Delta Squadron #1

Delta Squadron #1 1988 $2.50 CAN. $2.00 U.S. 

Anderpol Comics Mont-St-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada

by Andre Poliquin

This insane treasure was entirely conceived and executed by one man, Andre Poliquin. On the inside front cover Andre explains that the beginnings of the Delta Squadron took place in a book called Phoenix (which unfortunately only lasted five issues before the project went into bankruptcy). 

After the demise of Phoenix, Andre dusted himself off and got back in the saddle to do what he had to do... make more comics! So let's jump right into this epic tale of bombastic characters. Ladies and gentlemen...

I give you Delta Squadron!!!

The Amazing Captain Cyclo is preparing to unveil a brand new motorcycle stunt for an eager audience. His friend and mechanic Kathleen Stanton asks if he's sure about attempting this feat to which the Captain scoffs and hits the gas! 

But as he reaches the summit of his jump he presses a button and activates a surprise feature on the tricked out bike... hovercraft mode! 

The Amazing Captain Cyclo then engages the jets and blasts right over a line of parked cars as an exhilarated audience looks on! He then flies through hoops and soars through geysers of burning oil without a scratch. The crowd goes bananas and Kathleen hugs the Captain! 

But meanwhile in a secret sub-basement across town a mysterious voice crackles through a computer screen to a group of awaiting henchmen. He commands the four goons to dress in the special suits he has given them. The villainous mastermind wants them to break into the National Bank's safe and empty it onto the street where a helicopter will pick it up and leave $10,000 for each of the goons.

From Left to Right we have Blastor, Skator, Glidor and Stikor (they sound like He-man villains!)

After the transmission ends, Blastor utters some disparaging remarks about their creepy leader. They begin talking about the possibility of just keeping all the loot for themselves. Stickor reminds the group of the horrifying fates that befell their previous co-workers Lance and Jake when they tried the same thing. 

Lance was shot while soaking in a bathtub at his hideout and Jake got run over by a truck while carrying a bag of groceries across the street (poor Bathor and Grocer). After careful consideration the group decides to just do what they were asked to do.

Cut to a mountainous landscape at dusk where a lone ninja speaks aloud to himself...

Later that same day a spooky lady in a mostly see through gown stands in a pentagram shape and talks to her monstrous spirit friends. Goth girls are awesome! Her name is Samandra.

The spirits warn Samandra that dark agents have sent their servants to steal riches for them. And although robbery is bad, their end goal is much more sinister... domination and destruction! Also an undead servant of chaos awaits the conjunction of the planets for some as yet undetermined purpose! Our sultry occultist asks how they can be stopped and the spirits urge her to join up with others whose destinies will soon cross hers. 

Elsewhere a scar faced veteran named Douglas Freeman abruptly wakes from a nightmare where the terrors he faced in Vietnam were on display in amped up intensity. The vision of watching his friend Davy blasted to pieces by a mine are horrific. Douglas, code name Lynx decides what he needs this night is action!

Outside in the streets the gang from earlier has begun their heist of the National Bank. Glidor soars above the city on patrol for police. Stickor disables the alarm system and Blastor blasts his rockets first through the bank doors and then the safe!

Meanwhile Max (AKA The Amazing Captain Cyklo) and Kathleen are finishing their celebratory drinks at a restaurant. They decide to call it a night as they have another show tomorrow. On the way out Max hops on his bike and tells Kathleen he will meet her at home after he stops by the ATM to withdraw a few bucks.

At the same moment our action hungry veteran sees the police car blazing towards the city and decides to suit up with plenty of guns and follow in his action jeep!

The thugs are loading up the loot from the bank when Glidor spots a motorcycle heading their way. Skator springs into action and shoots his flamethrower at the approaching rider!

The police are alerted and make their way to the scene... but can they stop these thugs in super armor?

Blastor makes short work of the police cruiser but suddenly Lynx drives up in his action jeep and begins firing automatic weapons at Blastor!

