"I must bear my dishonor alone," the boy said.
"That is not true," the old man replied.
***
The old man, actually, was not an old man at the time. He was in his prime, a virile bear of a man serving aboard the starship Intrepid under the command of Captain Deighan. Sergey Rozhenko and Deighan did not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, and most of the time it didn't matter, but when their ship answered a distress call from the Klingon outpost at Khitomer, Sergey finally found the courage to put his foot down. "Deighan, my friend," he'd said, "if you do not do this, I will be forced to renounce you. You understand, this will be difficult for me, as you will still be my captain. But I will make it work."
But he was an old man at heart, following traditional ways even if the world around him, the whole galaxy, was crying out for something new. He had never wanted to serve in Starfleet. He had wanted his bearlike frame to stay on Gault, where his family had been farmers for three generations, once they'd finally joined, seemingly, the rest of humanity in space. None of them had spent any real time with aliens, either, in all that time. Farmers lead solitary lives, after all.
He joined Starfleet all the same. Something new announced itself into his life almost immediately, when he was asked to participate in an officer exchange program. A Klingon named Moztar was his counterpart. Moztar was old, a warrior well past his prime, said to be curious of things that had eluded him, experiences he had once found distasteful. Such as spending any time among humans and not actively wanting to kill them. Sergey had realized, "I have met Bolians. I have even had Vulcan instructors. But Klingons? Never in my wildest dreams...!" Sometimes, when he'd read the stories about them, as a boy on Gault, he'd wondered if Klingons weren't somehow like his Russian ancestors, ruthless and cunning, always engaged in some intrigue, always on the brink of war, too proud to ever admit weakness, too eager to drag everyone down with them...And suddenly he was being asked to brief this Moztar fellow, who stunk of some...powerful alcohol he couldn't even begin to identity. And his ancestors had known strong drink, too! "Try to remember," he'd said, uselessly, "humans won't be familiar with...anything you know." Moztar had nodded, and Sergey had spent a great deal of time trying to decide what exactly he'd meant to convey with the gesture.
The time spent aboard a Klingon ship? The T'kuvma had smelled almost as bad as Moztar, which would be Sergey's lasting impression of it. He was too overwhelmed by the whole experience to remember anything else. If anyone so much as stepped toward him, he shrank back. He had been totally useless, and doubtless set back the program decades. He never found out what Moztar had accomplished. He never told his son about it. He never talked about it at all, but it was the foundation of all that Sergey was to become.
Years later, Deighan feigned outrage, but then replied, "I don't have much choice in the matter, now do I? Keep those engines running smoothly, Rozhenko. We may need to beat a hasty retreat yet."
They found virtually nothing left alive at the outpost, except a frightened Klingon youth, who looked as if the world had ended, which of course for all intents and purposes it had. He'd lost his parents that day, after all, and his honor. His first words, and indeed his only words for weeks afterward, were about how his people would never accept him again, and that had broken Sergey's heart. He resolved on the spot to remedy the situation, as much as possible. He resigned his commission and he and his wife began to raise the boy as their own.
On Gault, the old ways died hard. The boy was rejected, and so was Sergey, something he'd never anticipated. These were people he'd grown up with, who knew him as well as he knew them, as well as their families three generations back had known each other. And they turned their back on him. The boy was the enemy to them. They had all heard the stories of Klingons who raided worlds like theirs. Gault had never been threatened, but colonists live with the fear whether they experience it or not. This is why stories are told, to keep alive old wounds. Or so these people seemed to think. Sergey grew disgusted.
His only solace was the vigor with which his son maintained his Klingon ways. All Sergey could do was stay out of his way, sometimes, and that was exactly what he did. He loved that boy, and was determined that he would have someone who accepted him, unconditionally. Well, Sergey and his wife, and their human son, Nikolai. When they finally left Gault for Earth, to resettle in Minsk, the place his son would come to call home, a city looming with history, an outlet, an escape for a boy needing an escape, Sergey again thought of his experiences aboard the T'kuvma, and wondered what he'd missed. Life with the boy was a constant challenge, of course, but nothing had ever been more rewarding, nothing that spoke so intimately of purpose.
Years later still, he confessed himself amused, listening to his son speak in his trademark brief utterances, of prune juice as "the warrior's drink." Sergey had tried for a long time to get his son to drink the stuff, when he was a boy, and of course the youth had wanted nothing to do with it. It's always the discoveries we make ourselves that...Well, Sergey was an old man now, and felt like it, but hearing that joy in his son's voice, it made him feel young again.
And proud.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Thursday, October 12, 2017
I've Got a Bad Feeling About This
Dooku knelt before Yoda, for the final time, and he wondered where things had gone wrong. It had long been difficult for him to view his old mentor with anything but reverence, and perhaps that was it. Something in the back of his head had always wondered how a Jedi could attain such status. Didn't that approach...pride?
When Dooku was a boy, Yoda had already been ancient, by most standards. According to his studies, Dooku learned that Wookiees had long lives, too. There were other examples, doubtless. Still, it had instilled that sense of reverence from the very beginning. Yoda's small stature made it easy for new padawans to assume him to be one of them, and Dooku had made that same mistake. He still smiled, privately, at the thought.
He had inherited the title of count from his birth parents, a role made meaningless the day he was accepted into the halls of the Jedi temple on Coruscant. There were such temples elsewhere, but the younglings with the most potential were brought to Coruscant, and Yoda, and young Dooku had felt what he hoped was his last surge of pride the day he learned of his destiny.
Kneeling before Yoda now, knowing what he knew, he wondered if he had escaped pride after all.
For Dooku had a new master, now. A man named Palpatine. To the rest of the galaxy, a politician. To Dooku? Everything. He had surmised quickly that Palpatine knew more about the Force than even Yoda, and that had been...too much. Had there really been a choice? The reverence Yoda instilled in him awakened something in Dooku, something that had gotten out of control. Palpatine offered relief.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," he said to Yoda, now. "I fear we may never meet again."
He had just accepted the assignment to shadow Palpatine, an assignment he'd campaigned for, an assignment he'd suggested. No one, not even Yoda, knew why he'd requested it. For all the Jedi Council knew, it was merely for Palpatine's role as Chancellor of the Republic. Master Windu hadn't trusted him for even a minute. But then, they'd never seen eye-to-eye. If Dooku hadn't been Yoda's apprentice...
Of course, he would meet Yoda again, and they would fight, a reprise of all the sparing sessions they'd shared a long time ago, but with far greater stakes, the battered bodies of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in silent witness beside them. "Much to learn have you," Yoda would tell him, and in that moment reveal that he had not taught Dooku everything he knew...
And that was it, too. Dooku had known, had known, all along, that he never fully gained Yoda's trust. And that was pride, again. He tried to depict himself as so perfect a Jedi that he had to leave the Jedi Order to be one, a contradiction, the myth of the Sith, and yet...
He stood up again, and Yoda bowed, ever so slightly, toward him, the last sign of mutual respect they would ever share. Was it, in fact, respect? Or the farewell Yoda foresaw, the terrible future ahead of them?
Dooku foresaw a great many things, or at least he told himself he did. Pride again, perhaps. He foresaw Palpatine's victory, a resounding one, a definitive one. He foresaw the galaxy brought to order, the kind of order the Jedi had never been able to accomplish. He foresaw small minds trying to reject this order. He foresaw the illusion of hope. He foresaw its futility. Men like Palpatine could not be denied, men with vision.
He saw himself, in that moment, in front of Yoda, as the last of the Jedi. And he bowed to Yoda in return, and he said nothing more, and that was that. He walked away with a bad feeling about it, all the same...
When Dooku was a boy, Yoda had already been ancient, by most standards. According to his studies, Dooku learned that Wookiees had long lives, too. There were other examples, doubtless. Still, it had instilled that sense of reverence from the very beginning. Yoda's small stature made it easy for new padawans to assume him to be one of them, and Dooku had made that same mistake. He still smiled, privately, at the thought.
He had inherited the title of count from his birth parents, a role made meaningless the day he was accepted into the halls of the Jedi temple on Coruscant. There were such temples elsewhere, but the younglings with the most potential were brought to Coruscant, and Yoda, and young Dooku had felt what he hoped was his last surge of pride the day he learned of his destiny.
Kneeling before Yoda now, knowing what he knew, he wondered if he had escaped pride after all.
For Dooku had a new master, now. A man named Palpatine. To the rest of the galaxy, a politician. To Dooku? Everything. He had surmised quickly that Palpatine knew more about the Force than even Yoda, and that had been...too much. Had there really been a choice? The reverence Yoda instilled in him awakened something in Dooku, something that had gotten out of control. Palpatine offered relief.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," he said to Yoda, now. "I fear we may never meet again."
He had just accepted the assignment to shadow Palpatine, an assignment he'd campaigned for, an assignment he'd suggested. No one, not even Yoda, knew why he'd requested it. For all the Jedi Council knew, it was merely for Palpatine's role as Chancellor of the Republic. Master Windu hadn't trusted him for even a minute. But then, they'd never seen eye-to-eye. If Dooku hadn't been Yoda's apprentice...
Of course, he would meet Yoda again, and they would fight, a reprise of all the sparing sessions they'd shared a long time ago, but with far greater stakes, the battered bodies of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in silent witness beside them. "Much to learn have you," Yoda would tell him, and in that moment reveal that he had not taught Dooku everything he knew...
And that was it, too. Dooku had known, had known, all along, that he never fully gained Yoda's trust. And that was pride, again. He tried to depict himself as so perfect a Jedi that he had to leave the Jedi Order to be one, a contradiction, the myth of the Sith, and yet...
He stood up again, and Yoda bowed, ever so slightly, toward him, the last sign of mutual respect they would ever share. Was it, in fact, respect? Or the farewell Yoda foresaw, the terrible future ahead of them?
Dooku foresaw a great many things, or at least he told himself he did. Pride again, perhaps. He foresaw Palpatine's victory, a resounding one, a definitive one. He foresaw the galaxy brought to order, the kind of order the Jedi had never been able to accomplish. He foresaw small minds trying to reject this order. He foresaw the illusion of hope. He foresaw its futility. Men like Palpatine could not be denied, men with vision.
He saw himself, in that moment, in front of Yoda, as the last of the Jedi. And he bowed to Yoda in return, and he said nothing more, and that was that. He walked away with a bad feeling about it, all the same...
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
In Which Lemony Snicket's Story Is Completed
It was February, and five children, all of whom were more or less healthy, were sitting on the ground in a lazy circle. It was quite dark, and the children had to squint to see one another's frowning faces.
"I wish we were ice skating," said Robin.
"I wish we were eating Mexican food," said Apu.
"I wish we were wearing boots," said Alastair.
"I wish we were playing percussion instruments," said Lillian.
Miranda sighed. She was the youngest of the five children, but nevertheless she was often the leader of the group. She tried not to be bossy about it, but it is difficult not to be bossy from time to time. "We can't do any of those things," she said. "We're not at a skating rink, and we don't have any skates. We're not in Mexico, and there's not an enchilada in sight. We're not wearing boots, and there's not a department store for miles around. And we're not playing percussion instruments, because it wouldn't be wise to make so much noise. After all, we're in a puzzling and possibly dangerous situation. I know it's difficult to believe, but we may have to face the fact that we're on our own."
"But how can that be?" Robin asked. "Just a few hours ago we were on a picnic with Madame Blatavsky, when all of a sudden we discovered she was really..."
"Hold it right there," Miranda said. "You were about to say, 'when all of a sudden we discovered she was really an cantankerous and scheming guardian who was not at all what she appeared to be, no matter how poorly she had trimmed her eyebrows.' This is to say, no matter if that's the truth or not, it has already been done. Madame Blatavsky is not the problem, anymore than ice skates are the problem, or enchiladas, or boots, or percussion instruments. No, our troubles began well after the picnic with Madame Bltavsky took an alarming turn. We all agreed that sending her to fetch better food, regardless of whether or not it included enchiladas, was better for all of us, well before we determined her to be a cantankerous and scheming guardian who was not at all what she appeared to be, no matter how poorly she had trimmed her eyebrows."
Miranda knitted her own eyebrows in a concerned manner. She alone, because she was the leader of the children, would have to determine where things had truly gone wrong. It wasn't Madame Blatavsky's disappearance, which itself truly was alarming, as it has never taken more than seven-and-three-quarter hours in the history of misbegotten picnics to locate an alternate source of dining options, accounting both for the locating and for the returning to the original scene to collect anyone who might have been left behind, even if they were five children led by an exceptionally capable, if inconveniently youngest, girl such as Miranda.
