''Star Rangers'' was a four-issue

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series created by writer Mark Ellis and artist

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, following the adventures of a military spaceship crew in a 25th-century controlled by corporations.

Publication history

''Star Rangers'', released by the

independent comics Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which i ...

company Adventure Publications, ran four issue

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d October 1987 to February 1988.''Star Rangers''
at the

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It was created by writer Mark Ellis and artist

. Scott Behnke edited the series, for which

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provided cover art. Mooney was a longtime industry veteran of ''

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'' and other series who had recently ended a contract with

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to enter semi-retirement. In a 2007 interview, Ellis recalled that

Story

Set in the 25th century, the series revolved around the crew of the ''Sabre'', the last ship in the Frontier Battalion of the once-fearsome Star Rangers Corps. In both ''Star Rangers'' and its companion series ''

Death Hawk {{No footnotes, date=December 2018 Death Hawk is a fictional American comic book character, a self-styled salvage expert in the 25th century. The character starred in a namesake, three-issue series published by Adventure Publications from 1987 to ...

'', the era is a

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

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-spanning

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s that held the true power behind the centralized government of the Sol 9 Commonwealth. By the time of the series, the Star Rangers Corps has been reorganized into a token peacekeeping force while the corporations maintain their own security divisions, such as the Sol 9 Shogunate's Tigers of Heaven. As such, all Star Rangers ships and weaponry are outdated, making it difficult for ''Sabre'' crew to perform its duties. The ship patrols Sectors Four through Nine of the

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. The crew consists of: * Commander Jon Blake *Aristo the reptilian

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* Ahrikeem, master of combat from the Vholon Empire * Radac, the ship's synthetic human

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*Maya Lucas, an embittered pilot who has little use for men. They report to Commodore Nyota M'membe. The story arc of the four-issue series dealt with the Rangers uncovering a conspiracy between two corporations and the criminal empire of Lord Rogue on the Freeworld of Amicus, and finding themselves branded criminals by their own organization. The character

appeared as a back-up feature by writer Ellis and penciler

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in issues #2-3. Plans were made for a second ''Star Rangers'' series and a crossover with Death Hawk, but Adventure Publications dissolved in the interim.

References

{{reflist

External links

MarkEllisInk.com

Deathhawk.com
American comics titles Science fiction comics Space Western comics Fiction set in the 25th century