2 out of 5

So I guess Marvel UK got the short end of things, with appearances of some big name US guys contractually limited (according to the wiki) and otherwise slotted to oddly chosen reprint collections.  They were madly popular, but there was an odd struggle between new and old content, it seems, and by the time we get to the early 90s of ‘Warheads’ there were some pretty classic UK-exclusive runs that had occurred, but then, y’know, 2000 AD has been around for a million years so Marvel UK has to have its own Judge Dredd-y sci-fi interconnected world as well… which, resulting from a Marvel US push for more US-like content (again, all from the wiki), sounds like an unfortunate mash-up of sensibilities.  This suspicion would seem to be confirmed by the little bit of ‘Warheads’ that I read.  The series ran for some ‘teen amount of issues; I was curious to check it out in search of more artwork from Stuart Jennett, who’s currently doing ‘Chronos Commandos’ for Titan comics.  The issues I got don’t feature him, but they do have some pretty classic artwork from Gary Erskine (not alone, but his work dominates the two issues), true to his excessive linework and detailing, which unfortunately becomes incredibly confusing when we’re tossed into a poorly explained (and perhaps poorly designed) sci-fi world.  It doesn’t help that all of the characters sport cyberpunky outfits with waaaay too many gears and gadgets and fixins, like a bad Image Comics dream drawn by a competent artist, framed incompetently due to – maybe – over-written scripts.

Apparently this era of Marvel UK was linked by a mysterious corporation called Mys-Tech, ‘Warheads’ follows a band of ragtags known by the title who are shuttled into the past and future in search of riches for their company.  Issue one drops you right into the shit, horribly side-stepping any proper character introductions for its hundred faceless Warheads who are sort of split up into your generic ‘rookie,’ ‘medic,’ ‘hardened leader’ roles and so on.  But not really.  They all blast big gun at bad guys who aren’t clear for reasons that aren’t clear and then Wolverine pops up in an unclear time loop storyline.  Maybe some of this stuff was explained elsewhere, but maybe for a #1 issue you do a recap then.

The writing is horrible.  I’m sorry, Mr. Vince.  The ideas are there, but the person narrating each story is hazy, and a device in issue 2 of a character with two interior monologues (she hears voices) is employed horribly.  Having seen Erskine’s work before and after this date, I know he’s capable of paneling material well, whether he’s writing or not.  The fact that one frame to the next is confusing here thus suggests to me that there was just too much to try to keep in frame; too many characters, too much space for unnecessary dialogue, too many ‘details’ that are stupidly important for a stupid ‘twist’ later on.  Not to say the dude is blameless, just that I’ve seen much better from him, so I suspect the blame is shared.  I’m allotting an extra star because the concept of time-traveling felons is a good one, and I dig a shared universe (a more tightly knit one than DC and Marvel are generally capable of, that is), and I like the overall stories Vince went for here… but down in the trenches its pretty tough to slog through.