, Brent Anderson (Illustrator)

The epic sci-fi cult favorite sensation of the ’80s is collected in a single hardcover!

A savage alien race called the horde has invaded Earth, enslaving its people and plundering its resources. Scientists have devised a method of fighting back: the Morituri process, which grants enhanced abilities to a select few compatible humans — but the transformation is fatal within a year. Now, a handful of brave volunteers make up Strikeforce: Morituri — an elite, experimental and highly effective fighting force against the horde’s depredations. But the heat of every battle, the celebration of every victory and every quiet moment alone is tainted by the inescapable knowledge that — win or lose — their fate is sealed! The war against the Horde will be filled with monstrous twists and turns — but when it’s finally over, will mankind prove victorious? And where will that leave the surviving members of Strikeforce: Morituri?

COLLECTING: Strikeforce: Morituri (1986) 1-31, Strikeforce: Morituri - Electric Undertow (1989) 1-5

Genres: Comics, Adventure, Action, Science Fiction

1080 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2025

About the author

Peter B. Gillis (born December 19, 1952) is an American comic book writer best known for his work at Marvel Comics and First Comics in the mid-1980s, including the series Strikeforce: Morituri and the digitally drawn comic series Shatter.

Reviews

[Shannon Appelcline]

Strikeforce #1-20. Peter Gillis' run of Strikeforce Morituri is quite simple extraordinary, the moreso because it was a Marvel comic published in the '80s, but it's great even without that caveat. The decision to focus on characters doomed to die within a year (and then to tell the story in something close to real-time) is entirely courageous for a serialized medium, and Gillis uses it to great effect, giving us deep look at all these characters and also all their various perspectives on death.

But Gillis doesn't offer a one dimensional story. It's quite multidimensional, thanks to a heavy focus not just on Morituri, but their relationships with an evilly bureaucratic earthgov, and also the story of the alien Horde itself.

We also get a wonderful bookend at the end of Gillis' 20 issues, as he not just closes out the stories of most of the first two generations, but also brings our original protagonist, Harold, back to offer the eulogy for the series. And he leaves a final gift to the readers or the future writers on his last page. If need be, it would have been a fine end to the series.

If I have one complaint about Gillis' run, it's that he gives somewhat short shrift to the third generation of Morituri. There's just too many of them and they're always overshadowed by the first two generations during Gillis' run, making it hard for them to emerge as more than one-dimensions caricatures. But that doesn't lessen a magnificent series [5/5].

Strikeforce #21-31. James Hudnall brings the story of Gillis' Morituri to a fine conclusion, but it's clear that he wants to tell a very different story. His fifth generation Morituri and their opposite numbers, the assassins, all mixed in with an untrustworthy government, feels very much like the story he told in ESPers/Interface (there's another comic that really deserves an omnibus collection!).

That's not to say that it's bad. Hudnall is entirely respectful to the ongoing storyline, and there's a lot to love. His intros of Jason and Dan are excellent. (It's a real crime that the two women didn't get the same treatment.) His introduction of the new aliens is also terrific, and one of the most interesting things so far. And the assassin Morituri really shake things up and help to underline how scary the Morituri are. It's just a different story than what had come before. [4+/5].

Electric Undertow. The final prestige miniseries shakes things up once more, by casting us into a cyberpunk future. The protagonists are not really Morituri at this point, but more typical superheroes, which is a bit of a shame, as we've lost what made the original series so great. (I'm also disappointed that the final assassin Morituri doesn't make an appearance.) Nonetheless, this is a decently good story and the final issue really sticks the landing by offering the most alien/SF feeling volume of the whole series and a strong conclusion for the alien invasion plotline [4/5].

[Neil]

I don't know that this truly rates 5 stars, but I thoroughly enjoyed being able to read all 36 issues in one compilation. It moves at a relatively fast pace (even though it took me 19 days to read it because I was reading it in my spare time, hahahah!) and it did hold my interest from start to finish. The character development is so-so; some of the characters have better development than others. The artwork is hit-and-miss throughout the series with the final ten or so issues (#'s 21-31) probably being the worst of the series.