It wasn't when they had decided to go in search of Madame Blatavsky, which Miranda had agreed to do once the first day had ended and she had convinced the others to sensibly wait until morning to begin, surviving on a poor diet in the meantime of the unsatisfying foodstuffs they had originally set out with for the picnic, quiche sandwiches whose only discernable ingredient was a suspicious paste inadequately made from shoots of parsley that looked like tiny patches of grass that had grown wildly in a park, which only served to remind everyone of the sad fate of the original picnic.
No, Miranda was convinced it was the bicycles they had all ridden at the start the series of...inconvenient events, the ones that had banana seats that were in fact in the shape of apricots, so uncomfortable to sit on while peddling that everyone had complained, even Madame Blatavsky, the whole way. They had agreed to leave these bicycles behind, even though Miranda insisted they reconsider, that even bicycles with uncomfortable seats in the shape of apricots would be preferable to having no transportation at all.
"Our problems began when we decided to abandon our bicycles, the ones with seats the shape of apricots," she declared.
"I still wish we were ice skating," said Robin.
"I still wish we were eating Mexican food," said Apu.
"I still wish we had boots," said Alastair.
"I still wish we were playing percussion instruments," said Lillian.
Miranda sighed.
[Completing a story originally begun by Lemony Snicket for the purposes of a contest in the 2005 McSweeney's book Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and some other things that aren't as scary, maybe, depending on how you feel about Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, A Man Named Lars Farf, and one other story we couldn't finish, so maybe you could help us out]
"I wish we were ice skating," said Robin.
"I wish we were eating Mexican food," said Apu.
"I wish we were wearing boots," said Alastair.
"I wish we were playing percussion instruments," said Lillian.
Miranda sighed. She was the youngest of the five children, but nevertheless she was often the leader of the group. She tried not to be bossy about it, but it is difficult not to be bossy from time to time. "We can't do any of those things," she said. "We're not at a skating rink, and we don't have any skates. We're not in Mexico, and there's not an enchilada in sight. We're not wearing boots, and there's not a department store for miles around. And we're not playing percussion instruments, because it wouldn't be wise to make so much noise. After all, we're in a puzzling and possibly dangerous situation. I know it's difficult to believe, but we may have to face the fact that we're on our own."
"But how can that be?" Robin asked. "Just a few hours ago we were on a picnic with Madame Blatavsky, when all of a sudden we discovered she was really..."
"Hold it right there," Miranda said. "You were about to say, 'when all of a sudden we discovered she was really an cantankerous and scheming guardian who was not at all what she appeared to be, no matter how poorly she had trimmed her eyebrows.' This is to say, no matter if that's the truth or not, it has already been done. Madame Blatavsky is not the problem, anymore than ice skates are the problem, or enchiladas, or boots, or percussion instruments. No, our troubles began well after the picnic with Madame Bltavsky took an alarming turn. We all agreed that sending her to fetch better food, regardless of whether or not it included enchiladas, was better for all of us, well before we determined her to be a cantankerous and scheming guardian who was not at all what she appeared to be, no matter how poorly she had trimmed her eyebrows."
Miranda knitted her own eyebrows in a concerned manner. She alone, because she was the leader of the children, would have to determine where things had truly gone wrong. It wasn't Madame Blatavsky's disappearance, which itself truly was alarming, as it has never taken more than seven-and-three-quarter hours in the history of misbegotten picnics to locate an alternate source of dining options, accounting both for the locating and for the returning to the original scene to collect anyone who might have been left behind, even if they were five children led by an exceptionally capable, if inconveniently youngest, girl such as Miranda.
It wasn't when they had decided to go in search of Madame Blatavsky, which Miranda had agreed to do once the first day had ended and she had convinced the others to sensibly wait until morning to begin, surviving on a poor diet in the meantime of the unsatisfying foodstuffs they had originally set out with for the picnic, quiche sandwiches whose only discernable ingredient was a suspicious paste inadequately made from shoots of parsley that looked like tiny patches of grass that had grown wildly in a park, which only served to remind everyone of the sad fate of the original picnic.
No, Miranda was convinced it was the bicycles they had all ridden at the start the series of...inconvenient events, the ones that had banana seats that were in fact in the shape of apricots, so uncomfortable to sit on while peddling that everyone had complained, even Madame Blatavsky, the whole way. They had agreed to leave these bicycles behind, even though Miranda insisted they reconsider, that even bicycles with uncomfortable seats in the shape of apricots would be preferable to having no transportation at all.
"Our problems began when we decided to abandon our bicycles, the ones with seats the shape of apricots," she declared.
"I still wish we were ice skating," said Robin.
"I still wish we were eating Mexican food," said Apu.
"I still wish we had boots," said Alastair.
"I still wish we were playing percussion instruments," said Lillian.
Miranda sighed.
[Completing a story originally begun by Lemony Snicket for the purposes of a contest in the 2005 McSweeney's book Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and some other things that aren't as scary, maybe, depending on how you feel about Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, A Man Named Lars Farf, and one other story we couldn't finish, so maybe you could help us out]
Thursday, August 31, 2017
DC00
Who benefits?
That always seems to be the question, doesn't it? The Batman has made a career of investigating the world's most outlandish criminals. He understands them as few others ever could. And yet...he exists in a world where the outlandish can't hope to compete with the impossible. Yet the impossible seems to happen every day. How does a mere man keep up with the developments of such a world? Well, for starters, with a little help. With allies. The Batman has many allies. And he keeps tabs on them all...
The Justice League in all its glory reunites to battle the Crime Syndicate, comprised of evil counterparts to each of its members.
Orion of the New Gods questions his origins as he defines the last great era of the Fourth World.
Batman's greatest foe becomes Superman's worst nightmare: the Joker takes control of the whole world...
As if that's not bad enough, Lex Luthor is elected president of the United States!
Hal Jordan begins his work as the Spectre. One of his first acts is resurrecting his best friend, Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow.
Imperiax declares war on Earth, and it's once again Superman who leads the way against the apocalypse.
The Joker prepares his final punchline when he discovers he has a terminal brain tumor.
Batman dreams of the future, and envisions a world in the grip of Lex Luthor and Brainiac.
In the real world, he finds his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, framed for murder.
Can it get worse? He becomes hounded by the mysterious Hush. Is Tommy Elliott somehow responsible for all his troubles this decade?
He dreams of a Superman raised in the Soviet Union.
The Batman's partner, Tim Drake, Robin, leads a team of new Teen Titans.
He dreams of the Justice League's encounters with a team called the Avengers, a kind of memory he doesn't remember having.
He begins working alongside Superman on a regular basis.
And again...who benefits? He finds himself devastated by the consequences of Sue Dibney's murder. Dibney was the wife of Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man, Batman's only investigative rival. Her death exploded the superhero community, revealing a time when the Justice League...Did it really happen? Did they dare alter the Batman's memories? How would that even be possible? The most disciplined mind...He realizes for the first time, the world really is bigger than the Batman...
He never trusted Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. He seemed vindicated when Jordan went rogue and tried to remake the universe in his image. Unlike the others, he never forgave him, even when Jordan sacrificed himself to save the planet, even when he assumed the awful mantle of the Spectre. So what, then, when Jordan reclaims the power ring of Green Lantern?
And can he ever forgive himself for Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle's murder?
Seven heroes converge in an intricate tapestry against the Sheeda horde. Batman is one of the few to comprehend what happens.
He remembers what it was like to accept his first partner, Dick Grayson, Robin, into his life.
Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman realize how far they've let things spiral out of control, but not before chaos truly erupts at the behest of Superboy-Prime, who has been driven mad observing a world he believes has corrupted the very idea of the superhero.
Superman discovers a terminal illness, and unleashes his full potential for what he believes to be his final days.
In the aftermath of crisis, a world without its biggest heroes struggles onward. Ralph Dibney wrestles his demons. John Henry Irons, Steel, realizes Lex Luthor has tricked John's niece into believing his lies. Animal Man, Adam Strange, and Starfire make a heroic trek back from the edge of the galaxy. Black Adam attempts to fill the power void. Booster Gold loses it. And Renee Montoya makes a curious new friend, a man who calls himself Charlie. Who asks her the most important question she'll ever have: How will she ever live with herself again after the brutal murder of her partner, Crispus Allen? It's a whirlwind, epic year, and where is Batman during all of it? Convincing himself that he's freed himself of his crusade.
And yet...then he meets his son, Damian Wayne. And everything changes.
At least his allies in the Justice League bring themselves back together.
Freddy Freeman attempts to prove he has what it takes to claim the mantle of Captain Marvel.
The Justice Society takes it upon itself to train the next generation of heroes.
The Amazons are tricked into declaring war on America.
Regardless of the Batman's feelings toward Hal Jordan, he must feel the urgency of Sinestro's renewed war against the Green Lantern Corps, this time leading an army of yellow ring bearers.
And lo! There came a time when the New Gods died...
Hush? Or is it Dr. Hurt? Hurt didn't just torment the Batman, he destroyed the Dark Knight's mind...leaving him ripe for the terror of Darkseid's Omega Beam...
Superman's world comes crashing down in the wake of Brainiac's latest defeat. There's a new world of Kryptonians suddenly just around the corner, and Jonathan Kent is dead.
But Barry Allen, the Flash, is finally back!
Lost in time, Bruce Wayne's once and future successor, Dick Grayson, accepts the mantle of Batman, with Damian Wayne at his side as a volatile new Robin.
The dead rise, but then hope returns in the form long lost heroes returning. But at what price?
And who benefits?
Adapted from DC YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
JLA: EARTH 2
ORION #1
SUPERMAN #160, 171
SUPERMAN: LEX 2000 #1
THE SPECTRE #1
GREEN ARROW #1
JOKER: LAST LAUGH #1
THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN #1
BATMAN: THE 10 CENT ADVENTURE
BATMAN #608, 655, 676
SUPERMAN: RED SON #1
TEEN TITANS #1
JLA/AVENGERS #1
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #1
IDENTITY CRISIS #1
GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS
SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY #0
ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER #1
INFINITE CRISIS #1
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #1
52 #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1
THE TRIALS OF SHAZAM! #1
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
AMAZONS ATTACK! #1
GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS SPECIAL #1
THE DEATH OF THE NEW GODS #1
FINAL CRISIS #1
ACTION COMICS #870
THE FLASH: REBIRTH #1
BATMAN AND ROBIN #1
BLACKEST NIGHT #1
BRIGHTEST DAY #1
(2000-2010)
That always seems to be the question, doesn't it? The Batman has made a career of investigating the world's most outlandish criminals. He understands them as few others ever could. And yet...he exists in a world where the outlandish can't hope to compete with the impossible. Yet the impossible seems to happen every day. How does a mere man keep up with the developments of such a world? Well, for starters, with a little help. With allies. The Batman has many allies. And he keeps tabs on them all...
The Justice League in all its glory reunites to battle the Crime Syndicate, comprised of evil counterparts to each of its members.
Orion of the New Gods questions his origins as he defines the last great era of the Fourth World.
Batman's greatest foe becomes Superman's worst nightmare: the Joker takes control of the whole world...
As if that's not bad enough, Lex Luthor is elected president of the United States!
Hal Jordan begins his work as the Spectre. One of his first acts is resurrecting his best friend, Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow.
Imperiax declares war on Earth, and it's once again Superman who leads the way against the apocalypse.
The Joker prepares his final punchline when he discovers he has a terminal brain tumor.
Batman dreams of the future, and envisions a world in the grip of Lex Luthor and Brainiac.
In the real world, he finds his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, framed for murder.
Can it get worse? He becomes hounded by the mysterious Hush. Is Tommy Elliott somehow responsible for all his troubles this decade?
He dreams of a Superman raised in the Soviet Union.
The Batman's partner, Tim Drake, Robin, leads a team of new Teen Titans.
He dreams of the Justice League's encounters with a team called the Avengers, a kind of memory he doesn't remember having.
He begins working alongside Superman on a regular basis.
And again...who benefits? He finds himself devastated by the consequences of Sue Dibney's murder. Dibney was the wife of Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man, Batman's only investigative rival. Her death exploded the superhero community, revealing a time when the Justice League...Did it really happen? Did they dare alter the Batman's memories? How would that even be possible? The most disciplined mind...He realizes for the first time, the world really is bigger than the Batman...
He never trusted Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. He seemed vindicated when Jordan went rogue and tried to remake the universe in his image. Unlike the others, he never forgave him, even when Jordan sacrificed himself to save the planet, even when he assumed the awful mantle of the Spectre. So what, then, when Jordan reclaims the power ring of Green Lantern?
And can he ever forgive himself for Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle's murder?
Seven heroes converge in an intricate tapestry against the Sheeda horde. Batman is one of the few to comprehend what happens.
He remembers what it was like to accept his first partner, Dick Grayson, Robin, into his life.
Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman realize how far they've let things spiral out of control, but not before chaos truly erupts at the behest of Superboy-Prime, who has been driven mad observing a world he believes has corrupted the very idea of the superhero.
Superman discovers a terminal illness, and unleashes his full potential for what he believes to be his final days.
In the aftermath of crisis, a world without its biggest heroes struggles onward. Ralph Dibney wrestles his demons. John Henry Irons, Steel, realizes Lex Luthor has tricked John's niece into believing his lies. Animal Man, Adam Strange, and Starfire make a heroic trek back from the edge of the galaxy. Black Adam attempts to fill the power void. Booster Gold loses it. And Renee Montoya makes a curious new friend, a man who calls himself Charlie. Who asks her the most important question she'll ever have: How will she ever live with herself again after the brutal murder of her partner, Crispus Allen? It's a whirlwind, epic year, and where is Batman during all of it? Convincing himself that he's freed himself of his crusade.
And yet...then he meets his son, Damian Wayne. And everything changes.
At least his allies in the Justice League bring themselves back together.
Freddy Freeman attempts to prove he has what it takes to claim the mantle of Captain Marvel.
The Justice Society takes it upon itself to train the next generation of heroes.
The Amazons are tricked into declaring war on America.
Regardless of the Batman's feelings toward Hal Jordan, he must feel the urgency of Sinestro's renewed war against the Green Lantern Corps, this time leading an army of yellow ring bearers.
And lo! There came a time when the New Gods died...
Hush? Or is it Dr. Hurt? Hurt didn't just torment the Batman, he destroyed the Dark Knight's mind...leaving him ripe for the terror of Darkseid's Omega Beam...
Superman's world comes crashing down in the wake of Brainiac's latest defeat. There's a new world of Kryptonians suddenly just around the corner, and Jonathan Kent is dead.
But Barry Allen, the Flash, is finally back!
Lost in time, Bruce Wayne's once and future successor, Dick Grayson, accepts the mantle of Batman, with Damian Wayne at his side as a volatile new Robin.
The dead rise, but then hope returns in the form long lost heroes returning. But at what price?
And who benefits?
Adapted from DC YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
JLA: EARTH 2
ORION #1
SUPERMAN #160, 171
SUPERMAN: LEX 2000 #1
THE SPECTRE #1
GREEN ARROW #1
JOKER: LAST LAUGH #1
THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN #1
BATMAN: THE 10 CENT ADVENTURE
BATMAN #608, 655, 676
SUPERMAN: RED SON #1
TEEN TITANS #1
JLA/AVENGERS #1
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #1
IDENTITY CRISIS #1
GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH #1
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS
SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY #0
ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER #1
INFINITE CRISIS #1
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #1
52 #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1
THE TRIALS OF SHAZAM! #1
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
AMAZONS ATTACK! #1
GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS SPECIAL #1
THE DEATH OF THE NEW GODS #1
FINAL CRISIS #1
ACTION COMICS #870
THE FLASH: REBIRTH #1
BATMAN AND ROBIN #1
BLACKEST NIGHT #1
BRIGHTEST DAY #1
(2000-2010)
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
DC90
Waverider referred to it as an event horizon, a massive convergence of crises. But it's a little difficult to explain without examples, so that's exactly what I'm going to give you...
The unthinkable happened for the first time when Lois Lane discovered that Clark Kent was Superman. In some circles this was always the worst kept secret in the universe, but Superman had managed to keep his secret identity intact, even from a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who'd been obsessed with him for years, until he had become engaged to Lane and felt continuing the ruse was no longer morally justifiable. It was a testament to Superman's character all the way around, just one of his many defining moments that decade. If only it hadn't been followed by a bigger one so soon...
Before that could happen, I myself was drawn into these events in the near future, when the hero once known as Hawk became the villainous Monarch and sought to protect his identity, except he couldn't account for a man being sent into the past to stop him, a man who became Waverider. A man named Matthew Ryder. Me.
The Greek gods went to war, sending Wonder Woman into a truly epic struggle.
Superman's next crisis involved Brainiac, against whom he assembled an army of allies.
John Stewart assumed stewardship of Oa's Mosaic, attempting to maintain peace among a legion of alien species.
Doomsday came for Superman, at last. His epic battle against an unconquerable monster led to their mutual destruction, an unspeakable outcome for a world suddenly without its greatest protector.
Similarly, the brilliant, drug-enhanced Bane targeted Batman, breaking his back and taking control of Gotham City.
In both instances, these icons were replaced, for a time, by pretenders to the throne.
Alien parasites came to Earth and transformed unsuspecting citizens into a new breed of superhero.
Driven mad by the utter destruction of Coast City, Hal Jordan declared war on the Green Lantern Corps so that he might obtain enough power to bring his beloved city back.
Bart Allen arrived from the future to create a new kind of Kid Flash, the single synapse Impulse, pushing the concept of speed, and the Speed Force itself, to new heights.
Jordan's mad quest converged with Monarch's, who elevated himself to the villain called Extant, threatening all of reality, until it collapsed around them with a cosmic rebirth. In the aftermath, David Knight took up the Starman legacy, and redefined it, as well as the concept of the superhero.
Diana lost the role of Wonder Woman to Artemis but continued her fight for justice in Man's World.
Green Arrow died in a fiery explosion.
Neron struck literal deals with the devil across the villain landscape, significantly augmenting their threat level, notably revitalizing Lex Luthor so that he could plague Superman anew.
Heroes across two realities collided.
I witnessed a chilling vision of a future in which Superman walked away from his never-ending crusade.
In the present, he had the extraordinary development of working alongside Lex Luthor to combat the extinction of the sun, which only Hal Jordan's redemptive sacrifice ultimately prevented.
Then, of course, he finally married Lois Lane.
Batman tackled one of his greatest cases ever, seeking the identity of the Holiday Killer.
Superman and Batman led a spectacular revival of the Justice League.
And then Superman became radically altered, transforming into an energy being complete with a bold new look.
The Godwave made its way through the galaxy, wreaking havoc on everyone's powers.
Iris Allen wrote her late husband Barry Allen's life story. This is significant, as he had been known as the Flash.
A cataclysmic earthquake hit Gotham.
The heroes of the 853rd century united with the modern day to battle the Tyrant Sun.
The Justice Society made a triumphant return.
Hal Jordan completed his redemption by becoming the new host of the Spectre.
Waverider saw all of this, and I suppose I ought to believe him. His future is mine, his past mine. He has seen wonders. What effect does this have on a man? I suppose I'll find out...
Adapted from DC YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
ACTION COMICS #662
ARMAGEDDON 2001 #1
WAR OF THE GODS #1
SUPERMAN #66, 75, 123
GREEN LANTERN: MOSAIC #1
BATMAN #492, 500
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500
BLOODBATH #1
GREEN LANTERN #48
THE FLASH #92
ZERO HOUR #4
STARMAN #0
WONDER WOMAN #93
GREEN ARROW #101
UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED #1
DC VERSUS MARVEL #1
KINGDOM COME #1
THE FINAL NIGHT #1
SUPERMAN: THE WEDDING ALBUM
BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN #1
JLA #1
GENESIS #1
THE LIFE STORY OF THE FLASH
BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #73
DC ONE MILLION #1
JSA #1
DAY OF JUDGMENT #1
The unthinkable happened for the first time when Lois Lane discovered that Clark Kent was Superman. In some circles this was always the worst kept secret in the universe, but Superman had managed to keep his secret identity intact, even from a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who'd been obsessed with him for years, until he had become engaged to Lane and felt continuing the ruse was no longer morally justifiable. It was a testament to Superman's character all the way around, just one of his many defining moments that decade. If only it hadn't been followed by a bigger one so soon...
Before that could happen, I myself was drawn into these events in the near future, when the hero once known as Hawk became the villainous Monarch and sought to protect his identity, except he couldn't account for a man being sent into the past to stop him, a man who became Waverider. A man named Matthew Ryder. Me.
The Greek gods went to war, sending Wonder Woman into a truly epic struggle.
Superman's next crisis involved Brainiac, against whom he assembled an army of allies.
John Stewart assumed stewardship of Oa's Mosaic, attempting to maintain peace among a legion of alien species.
Doomsday came for Superman, at last. His epic battle against an unconquerable monster led to their mutual destruction, an unspeakable outcome for a world suddenly without its greatest protector.
Similarly, the brilliant, drug-enhanced Bane targeted Batman, breaking his back and taking control of Gotham City.
In both instances, these icons were replaced, for a time, by pretenders to the throne.
Alien parasites came to Earth and transformed unsuspecting citizens into a new breed of superhero.
Driven mad by the utter destruction of Coast City, Hal Jordan declared war on the Green Lantern Corps so that he might obtain enough power to bring his beloved city back.
Bart Allen arrived from the future to create a new kind of Kid Flash, the single synapse Impulse, pushing the concept of speed, and the Speed Force itself, to new heights.
Jordan's mad quest converged with Monarch's, who elevated himself to the villain called Extant, threatening all of reality, until it collapsed around them with a cosmic rebirth. In the aftermath, David Knight took up the Starman legacy, and redefined it, as well as the concept of the superhero.
Diana lost the role of Wonder Woman to Artemis but continued her fight for justice in Man's World.
Green Arrow died in a fiery explosion.
Neron struck literal deals with the devil across the villain landscape, significantly augmenting their threat level, notably revitalizing Lex Luthor so that he could plague Superman anew.
Heroes across two realities collided.
I witnessed a chilling vision of a future in which Superman walked away from his never-ending crusade.
In the present, he had the extraordinary development of working alongside Lex Luthor to combat the extinction of the sun, which only Hal Jordan's redemptive sacrifice ultimately prevented.
Then, of course, he finally married Lois Lane.
Batman tackled one of his greatest cases ever, seeking the identity of the Holiday Killer.
Superman and Batman led a spectacular revival of the Justice League.
And then Superman became radically altered, transforming into an energy being complete with a bold new look.
The Godwave made its way through the galaxy, wreaking havoc on everyone's powers.
Iris Allen wrote her late husband Barry Allen's life story. This is significant, as he had been known as the Flash.
A cataclysmic earthquake hit Gotham.
The heroes of the 853rd century united with the modern day to battle the Tyrant Sun.
The Justice Society made a triumphant return.
Hal Jordan completed his redemption by becoming the new host of the Spectre.
Waverider saw all of this, and I suppose I ought to believe him. His future is mine, his past mine. He has seen wonders. What effect does this have on a man? I suppose I'll find out...
Adapted from DC YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
ACTION COMICS #662
ARMAGEDDON 2001 #1
WAR OF THE GODS #1
SUPERMAN #66, 75, 123
GREEN LANTERN: MOSAIC #1
BATMAN #492, 500
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500
BLOODBATH #1
GREEN LANTERN #48
THE FLASH #92
ZERO HOUR #4
STARMAN #0
WONDER WOMAN #93
GREEN ARROW #101
UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED #1
DC VERSUS MARVEL #1
KINGDOM COME #1
THE FINAL NIGHT #1
SUPERMAN: THE WEDDING ALBUM
BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN #1
JLA #1
GENESIS #1
THE LIFE STORY OF THE FLASH
BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #73
DC ONE MILLION #1
JSA #1
DAY OF JUDGMENT #1
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
DC80
The Psycho-Pirate knows.
Here's the thing, as anyone who understands Green Lantern and the myriad color spectrum around him knows, emotions control everything. He who controls emotions, controls...everything. Except for himself. That's always been Psycho-Pirate's biggest failing; here is a villain who isn't defeated so much as defeats himself. That is, as I'm sure you'll agree, that most villains suffer from extreme overconfidence that eventually collapses in on itself, but the Psycho-Pirate is different. He channels emotions thanks to the Medusa Mask. Anyone foolish enough to look directly at him immediately falls to the power of the mask, and his mastery of emotion. Just not his own. This is called irony. Being aware so keenly of the power of emotion, he becomes overwhelmed by it, the totality of it. It makes him somewhat cosmically aware. He comprehends things on a scale few others can imagine, but he becomes paralyzed by this knowledge. He doesn't know how to overcome this.
He certainly doesn't know what to do about the multiverse. Because while others may be aware that it exists, only Psycho-Pirate knows how they interact. Or rather, how they once collapsed. During a crisis...
All of time creeps into this vision, naturally. The Psycho-Pirate knows that Superman, when he was a boy, once worked alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes, in the 30th Century, but that this alliance came to a permanent end that sent them in disparate directions, perhaps to the detriment of them both, if they ever understood what the Psycho-Pirate could see...
The Psycho-Pirate saw the story of Batman unfold, from the very beginning to recruiting allies in Robin and Batgirl.
