Syphons: Wasted Potential of a Lifetime

Syphons is Atop-the-Fourth-Wall’s missed opportunity. This series is one of NOW Comics‘ few original titles that has a good start only to fumble about. Frankly Linkara would have made a video about its followups: Application and Sygate Stratagem. Because the first series really is a good one. But the series as a whole reflects the problems NOW Comics had going behind-the-scenes.

Syphons: The Originals NOW!

Syphons was created by Allen Curtis, working as both the writer and artist. Curtis’ art looked a bit amateurish like how characters sometimes have longer legs. But his story and the pretty basic coloring by rotating artists like NOW founder Tony C. Caputo is good stuff. Our title team of runaway orphans have a basic origin where they encounter a spaceship and get superpowers from it. They can all fly at light speeds, thrive in space’s vacuum, and release energy blasts but each can harness it differently.

The Syphons

The leader Trisha Knowles/Stardancer can release photon blasts and fly the fastest, able to reach Saturn’s ring in less than a minute. But that doesn’t make her the leader. It’s because she can open up to others and be vulnerable while lending a shoulder of support herself. She also learns to use computers pretty decently over the course of the series.

Mark Baron/Knightfire has the highest energy output allowing him to convert it into intense heat. He usually serves as Trisha’s confidant with a little implied romance between them. But Mark has his own views possessing a sense of justice and a need to protect his found family no matter the cost.

Tim West/Brigade is the team muscle channeling his energy into super strength and stamina. He starts as a cocky thrill seeker and a flirt with a number of women. That said he’s wary of the dangers they face and the fact that their benefactors are hiding something.

Lisa Browning/Raze is the youngest but has the best energy manipulation. She can create forcefields that absorb energy and release it back with hurricane force. In addition she can throw her energy like grenades. As the most outgoing of the Syphons, Lisa serves as the team’s heart. That also makes her the most sensitive to the lines her family might have to cross.

The Skyview’s The Limit

The Syphons are helped by UFO seeking organization Skyview, sheltering and training them to master their powers.

Wait? Are they made up of the aliens that made the spaceship that gave superpowers? No they are Earthlings who secretly fight against two warring alien invaders. One of which has already infiltrated Earth and pass off as organized crime. While the Syphons don’t try to do any killing, the soldiers backing them up do so covertly. One of them even has the last name Soldier… and he looks like a dead pop singer before his pigment disorder.

Here’s the thing, all of the staff at Skyview aren’t really patriotic zealots or killers with a cause. They’re people who think and investigate the goings-on for themselves. Even more their leader Jonathan Cross is a man with layers. As a former cop he’s ready to deal with crime that no one else will touch. But he’s also willing to cross legal lines by killing people to see justice done, so long as it matches a personal system. That in mind, he does try to be fair to everyone he works with, never forcing them to stay only advising. Soldier as it turns out has violent crime record, yet Cross trusts him not to make drastic decisions. It actually worked out.

The Aliens

Now for those alien invaders. The Katari are the ones who made the empowering space ship. They’re basically spacefaring humans, hence why they could pass off as Earthlings. Then there are the brutish Kronians, the former servant species who warred with the Katari as they both expanded their empires. Eventually the Katari created technology that gave their elite troops superpowers and power their spaceships. One battle between the aliens creates a wormhole near Earth. Both species hope to conquer the planet to gain control of that part of the galaxy and both sides of this “Sygate”.

Reached For The Stars

Whew… that’s a lot of lore. Thankfully it’s the characters and their trials that sell this series. You can tell that Curtis Allen put a lot of thought and care into this project through them. Best of all the title team really feel like teenagers coming-of-age with the weight of their responsibilities. When the Syphons leave Skyview their struggle to support themselves is authentic.

They try to get work to pay rent with Tim’s new girlfriend Sonya, but the lack of opportunities hits hard. So they have to make a new one by starting a practically instant delivery company. Which isn’t that easy with how much flying can exhaust this found family.

Then there’s how the Syphons try to develop as people. Knightfire finds he still wants to do hero work while Tim and Lisa head off to college. Frankly it’s similar to the New Teen Titans complete with a Deathstroke wannabe.

Change NOW!

And then Syphons ended with 7 issues on an aborted arc in 1987, mainly because NOW Comics turned into Caputo Publishing, Inc. Caputo shifted its business strategy by focusing on licenses of popular IPs like Speed Racer and Ghostbusters, canceling its originals save for Ralph Snart Adventures. For the next year Caputo was really successful becoming a multimillion dollar company thanks to some cross promotions. That is until Caputo filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy; translation, sold most of their properties to the General Learning Corporation. This allowed the publisher to relaunch as NOW Entertainment Corporation in 1991. But it was in 1994 where Syphons comes back into the picture.

Syphons: EXTREME! Edition

But boy was this not what anyone was expecting. Curtis starts a new series with 90s comic trends and then some. From shock rock outfits, inconsistently bad attitudes, bizarre pin-up poses and anatomy, to inappropriately placed gore. The women tend to get attention for their sultry poses and the fact that almost every one is wearing visible lingerie with their street clothes; even in public!

But why? Because Curtis got a new artist Mark Beachum, a guy best known for his erotic art. If that wasn’t enough, the characters practically became grim and gritty parodies of themselves. The Syphons have decided off-panel that killing the stranded Katari is A-Okay now. Plus Brigade got captured by a company called Compak to make more Syphons. How?… a process that involves a donor getting put… in bondage gear. But it also gave Tim the new power to turn into a monster. As a result, Tim went from confident go-getter to brooder. But the reader doesn’t really feel that from the artwork, just a lot of confusion.

There’s absolutely no character or soul from the original series despite being written by the same guy. It’s all a bunch of excess that’s exhausting to read through.

Syphons: The Last Strike

So Curtis works on one more new series Sygate Stratagem with a new art team. Despite having the same costumes, there’s less of that grim-and-grittiness. Can’t really call this a back-to-basics story, but it was on the right track. Even if it is a mostly flashy action piece that gives the feeling of being in a war zone. That at least made it easier to read than the last series.

Plus readers finally learn the story behind the ship that gave the Syphons their powers. Turns out it was from a Katari rebel cell looking striving for a peaceful future. They sent the probe out to give Earth the tools necessary to fight back against the Katari dictatorship. Their blow against the initial invasion was pretty inspiring for the rebels.

…

And that’s it. It’s mostly the Syphons fighting their way out of the Katari’s home planet with few stakes to invest in. There are a lot of new characters with quirky personalities, but there’s not enough time to get to know them.

That’s because NOW actually stopped publishing after Tony Caputo left.

Syphons For The Future?

Caputo would come back in 2003 by reviving the publisher as NOW Media Group, Inc. His plan was to turn the company into a graphic novel “self-publisher” where creators have a partnership role. Curtis would try to get into this deal by releasing the second Syphons series as a trade. Great… the series that might as well as be a fetish magazine got that treatment over the wholesome first saga. But the plan didn’t pan out and Curtis would publish The Syphons Application at Image.

As of now, Curtis still owns Syphons but without the resources to support it, the franchise is on indefinite hiatus. As for NOW, it completely folded in 2006.

Syphons probably reflects NOW Comics better than its licenses. It started with enthusiasm and heart, but later tried to make easy money by following trends. The star shined bright but extinguished just as quickly.

Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.