Comics

Paxis Reborn

Hyperkind (1993): Paris Cullins Tom Defalco (chief editor) Tom Smith (colors) Malcolm Smith (consulting editor) Marc McLaurin (editor) Carl Potts (executive editor) Clive Barker (idea) Bob Petrecca (ink) Steve Dutro (letters) Fred Burke (story)

Vol. 1, No. 1, September 1993.
All new raw heroes for a new generation.
Hyperkind is unequivocally a super hero title, with a twist. The New Heroes, the Hyperkind, are four young people who have taken on the mantle of a much older band of champions, called Paxis. They are literally stepping into the shoes of men and women who were trained to fight the forces of evil, but whose relationships with each other were so weakened by jealousy and interpersonal politics that they were eventually wiped out - not by the strongest of their interstellar enemies, but by one of the weakest.
The driving forces of Hyperkind will be action and interpersonal drama, the latter lent scale and complexity by the weight of responsibility laid upon four young shoulders. All this, and twenty years worth of old enemies - the creatures from around the Ten Worlds of the Barkerverse who were bested by Paxis in its old incarnation -- and who are determined to revenge themselves on the Neo Paxis while they are still wet behind the ears, and thus easy prey.
Once there were heroes in the world, and there were none greater than Paxis. Who was it saved the planet from hordes of Mandamus Thermakk, the Lawgiver from Quo? Paxis. Who was it who devised a means to defend us from the tiny, myriad legions of Elzovir, when they invaded from their miniature world? Paxis. Who put such masters and mistresses of cruelty and destruction as Novus Tic, Iconak and the Delieio Wraiths out of commission? Paxis.
And where is Paxis now? Gone to rumor and legend and dust. But now a new generation rises to take their place, in the midst of a mystery, and into a world of new action.
It will take many adventures for the Neo Paxis to fully comprehend the powers that they have been granted, but each is best paralleled with a level of human consciousness. George Yaneda has become a creature of pure instinct, a wild man who has a telepathic connection with untamed living things. Dyan Delight has become a dream manipulator, able to "read" the unspoken devices of sentient species, and call forth physical manifestations of those dreams. She is a mistress of the surreal, and surrounds herself with the detritus of other people's unconscious. Lisa Moffit will become the balanced heart of Praxis as time goes by; the one who attempts to reconcile its various factions. She has gained Eschbacher's ability to fly, to endure all manner of elemental extremes, and -- most importantly -- to use any physical object as an extension of her own body. She is in essence, the ultimate tool user. Kenny Zambetti, a sometime college drop-out, has inherited an intellectual grasp, which astounds him. He is the mathematical aesthete of the group: the one who can calculate to the thousandth point the likelihood of any eventuality. But his skill has more practical applications. He is able - by the most precise calculations - to find the weakness in any seemingly impregnable enemy. He in also able to clear his mind of all but pure calculations, at which time his consciousness becomes physical: an icy, lethal weapon.
The central mystery of Hyperkind is one at the core of the Barkerverse. What happened to Paxis? And why does no one in the world remember their legend?