The daughter of the Batman from Earth-2, the Huntress, stepped across the multiverse.
Mongul arrived and pitted Superman against Martian Manhunter.
A team of new Teen Titans gathered, and Deathstroke the Terminator took on a contract against them.
Primus took charge of the Omega Men and launched a crusade in the Vegan system.
Superman and Batman waged separate battle against the amazing Spider-Man and a rampaging Hulk, respectively.
On Earth-2, the Justice Society expanded into the All-Star Squadron.
Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew emerged in the multiverse.
The Legion battled the greatest darkness that ever lived in the final campaign of Apokolips.
There occurred a crisis on Earth-Prime.
The Teen Titans clashed with the X-Men.
King Arthur returned in the far future.
Ambush Bug cracked reality in his massive debut.
Jason Todd debuted as the new Robin. His origin was much the same as Dick Grayson's. Or was it?
Lobo became the most infamous last of a kind.
A ronin in the distant past may have been conjured by a madman in the future.
The Batman of Earth-1 met the Batman of Earth-2.
The trial of the Flash became inevitable after he murdered his arch-nemesis, the Reverse-Flash.
Swamp Thing learned that he wasn't actually Alec Holland, but rather an earth avatar merely convinced that it was Holland.
Deathstroke and Terra took out the Judas Contract on the Teen Titans.
The legacy of Superman was examined at various points in the future.
The Justice Society on Earth-2 disbands.
And at last...the Crisis. The Psycho-Pirate watches in horror as the Anti-Monitor declares war on the multiverse, becoming an unwitting pawn. Eventually, the multiverse collapses...and all of reality resets, with only the Psycho-Pirate knowing that any of it ever happened...Most tragic of all is the sacrifice of Barry Allen, the Flash, after having finally cleared his name of murder, too...
And what of the Superboy of Earth-Prime? What indeed?
Booster Gold arrived from the future in order to become a superhero of the modern day.
An aging Batman confronted the twilight of his career, having descended into nightmare.
A comedian was murdered.
Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
The Psycho-Pirate witnessed Superman born anew.
Darkseid launched a campaign against Earth in the present.
The Justice Society retired into a never-ending battle.
The Psycho-Pirate saw Batman's origin recounted once more, and then Wonder Woman's.
The Question emerged once more.
The Justice League found a sense of humor.
Jason Todd's origin changed.
The son of Batman was conceived.
No one could stop the Manhunters.
The Joker took his madness too far, arbitrarily paralyzing Batgirl.
Buddy Baker, Animal Man, began a journey toward the meta.
A man in a Guy Fawkes mask battled the forces of anarchy in the near-future.
Darkseid sought the Anti-Life Equation.
The Psycho-Pirate sees fans vote for the death of Jason Todd.
A cosmic invasion occurred.
Dream woke up.
The Doom Patrol crawled from the wreckage.\
The Huntress reincarnated on Earth-1.
Batman explored a serious house on a serious earth.
The Legion reached maturity.
Tim Drake became the third Robin.
The Psycho-Pirate observes the origin of Green Lantern. And he wonders...
Adapted from DC COMICS YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #259, 290
THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN #1
WONDER WOMAN #271
DC COMICS PRESENTS #27, 52, 87
THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1, 2, 16, 42
GREEN LANTERN #141
MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #28
DC SPECIAL SERIES #27
ALL-STAR SQUADRON #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #207
MARVEL AND DC PRESENT: THE UNCANNY X-MEN AND THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1
CAMELOT 3000 #1
BATMAN #357, 404, 408, 426, 442
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #200
OMEGA MEN #3
RONIN #1
THE FLASH #324
THE SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #21
SUPERMAN #400, 423
AMERICA VS. THE JUSTICE SOCIETY #1
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1
BOOSTER GOLD #1
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #1
WATCHMEN #1
MAN OF STEEL #1
LEGENDS #1
LAST DAYS OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
WONDER WOMAN #1
THE QUESTION #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON #1
MILLENNIUM #1
BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE
ANIMAL MAN #1
V FOR VENDETTA #1
COSMIC ODYSSEY #1
INVASION! #1
THE SANDMAN #1
DOOM PATROL #19
THE HUNTRESS #1
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1
GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD DAWN #1
(1980-89)
Here's the thing, as anyone who understands Green Lantern and the myriad color spectrum around him knows, emotions control everything. He who controls emotions, controls...everything. Except for himself. That's always been Psycho-Pirate's biggest failing; here is a villain who isn't defeated so much as defeats himself. That is, as I'm sure you'll agree, that most villains suffer from extreme overconfidence that eventually collapses in on itself, but the Psycho-Pirate is different. He channels emotions thanks to the Medusa Mask. Anyone foolish enough to look directly at him immediately falls to the power of the mask, and his mastery of emotion. Just not his own. This is called irony. Being aware so keenly of the power of emotion, he becomes overwhelmed by it, the totality of it. It makes him somewhat cosmically aware. He comprehends things on a scale few others can imagine, but he becomes paralyzed by this knowledge. He doesn't know how to overcome this.
He certainly doesn't know what to do about the multiverse. Because while others may be aware that it exists, only Psycho-Pirate knows how they interact. Or rather, how they once collapsed. During a crisis...
All of time creeps into this vision, naturally. The Psycho-Pirate knows that Superman, when he was a boy, once worked alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes, in the 30th Century, but that this alliance came to a permanent end that sent them in disparate directions, perhaps to the detriment of them both, if they ever understood what the Psycho-Pirate could see...
The Psycho-Pirate saw the story of Batman unfold, from the very beginning to recruiting allies in Robin and Batgirl.
The daughter of the Batman from Earth-2, the Huntress, stepped across the multiverse.
Mongul arrived and pitted Superman against Martian Manhunter.
A team of new Teen Titans gathered, and Deathstroke the Terminator took on a contract against them.
Primus took charge of the Omega Men and launched a crusade in the Vegan system.
Superman and Batman waged separate battle against the amazing Spider-Man and a rampaging Hulk, respectively.
On Earth-2, the Justice Society expanded into the All-Star Squadron.
Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew emerged in the multiverse.
The Legion battled the greatest darkness that ever lived in the final campaign of Apokolips.
There occurred a crisis on Earth-Prime.
The Teen Titans clashed with the X-Men.
King Arthur returned in the far future.
Ambush Bug cracked reality in his massive debut.
Jason Todd debuted as the new Robin. His origin was much the same as Dick Grayson's. Or was it?
Lobo became the most infamous last of a kind.
A ronin in the distant past may have been conjured by a madman in the future.
The Batman of Earth-1 met the Batman of Earth-2.
The trial of the Flash became inevitable after he murdered his arch-nemesis, the Reverse-Flash.
Swamp Thing learned that he wasn't actually Alec Holland, but rather an earth avatar merely convinced that it was Holland.
Deathstroke and Terra took out the Judas Contract on the Teen Titans.
The legacy of Superman was examined at various points in the future.
The Justice Society on Earth-2 disbands.
And at last...the Crisis. The Psycho-Pirate watches in horror as the Anti-Monitor declares war on the multiverse, becoming an unwitting pawn. Eventually, the multiverse collapses...and all of reality resets, with only the Psycho-Pirate knowing that any of it ever happened...Most tragic of all is the sacrifice of Barry Allen, the Flash, after having finally cleared his name of murder, too...
And what of the Superboy of Earth-Prime? What indeed?
Booster Gold arrived from the future in order to become a superhero of the modern day.
An aging Batman confronted the twilight of his career, having descended into nightmare.
A comedian was murdered.
Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
The Psycho-Pirate witnessed Superman born anew.
Darkseid launched a campaign against Earth in the present.
The Justice Society retired into a never-ending battle.
The Psycho-Pirate saw Batman's origin recounted once more, and then Wonder Woman's.
The Question emerged once more.
The Justice League found a sense of humor.
Jason Todd's origin changed.
The son of Batman was conceived.
No one could stop the Manhunters.
The Joker took his madness too far, arbitrarily paralyzing Batgirl.
Buddy Baker, Animal Man, began a journey toward the meta.
A man in a Guy Fawkes mask battled the forces of anarchy in the near-future.
Darkseid sought the Anti-Life Equation.
The Psycho-Pirate sees fans vote for the death of Jason Todd.
A cosmic invasion occurred.
Dream woke up.
The Doom Patrol crawled from the wreckage.\
The Huntress reincarnated on Earth-1.
Batman explored a serious house on a serious earth.
The Legion reached maturity.
Tim Drake became the third Robin.
The Psycho-Pirate observes the origin of Green Lantern. And he wonders...
Adapted from DC COMICS YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #259, 290
THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN #1
WONDER WOMAN #271
DC COMICS PRESENTS #27, 52, 87
THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1, 2, 16, 42
GREEN LANTERN #141
MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #28
DC SPECIAL SERIES #27
ALL-STAR SQUADRON #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #207
MARVEL AND DC PRESENT: THE UNCANNY X-MEN AND THE NEW TEEN TITANS #1
CAMELOT 3000 #1
BATMAN #357, 404, 408, 426, 442
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #200
OMEGA MEN #3
RONIN #1
THE FLASH #324
THE SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #21
SUPERMAN #400, 423
AMERICA VS. THE JUSTICE SOCIETY #1
CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1
BOOSTER GOLD #1
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #1
WATCHMEN #1
MAN OF STEEL #1
LEGENDS #1
LAST DAYS OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
WONDER WOMAN #1
THE QUESTION #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON #1
MILLENNIUM #1
BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE
ANIMAL MAN #1
V FOR VENDETTA #1
COSMIC ODYSSEY #1
INVASION! #1
THE SANDMAN #1
DOOM PATROL #19
THE HUNTRESS #1
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1
GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD DAWN #1
(1980-89)
Monday, August 28, 2017
DC70
"DARKSEID IS"
And lo, there came a time when the Teen Titans went their separate ways. Crushed in their idealism by the Justice League, the young heroes disbanded in the wake of their failure to prevent the assassination of peace activist Arthur Swenson. Convinced that they were doing more harm than good, Robin, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Kid Flash, and Hawk & Dove gave up their costumes, but found a new benefactor in Mr. Jupiter, and someone their own age, Mal Duncan, who still believed in them.
Green Arrow challenges Green Lantern to prove he cares as much about humans as he does aliens. Together, they hit the road and explore America.
Media mogul Morgan Edge is discovered to be under the employ of a dark god.
Superman's worst nightmare, the existence of Kryptonite, finally ends, but then he begins losing his powers, too.
Escape artist Thaddeus Brown finally meets the one trap he can't break free from: death itself. His mysterious pupil Scott Free, however, takes up the Mister Miracle identity in tribute.
"DARKSEID IS"
Batman is captured by the League of Assassins and locked in a prison cell. He finds his cellmate Talia beguiling, and in many ways the perfect match he never expected to find. Then he meets the master of the League, Ra's al Ghul, who reveals that Talia is his daughter, and the whole reason the League was sent after Batman was to trick him into falling in love with her.
A man named Damian and a woman named Linda are arguing, casting recriminations against each other, and all their secrets are exposed. Linda accuses Damian of having murdered her previous lover. Before he can object, a Swamp Thing appears and murders Damian. Linda can't know that this Swamp Thing is her reanimated lover.
Green Arrow's quest to redeem Green Lantern's humanity hits a snag when he discovers his sidekick Speedy has become a junkie, and he had no idea.
Mister Miracle reunites with the love of his life, Big Barda, as they confront the vengeance of Apokolips, the world Scott Free escaped years ago.
John Stewart is mad at the world but feels totally impotent to affect real change. Then he's awarded the power ring of Green Lantern.
"DARKSEID IS"
The Seven Soldiers of Victory reunite from across time to battle their greatest foe.
Jason Blood becomes the Demon
and if you look for rhyme or reason
you'll just end up feeling sick
for 'tis a king's most wicked trick.
Wonder Woman ends a personal crusade to prove herself in the world of man on its own terms and resumes her Amazonian crusade by returning to Paradise City and performing twelve labors.
Billy Batson once more utters the word "Shazam!" and becomes Captain Marvel, having been denied the transformation for years by the evil Doctor Sivana.
Klarion the Witch Boy
is in the employ
of a mischievous spirit
to test the Demon's wit.
The Sandman enters your dreams in a bright costume.
The Spectre exacts grim wrath on criminals.
Libre briefly has the powers of a god and transcends his enemies in the Justice League, but can't balance the scales of his own nature.
"DARKSEID IS"
Stalker exchanges his soul in order to become a warrior, but realizes he lost his humanity in the process.
Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein converge into the Firestorm matrix.
The Reverse-Flash murders Iris Allen, the Flash's wife.
