The Official Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad Annual

1995. Price £5.25.
48 pages. Full colour.
Grandreams Limited.

Edited by Barrie Tomlinson.

Cover (uncredited).

ISBN-10: 1858302862

Contents:

 2 Endpaper photograph.

 4 Title Page / Indicia

 5 Contents Page; photograph (uncredited)

 6 Samuraized for Your Protection! text feature (uncredited); photographs (uncredited).

 8 TV or Not TV! w: UNKNOWN (uncredited). a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

12 Dangers of the Digital World! photo feature (uncredited).

14 Flight of Fear! text story (uncredited); photographs (uncredited).

19 Diary of Events Amp's diary text feature.

22 Troubles in Space! w: UNKNOWN (uncredited). a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

30 Check the Changes! Syd spot-the-difference feature; a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

32 Peril at Sea! text story (uncredited).

37 Wordsearch

38 Who Put Out the Lights? w: UNKNOWN (uncredited). a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

42 Quiz Session!

46 Endpaper photograph.

That this annual looks like a cheap knock-off of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is down to the fact that it is. Sort of.

It may be difficult for some to understand the extent of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers' popularity, but it was such that properties like Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad were quickly prepared (in this case, by DIC Entertainment) to take advantage of the audience's appetite. Unfortunately, whatever spark of magic existed within Power Rangers wasn't present (or present to the same degree) here. Fifty-three episodes of mayhem made it to the screen, in a single season of twenty-minute episodes.

Want to know who the Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad are? You've come to the right place! They are otherwise known as 'Team Samurai,' the four teenage members of a rock band from North Valley High School. 'Team Samurai' consists of Sam, Syd, Tanker and Amp, who formed the Syber Squad to battle with Megavirus Monsters... in the top secret Digital World inside computers!

It is basically California Dreams crossed with VR.5, with some Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers thrown in.

The first strip, TV or Not TV! (taking its title from Hamlet) begins with television transmissions being suspended. How bad is this? Well, a teenage boy is furious that Baywatch is not on air. This is something that marks the strip out in comparison to similar adaptations - the author's ear for amusing dialogue is very good. When Sam says "I'll give you three guesses as to who's behind this!" Amp responds "The Muppets? The Daleks? Klingons?"

Okay, so it isn't up to the level of Alan Ayckbourn's dialogue, but it is clever enough to paint the character's personality clearly for younger readers.

Entering the computer, they find damage in the Digital World, but no sign of virus monsters. Servo is grabbed by an invisible monster, Skorn, Amp reprograms the team's weapons to fire red pepper powder around Servo, revealing Skorn. The megavirus is soon defeated, and after a quick repair job television signals are restored across America.

Flight of Fear!, a text story, sees Sam attempting to pluck up the courage to ask Jennifer to the annual North Valley High disco dance. Hiding under a table to avoid her doesn't work. More important events put any embarrassment and discomfort in perspective, when North Valley's air control tower has a complete radar and lighting failure - a problem which is compounded when Aero North Flight 772 reports a mayday due to low fuel. Unable to divert to another airport, the plane has ten minutes to find a place to land.

Which highlights a fundamental problem with the series - these are heroes only in the digital realm. Should a problem require super-powered in the real world, then the quartet of heroes are rather ill-suited to assist. It's a flaw in the set-up which poses as many problems as heroes who enter people's dreams, or other intangible powers. The sense of diminished threat carries through this story, eating at the tension. The solution to each problem, by entering the computer and defeating the personifications of viruses, is also extremely repetitive.

Not a problem which is specific to the story, but endemic to the premise.

Amp's diary, a printed feature, contains the same problems as many other diary entries in comics and annuals. Being typed, it doesn't feel real somehow. These days it would be blog entires, and entirely excusable, but the word 'diary' signifies a handwritten form, and by presenting it in the form it takes has a negative effect on how well it comes across.

The next strip, Troubles in Space!, opens with the launch of the first manned space mission to Mars. Kilokhan, watching on, sets a megavirus loose on the computer controlling the rocket's navigation system, sending it veering off-course. It is soon on a collision course with Earth, and the imact site is identified as the United Nations building in New York. Finding an empty room with a computer terminal, the Syber Squad enter the digital world to defeat the monster and restore control to the ship.

Peril at Sea! follows the formula, with the cruise liner Ocean Liberty in peril, and by Who Put Out the Lights? (the final strip here), any enthusiasm for the characters, and the series, is waning. Kilokhan sets Sybo, his latest monstrous programme, to task destroying the power company's computer systems. As a blackout engulfs the city, the team rush to Sam's home, where the power is still on, to enter the digital world. While events play out, as always, with the monster being defeated and order restored, it does so with a sense of real danger.

Should the power go out while Sam is digitised, he will be trapped in the digital world.

If more actual physical danger had been present throughout, then the sense of disconnect would have been minimized. It is difficult to think of ways in which the flaws with the series could be remedied without changing the premise radically, but in placing the characters in print the dynamics and appeal is largely nullified. The special effects are the series strength, but on the page are rather uninspiring.

Clean, attractive art marks the strips out as being more professional than the franchise deserved, yet seeing such talented work being squandered on so slight a premise is depressing. There is a reason tonkatsu shows rarely make for outstanding comics, with only Power Rangers providing fulfilling and lasting narratives on the printed page.