Hardcase

Hardcase is a superhero that debuted in the comic book series of the same name, written by James Hudnall for Malibu Comics’ Ultraverse imprint, being one of the first series to launch the imprint.^[1][2] Hardcase was Tom Hawke, a Hollywood actor who became one of the first publicly known Ultras (the blanket term for superhumans in the Ultraverse) formed the first superhero team in his universe, The Squad.

Publication history[]

Hardcase made his first appearance in Hardcase #1, dated June 1993, written by James Hudnall and illustrated by Jim Callahan.

As part of the Ultraverse imprint, the comic was set within a shared universe of super-powered beings conceptualized by creators of Malibu comics. Image Comics, a line of creator-owned comics that had record-breaking sales figures, had a publishing deal with Malibu that had ended shortly before. The book lasted 26 issues and included a Hardcase Premiere edition published in July 1993. Hardcase also appeared in other books, and crossovers like Break-thru, Godwheel and Black September. He was included in the first volume of the Ultraforce team book as part of the lineup.

After the Black September event, Hardcase was apparently removed from existence, but he returned in Ultraforce Vol.2 #13 and took part of the final arc of the book.

Character history[]

Origin[]

A struggling actor, Tom Hawke's luck drastically changed after being struck by the "Jumpstart Effect", a burst of energy from the Entity, the ancient alien spaceship responsible for most of the world's super-beings. Gaining superhuman strength and durability, Tom realized that he wanted more than short-term success. He met with Linda Warren, Jamal Blass and Carlos Jimenez, who had also gained abilities, and proposed that they become an Ultrahero team, helping people while bolstering their careers. The other agreed and formed , each taking code names; Starburst, D.J. Blast, Forsa and Hardcase.

The Squad[]

For six months the Squad achieved great success, fighting crime, aiding the police and performing acts of charity. They became celebrities and media darlings. Their good fortune was not to last though. Attacked by the creature , the heroes were overcome. In a last-ditch effort, D.J. Blast focussed all his power on NM-E, causing a massive explosion. Only Hardcase and Starburst escaped, but not without cost; Starburst was comatose. Grief-stricken by the tragedy, Hardcase retired from heroics. He would later learn that was responsible for the attack.^[3]

Return to activity[]

During his retirement, Hardcase became an action movie star, portraying himself on the screen. He came out of retirement to battle , an Ultrahuman with incredible strength, who outmatched the police. Defeating the villain, Hardcase announces his return.^[4]

Soon afterwards, he was visited by the ultraheroine , who asks for his help as she is being pursued by various super-powered agents from the Choice corporation.^[5] Hardcase agrees and allowed her to stay with him. The two soon began a relationship, though Hardcase was reluctant at first. The two have several adventures together, including rescuing tsunami victims. Once, teamed with The Strangers, they invaded Aladdin's Groom Lake facility, where Hardcase discovers that the government agency was using the Squad's genetic material.^[6] Then, Hardcase was attacked by an assassin called Hardwire hired by Rex Mundi. Hardcase was hurt for the first time since he was an ultra, but Hardwire left after an attack from Choice.^[7] During this time, Harcase stopped a city-bombing attempt.^[8] and meet the private detective Alexander Swan a.k.a. Firearm, who was investigating a series of murders. Hardcase and Firearm didn't get along, but Hawke gave information to Swan to continue his case.^[9] Later, Hardcase and Choice went to work for a woman known as or Regina. She explain to the ultraheroes that Rex Mundi was planning to kill all the ultraheroes in earth. The Alternate also contracted the mercenary group The Solution and asked Hardcase and Choice to join them in a travel to the moon to discover the origin of the ultras. She also prevented them Rex Mundi was looking for the same thing.^[10][11]

Break-thru[]