Green Lantern discovers Guy Gardner being held prisoner by Sinestro in the Phantom Zone. Like John Stewart, Guy had been considered an alternate for Hal Jordan's power ring. In rescuing him, Hal found that Sinestro had broken Guy, leaving him with brain damage and in a coma.
"DARKSEID IS"
It's a decade fraught with trauma, all of it orchestrated by the dark god of Apokolips, himself battling a never-ending war in the Fourth World against his counterparts on New Genesis. In his mad quest for the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid has the heroes of Earth question everything they had long assumed about themselves. Eventually the whole affair ends in implosion, and perhaps a rebirth...
Adapted from DC COMICS YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
TEEN TITANS #25, 26
GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW #76, 85, 86, 87
SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #134
SUPERMAN #233
MISTER MIRACLE #1, 4
DETECTIVE COMICS #411
BATMAN #232
HOUSE OF SECRETS #92
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #100, 111
THE DEMON #1, 7
WONDER WOMAN #203, 204
SHAZAM! #1
SANDMAN #1
ADVENTURE COMICS #431
STALKER #1
FIRESTORM, THE NUCLEAR MAN #1
THE FLASH #275
GREEN LANTERN #123
(1970-79)
And lo, there came a time when the Teen Titans went their separate ways. Crushed in their idealism by the Justice League, the young heroes disbanded in the wake of their failure to prevent the assassination of peace activist Arthur Swenson. Convinced that they were doing more harm than good, Robin, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Kid Flash, and Hawk & Dove gave up their costumes, but found a new benefactor in Mr. Jupiter, and someone their own age, Mal Duncan, who still believed in them.
Green Arrow challenges Green Lantern to prove he cares as much about humans as he does aliens. Together, they hit the road and explore America.
Media mogul Morgan Edge is discovered to be under the employ of a dark god.
Superman's worst nightmare, the existence of Kryptonite, finally ends, but then he begins losing his powers, too.
Escape artist Thaddeus Brown finally meets the one trap he can't break free from: death itself. His mysterious pupil Scott Free, however, takes up the Mister Miracle identity in tribute.
"DARKSEID IS"
Batman is captured by the League of Assassins and locked in a prison cell. He finds his cellmate Talia beguiling, and in many ways the perfect match he never expected to find. Then he meets the master of the League, Ra's al Ghul, who reveals that Talia is his daughter, and the whole reason the League was sent after Batman was to trick him into falling in love with her.
A man named Damian and a woman named Linda are arguing, casting recriminations against each other, and all their secrets are exposed. Linda accuses Damian of having murdered her previous lover. Before he can object, a Swamp Thing appears and murders Damian. Linda can't know that this Swamp Thing is her reanimated lover.
Green Arrow's quest to redeem Green Lantern's humanity hits a snag when he discovers his sidekick Speedy has become a junkie, and he had no idea.
Mister Miracle reunites with the love of his life, Big Barda, as they confront the vengeance of Apokolips, the world Scott Free escaped years ago.
John Stewart is mad at the world but feels totally impotent to affect real change. Then he's awarded the power ring of Green Lantern.
"DARKSEID IS"
The Seven Soldiers of Victory reunite from across time to battle their greatest foe.
Jason Blood becomes the Demon
and if you look for rhyme or reason
you'll just end up feeling sick
for 'tis a king's most wicked trick.
Wonder Woman ends a personal crusade to prove herself in the world of man on its own terms and resumes her Amazonian crusade by returning to Paradise City and performing twelve labors.
Billy Batson once more utters the word "Shazam!" and becomes Captain Marvel, having been denied the transformation for years by the evil Doctor Sivana.
Klarion the Witch Boy
is in the employ
of a mischievous spirit
to test the Demon's wit.
The Sandman enters your dreams in a bright costume.
The Spectre exacts grim wrath on criminals.
Libre briefly has the powers of a god and transcends his enemies in the Justice League, but can't balance the scales of his own nature.
"DARKSEID IS"
Stalker exchanges his soul in order to become a warrior, but realizes he lost his humanity in the process.
Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein converge into the Firestorm matrix.
The Reverse-Flash murders Iris Allen, the Flash's wife.
Green Lantern discovers Guy Gardner being held prisoner by Sinestro in the Phantom Zone. Like John Stewart, Guy had been considered an alternate for Hal Jordan's power ring. In rescuing him, Hal found that Sinestro had broken Guy, leaving him with brain damage and in a coma.
"DARKSEID IS"
It's a decade fraught with trauma, all of it orchestrated by the dark god of Apokolips, himself battling a never-ending war in the Fourth World against his counterparts on New Genesis. In his mad quest for the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid has the heroes of Earth question everything they had long assumed about themselves. Eventually the whole affair ends in implosion, and perhaps a rebirth...
Adapted from DC COMICS YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
TEEN TITANS #25, 26
GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW #76, 85, 86, 87
SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #134
SUPERMAN #233
MISTER MIRACLE #1, 4
DETECTIVE COMICS #411
BATMAN #232
HOUSE OF SECRETS #92
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #100, 111
THE DEMON #1, 7
WONDER WOMAN #203, 204
SHAZAM! #1
SANDMAN #1
ADVENTURE COMICS #431
STALKER #1
FIRESTORM, THE NUCLEAR MAN #1
THE FLASH #275
GREEN LANTERN #123
(1970-79)
Thursday, August 24, 2017
DC60
It begins with a question. Simple, really: "How did he lose his hair?"
The person asking is Vic Sage, a TV reporter from Hub City, but he's not doing an on-air piece. He's having a conversation with Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man. Did I say "begin"? Because this is well into the decade, near the end of it, really, 1967. Ralph has already made his name, and his twitching nose has become world famous, by then, but Vic, at least the one no one knows, the one without a face, is one of the few persons alive who can give the quirky detective a run for his money. His question concerns Lex Luthor. Ralph's been wondering why the Justice League of America, easily the decade's biggest story, came together, and Vic asks in return, "How did he lose his hair?" Vic answers every question with another question. He just never stops asking. He's not the kind of guy who keeps friends. At first, Ralph is mystified. All he really wanted was brag about being offered membership, something he's sure Vic is never going to receive, something he and Sue can joke about when they have Vic over for dinner, because Ralph's a clown even if he's the greatest superhero detective the world will ever know; rumor has it he conceived the stretching gimmick mostly to drive clients his way.
Of course he bites. "Do you know?"
"Did you hear about Van-Zee?" Of course Ralph had. Van-Zee was another Kryptonian, like Superman, so much like Superman that Lois Lane actually confused the two for long enough that Sylvia DeWitt, a socialite who yearned to be Lois but never had the reporting skills for the gig, decided Van-Zee was good enough for her, and they got married before settling on Venus. The difference between Lois and Sylvia was about the same as Van-Zee's inability to live up to Superman's legacy; it takes drive to be Superman, as it turns out, not to mention a certain amount of distracting aloofness, which sort of comes with the territory.
Vic, of course, doesn't mention why Van-Zee is significant, but it's enough for Ralph to realize Lex Luthor, by most accounts a millionaire philanthropist, is probably the elusive madman who has been plaguing Superman throughout the decade. But what does that have to do with his hair?
"Trick question: Was Superman a part of the Justice League's first adventure?" When the alien parasite Starro came to Happy Harbor, it triggered the convergence of Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, the Flash, and Green Lantern, all the major superheroes who'd appeared in the wake of Superman. Ralph knows Superman wasn't a part of this adventure, except that he offered the new team his blessings. So technically no. And yes.
He also knows Superman had nothing to do with the spectacular circumstances in which Allen Adam was transformed into Captain Atom at the height of the nuclear arms race during the Cold War, thus inadvertently becoming one of the decade's defining figures. It wasn't long after this, actually, that Ralph first assumed the Elongated Man identity. He investigated Adam's story and found that it checked out.
The Justice League, meanwhile, battled another amazing enemy, Professor Ivo's android Amazo, who could duplicate the powers of each member, and then later still another would-be conqueror from space, Despero. Ralph first became aware of Vic Sage when he learned the reporter had been questioning whether or not Lex Luthor had been drawing these aliens to Earth in an effort to discredit Superman, the world's most famous extraterrestrial. Vic's response? "Would that really be out of character?"
Then he asks, "Have you heard of the Phantom Zone?" Ralph professes ignorance, but then looks into it and discovers that a young Superman had encountered it, only to learn that one of Krypton's greatest villains was trapped there, General Zod. For the first time, Ralph wonders if Vic is asking for him to look into Superman's past to puzzle out the present's menace, Lex Luthor. He discovers that Green Lantern's greatest enemy comes from his past, too: the evil Sinestro, who had once been a member of the Green Lantern Corps.
Vic asks Ralph if reality is the same as it ever was, and to illustrate he asks if Ralph heard about the time the Flash met the Flash, in the fateful day Keystone City was discovered at the other end of Central City, twenty years after it seemed to have vanished from existence. Ralph has no idea what to make of this at all, but he'll be reminded of it soon enough. Vic asks him something easier, to investigate someone named Pete Ross in Smallville, whom Ralph learns is a childhood friend of another reporter, Clark Kent, whom Vic suggests could in fact be Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet?
Green Lantern is confronted by Star Sapphire, whom Vic suggests is really Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan's girlfriend. That's nothing compared to the Justice League meeting the Justice Society, the full-blown version of the Flash meeting his inspiration from another Earth. Villains with identity issues, Eclipso and Dr. Polaris, appear. Ralph asks a question for a change, about whether or not the new Teen Titans are a junior Justice League, to which Vic replies, "Who is Donna Troy?" Green Lantern strikes again, helping Sinestro's successor, Katma Tui, realize her devotion to the Corps. A third Earth appears, introducing the Crime Syndicate, evil versions of the Justice League. Ralph asks if there's an evil Elongated Man. Vic replies, "Where's Zatanna's father?" Aquaman marries Mera upon settling concerns about her citizenship with disgruntled Atlanteans. The Riddler strikes Gotham City for the first time in twenty years. Buddy Baker becomes Animal Man. The Cluemaster challenges Gotham City. Vic and Ralph agree that Riddler and Cluemaster have nothing on them, but of course Vic asks, "Have you seen the Batman?" Ralph takes a break to attend the Flash's wedding to Iris West, although Vic tells asks him, "Did you see the Reverse-Flash there?" He also wonders if Ralph cares for the idea of Plastic Man, to which Ralph replies, "He's fantastic."
There's a Batgirl in Gotham when Vic officially enters the scene at the same time as the Blue Beetle. After the Flash races Superman, Ralph asks, "Who won?" Vic replies, "Does it matter?" And then, "Did you ever have the feeling you were inhabited by a Deadman?" Ralph learns that Lois Lane has quit her romantic obsession with Superman. Vic only says, "Who's creepier than the Creeper?" right after wondering what will become of Guy Gardner, the man who would be Green Lantern. Then Vic asks Ralph, "Do you know who Julius Schwartz is?" And has he seen Wonder Woman's new costume? Another trick question, as it turns out. She's become a spy. What about Superman's Vietnam adventure? Or the Justice League's war on Mars? And, "Who is the Phantom Stranger?" Who will stop Green Arrow? Did Abel forgive Cain? Who will follow Black Canary into the League? Will the madness of Jean Loring end peaceably? What drove Snapper Carr to leave the Justice League?
Ralph says..."Enough questions, Vic. I get it. I investigated Lex Luthor. Turns out he's from Smallville. Can't tell you how hard it was to nail that. Lex really knows how to stretch the truth. Clark Kent is Superman, and Clark and Lex were once friends. Lex inadvertently became a fan of his best friend after Clark became Superman, but their friendship ended forever when Superman asked Lex to study the deadly Kryptonite meteor, and it poisoned him, which among other things caused him to lose all his hair, not to convincing him that Superman had sought to eliminate the one person in the whole world who could expose him for what he really was."
"Did he ever suspect?"
"That's the funny part," Ralph says. But the Question is no longer there.
