One of the things I liked about Marvel hero teams as a youngster was that each one was unique onto itself. Sure, The Avengers was the classic super-hero team, but Fantastic Four was a family of explorers, The X-Men were a sort of civil rights movement housed in a school, and under Steve Gerber The Defenders was a wacky group therapy session barely held together by Doctor Strange.
The Ultraverse seemed to follow a similar tack. While their classic super-team didn't come together until late in their second year (and we'll get to Ultraforce next time), The Strangers was an affiliation of people brought together by a traumatic experience, Freex was about a makeshift family of runaways, and The Exiles was Steve Gerber mercilessly making fun of X-Men circa the 90's.
The Solution seemed to be a mercenary group on the surface...but James D. Hundall had something more...all over the place in mind.
In the wake of her father's death, Lela Cho is pushed out of the family business by the Shadow Clan. Determined to get what's rightfully hers, Cho gets a wetware makeover from J.D. Hunt to gain control over technology, then forms an outfit to take down the Clan. To keep themselves financed, the group--now called 'The Solution'--hires itself out as troubleshooter. But some of their biggest problems come from the two non-human members, the monstrous warrior Outrage and the albino sorceress Shadowmage and their connection to the Godwheel.
I liked a lot of this series. I really did. While that characters are sort of stock heroes--the technomancer, the general cyberninja, the man who turns into a battle monster, and the hot girl sorceress--the thing that makes this works is the characterization, especially in the relations between them. While I'm sure the 'no one gets along' dynamics of a lot of 90's super-teams, these four characters are tangibly friends, and genuinely like being with each other. I particularly like the relationship between Tech and Dropkick. While the tendency would be to ship them, Hundall gives them an intimate friendship that is close but never acting on the obvious path.
Unfortunately, this is one of the titles where the feature is actually a bug. A large chunk of the series is taken up by having the main thread of the team's story sidelined in favor of Godwheel Shenanigans. Yes, two of the characters come from the Godwheel, but the tale gets molasses slow as Hundall has to stop and explain all this lore about the various races and their culture while also introducing the menace that will lead us into the
Godwheel mini--which the Solution plays no part in. I found it very frustrating, as there's a definite forward momentum in the Dragon Clan story that's suddenly put on hold so we can get all this set up for an entirely different storyline the four characters have no representation in.
Then there's the thirstiness that wrecked some of the other Ultraverse titles I've covered. Every time the Dragon Clan mentions their ouster of Lela, they have to also mention they want to assign her to either a low-rent brothel or--god help me--a snuff film producer. And there's just an overall cheesecakiness in the art that makes me uncomfortable--especially in regard to Shadowmage, whose costume must require a ton of boob tape, even though she's dressed in other scenes in some rather attractive outfits. And we will not mention Casino, who is a compellingly fun villain in a compellingly uncomfortable and revealing outfit throughout.
Artwork is initially provided by Darick Robertson and is, not surprisingly, exceptional even if seems he's trying to emulate some serious Image vibes. However, the Ultraverse merry-go-round starts when we get to the story that sketches in the origin of the group, with Alan Jacobsen (#5), John Statema (#6-8, 10-12, #14, 17), Tim Divar (#9), Scot Benefiel (#13), George Dove (#15) and Daerick Gross (#16) each pitching in. More remarkable during this post-Robertson period are the covers, some of which are done by Kevin Maguire and Dan Bereton. While all of the post Robertson artists are adequate, they're nowhere near as spectacular as Darick.
Much like with
Hardcase, Hundall brought
The Solution to a conclusion, although the last issue promised that the quartet would be back. I have to wonder if this was an indication of his not being willing to continue under the supervision of Marvel that was on the horizon. It is sort of sad that none of these characters appeared to have survived the 'We Have
Crisis on Infinite Earths At Home' reshuffling that was Black September, as they were all proven to have decent staying power. Even Shadowmage made a real impression when she became something of a supporting character in
Hardcase and was allowed to wear something other than that Spirit Halloween Vampirella knockoff she wore through most of the series.
I may not have liked The Solution as much as a I liked Hardcase, but I liked it good enough. I think that the constant artist switching didn't help it much, and that it might've come out more vibrant if it didn't get sucked into the whole Godwheel thing. As a whole, I can recommend it.
Next time, it's the big one--the title that existed to close a deal on a toyline and a cartoon, and ended up being the most obvious evidence of how the Marvel sale affected the entire line. Join us as a disparate group of characters from the entire Ultraverse line come together to be a self-policing authority for the entire Ultra community and...chaos ensues. We're definitely in the final stretch as we tackle...
Ultraforce!
Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?
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