The same night, it began a strange phenomenon in the sky: the moon was colored blue, the common people was driven into a state of madness and various Ultras had strange visions and their powers were out of control. In the interim, Hardcase and his companions fought the Rex mundi's minions who tried to captured Amber Hunt, who was acting like a center of the madness and was a herald of an unknown entity.^[12] After the flight of the villains, Hardcase, Choice and the members of the Solution travelled to the moon in a UFO provided by the Alternate. When they arrived, they meet the superhero group The Strangers, and the ultras Prime, Mantra and Prototype. All the Ultraheroes discovered the source of the "Jumpstart Effect" which has been granting people powers all across Earth: it was the Entity, a crashed alien starship that was causing the Jumpstart Effect, and was object from attack from Mundi's minions.^[13] After the battle, Hardcase, Choice and The Solution returned home in the UFO of Rex Mundi, and left the villains in the moon. They had to use magic to return to earth.^[14]

As payment, the Alternate tells Choice and Hardcase that Choice's origins lay back at Groom Lake. In the meantime, Hardcase said goodbye to a comatose Starbust and apologized to her for his new relation to Choice.^[15] The Aladdin Assault Squad stop the plans of the heroes to invade. The pair hire of to obtain the information they sought.^[16] The information reveals that Choice was given her abilities by using the genetic material from the brains of Forsa and Starburst, which greatly distresses Hardcase. Moments later, Choice is teleported away to the .

Around this time, Hardcase appears in the Red Cross charity tie in comic that assists real-world flood victims, with him teaming with Prime and Prototype to help flood victims and defeat and mechanical monster created by Ultratech, that was causing the flood.^[17]

Ultraforce and Battle Royale[]

After some remarks that he said in the press about Ultras regulating ultras,^[18] Hardcase and several heroes formed Ultraforce soon after to stop the subterranean warlord Atalon's plans for world conquest. Hardcase became the leader of the team and gained government support.^[19] Successful, they stayed together to police other ultras.^[20]

Hardcase faced his greatest challenge when NM-E returned. Outmatched by the creature, he would have died if not for Prime's intervention. Though unable to stop the creature himself, Prime's attack allowed Hardcase to recover, with help from the Alternate. Renewing his assault, Hardcase savagely attacked NM-E, who was drained from its fight with Prime. Fueled by vengeance, Hardcase reduced the creature to debris.^[21]

Godwheel[]

Godwheel was a 1995 Ultraverse crossover event. In the story, the god , from the Godwheel dimension was resurrected and was searching for new champions. He teleports Hardcase and other ultras to his dimension to recover the keys to the Crucible of Life for him. Rebelling, the ultras fight Argus. The kidnapped Ultras split into two factions, those willing to serve Argus and those wishing to oppose him. The escapees travel to the on the 'Godyacht' itself to take control of the keys. Hardcase gains a new uniform and teams up with the heroine to search for the key called the Roc's Egg. They lose the key to Lord Pumpkin and Flygirl is blasted off the edge of a cliff and falls to her death. This deeply traumatizes Hardcase.^[22]

After further adventures, the surviving Ultras banished Argus with the help of the Asgardian god Thor.^[23] Hardcase discovers that Choice was on the Godwheel and is briefly reunited with her. During this short time, he learns she was pregnant.

Returned to Earth, Hardcase sought out the man responsible for his misfortune, Rex Mundi. He meets with ultras formerly employed by Mundi to extract Mundi's location. To hinder Hardcase, Mundi frames him for murder.^[24]

Time Gem and Loki[]

Inadvertently, Hardcase discovered the Time Gem, one of the Infinity Gems lost in the Ultraverse, and using it tried to prevent the Squad's death. He failed, but his actions created an alternate timeline. The trickster god Loki then stole the gem from him.^[25]

On information from and , Hardcase confronted Mundi in his underground lair. Capturing Hardcase, Mundi revealed that he was, like himself, composed of nanotech. His true nature somewhat explained to him, Hardcase willed himself back in time to undo the damage he had done. He reappeared and witnessed a confrontation between Mundi and the Alternate. Dismissed by the combatants, Hardcase returned to Hollywood where he was reunited with Choice.^[26]