Adapted from DC COMICS YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE #15, 80
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #28, 30, 54, 85
SPACE ADVENTURES #33
ADVENTURE COMICS #271, 283
THE FLASH #112, 123, 165, 179
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1, 12, 21, 22, 29, 71, 75, 77
GREEN LANTERN #7, 16, 21, 30, 59
SUPERBOY #86
HOUSE OF SECRETS #61
DETECTIVE COMICS #327, 351, 359
HAWKMAN #4
AQUAMAN #18
BATMAN #171
STRANGE ADVENTURES #180, 205
PLASTIC MAN #1
BLUE BEETLE #1
SUPERMAN #199, 216
SHOWCASE #73
WONDER WOMAN #178
THE PHANTOM STRANGER #1
TEEN TITANS #22
DC SPECIAL #4
THE ATOM AND HAWKMAN #45
(1960-69)
The person asking is Vic Sage, a TV reporter from Hub City, but he's not doing an on-air piece. He's having a conversation with Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man. Did I say "begin"? Because this is well into the decade, near the end of it, really, 1967. Ralph has already made his name, and his twitching nose has become world famous, by then, but Vic, at least the one no one knows, the one without a face, is one of the few persons alive who can give the quirky detective a run for his money. His question concerns Lex Luthor. Ralph's been wondering why the Justice League of America, easily the decade's biggest story, came together, and Vic asks in return, "How did he lose his hair?" Vic answers every question with another question. He just never stops asking. He's not the kind of guy who keeps friends. At first, Ralph is mystified. All he really wanted was brag about being offered membership, something he's sure Vic is never going to receive, something he and Sue can joke about when they have Vic over for dinner, because Ralph's a clown even if he's the greatest superhero detective the world will ever know; rumor has it he conceived the stretching gimmick mostly to drive clients his way.
Of course he bites. "Do you know?"
"Did you hear about Van-Zee?" Of course Ralph had. Van-Zee was another Kryptonian, like Superman, so much like Superman that Lois Lane actually confused the two for long enough that Sylvia DeWitt, a socialite who yearned to be Lois but never had the reporting skills for the gig, decided Van-Zee was good enough for her, and they got married before settling on Venus. The difference between Lois and Sylvia was about the same as Van-Zee's inability to live up to Superman's legacy; it takes drive to be Superman, as it turns out, not to mention a certain amount of distracting aloofness, which sort of comes with the territory.
Vic, of course, doesn't mention why Van-Zee is significant, but it's enough for Ralph to realize Lex Luthor, by most accounts a millionaire philanthropist, is probably the elusive madman who has been plaguing Superman throughout the decade. But what does that have to do with his hair?
"Trick question: Was Superman a part of the Justice League's first adventure?" When the alien parasite Starro came to Happy Harbor, it triggered the convergence of Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, the Flash, and Green Lantern, all the major superheroes who'd appeared in the wake of Superman. Ralph knows Superman wasn't a part of this adventure, except that he offered the new team his blessings. So technically no. And yes.
He also knows Superman had nothing to do with the spectacular circumstances in which Allen Adam was transformed into Captain Atom at the height of the nuclear arms race during the Cold War, thus inadvertently becoming one of the decade's defining figures. It wasn't long after this, actually, that Ralph first assumed the Elongated Man identity. He investigated Adam's story and found that it checked out.
The Justice League, meanwhile, battled another amazing enemy, Professor Ivo's android Amazo, who could duplicate the powers of each member, and then later still another would-be conqueror from space, Despero. Ralph first became aware of Vic Sage when he learned the reporter had been questioning whether or not Lex Luthor had been drawing these aliens to Earth in an effort to discredit Superman, the world's most famous extraterrestrial. Vic's response? "Would that really be out of character?"
Then he asks, "Have you heard of the Phantom Zone?" Ralph professes ignorance, but then looks into it and discovers that a young Superman had encountered it, only to learn that one of Krypton's greatest villains was trapped there, General Zod. For the first time, Ralph wonders if Vic is asking for him to look into Superman's past to puzzle out the present's menace, Lex Luthor. He discovers that Green Lantern's greatest enemy comes from his past, too: the evil Sinestro, who had once been a member of the Green Lantern Corps.
Vic asks Ralph if reality is the same as it ever was, and to illustrate he asks if Ralph heard about the time the Flash met the Flash, in the fateful day Keystone City was discovered at the other end of Central City, twenty years after it seemed to have vanished from existence. Ralph has no idea what to make of this at all, but he'll be reminded of it soon enough. Vic asks him something easier, to investigate someone named Pete Ross in Smallville, whom Ralph learns is a childhood friend of another reporter, Clark Kent, whom Vic suggests could in fact be Superman. Faster than a speeding bullet?
Green Lantern is confronted by Star Sapphire, whom Vic suggests is really Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan's girlfriend. That's nothing compared to the Justice League meeting the Justice Society, the full-blown version of the Flash meeting his inspiration from another Earth. Villains with identity issues, Eclipso and Dr. Polaris, appear. Ralph asks a question for a change, about whether or not the new Teen Titans are a junior Justice League, to which Vic replies, "Who is Donna Troy?" Green Lantern strikes again, helping Sinestro's successor, Katma Tui, realize her devotion to the Corps. A third Earth appears, introducing the Crime Syndicate, evil versions of the Justice League. Ralph asks if there's an evil Elongated Man. Vic replies, "Where's Zatanna's father?" Aquaman marries Mera upon settling concerns about her citizenship with disgruntled Atlanteans. The Riddler strikes Gotham City for the first time in twenty years. Buddy Baker becomes Animal Man. The Cluemaster challenges Gotham City. Vic and Ralph agree that Riddler and Cluemaster have nothing on them, but of course Vic asks, "Have you seen the Batman?" Ralph takes a break to attend the Flash's wedding to Iris West, although Vic tells asks him, "Did you see the Reverse-Flash there?" He also wonders if Ralph cares for the idea of Plastic Man, to which Ralph replies, "He's fantastic."
There's a Batgirl in Gotham when Vic officially enters the scene at the same time as the Blue Beetle. After the Flash races Superman, Ralph asks, "Who won?" Vic replies, "Does it matter?" And then, "Did you ever have the feeling you were inhabited by a Deadman?" Ralph learns that Lois Lane has quit her romantic obsession with Superman. Vic only says, "Who's creepier than the Creeper?" right after wondering what will become of Guy Gardner, the man who would be Green Lantern. Then Vic asks Ralph, "Do you know who Julius Schwartz is?" And has he seen Wonder Woman's new costume? Another trick question, as it turns out. She's become a spy. What about Superman's Vietnam adventure? Or the Justice League's war on Mars? And, "Who is the Phantom Stranger?" Who will stop Green Arrow? Did Abel forgive Cain? Who will follow Black Canary into the League? Will the madness of Jean Loring end peaceably? What drove Snapper Carr to leave the Justice League?
Ralph says..."Enough questions, Vic. I get it. I investigated Lex Luthor. Turns out he's from Smallville. Can't tell you how hard it was to nail that. Lex really knows how to stretch the truth. Clark Kent is Superman, and Clark and Lex were once friends. Lex inadvertently became a fan of his best friend after Clark became Superman, but their friendship ended forever when Superman asked Lex to study the deadly Kryptonite meteor, and it poisoned him, which among other things caused him to lose all his hair, not to convincing him that Superman had sought to eliminate the one person in the whole world who could expose him for what he really was."
"Did he ever suspect?"
"That's the funny part," Ralph says. But the Question is no longer there.
Adapted from DC COMICS YEAR BY YEAR: A VISUAL CHRONICLE, based on entries from
SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE #15, 80
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #28, 30, 54, 85
SPACE ADVENTURES #33
ADVENTURE COMICS #271, 283
THE FLASH #112, 123, 165, 179
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1, 12, 21, 22, 29, 71, 75, 77
GREEN LANTERN #7, 16, 21, 30, 59
SUPERBOY #86
HOUSE OF SECRETS #61
DETECTIVE COMICS #327, 351, 359
HAWKMAN #4
AQUAMAN #18
BATMAN #171
STRANGE ADVENTURES #180, 205
PLASTIC MAN #1
BLUE BEETLE #1
SUPERMAN #199, 216
SHOWCASE #73
WONDER WOMAN #178
THE PHANTOM STRANGER #1
TEEN TITANS #22
DC SPECIAL #4
THE ATOM AND HAWKMAN #45
(1960-69)
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Monkey Flip: NOVA 2017
It's 2017 and Alex Helton's world is changed forever. Colt Carson has a talk with him early, admitting that he's been a dick, and that he's booked them in a match together...in November. For the NOVA title, and Alex will be...the defender. Alex doesn't believe it for a minute. "Bullshit," he says. "Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit." Carson likes the reaction so much he has Alex repeat this in the arena, and it's the exact character catalyst he needs to once and finally get over, become a vocally supported, uniquely supported competitor.
But he's booked to lose his match at Idolwild, against Hector Luna, one of the most respected indy wrestlers of his generation. Luna is booked in March to do the honors for Carson, a month before Carson challenges for the title, which Dixon Wolfe is holding. Dixon's been champion since last October. In fact, Dixon will remain the longest-reigning NOVA champion for the foreseeable future (I won't tell you what that means just yet, son). Alex is booked to lose again in February, and the fans chant "Bullshit!" right along with him. Little do they know...He loses in March, and the fans chant "Bullshit!"
In April, he picks up his first win of the year. It's against Anton Jericho, and yes that's significant, as even Carson has realized that Anton's a Helton guy, making that two active competitors on the roster, including Alex's old friend Scott Peavy, and two departed, slipped-through-Carson's-fingers superstars, Koba and Bronson, both of whom were positively giddy about Alex's future prospects. Alex wins again in May. In June, he beats Damian Goch, and Goch makes it clear to the fans, at the end of the match, that he's passing the torch, mouthing "Bullshit!" after taking the pin, and they return it back to him, loudly.
Finally, finally, in July, at the Warrior card, Alex battles Dixon for the title. It's the best match of the year. Everyone says so. If Dixon's epic reign is to finally end, three months short of a year, it will have to end spectacularly. They brawl all over the arena. And this never happens at a NOVA show, except in stretcher matches, which at this point are a thing of the past. Alex breaks out the kendo stick, which fans haven't seen him use since the match with Koba, last March. The fans know what this means. They know immediately. He didn't even have to argue with Carson about it. He couldn't believe it then, and he doesn't believe it as he's using it on Dixon, clubbing the champion as he's never clobbered anyone with it before, letting savagery fly, knowing that once again, as Koba helped him realize, that expectations are a funny thing, and that if he's going to make history he's going to have to break his own rules, play to what the fans want, what he's long denied them, what he's long been denied himself. And Dixon's smiling. He's smiling from ear to ear. The fans can't believe it. They've never seen anything like it. They know what Dixon knows, that finally, he's being given the fight of his life, and it's from Alex Helton, who having the fight of his life...And just like that, it's over. One, two, three. Alex is champion.
Three Rules, in August, is designed to replicate this without duplicating it. For the first time ever, not only will one man compete in each of the "three rules," but two of them: Alex and Dixon. First, they have a tornado match. Scott can't be his partner. Neither can Anton. Scott's injured. In he suffers a stinger against Jull Marias. It's basically the end of Marias, who sticks around a couple more months (a decisive loss to Carson in February sends a clear enough single). The immediate concern is that Scott is paralyzed for life. He remains motionless in the ring for several minutes, and the whole locker room panics. Alex fights back tears. Carson gives him the okay to break kayfabe and be there for Scott on the way to the back. It won't be until October next year that Scott is up to competing again, and that's for the "Beast" program that will establish the persona WPW use to great effect. He becomes more limited, but emphasizing his power becomes a huge draw. It would never have worked in NOVA, except fans realize at this precise moment how much Alex and Scott mean to each other, and on that note, embrace Scott's "Beast" for reasons other than the storyline, because he's their last link to one of their all-time favorites at that point.
Anton defeated Steve Williams on the Warrior card; at Three Rules he's Dixon's tornado partner, and at Unleashed VI in September, he's Alex's challenger in the main event. Alex has Jason Donovan beside him at in the tornado match. Donovan is a solid indy competitor who'll never break the main event in NOVA, much less WPW or NWW. Alex gets the win and the pin, on Anton, leaving the fans to anticipate their next encounter, and eager for Dixon to grab the spotlight in the night's next match, under kendo rules. Everyone knows what this means, and so Alex and Dixon play against expectations. Alex lets Dixon do the monkey flip. It draws a decent pop. He unveils a corkscrew flip from the turnbuckle, with the stick. It's something he's practiced a thousand times, and half the time been thoroughly dissatisfied with. The momentum of the move makes it hard to stick the landing, so it's always a matter of the flashiness overcoming the execution. With the kendo stick? It's enough not the get tangled up and completely botch it. Somehow he pulls it off. He calls it the Hell on Earth, which helps WPW come up with the "Hell Town" gimmick when his name is switched to Alex Dane next year, and the company still wants a nod to his given name. Somewhat more intimidating than the monkey flip. Tricky as, well, hell to pull off, so he'll only ever do it sparingly.
