In 1988, a man named Charles Viola had a meeting with Marvel's then-editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco and a woman named Judy Fireman who had been working in Marvel's publishing office. Viola had been working as a designer in the toy business at the time, and Marvel had been wanting to get more involved in animation and toys at the time. Viola brought several ideas to them, but one had particularly caught their eye: A super-intelligent dolphin with an armored suit that incorporated features like robotic arms and legs.
Viola had originally conceived this dolphin as part of a series starring a United Earth Force set in the future. Tom basically told him "Make some teammates for Cyber-Flipper here." Viola would have several more meetings with DeFalco and Fireman. Those meetings would include Sid Jacobson and Bob Budiansky. Jacobson was the editor for Marvel's Star Comics (A line of comics aimed at children, which famously included comic tie-ins to the Heathcliff strip, and the Star Wars animated series Droids and Ewoks) line, and Budiansky was the editor for Marvel's Transformers tie-in series. They further hammered out Viola's idea, and under them, it evolved into Brute Force.
Marvel had hoped that Brute Force would lead into an eventual toyline and possibly even an animated series. Sadly, it was...not meant to be. The series was aimed at children, but comic readers even in the late 80s tended to be older than that. The four-issue miniseries did sell well with younger readers, but was ignored by older ones. Combine that with changes in Marvel's leadership, and Brute Force never really went anywhere.
However, it was not completely forgotten. According to Viola, even after nearly thirty years, people still approach and talk to him about the miniseries. That's amazing. It's really neat that he managed to make something that was remembered for decades. With that out of the way, let's take a look at Brute Force #1!
The cover is pretty neat, if a bit simple. A Jose Delbo and Joe Sinnott (RIP) piece, it basically depicts the group leaping into action. It basically tells you "this is the team". I can see why kids would have leapt to get this comic. Armored animals with vehicles and weapons? Shame it didn't become a toyline.
"Fast Feud"
Writer: Simon Furman
Penciler: Jose Delbo
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Colorist: Nelson Yomtov
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Editor: Bob Budiansky
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
The story begins with a most...unusual hold-up.
One of the men, a Dr. Randall Pierce, has been working on a project for a company called Multicorp in a New Jersey facility. The clowns want the project: The gorilla in the power armor. The armor is actually a rig to help the gorilla. It's suffered some kind of unknown injuries, and it's in a lot of pain. The clowns remove the mask that kept the gorilla tranquilized, and the simian does not take waking up very well.
Yeah, that power armor totally does not look like a weapons platform.
The gorilla goes on a rampage, but it quickly gets under control...somehow. The clowns make off with the armored animal. Meanwhile, in Multicorp's main headquarters in Manhattan, the head of Multicorp is doing some work to improve the company's PR.
A Mr. Adam Frost is giving a donation to Fresh Air, to be used towards their efforts to improve the environment. Frost gives the standard speech about how Multicorp is dedicated to making the world a better place. Pierce tries to alert Frost about the theft, but the executive heads out. He is alerted about the theft from another employee, and it annoys him. As far as he's concerned, Pierce is just being negligent about keeping his house in order, as it were. Pierce should clean up his mess, and say nothing. Frost will not have Multicorp savaged and mocked by the press for this.
A frustrated Pierce returns to New Jersey. Later on, Pierce watches a news report about bulldozers clearing the Amazon rainforest. The report points out that mercenaries were being illegally used to send the native tribes in the forest packing. The bulldozer crews claim to know nothing, but the coincidence is...strange.
Pierce looks around at the other animals in his lab.
Wow. That's no lab, that's a zoo. The ponytailed man laments the disaster with the gorilla. You see, the man had a plan. There was an idea. An idea to enhance animals with modern technology and make them into heroes. Heroes for the Earth. Heroes for the environment. Then Pierce realized "This is silly", and feels bad about it.
It's here that we're introduced to his son Ricky Pierce, your average All-American Boy. The two talk, and Ricky suggests, "Hey Dad, why not just enhance the other animals and send them after the gorilla?" Randall is not very open to the idea as he thinks it would be unfair to the animals. Randall then notices the bag of fast food Ricky's eating his lunch from. The bag is from Tastee Burgers, a fast food chain owned by the Flex Corporation. Flex is the company clearing out the Amazon Rainforest. Randall tells Ricky he's helping Flex by buying Tastee Burgers.
Ricky, being the kid he is, points out that he likes the burgers. Randall tries to explain to his young son the whole thing about actions having consequences, when he notices something on the wrapper.
It's Tastee Tony, Tastee Burgers' mascot. Basically, Ronald McDonald. He then realizes that the clowns who kidnapped the gorilla had on makeup exactly like the mascot. This makes Randall realize something. That not only were the clowns completely lazy when it came to their makeup, but the clowns may have worked for Flex. And Flex is doing that rainforest clearing...maybe the gorilla is there!