This time around, I felt the strongest emotional responses with Aline. The end of issue #13 (page 318) is a powerful moment as it shows her anger and sense of betrayal when she finds out that the body of her friend and original teammate Adept (Jelene Anderson) has been taken away to be autopsied (studied) by the Paida scientists. That shock followed by anger was well-done. Then we see her death at the end of issue #20 (page 488) and it made me choke as I read it. He said hate is not a good enough reason to die. And it isn't. ...Goodbye, Kimmo. Take good care of the baby.
I...can't take this...
Shhh---remember bigger than life, my love!....
Aline disappears in her lover's arms as he whispers back ...bigger than life...
Ugh! Still makes me cry! A powerful moment in the story. I was sorry to see her go, to be honest, because I thought maybe with what happened in issue #13 and her subsequent pregnancy that maybe a "cure" would be found and she would survive. Alas, that was not to be!

Issue 20 is so bitter and emotionally charged! Harold Everson (aka Viking) "returns from the dead" as his voice recorder is given to the Morituri commander, and he listens to Harold recording his last words before he dies on his last mission, and we, the readers, get to "listen in" as well over the course of the issue. Harold speaking from beyond the grave already charged this issue with emotions, but then the Morituri have a moment of crisis as they doubt their mission followed by Aline dying, Kimmo and Guy use the doohicky found by Adept to send a message into deep space, and ends with the Commander's reaction to hearing Harold go through a list of bad reasons to die before asking What is a good reason to die? I really don't know, but I think I'll soon find out. What an issue!

Snapdragon's death in issue #3 was still emotionally shocking despite knowing it was coming from reading past issues. She was so young and full of life; she expected to die much later in the process and her death awakened the rest of the team to the reality that they were not guaranteed one final year of life if they did not die in battle. They could die at any time in that twelve month period. It was quite a wake-up call for that second team!

Burke and Akiya's death at the end of issue #23 was also so bitter and ... "pointless" (which I realize happens in battle). I think that they had found love in each other's arms only to die like they did (leaping into battle, mind you) made their death that much more powerful because of the love found and then hope lost at the end. Granted, it also almost feels like a plot device due to how the issue starts out (Burke confessing he has never had a lover and Akiya being willing to provide him that experience and it seems to begin to develop into something more even though they die before consummating).

It is funny, but I did not notice until this reading that all of the video cassette titles of the Strikeforce's adventures on page 447 are actually the titles of each issue in the series (including issues that had not come out yet). I thought that was pretty hysterical!

I liked the "extras" in issue 20 (i.e. - the "Handbook" on pp 319-323 followed by how the writers create and destroy characters for each issue (pp 324-328). The Handbook was interesting because of the backstory it provided to the series, and the story on how characters are created and chosen to die was funny in a morbid way as it was to show how random each person's power (and death) would be in the series. It was just interesting and funny to me. I also enjoyed the interview with the Peter B Gillis taken from Marvel Age issue #45. It was fun to learn a little bit more about this series' backstory and what the writer was aiming for with this series. I do wish he had continued writing it until the end, and I also wish it had run for several more years. It started out as an excellent series and could have lasted longer with strong writing and artwork, in my opinion.

I did find out that this "universe" is known was "Earth-1287" and is mentioned in Exiles vol. 1 # 83 and X-Force vol. 4 #5, so that is pretty cool.

That "promotional clip" in the back of the omnibus from Marvel Age Annual #3 is kinda janky as it shows an image looking at Aline's lower part of her torso including her belly and pink underwear - can't tell if she is sitting down or standing, but it's still a "weird" image to have of her - I suppose the argument could be made she is wearing a pink bikini, but that is probably being to generous, to be honest. At the same time, I can understand the image as it is referencing her pregnancy (although I am not sure if those are supposed to be her hands around her abdomen or Guy's hands reaching around her to hopefully feel the baby moving in her belly).

It is also funny to me that they have the black-and-white copy of issue 5's "bondage cover" as an "Easter Egg" in the back of the omnibus. I assume it must be a popular cover as it seems to be a higher priced cover in comic book stores and at flea markets, hahahah!