The final match of the evening is the stretcher match. This is the one where they allow themselves to duplicate what they did at Warrior. They fight all over the arena. They go into the stands, right among the fans themselves, which never happens at a NOVA show, so that there's no mistake how special a moment this really is. It creates the right amount of illusion about how personal this is, how desperate they are to end the feud, two matches on the night later. Alex gets his third and final pin. He remains champion. The whole idea was to sell this as an impossibility. He scaled the mountain after years of futility, only to lose, definitely lose, the night of his first defense, against the man who had proved to be the most dominant champion the company had ever seen, in three grueling matches in more than an hour of wrestling...But he does it. He comes out with the belt still in his possession. If someone had told him back in 2012...
At Unleashed, the anniversary card, he beats Anton. In October, he beats Luna. In November...the card he dreaded more than any other...he beats Carson. Easily. It's such a lopsided contest, he feels guilty the whole time. He wallops on Carson for twenty minutes. Carson just keeps taking it, rallying just long enough to be beaten down all over again. Alex enjoys every minute of it. He doesn't care for a minute that he already knows the ride ends in December, against Oliver Pine, against a guy who overstays his NOVA welcome after a lengthy title reign to become irrelevant, and it's not just because WPW has come calling with the most unbelievable deal imaginable, the chance to headline World Famous just a few months later, in a sensational battle of indy darlings, against the one-and-only BM Pro...The match with Pine is brutal in ways he hasn't experienced before. He suspects it's Carson's passive-aggressive parting shot. Pine works stiff, and Alex's back is screaming out in pain by the end of it, and he's wondering if he'll even be able to wrestle again in a few months, much less live up to the hype...But what the hell, right? He screams "Bullshit!" at the end of it, and the fans scream it right back at him, and they know what happens next, too, and for a change, they aren't bitter about it. Not one bit. They love their fortunate son. They know he'll deliver there, too. He's experienced far too much. As he's walking out of the arena, Scott's there waiting for him, and it's the most emotional moment NOVA has ever experienced. Pine's moment is completely overshadowed. He stands ignored in the ring. (Ah. Maybe that's why that happens.) Alex and Scott embrace, and Alex shouts "Bullshit!" one more time, and he's behind the curtain, the deadening curtain, before he can hear it repeated back at him one last time.
Scott pulls him close, and says, "I love you, brother." The pain is there on his face as he says it. His neck will never be the same, and in that moment, he doesn't care. Alex blows off Carson, still congratulating himself for having engineered all of this, and Alex is suddenly pissed off. He feels full of ingratitude all of a sudden. This year has been magical, but...so many things could've been different. He wonders if it would've been better. He fears what tomorrow will bring, if he's going to fail on the bigger stage, if he's been set up to fail...Is it just one big cruel joke? That's why he blows Carson off, when he should be thanking him, thanking him for the years of opportunity, and, yeah, for putting all this past year together, for sticking with him when other wrestlers fell by the wayside, a lot of much bigger names, the ones everyone already knew, the ones who came in and made huge splashes and walked away as soon as they'd been given these same opportunities without so much as...He turns around and gives Carson a hug, scowling the whole time. Carson is totally bewildered, and Alex begins to laugh.
Life is good. His fortunes just took a cosmic monkey flip forward.
But he's booked to lose his match at Idolwild, against Hector Luna, one of the most respected indy wrestlers of his generation. Luna is booked in March to do the honors for Carson, a month before Carson challenges for the title, which Dixon Wolfe is holding. Dixon's been champion since last October. In fact, Dixon will remain the longest-reigning NOVA champion for the foreseeable future (I won't tell you what that means just yet, son). Alex is booked to lose again in February, and the fans chant "Bullshit!" right along with him. Little do they know...He loses in March, and the fans chant "Bullshit!"
In April, he picks up his first win of the year. It's against Anton Jericho, and yes that's significant, as even Carson has realized that Anton's a Helton guy, making that two active competitors on the roster, including Alex's old friend Scott Peavy, and two departed, slipped-through-Carson's-fingers superstars, Koba and Bronson, both of whom were positively giddy about Alex's future prospects. Alex wins again in May. In June, he beats Damian Goch, and Goch makes it clear to the fans, at the end of the match, that he's passing the torch, mouthing "Bullshit!" after taking the pin, and they return it back to him, loudly.
Finally, finally, in July, at the Warrior card, Alex battles Dixon for the title. It's the best match of the year. Everyone says so. If Dixon's epic reign is to finally end, three months short of a year, it will have to end spectacularly. They brawl all over the arena. And this never happens at a NOVA show, except in stretcher matches, which at this point are a thing of the past. Alex breaks out the kendo stick, which fans haven't seen him use since the match with Koba, last March. The fans know what this means. They know immediately. He didn't even have to argue with Carson about it. He couldn't believe it then, and he doesn't believe it as he's using it on Dixon, clubbing the champion as he's never clobbered anyone with it before, letting savagery fly, knowing that once again, as Koba helped him realize, that expectations are a funny thing, and that if he's going to make history he's going to have to break his own rules, play to what the fans want, what he's long denied them, what he's long been denied himself. And Dixon's smiling. He's smiling from ear to ear. The fans can't believe it. They've never seen anything like it. They know what Dixon knows, that finally, he's being given the fight of his life, and it's from Alex Helton, who having the fight of his life...And just like that, it's over. One, two, three. Alex is champion.
Three Rules, in August, is designed to replicate this without duplicating it. For the first time ever, not only will one man compete in each of the "three rules," but two of them: Alex and Dixon. First, they have a tornado match. Scott can't be his partner. Neither can Anton. Scott's injured. In he suffers a stinger against Jull Marias. It's basically the end of Marias, who sticks around a couple more months (a decisive loss to Carson in February sends a clear enough single). The immediate concern is that Scott is paralyzed for life. He remains motionless in the ring for several minutes, and the whole locker room panics. Alex fights back tears. Carson gives him the okay to break kayfabe and be there for Scott on the way to the back. It won't be until October next year that Scott is up to competing again, and that's for the "Beast" program that will establish the persona WPW use to great effect. He becomes more limited, but emphasizing his power becomes a huge draw. It would never have worked in NOVA, except fans realize at this precise moment how much Alex and Scott mean to each other, and on that note, embrace Scott's "Beast" for reasons other than the storyline, because he's their last link to one of their all-time favorites at that point.
Anton defeated Steve Williams on the Warrior card; at Three Rules he's Dixon's tornado partner, and at Unleashed VI in September, he's Alex's challenger in the main event. Alex has Jason Donovan beside him at in the tornado match. Donovan is a solid indy competitor who'll never break the main event in NOVA, much less WPW or NWW. Alex gets the win and the pin, on Anton, leaving the fans to anticipate their next encounter, and eager for Dixon to grab the spotlight in the night's next match, under kendo rules. Everyone knows what this means, and so Alex and Dixon play against expectations. Alex lets Dixon do the monkey flip. It draws a decent pop. He unveils a corkscrew flip from the turnbuckle, with the stick. It's something he's practiced a thousand times, and half the time been thoroughly dissatisfied with. The momentum of the move makes it hard to stick the landing, so it's always a matter of the flashiness overcoming the execution. With the kendo stick? It's enough not the get tangled up and completely botch it. Somehow he pulls it off. He calls it the Hell on Earth, which helps WPW come up with the "Hell Town" gimmick when his name is switched to Alex Dane next year, and the company still wants a nod to his given name. Somewhat more intimidating than the monkey flip. Tricky as, well, hell to pull off, so he'll only ever do it sparingly.
The final match of the evening is the stretcher match. This is the one where they allow themselves to duplicate what they did at Warrior. They fight all over the arena. They go into the stands, right among the fans themselves, which never happens at a NOVA show, so that there's no mistake how special a moment this really is. It creates the right amount of illusion about how personal this is, how desperate they are to end the feud, two matches on the night later. Alex gets his third and final pin. He remains champion. The whole idea was to sell this as an impossibility. He scaled the mountain after years of futility, only to lose, definitely lose, the night of his first defense, against the man who had proved to be the most dominant champion the company had ever seen, in three grueling matches in more than an hour of wrestling...But he does it. He comes out with the belt still in his possession. If someone had told him back in 2012...
At Unleashed, the anniversary card, he beats Anton. In October, he beats Luna. In November...the card he dreaded more than any other...he beats Carson. Easily. It's such a lopsided contest, he feels guilty the whole time. He wallops on Carson for twenty minutes. Carson just keeps taking it, rallying just long enough to be beaten down all over again. Alex enjoys every minute of it. He doesn't care for a minute that he already knows the ride ends in December, against Oliver Pine, against a guy who overstays his NOVA welcome after a lengthy title reign to become irrelevant, and it's not just because WPW has come calling with the most unbelievable deal imaginable, the chance to headline World Famous just a few months later, in a sensational battle of indy darlings, against the one-and-only BM Pro...The match with Pine is brutal in ways he hasn't experienced before. He suspects it's Carson's passive-aggressive parting shot. Pine works stiff, and Alex's back is screaming out in pain by the end of it, and he's wondering if he'll even be able to wrestle again in a few months, much less live up to the hype...But what the hell, right? He screams "Bullshit!" at the end of it, and the fans scream it right back at him, and they know what happens next, too, and for a change, they aren't bitter about it. Not one bit. They love their fortunate son. They know he'll deliver there, too. He's experienced far too much. As he's walking out of the arena, Scott's there waiting for him, and it's the most emotional moment NOVA has ever experienced. Pine's moment is completely overshadowed. He stands ignored in the ring. (Ah. Maybe that's why that happens.) Alex and Scott embrace, and Alex shouts "Bullshit!" one more time, and he's behind the curtain, the deadening curtain, before he can hear it repeated back at him one last time.
Scott pulls him close, and says, "I love you, brother." The pain is there on his face as he says it. His neck will never be the same, and in that moment, he doesn't care. Alex blows off Carson, still congratulating himself for having engineered all of this, and Alex is suddenly pissed off. He feels full of ingratitude all of a sudden. This year has been magical, but...so many things could've been different. He wonders if it would've been better. He fears what tomorrow will bring, if he's going to fail on the bigger stage, if he's been set up to fail...Is it just one big cruel joke? That's why he blows Carson off, when he should be thanking him, thanking him for the years of opportunity, and, yeah, for putting all this past year together, for sticking with him when other wrestlers fell by the wayside, a lot of much bigger names, the ones everyone already knew, the ones who came in and made huge splashes and walked away as soon as they'd been given these same opportunities without so much as...He turns around and gives Carson a hug, scowling the whole time. Carson is totally bewildered, and Alex begins to laugh.
Life is good. His fortunes just took a cosmic monkey flip forward.
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Monkey Flip: NOVA 2016
It's 2016, a year away from destiny, and Alex Helton begins it by telling himself the same nonsense he's been telling himself all along, and he keeps getting the same results. He drops the tornado championship at Idolwild, giving Cairo Brown the rub, and then in February working yet another program with best friend and long-time enabler Scott Peavy.
Things get interesting in March. The Russian Koba, the monster of a machine who is only just beginning to steamroll the sport of professional wrestling, lobbies hard to work with Alex. Colt Carson, the perennial prig who succeeds with the cult promotion NOVA despite himself but will never admit it, is dead-set against it. He won't budge. It's actually the first crack in his grip on Koba, but he doesn't know it. Koba knows what he wants, and he's already important enough in the company despite having arrived only last September where Carson is forced to take his demands seriously. But not without a price. This is a fight Koba has been waging on Alex's behalf for months. While Scott had headlined a couple cards over NOVA's three-year existence, Alex never has, despite being one of its most dependable performers. But in Alex's case, it's made him easy to take for granted.
Koba, though, knows what he sees, and he threatens to walk away if Carson doesn't give him what he wants. Carson's retaliation is swift and brutal: Koba's forced to drop the NOVA title to Oz Hedges at Idolwild. The backlash from fans effectively tanks Oz's popular career, even though he'll go on to certain success in WPW, just nowhere near where he might have if he hadn't been branded a stooge backstage. Koba will walk away after July, and end up with the same impactful career he'd left behind, taking his eternal fight with Bronson into NWW and perhaps one day even beyond, once Bronson's made his transition to WPW. Time will tell. Bronson is a guy who realizes Koba has been given a raw deal, and talks his way into NOVA merely to help point it out, but he has bite behind his bark, and he becomes more successful than even Koba, and in a shorter length of time, and leaves even sooner, just as fed up with Carson's bullshit.
They're the first chinks in the company's armor, but because guys like Alex stay, it survives. Actually, it's because guys like Alex stay that it survives, because they stick around precisely to prove it's endurable. But even Alex leaves as soon as he hits it big, a year later...