Ricky tells Randall to send the animals. After all, Randall likes to talk about taking responiblity for his actions, right? Randall agrees, and Brute Force is born.
Meet Wreckless the Bear, Hip Hop the Kangaroo, Surfstreak the Dolphin, Soar the Eagle, and Lionheart the Lion. Their mission: Find the Gorilla! Elsewhere, a hacker is easily able to make his way into Pierce's computer and find his notes on the animal enhancements he created. The man who hired him is pleased, but is also furious at the goons Flex hired to get the gorilla. After all, making themselves look like the mascot of a company they owned was basically them saying "FLEX DID THIS". The man wants something called "Heavy Metal" to be ready by sunset.
The scene shifts to the Amazon Basin, a plane arrives at an airfield. The plane is from the Fresh Air organization, and it contains our heroes. In the classic Mighty Marvel Manner, the members of the group bicker a bit amongst themselves. The group spot the gorilla on a truck, and they try to go after it. However, this is a newly formed team that didn't get all the wrinkles ironed out yet, so...
The gorilla is taken to a mercenary camp in the jungle. They want a tribe removed, and figured this big power-armored angry animal would be the perfect method to make that happen. They free it, and you can guess what happened. Brute Force arrives a few minutes later, and finds the camp a wreck.
Surfstreak suggests that Soar fly ahead to spot the gorilla. Lionheart and Wreckless can follow on foot. Meanwhile, he and Hip Hop can make sure the mercenaries are no longer a problem. Soar objects to this, saying he's the leader, so he should make the plans. Surfstreak's like, "Alright feathers, what's your plan?" Soar's plan is...just use Surfstreak's plan.
My thoughts exactly. Soar is able to spot the gorilla. The gorilla spots him and starts throwing trees like spears. Wreckless and Lionheart engage the angry animal. Wreckless brings his bear-zooka to well...bear. Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. However, Lionheart fears the big bear will end up blasting him.
Meanwhile, Surfstreak and Hip Hop have managed to clear up the rest of the mercenaries, when they hear the sound of Wreckless's Bear-Zooka going off. It's then that Pierce arrives. The head merc tries to flee. He ain't getting paid enough for this. Soar spots a helicopter carrying the gorilla off. He tries to pursue it, but he was forced to discard his power armor (Wreckless accidentally damaged it). And without the enhanced strength the armor provided, he couldn't get it down.
Pierce manages to stop the head merc by running him over. The merc is fine, though. Some protective material in his uniform. Pierce recognizes the material. It was something specially developed for the security division of Multicorp. And back at the company's main HQ...something dark is afoot. Mr. Frost is please that they got the gorilla. After all, they have plans for the big ape. They've managed to reverse-engineer Pierce's tech...and create some enhanced animals of their own.
Say hello to Heavy Metal. Each member is meant to counter a member of Brute Force. The vulture for Soar (flying animals). The shark for Surfstreak (aquatic swimmers). The rhino for Lionheart (Quadrupedal animals), the octopus for Hip Hop (no idea. Maybe arms vs. legs), and the gorilla will likely be Heavy Metal's answer to Wreckless.
Brute Force has been described as "awesomely insane", and I have to agree. This comic is insane, but in that fun awesome way. The concept of giving animals power armor that enhances them and makes them more intelligent sounds like something that should be in the discard pile, but this comic makes it work. I could nitpick it to pieces, but I don't think this comic is intended to be taken completely seriously. It's silly, and that's what make it awesome.
I also like that the comic also establishes the personalities of Brute Force well. Soar is the leader-type, Surfstreak is the brain, Hip Hop is the "cool kid", Wreckless is the...well, powerful grumbly brute, and Lionheart is the angry wannabe leader.
Jose Delbo turns in art that kind of reminded me of Sal Buscema's 90s work on the Spider-Man books a little bit, only less "scratchy". It has that vibe to me. It does fine storytelling work. I have no real complaints about it.
Whatever happened to Brute Force? Well, for decades, the armored animals would remain rather dormant, until they made a reappearance in . In Wolverine and Captain America: Weapon Plus #1 (July 2019), Brute Force was implied to have created as part of the long-running Weapon Plus program. The program connected together several Marvel characters. Captain America and Wolverine were already part of the project thanks to revelations in Grant Morrison's X-Men work, but this comic implied characters like Luke Cage, Typhoid Mary, and even Venom were connected to this super-soldier program. This comic saw the death of Wreckless, and Surfstreak was killed off in Weapon Plus: World War IV #1 (March 2020).
If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback Brute Force. It contains the miniseries as well as the Power Pachyderms one-shot, and a foreword by Charles Viola himself which I used as my source for how Brute Force came to be. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourself, and each other. Stay safe, stay home, stay healthy, wash your hands often, and please wear your masks. Join me next time as for a little post 4th of July treat, we take a look at an adventure of Captain America...
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