A.R.M. #1

“Death by Ecstasy!”

Writer: Bill Spangler adopted from novella by Larry Niven

Artists: terry Tidwell and Steve Stiles

Police find a man who died in his apartment because of current addiction. In the year 2123 a wirehead is someone who has a plug implanted in his brain. This can stimulate the pleasure center. In this case the man starved to death because he was too happy to get up and get some food. The man named Owen Jennison was a belter from the asteroid belt and left the name of Gil Hamilton as his closest relative. Gil is a member of A.R.M. (Amalgamated Regional Militia) the police force of the UN. Gil’s job is to hunt down organleggers, criminals that steal organs for the black market.

Gil is suspicious of this death. A belter would never become a wirehead and he thinks that he was murdered. He has this suspicion because the man who sold him the wire is linked to the biggest organlegger on the west coast.

The first of an adaptation of a classic Larry Niven story from the seventies. Part of his known space universe, it tells of the new crimes of a future where transplant organs are a big business. Gil was a miner in the belt and lost his arm in an accident. He developed a psionic ability to use a third arm. Like many titles from Malibu’s various imprints, it has cheap black and white artwork but excellent writing. Makes me want to reread the old Niven books.