Brand Echh: PRUDENCE & CAUTION #1

The final series that got launched under the DEFIANT comics banner was PRUDENCE & CAUTION. Like the previous DOGS OF WAR, this title was also a direct spin-off of the company’s core WARRIORS OF PLASM book. And as I said when talking about DOGS OF WAR, there doesn’t seem to have been any indication that the market was interested in more PLASM-based material. But clearly DEFIANT’s Editor in Chief Jim Shooter believed in the concept and was attempting to position it at the very center of the line. Unfortunately, the book was launched right before DEFIANT ran out of money and had to close down, meaning that only two issues were ever released and the ongoing series plots were never resolved.

The writer of PRUDENCE & CAUTION was Chris Claremont of X-MEN fame. Having been ousted from the title that he’d made a top-seller for more than a decade, Chris spent some time drifting around the industry looking for something else to sink his teeth into. He had a long-standing relationship with Jim Shooter, and despite the fact that they wound up sometimes on the opposite ends of a particular argument, there was a healthy dose of mutual respect between the two. Shooter apparently invited Chris to contribute to the DEFIANT line and handed him the set-up to the series to develop out from there. Consequently, the book reads a little bit differently than the other DEFIANT titles, though it retains a common connection to them. But you can definitely see Claremont’s stamp on it, starting right from this first page that focuses on a female pitcher at a baseball game.

The artwork on PRUDENCE & CAUTION was produced by Jim Fern, Mike Witherby and Keith Wilson. Fern would be active all across the industry throughout the 1990s and 2000s, though he was rarely on one assignment long enough for it to become associated with him. His work here is fine, if a bit linear (as it typically was.) It might have benefitted a bit by having a few more areas of spotted blacks. It also seems pretty clear that Claremont wrote this issue using the Marvel style of Plot-Art-Script, as there are certain sequences where the copy and the visuals are operating at different rhythms. That all said, it’s a bit more polished a presentation than some of DEFIANT’s other efforts, eventually towards the end when they were having to rely more and more on undertested newcomers.

The most established character in PRUDENCE & CAUTION was Rick Teitz, who had been introduced in WARRIORS OF PLASM as Mouse. He was one of the few survivors of a group of ten-thousand random earth people who had been abducted and generically altered in an attempt to produce super-soldiers. He was a quiet one-armed auto mechanic who emerged from his experiences with superhuman strength and durability. In addition to WARRIORS OF PLASM, he had also been used extensively in the opening issues of DOGS OF WAR, so somebody really liked him. In this title, he was paired with Prudence, an entity who had been held captive on the Org of Plasm for many years, due to how dangerous she was supposed to be. This backstory was established in the WARRIORS OF PLASM series and is entirely absent from this debut issue, making Pru’s own superior strength, speed and durability, to say nothing of her unfamiliarity with certain ordinary part of human culture a bit mystifying. For all that Jim Shooter had been an absolute fiend for clarity in the past, at DEFIANT he was a lot more loosey-goosey about making sure the fundamental information about all of his cast members was reiterated every issue.

The intention with PRUDENCE & CAUTION, it seems, was to create a sort of odd couple buddy book in the manner of Valiant’s earlier ARCHER & ARMSTRONG. But this first issue is something of a strange read, relying as it does on the reader having a working understanding of the backstory of its two principle players. It opens up on the aforementioned baseball game in which Rick is playing. Since returning from Plasm, he’s been trying to get back to living a mundane, ordinary existence. Prudence is there, too, pitching, and she winds up getting into a kerfluffle with a local celebrity who is now a sought-after major league player. Pru of course strikes him out, much to everyone’s surprise. She seems to have a particular interest in Rick, and so after the game the two retire to a local watering hole to get to know one another. But as the evening continues, Pru makes it clear that she’s not looking for any sort of a relationship with Rick and he goes home despondent.

Back home, Rick checks in with Mrs Johnson from the WARRIORS OF PLASM series in a scene that’s clearly intended to get across some of the history of the character. But Claremont scripts it about other matters entirely. From there, Rick heads out to his garage where he continues to experiment with the goopy liquid outfit he brought back from Org. Unbeknownst to Rick, he’s being stalked by a team of government operatives assigned to spirit Rick away for unknown reasons. But unfortunately for them, Prudence is keeping an eye on Rick’s place, and she intercedes, beating the hell out of most of them, including disintegrating one of them with a touch. But a couple of them do make their way into Rick’s garage, where they’ve used nerve gas to put him under. Rick’s constitution is better than expected, though, and he waked up in time to engage in an action sequence with his attackers as well. During the fight, the lead attacker transforms into a monstrous entity, and kicks the stuffing out of Rick. But before the beastling can do any worse, Prudence shows up, and the scene cuts away from the fight.

The next morning, Rick wakes up in bed with no recollection as to how he got there. The implication is that Prudence polished off that last attacker then put him there, having wiped his memory. Sadly, she didn’t think to blank out the telepathic eyepieces that Rick uses to communicate with Plasm, so he’s back up to speed a short time later. He contacts Sueraceen, the High Gore Lord of Plasm to report that he’s located Prudence, who is considered the most dangerous being in the universe. Sueraceen holds Rick responsible for Prudence’s escape from Plasm in an earlier story that isn’t even slightly recapped, and she tells him that it’s down to him to locate her and bring her back. And that’s where this issue ends. Honestly, the story is almost incomprehensible without the wider context, and even there it doesn’t do a good job of defining its parameters with the new elements. I’d still not sure whether we’re meant to understand who the attackers are working for or not. It feels as though maybe, with financial ruin impending, Shooter and his crew’s attention was slipping further and further away from the ball, understandably. Still, this feels like the sort of issue that Shooter himself would have torn apart in better days.