To the administrators:
The following was published in Century Publishing's COMBO # 30, July 1997. I tried to send the text via e-mail, but I doubt it was recieved, so I'm transcribing it here in the hope that it will be included in the Atlas Archives. So without further ado . . .


FROM THE COLLECTOR'S CLOSET

by

James Chambers
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Morlock the cannibal superhero
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AT A GLANCE, MORLOCK 2001 IS NOT the most original comic I've ever read. It is mostly a hodgepodge of concepts about dystopian futures borrowed from classic SF stories like Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Orwell's 1984, and Wells' The Time Machine. These ideas have been oddly meshed with one of the most bizarre superhero concepts I've ever seen ---- a plant-man who was born from a giant pod and possesses weird botanical powers. The end result is a series you might expect to fall somewhere between the laughable and the strangely intriguing. Since Morlock actually made it to the "Closet," you've probably guessed that it landed closer to the latter than the former. What you're wondering now is why.

The answer is the surreal and compelling scripting of Michael Fleisher. Against all odds, Fleisher breathes genuine life into this story by delivering a reasonably fresh script with enough unexpected twists to keep it interesting. First, Morlock the plantman, who was created by an underground scientist to opose an evil totalitarian government, is captured by the Thought Police and put to work as an assassin for the very people he was meant to destroy. Morlock's greatest weapon is his ability to turn anyone he touches into fungus. What he eventually learns, though, is that he is also subject to a terrible, random transformation during which he becomes a giant walking tree with tentacles and feeds on live humans. And this is the good guy.


Eventually, Morlock realizes he's being used by the government and breaks free, but life on the run is no easy road. There's a bounty on his head, and he has a tendency to devour those who try to help him. But his travels take us deeper into this comic's eerie vision of the future, which only gets more bizarre when the third issue launches a whole new direction. With that issue, Gary Friedrich takes over as scripter and introduces another odd character, the Midnight Man, who seems intended to team up with Morlock, though things don't quite work out as expected. The story's shock ending had me awaiting the next issue. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting ---- and will be for a long time. The third issue was also the final issue.


Allen Milgrom and Jack Abel handled the artwork for Morlock's first two issues, providing a solid job of storytelling mixed with some unusual visual treats, particularly the design of the transformed Morlock. The real gem of the series where the art is concerned, though, is in the third issue, pencilled by Steve Ditko and inked by Bernie Wrightson. It is a rare team-up between two of comicdom's greats, and the result is a clean, moody job that suits the strange storyline.


Morlock 2001 is valued at between $1 and $2.