Flashback Friday: Foxfire #1 (Ultra Gold Limited Edition)

Foxfire #1 Ultra Gold Limited Edition

This was a pleasant surprise when I purchased a four package discount groupings of comics.  The reason was that it contained a DC Flashpoint Batman issue that came in at a cost of $1.  Inside hidden from view was this souped up variant of Malibu Comics Foxfire #1.  Those that follow this blog know I have been buying the old Malibu Comics since starting with Mantra and now adding The Strangers and The Solution.  Finding this was just a neat addition.

Some comments on the book as a product to start this post.  It is from after the purchasing of Malibu Comics by Marvel Comics.  This was a time when Marvel was buying properties like Malibu and the different trading card companies.  They were becoming a giant on a hunger binge that would soon overextend them as a business.  Right off the bat I know that there will not be many of these issues around.  The other noticeable aspect is the muscular body presented on the cover.  It is eye catching, but thankfully she looks tamer inside the pages that has a story and is not just cheesecake.  The souped up cover was just a factor of that time period in comics.  Books were made glittery and shiny for the speculator market that snatched up bunches of books for over-priced resale.

As a story this is a nice start.  We get a cool opening with our heroine.  She tells a cop one part of her background while we see the complete images as background art.  It leads right into her powering up and slowly revealing powers.  There is a sewer expedition that has a fight scene and a guest star in the form of one of the First Ultraverse characters, Sludge.  It ends with a cliffhanger promising Ultraforce (Malibu's super team) including the crossed-over Black Knight from Marvel's Avengers.

It is sad to read this issue knowing that it will fall to an abrupt end as Marvel just let the Ultraverse stop and become consigned to Limbo.  It is one thing you have to give credit to DC for in how they handled mergers and buyouts.  DC has worked to incorporate the characters of the many companies they ate into the modern era.  Marvel ate a company and then the characters just disappeared.  Foxfire will be one of these.  She is short lived, but this first issue showed much promise.

BDS