Brand Echh: PSI-FORCE #1

Among the assorted titles launched as a part of the New Universe in 1986, PSI-FORCE was one of the more consistent and popular, though as with the other series in the group, it went through a bit of a creative shakeup due to having been started so far under the gun. It also suffered from the same sort of haphazard micromanagement that plagued the line at the time of its creation. At one point, editor Bob Budiansky revealed to me that he’d been forced to redo this first issue cover from scratch at least three times due to feedback from EIC Jim Shooter. And indeed, Shooter circulated a memo to the staff about how shoelaces should properly be depicted (!!!) as a result of this cover. How much of this was people not grasping Jim’s vision for the initiative and how much was Jim beginning to crack under the pressure of the moment is difficult to ascertain.

PSI-FORCE was another series that was conceived for the line by the late Archie Goodwin, one of the most beloved and respected figures in the field. Here, he came up with the concept with his one-time Manhunter collaborator Walt Simonson, though neither man would ever work on the title proper. Rather, the assignment for the launch was given over to writer Steve Perry and artist Mark Texeira. The book was the line’s equivalent of X-Men, concerning a disparate group of young people who all develop mental powers following the White Event and who are gathered together by former federal agent Emmett Proudhawk, himself an esper. Together, the characters could pool their abilities, manifesting the Psi-Hawk, a psychic construct empowered with all of their various abilities. In this manner, resembled the later Captain Planet.

If PSI-FORCE had a drawback as a series, it was that it was so hungry to exist in the real world that the book was visually pretty quiet. Apart from the Psi-Hawk visual, there wasn’t much in the way of colorful costumes and much of the action, particularly in that first year, is at the level of a live action TV show. This was no doubt in reaction to Shooter’s instructions for the New Universe as being meant to reflect “The World Outside Your Window”, but it made the title come across as being a bit drab and definitely colorless. There was merit to be had in the stories, but you had to get to them to experience them, and the packaging wasn’t doing an awful lot to bring readers in the door.

This first issue is relatively dense in both amount of copy and number of panels on a page. Events open in Mendocino, California, where Emmett Proudhawk and Anastasia Inyushin are on the run from Soviet operatives from whom Proudhawk liberated her. On the back foot, they’re aided by two other espers, Tyrone Jessup and Kathy Ling, who are able to fight back the pursuers with Ling’s destructive telekinetic abilities. The group makes its way to San Francisco and the house known as Sanctuary, a refuge for runaways that Proudhawk is using as a cover for his activities. He was a former CIA operative tasked with locating those evidencing extra-sensory abilities, but he went rogue after realizing that the U.S. government’s plans for what to do with such gifted people was no more benevolent than the Russians. So Proudhawk has made it his mission in life to get to these kids before they can be recruited into the fold by either of the world powers and give them a safe haven where they can fly below the radar and learn to use their abilities constructively. As I mentioned earlier, it’s all very X-Men.

At Sanctuary, we are introduced to the hot-headed Wayne Tucker and the explosive Michael Crawley, who complete the group. It turns out that Proudhawk had a vision that this group of five might be able to combine their abilities, becoming something greater than the sum of its parts. But Stasi is uncertain of her place in such a group, and at the first opportunity, she runs off and contacts her old Russian handlers. They in turn send out the operative known as Mindwolf to bring her back into the fold, along with any other espers that she may be in contact with. This results in a face-off between Proudhawk and his kids and Mindwolf and the Soviet agents. But Mindwolf is too strong, and he slays Proudhawk right there and then.

For reasons that he can’t explain, Wayne picks up the hawk-shaped medallion that Proudhawk always wore and forges a psychic link with the four other espers. As they all concentrate as one, they manifest the Psi-Hawk, a large costumed figure who resembles the slain Proudhawk. There’s a battle, of course, but in the end, Mindwolf isn’t any match for the Psi-Hawk and the kids’ combined abilities, and he is killed in turn. Afterwards, Psi-Hawk silently vanishes, his essence returning to the five Psi-Force kids. And that’s the set-up. As time went on, the smoldering cold war to control the psychic talents of these newly-emerging psi-warriors would heat up and grow into something legitimately international in scope.

Writer Steve Perry wound up only writing the initial two issues, but thereafter Danny Fingeroth took over as the series writer, and continued in that role for about a year with only the occasional fill-in. On the art front, Texeira produced the first five issues, then handed the reins over to Bob Hall for the rest of that opening year. Along the way, Fabian Nicieza wrote a fill-in issue, one of his first sales at Marvel. Following Danny’s departure, he took over the book, and was shortly thereafter joined by relative newcomer Ron Lim. From shaky beginnings, the series coalesced into a solid read, albeit one that mostly flew under the radar at the time of its publication. It didn’t showcase a lot of obvious visual panache, but it quietly grew into one of the most dependable reads in the line, and it went the full distance of 32 issues that the longest-running successful New Universe titles manages.