We cut back to Captain Cyclo as he successfully dodges Skator's flame blasts. Cyclo activates his bike's hovercraft jet mode and faces off against Skator!

The ninja from earlier (The Mist) has also found his way to the fray. He surveys the chaos for a moment from high atop a building before descending to the streets to join in the action. Also Samandra uses her crystal ball to foresee the same chaos and puts on her Dark Phoenix cosplay costume and starts chanting up a spell Zatanna style!

Worried about her friend, Kathleen heads toward the bank to check on Cyclo. She pulls up to the bank just as Skator is about to blast Cyclo from behind with his flamethrower. She quickly runs him down in the street! He goes flying through the air like a doll. Cyclo tells Kathleen he loves her... they're more than friends! I gotta admit I feel a little love for my mechanic as well. He is a wonderful man.

On the other side of town a terrorist group led by an armored thug named Marauder has taken over a government building. They have demanded $5,000,000 and the mayor has decided to pay to prevent the death of another hostage. Atop the government building another armored thug with the code name Firewolf prepares to receive the helicopter full of money. The terrorists tell the police they will activate a bomb in the building if any attempts are made to stop them. The cops back off. Marauder leaves the hostages and joins Firewolf on the roof. They scream the salute "Hail Varan!" as they fly to the rendezvous point.

Meanwhile Blastor and Lynx continue their firefight. Lynx runs out of rockets to fire and Blastor goes in for the kill. But just as he attempts to fire his own rockets he realizes his suit has been damaged in the brawl. This realization comes too late though as his suit blows up upon itself and he goes out in a brilliant explosion!

Stickor sees this melee go down and sneaks up behind Lynx to deliver retribution for his fallen comrade. But as he does so who should show up but The Mist! He leaps upon Stickor and causes him to miss his target.

Cyclo and Kathleen are on the run from Skator (who admits he can't aim correctly while on skates). Kathleen slams the brakes on the van just before hitting a brick wall. Skator can't stop fast enough and crashes right into the bricks and lies there unconscious!

Two evil ninjas are in The Mist's apartment. They have identified his identity at last and so one of them, Banzai, reports this information back to another ninja named Thunderwind who in turn reports to his master. The evil master is gleeful and proclaims that when the last of the Vaktai ninja has perished nobody can stop him from achieving his nefarious goals!

Stickor is trying to escape up the side of a building but The Mist surprises him before he reaches the top! 

Stickor plummets to the ground and is knocked unconscious. Just then Glidor shows up but the gothy Samandra uses her magic to conjure a tornado to knock him out of the sky! The group decides that destiny has brought them together this evening and they forge an alliance to continue the fight against evil as...The Delta Squadron! Apparently Delta is an acronym for "Defence Elite for Launching Team of Attack", which is quite possibly the clunkiest sounding acronym I have ever heard, but still... it's a cool team so...whatever.

As the terrorist helicopter with Maruder and Firewolf inside reaches their rendezvous point those inside see their teammates below tied up and about to be hauled away by the cops. They decide to return to base to proceed with their master plan. Evil has been bested this day but they will no doubt return to face The Delta Squadron!

Wow! That was crazy intense! Nice job Andre! I absolutely loved the action packed story featuring such a diverse bunch of weirdos even if it was a little difficult to keep track of all their names. Reminds me a bit of GI Joe from the '80's where you'd see a sailor, a ninja, an explosives expert and a guy with a hardhat and sledgehammer all fighting alongside one another. Fun stuff! In addition to a fantastic action packed story I thought the art was also really well done. Lots of detail with great designs and layouts. I will definitely look out for the second and final issue in my dollar box hunting!

I also had fun depicting my favorite of the armored terrorists from the book.

Looks like in addition to the comics Andre apparently made two feature length videos with his friends depicting the further adventures of the Delta Squadron (see picture below) back in the '90's! Man, would I love to see those!

Please make your way back here next month to read my final review of the year...

Don't miss it!