Black September[]

Following the arrival of the eternal Sersi to the Ultraverse, Hardcase joins his teammates of Ultraforce to fight the Asgardian god Loki, who was reuniting the six Infinity Gems. Hardcase and Ghoul searched for the Soul and Time gems but encountered reanimated corpses of his old allies from the Squad and the Exiles and have to abandoned the illusions. Thanks to Sersi, Ultraforce could escaped to Earth.^[27] Later Loki contacted the Grandmaster of Marvel Universe and they agree to pit Ultraforce against the Avengers in a fight for the infinity gems. In the encounter, Hardcase fought Captain America. The Ultra hero was stronger, but Captain America was more experienced and convinced Hardcase to have a truce. The two teams saw the defeat of Loki and the birth of Nemesis, the entity contained in the Infinity gems.^[28] Nemesis created a pocket dimension with elements of Ultraverse and Marvel universes. Finally, Hardcase and Captain America led their teams to defeat Nemesis. The destruction of the entity, created a reality shock in the Ultraverse, that apparently erased Hardcase from existence.^[29]

Demonseed[]

However (because Hardcase's corpse was composed of nanotech) when the Black September Event struck the Ultraverse and rewrote reality, Hardcase was shunted into a limbo dimension, erased from reality. He observed the Earth and created the entity Demonseed as a companion. Demonseed rebelled against his creator and escaped from Limbo through a portal to the past. Here, Demonseed destroyed unnumerable alien civilizations.^[30] Hardcase chased the villain and reappeared to a new Ultraforce that didn't recognize him. He explained to them the changes in the space time continuum. Finally, Hardcase joined Ultraforce to battle the Demonseed once for all. In the end, with Prime's help, he banished himself and Demonseed back to limbo to battle him for all eternity.^[31]

Powers and Abilities[]

Incredibly strong, Hardcase is able to throw a car over 50 yards with little effort. His leg muscles allow him to leap nearly a mile. Nearly invulnerable to damage and changes in temperature, only extreme temperatures affect him. When he is hurt, Hardcase can heal quickly, though the process is sped up if he drinks seawater. His senses are enhanced, allowing him to hear and see over long distances.

Hardcase later learned that the Jumpstart effect that changed him, had effectively converted him into a nanotech being, composed of organic nanotech. As such, Hardcase learned he had many untapped abilities, such as not needing to sleep or breathe. In his later escapades, Hawke would stumble upon just what this would mean. Being able to effect climate and temperature, have diverse technological interfacing abilities and even travel back & forth through time.

Possibility of revival[]

In 2003, Steve Englehart was commissioned by Marvel to relaunch the Ultraverse with the most recognizable characters, including Hardcase, but the editorial decided finally not to resurrect the Ultraverse imprint.^[32][33] In June 2005, when asked by Newsarama whether Marvel had any plans to revive the Ultraverse, Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada replied that:

Let's just say that I wanted to bring these characters back in a very big way, but the way that the deal was initially structured, it's next to impossible to go back and publish these books.

There are rumors out there that it has to do with a certain percentage of sales that has to be doled out to the creative teams. While this is a logistical nightmare because of the way the initial deal was structured, it's not the reason why we have chosen not to go near these characters, there is a bigger one, but I really don't feel like it's my place to make that dirty laundry public.^[34]

In other media[]

Malibu Films, in association with Wizard, released a 6-minute music video style short film, starring British kickboxer Gary Daniels as Hardcase, directed by Darren Doane.

Hardcase also appeared in the short lived Ultraforce cartoon show as the team's leader. Other members include Contrary, Prime and Ghoul. The team faces various threats such as Rune and Lord Pumpkin. Hardcase is voiced by Rod Wilson.

Hardcase was one of the action figures produced for Galoob's Ultraforce line.

References[]

External links[]

• Unofficial Profile at Marvunapp.com