Rereading the series, I do think its biggest weakness is that there were not more teams and more fights/battles taking place around the world. Most of the fights take place on the continental United States or in outer space in the first twenty issues or so - that leaves out most of the world. It really isn't until the latter part of the series (such as #23 and later) where there are missions in other parts of the world. I know the authors were trying to make the Morituri Process something limited in scope regarding what heroes with gifts and abilities it could produce, but I still felt like the number of heroes was too limited, and more was needed to make this truly feel like a "global invasion" and that the whole Earth was in danger of this extraterrestrial threat.

The other big weakness is the number of dangling plot threads. There is Aline's baby - what happened to her? And what happened to Guy? Why would Dr. Tuolema not have Aline's daughter with him? One would think her body's chemistry, her body's DNA, would be valuable if for no other reason then she survived her mother's death and the Morituri ... process (cannot think of how it wsa described) until the end of the series. Why would Guy and her daughter not have been included in Electronic Undertow? Then you have the two Morituri assassins (granted, one of them is mentioned as an afterthought at the end of Electronic Undertow) - what about them? What happened to the remains of the Horde Fleet, the survivors who landed on Mars (I cannot remember if their fates were discussed in Electronic Undertow)?

The change in focus of the series with the change in writers was also pretty abrupt. Or, at the very least, it disrupted the flow of the series due to the change in artwork and narrative. The story went from being about fighting back against alien invaders who held the high ground to a kind of "conspiracy theory"-story about a secret government seeking to control the war and the world in order to increase their personal power and wealth. I felt like that sub-story took too much away from the overall story line and was a serious departure from how the series had been moving up to that point.

I know I said this above, but the series would have been better and stronger if it had had more teams functioning in other countries on other continents. Most of the fights take place either in the United States somewhere or there were multiple issues in space. Depending on the quality of writing, you can only do that for so long. I do not know how hard it was to keep the stories "fresh" and "exciting" for readers, but the X-Men have been fighting non-mutants for a long time now and people still buy their comics. I think perhaps the quality of writing and/or artwork had begun slipping and that is why it changed in the direction it did? I don't know - those are just my thoughts.

Electronic Undertow was a fun "mini-series" for the overall end of the series despite it essentially ending on a cliffhanger as well. I loved the artwork in that "prestige format" or "bookshelf format" or whatever it was. I felt it was much better artwork then what had been seen in the last ten-to-fifteen issues of the series, and it helped add to the story (although the battle for control of the alien spacecraft behind the moon was nuts and a bit disturbing at times, hahahah!). It was good to see the last four surviving Morituri in action again (although I would have also enjoyed seeing more of the "newer versions" involved as well - that could have really mixed things up a bit despite the desire of the writer(s) to have the heroes win against nearly overwhelming odds).

The way the dead Morituri villains were reawakened in new clone bodies was pretty cool and also strongly reminded me of elements of The 6th Day because of how those clones were reawakened. Since the series ran from Dec 1986 until Jul 1989, it makes me wonder if the movie was in any way impacted by this part of the mini-series. I kind of doubt it, to be honest, but it is still pretty interesting how similar some of the scenes (moments) are to each other in the comic and the movie.

I also found myself wondering if Burn and Scanner's children had gifts or abilities stemming from the Morituri process. It would make sense that they would have powers and abilities of their own because of their parents' surviving the Morituri process and then having children - their altered DNA would have been passed on to their children. Maybe they won't show signs of any giftings until they hit puberty? Hahahah!

On another note, I found it funny I failed to realize why Shear suddenly went crazy like he did when I read the TPBs - he had some brain tumors that were affecting his brain, his ability to think and speak and have rational thoughts. I would have thought the Morituri process would have taken care of that brain tumor - unless it was due to the "Illuminati" infecting him somehow after he became a Morituri volunteer and survived the process?

Overall, it was a fun compilation to read. I find myself wishing it "had more Easter Eggs" in it, but I am happy with what was provided (even if it was scraps at the table). It is a fun compilation and I enjoyed reading all 36 issues in a row although I think they could have included elements of X-Force and Exiles in this collection like they have done with other collections. It might have helped give this series a bit of closure, maybe? But I also wish they would have gone on for another one hundred and twenty issues or so, hahahah!. I will leave it at 5 stars for now because of how much I enjoyed reading this overall, and I am glad I took the time to revisit this series.

