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Nov 5, 2015

The 40 Years fo Comics Project - Day 254: Flare v.2 #6, September 1991


I first read Flare's adventures in 1986 Champions series from Eclipse. The Champions role-playing game was one of the first games I ever played with anyone other than my family, the first time I'd been part of a regular social gaming session, and I was sold. I still do it today. And when I saw that there was a Champions comic, and that it featured gaming stats and scenarios at the end, I was sold.

Flare was always a bit odd. Her back story is full of Nazis and incest, and her behaviour in the comic always irked me. But the series itself was....well, I was going to say not bad, but it was actually pretty mediocre. Obviously a labour of love for the game from the people who wrote and drew it, but not a great piece of comics. Regardless, years later, as I began accumulating the collection, I would occasionally come across Flare comics in dollar bins, or quarter bins, and I'd pick them up, for old times' sake.

Old times were so much better. All of the old characters are there, but we're now focussed on the ambiguously sexual Flare and her relationship with Rose Arcane, a fellow Champion. Flare also wears the most insane cut-off shorts ever in this issue. They look like someone gave her the most inappropriate of all wedgies, and she just left them up there. Imagine an attempt at a very bad early-90s Image superhero comic, and you've got Flare. I think the question I would ask is why pick this character to focus on. In the original series, I got a real background character kind of vibe from her. Marksman, or Giant, were far more compelling characters. Flare was set dressing.

So, I didn't enjoy this comic. But that's the way it goes as we dip randomly into the collection. I can't like everything, and everything I like can't be liked by everyone. What will we find tomorrow?

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