Publication history
''Ex-Mutants'' premiered with a first issue published by Eternity Comics in 1986. Amazing Comics released an expanded special edition reprint of #1 the same year followed by issues #2–5, after which the series moved to Pied Piper Comics as ''Lawrence & Lim's Ex-Mutants'' for issues #6–8 in 1987. The same year, Pied Piper also released aFictional character biographies
Initial publishers
In a near future, an all-out war has decimated the planet, and the hapless survivors and their offspring have been horribly mutated by the toxins released into the environment. A lone scientist, the three-eyed Dr. Emmanuel Cugat, selects five mutants, one male and four females, to be genetically altered, resequencing their mutated DNA to restore them to humanity. Belushi, Erin, Angela, Vikki and Lorelei become perfect physical specimens. Dr. Cugat then sends them forth to inspire the shattered Earth. Many of the mutants have other ideas, particularly their nemesis, the monstrous Great Fred. They meet the ''Wild Knights'', an old motorcycle gang that had settled down and were trying to recreate civilization. The Ex-Mutants become friends with their leader, Zack, but they are also pursued by minions of Great Fred. The Wild knights and Ex-mutants expel the invaders. The Ex-mutants discover that they are vulnerable to the external radiation and decided to return to the laboratory of Cugat. In the ruins of Brooklyn, Great Fred captures Dr. Cugat and tries to execute him in public. The Ex-mutants arrived in time and confront Fred, with help of Zack and his Wild Knights. The attack on Great Fred provokes a rebellion in his mutant subjects. The tyrant is toppled and killed and the Ex Mutants are put in lab tubes to restore their health. In the aftermath, Dr Cugat takes control of the mutant city and incite a new religion, with the Ex-Mutants as gods, to secure his rulership. When they are reawakened, they are uncomfortable with the new treatment. When Dr. Cugat kills a Great Fred partisan, the Ex-mutants abandon him. They return to the Wild Knights village but discover that it was destroyed by a mutant warlord called Frog. Frog captures them and jailed them with the Wild Knights. Distressed by the failure of his project, Dr Cugat snaps, rescues his children from Frog and decides to destroy them and the city of Brooklyn with a Russian nuclear bomb. The series was described by author Lawrence in a 2004 interview in the webzine QRD as "a light-hearted post-nuclear adventure series. The message if there was one, and I didn't really think about it at the time, seems to be no matter how badly we fuck up we'll get by".Shattered Earth
After a legal battle, Malibu Comics continued the story with ''Ex mutants: the Shattered Earth Chronicles''. It's revealed that the atomic bomb that destroyed Brooklyn, was a special dimensional bomb, sending the Ex-Mutants and Dr Cugat to different dimensions. After a time in the Samora dimension, the Ex mutants returned to Earth with the assistance of an alien mentor, Simak. They were in a mission to redeem humanity. They found a pair of mutants, father and son, called Chaney and Duff, who become their companion. Lorelei was left behind in Samora, to train in expand her latent psychic powers and help in the bringing of civilization to Earth. Meanwhile, Dr Cugat went to a hellish dimension, Acarnania, where he is further mutated, but he also meet his New Ex-Mutants, that were also mutated by the bomb. In the Earth, the Ex-mutants toppled a tyrant that acted like an executive for a murderous variant of beisbol. They also entered in the domain of a warlord called Baron Wasteland and battled the Sorcerer Dahlgren, brother of Simak. Dahlgren call for assistance from Dr. Cugat who wanted to destroy his old children. Dahlgreen transported Cugat and his minions to Earth. In the battle for the tower of Dahlgren, Baron Wasteland and the sorcerer Dahlgren were killed. Dr Cougat fell in a bottomless pit after confronting his "son and daughters" and becoming very disappointed about them. Simak become infected with a disease provoked by his brother and died. In spirit, he also expressed disappointment about the Ex-mutants. The Ex-Mutants settled down in the Baron's Domain, but did nothing to improve the situation, until that Lorelei returned from Samora to recreate civilization in a consumerism manner. Meanwhile, Zack and the rest of the Wild Knights tries to found a new place to live, going into the Great Plains. They meet a genocidal religious cult called the Red Kross, led by a self proclaimed prophet called Mercy, who tried to kill everyone in Earth. The Wild Knights escaped from Mercy, but had to confront him and his followers once again. Mercy planned to use the remaining atomic bombs to annihilate the life in Earth. The series ended before the last confrontation.Malibu Comics
Malibu comics rebooted the Ex-mutants series with a new setting in 1992. In this version of Ex-Mutants, there were three males (Dillon, Ackroyd and Bud) and three females (Shannon, Piper and Tanya). These six were mutants who were gathered by robotic-looking cyborg Professor Kildare and turned into humans. They fought against a local warlord called Sluggo, who was treating other mutants like slaves. Ackroyd and Shannon were the playable characters in the Sega Genesis game. This second version of the characters did a crossover with the Protectors Universe (Earth-1136), through ''the Genesis'' event. The town of Sluggtown and the Ex mutants were transported to that reality. They also joined the Protectors in their last battles.''Protectors'' #19-20 (1994). Malibu Comics.Titles related to Shattered Earth
References
External links