[OmniBen]

(Zero spoiler review) 2.25/5
An utterly generic sci-fi / superhero story, that despite being created in the greatest comics decade ever (the 80's), fails to be anything other than demonstrably mediocre. If only the lackluster writing was on par with the fantastic art and colour work. If you're looking for a good team comic, then there are any number of better books out there worthy of your time. Still head and shoulders above anything Marvel are currently sharting out these days. 2.25/5


OmniBen.

[Ángel Javier]

Este gigantesco ómnibus está dividido en dos partes bien diferenciadas: la primera, escrita por Peter B. Gillis y dibujada (casi siempre) por el gran Brent Anderson, es realmente interesante; no solo la premisa, que tiene su punto, sino que las subtramas (la del doctor ese de nombre impronunciable tratando de buscar en secreto una cura para el proceso Morituri; la del bebé de una de las protagonistas; la de la manipulación en las sombras de un sector del gobierno para que la guerra no acabe jamás y así poder seguir llevando a cabo sus negocios sucios...) son intrigantes y están bien llevadas.

Entonces, Gillis se pira y aparece James D. Hudnall, mediocre hasta decir basta, incompetente para cerrar las tramas secundarias, y encima se trae a un primerizo Mark Bagley que parece absolutamente incapaz de dibujar fondo alguno. No es que Bagley fuera nunca un artista maravilloso, pero en comparación con lo que perpetra aquí, sus números de Thunderbolts o Amazing Spider-Man parecen obra de Brian Bolland. La cosa empeora cuando la serie madre termina y comienza una basura incalificable llamada Electric Undertow en la que ya los Morituri son súpers normales y corrientes, sin el espectro de la muerte rondándoles, y andan por ahí haciendo el gilipollas. Pero pasan cosas raras y tienen que volver a unirse para una última misión en la que supuestamente se deberían resolver algunos de los cabos sueltos más importantes planteados en los últimos números de la serie regular, pero, mira tú por dónde, acaba en cliffhanger. Manda huevos. El guion es basura, y el dibujo, para arrancarse los ojos de las órbitas.

Fácilmente, le podría haber dado al ómnibus un dos, ya que Gillis y Anderson abandonan la serie en el número 20, y eso nos deja un total de 16 números de mierda (11 de Strikeforce Morituri a secas y 5 de la miniserie), para los que un uno es una puntuación incluso exagerada. Pero la dupla de creativos original no se merece esto, así que un tres. Qué lástima todo: que Gillis y Anderson se marcharan por la puerta de atrás; que los sustituyeran por dos incompetentes; que terminaran la historia aprisa y corriendo; y, sobre todo, que yo me haya gastado noventa pavos en esto.

Y todo por el hype. Si es que...

[Rex Hurst]

Contains all 31 issues of Strikeforce: Morituri, plus the Electric Undertow mini-series. Aliens have descended from the stars to enslave and loot the Earth. The planet's only real defense are Strikeforce Morituri, humans given superpowers via an injection. The only problem is that whoever takes the process is guaranteed to die within a year. And the book lives up to its promise. No character is safe. The superheroes come and go like mayflies, all living and dying tragically. But that is part of the problem with the series. It is impossible to become attached to a character, as by issue ten none of the original are still alive.

The concept becomes played out by issue 20 when James Hudnal takes over writing, and he quickly turns it around, adding detail and depth to the world, turning it eventually into a cyberpunk story more than a superhero one. But for it's time, this is a unique series.

[RJ]

Pretty compelling post-Watchmen era storytelling. Fans of the classic 80's Suicide Squad comic would do well to check this hidden gem out. Fairly unpredictable and genuinely shocking, it would definitely make a great movie or television series someday. I really respect this series for proving you don't need traditional or established superheroes to launch a great comic at one of the Big Two companies, just a great one sentence premise that would hook anyone.

[Gabriel Rojo]

Above-average scripts and (for the most part) artwork, but the series never fully takes off. The original idea is striking, but sadly peters out when the second writer takes over (even though his scripting is perhaps more competent than Gillis').

[Thomas Whitaker]

The first 20 issues gets 5 stars. The rest gets 2.5 stars, and that’s generous. The only highlight was Mark Bagley’s art on last part of the series.