The match with Koba, at the Pink Mist card in March, becomes Alex's signature, the match that makes his career, solidifies it, makes everyone really sit up and pay attention. He breaks all his rules. For one night he embodies everything he'd previously feared. Koba knows as well as he does that his reigns with the kendo championship didn't mean what his reputation became because of them, but that he'll have to use brutality in order to sell his ability to keep up in this clash. He in fact uses a kendo stick at various points, never with the signature monkey flip, never again, but every other thrilling variation he can imagine. It's enough to give Koba his longest match to that point in the company. Alex loses the match, and the next month is given a complete throwaway match with the eternally overwhelmed Gabe Parkman. Koba keeps the title a few more months before dropping it permanently, to "Stunner" Steve Williams, who makes it seem credible while Koba works his greatest, and career-defining, NOVA match with Bronson in July's Warrior card, just a few months before Bronson repeats history, claiming the NOVA title and quickly walking out on the company...
Alex is nowhere to be seen the next two months, after the pointless Parkman match. He resurfaces on the same Warrior card, once again battling Scott. His pal is well on his way to solidifying the slow burn "Beast" character he'll one day elevate to WPW in the Helton/Peavy feud to end them all, their names changed but their chemistry once and forever intact. This is all Koba needs to tell Bronson he needs to work with Alex, too, and the lobbying to make that happen...But it does. At Three Rules in August, Alex and Bronson compete in a stretcher match. The company had actually ditched the gimmick championships by this point, hoping to legitimize its business to mainstream fans, but this is the card where they will always live on, year after year. By being placed in one of the eponymous "rules" matches (including a NOVA title match) on the card, Alex is being given the begrudging nod he's earned, and against the company's would-be replacement prospect. Bronson wins the title at the fifth Unleashed card the next month, and then...yeah. Where is Alex on that card? In a losing effort to Damian Goch, an indy star well on his way to accepting that NOVA would be someone else's spotlight..
Carson's become desperate, though. Now, he's always telling Alex that. He's confiding in Alex as never before. In the biggest irony of the whole company, the man Carson has tried so hard to bury over the years by keeping him always just on the cusp of a breakthrough is suddenly desperately needed to keep everything together. Alex is booked in October to help launch another would-be hot prospect, Tupra, who will dance as Alex has danced over the years, perhaps forever, perhaps never to realize his full potential. Alex realizes too late that Carson has actually used him, that he used Alex to bury another potential Koba, another potential Bronson, because looking back, he sees that Tupra had exactly that potential, but in being clipped off at the knees...
Still, he doesn't have too much time to feel bad, as he helps launch Anton Jericho into the next level in November. Jericho is part of the emerging next generation of NOVA stars, and he's just found himself, one of the first stars NOVA has genuinely created. The experience of working with him at this point in Anton's career is enough for Alex and Scott to remember him later, when they've been granted permission by WPW to write their own checks, so to speak.
It's important to remember, too, that this is the period where NOVA undergoes a drastic format change that sweeps the rest of the wrestling landscape before long. Having been exposed years ago as scripted, wrestling had struggled to find a way to reclaim a semblance of credibility. NOVA's solution is to give real value to wins and losses. The idea is that a win will advance you further up the card, until you've earned a shot in the main event. Everyone has a fair chance now, and fresh matchups are guaranteed every month, the spirit of NOVA's competition-based mentality. Those who rack up a lot of wins will deserve competing for and winning championships, and holding on to them for long stretches at a time (even if NOVA itself will never quite figure out how to keep someone champion for very long).
In theory, it's the greatest thing to ever happen to professional wrestling. In practice...it's frustrating. The gods truly must smile on you. When they do everything's great, and you instantly look like a million bucks. But if they don't...And Alex fears that once and for all Carson has actually devised the perfect system to justify keeping him down, where hotter fresher names will find Alex low on the card, even if they have less real talent...Case in point, a loss to Oliver Pine, another guy who will never live up to his potential, in December...
But again, all this changes in 2017...!
Elsewhere, Steve Williams begins his campaign for greatness in RoG, which has suddenly lit up hotter than NOVA, thanks to realizing just how far behind it'd fallen in recent years. Names like Williams, Nero, Bobby Brisco, Gorilla Graham, and Freddie Hammond emerge as the futures of WPW and NWW. In NWW, meanwhile, Andy Lethal begins to emerge as a breakout star, years before he and Iron Henry join NOVA. And who's that in October? Bronson! But much, much more on in in 2017. And 2018. And 2019...And...In WPW, Paul Tugend continues to prove that he's the face of the company for the foreseeable future. And least, until Alex arrives...
Things get interesting in March. The Russian Koba, the monster of a machine who is only just beginning to steamroll the sport of professional wrestling, lobbies hard to work with Alex. Colt Carson, the perennial prig who succeeds with the cult promotion NOVA despite himself but will never admit it, is dead-set against it. He won't budge. It's actually the first crack in his grip on Koba, but he doesn't know it. Koba knows what he wants, and he's already important enough in the company despite having arrived only last September where Carson is forced to take his demands seriously. But not without a price. This is a fight Koba has been waging on Alex's behalf for months. While Scott had headlined a couple cards over NOVA's three-year existence, Alex never has, despite being one of its most dependable performers. But in Alex's case, it's made him easy to take for granted.
Koba, though, knows what he sees, and he threatens to walk away if Carson doesn't give him what he wants. Carson's retaliation is swift and brutal: Koba's forced to drop the NOVA title to Oz Hedges at Idolwild. The backlash from fans effectively tanks Oz's popular career, even though he'll go on to certain success in WPW, just nowhere near where he might have if he hadn't been branded a stooge backstage. Koba will walk away after July, and end up with the same impactful career he'd left behind, taking his eternal fight with Bronson into NWW and perhaps one day even beyond, once Bronson's made his transition to WPW. Time will tell. Bronson is a guy who realizes Koba has been given a raw deal, and talks his way into NOVA merely to help point it out, but he has bite behind his bark, and he becomes more successful than even Koba, and in a shorter length of time, and leaves even sooner, just as fed up with Carson's bullshit.
They're the first chinks in the company's armor, but because guys like Alex stay, it survives. Actually, it's because guys like Alex stay that it survives, because they stick around precisely to prove it's endurable. But even Alex leaves as soon as he hits it big, a year later...
The match with Koba, at the Pink Mist card in March, becomes Alex's signature, the match that makes his career, solidifies it, makes everyone really sit up and pay attention. He breaks all his rules. For one night he embodies everything he'd previously feared. Koba knows as well as he does that his reigns with the kendo championship didn't mean what his reputation became because of them, but that he'll have to use brutality in order to sell his ability to keep up in this clash. He in fact uses a kendo stick at various points, never with the signature monkey flip, never again, but every other thrilling variation he can imagine. It's enough to give Koba his longest match to that point in the company. Alex loses the match, and the next month is given a complete throwaway match with the eternally overwhelmed Gabe Parkman. Koba keeps the title a few more months before dropping it permanently, to "Stunner" Steve Williams, who makes it seem credible while Koba works his greatest, and career-defining, NOVA match with Bronson in July's Warrior card, just a few months before Bronson repeats history, claiming the NOVA title and quickly walking out on the company...
Alex is nowhere to be seen the next two months, after the pointless Parkman match. He resurfaces on the same Warrior card, once again battling Scott. His pal is well on his way to solidifying the slow burn "Beast" character he'll one day elevate to WPW in the Helton/Peavy feud to end them all, their names changed but their chemistry once and forever intact. This is all Koba needs to tell Bronson he needs to work with Alex, too, and the lobbying to make that happen...But it does. At Three Rules in August, Alex and Bronson compete in a stretcher match. The company had actually ditched the gimmick championships by this point, hoping to legitimize its business to mainstream fans, but this is the card where they will always live on, year after year. By being placed in one of the eponymous "rules" matches (including a NOVA title match) on the card, Alex is being given the begrudging nod he's earned, and against the company's would-be replacement prospect. Bronson wins the title at the fifth Unleashed card the next month, and then...yeah. Where is Alex on that card? In a losing effort to Damian Goch, an indy star well on his way to accepting that NOVA would be someone else's spotlight..
Carson's become desperate, though. Now, he's always telling Alex that. He's confiding in Alex as never before. In the biggest irony of the whole company, the man Carson has tried so hard to bury over the years by keeping him always just on the cusp of a breakthrough is suddenly desperately needed to keep everything together. Alex is booked in October to help launch another would-be hot prospect, Tupra, who will dance as Alex has danced over the years, perhaps forever, perhaps never to realize his full potential. Alex realizes too late that Carson has actually used him, that he used Alex to bury another potential Koba, another potential Bronson, because looking back, he sees that Tupra had exactly that potential, but in being clipped off at the knees...
Still, he doesn't have too much time to feel bad, as he helps launch Anton Jericho into the next level in November. Jericho is part of the emerging next generation of NOVA stars, and he's just found himself, one of the first stars NOVA has genuinely created. The experience of working with him at this point in Anton's career is enough for Alex and Scott to remember him later, when they've been granted permission by WPW to write their own checks, so to speak.
It's important to remember, too, that this is the period where NOVA undergoes a drastic format change that sweeps the rest of the wrestling landscape before long. Having been exposed years ago as scripted, wrestling had struggled to find a way to reclaim a semblance of credibility. NOVA's solution is to give real value to wins and losses. The idea is that a win will advance you further up the card, until you've earned a shot in the main event. Everyone has a fair chance now, and fresh matchups are guaranteed every month, the spirit of NOVA's competition-based mentality. Those who rack up a lot of wins will deserve competing for and winning championships, and holding on to them for long stretches at a time (even if NOVA itself will never quite figure out how to keep someone champion for very long).
In theory, it's the greatest thing to ever happen to professional wrestling. In practice...it's frustrating. The gods truly must smile on you. When they do everything's great, and you instantly look like a million bucks. But if they don't...And Alex fears that once and for all Carson has actually devised the perfect system to justify keeping him down, where hotter fresher names will find Alex low on the card, even if they have less real talent...Case in point, a loss to Oliver Pine, another guy who will never live up to his potential, in December...
But again, all this changes in 2017...!
Elsewhere, Steve Williams begins his campaign for greatness in RoG, which has suddenly lit up hotter than NOVA, thanks to realizing just how far behind it'd fallen in recent years. Names like Williams, Nero, Bobby Brisco, Gorilla Graham, and Freddie Hammond emerge as the futures of WPW and NWW. In NWW, meanwhile, Andy Lethal begins to emerge as a breakout star, years before he and Iron Henry join NOVA. And who's that in October? Bronson! But much, much more on in in 2017. And 2018. And 2019...And...In WPW, Paul Tugend continues to prove that he's the face of the company for the foreseeable future. And least, until Alex arrives...
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Monkey Flip: NOVA 2015
It's 2015, and Alex is still two years away from destiny, two years away from feeling like he's actually accomplished something, two years away from feeling like he's got any real worth...
For January's annual Idolwild card, the one NOVA always uses to introduce its latest acquisitions, Alex learns that he's working against Mistico, a wrestler who's adopted a famous moniker but who will never, like Sin Cara in another reality, amount to much as a commodity in the United States. Still, Colt Carson loves Mistico, and so he's booked to have a strong initial push, and that means a win over Alex, which means Alex has to work overtime to get him over, whatever he has to do, which because Mistico has virtually no experience outside of Mexico, basically everything. This one match puts so much psychological strain on Alex, he questions all over again whether he really wants to continue pushing this dream forward. What fans typically refer to as botches, happen practically once a minute. He's a mess once he reaches backstage, a sparsely catered ghost corridor, and throws up.
He begs Carson to let him work with Scott again. This will always be Alex's go-to solution. He's scheduled to work against Damian Goch, in yet another grueling kendo championship program, but Carson is tiring of Alex and gives in without much fuss, so the spot and the title go to Idan Judd, an upstart former Olympian who will never live up to his potential, who Alex will wrestle in April for the title, Idan's last match with the promotion, an unmitigated disaster of a match that further erodes Alex's self-esteem. To the paying fans he seems better than fine, but privately he's falling apart. For March's card, he's booked in a tornado title match where all he needs to do is put over the increasingly popular Cairo Brown, who has definitely been paying his dues, which will show when WPW comes calling for him, just like Alex.
In May, Alex shepherds the green Lloyd Cole, who will never amount to anything, in a basic and unsatisfying kendo match, before transitioning back to Brown in June, in a match Alex finally feels ready to cut loose. It's the end of his third and final run with the title, but Alex is more than ready to move on. Even if his preferred use of kendo sticks is graceful, contrary to the familiar brutality of the weapon, fans more often than not prefer Carson into delivering the expected. Of course there was a reason Alex never went with that style, because it's brutal and destroys the body. He can name plenty of colleagues who perform in constant pain because of these expectations, and he desperately wants to avoid becoming one of them. Brown obliges, and they spend half the match performing Alex's signature kendo stick monkey flip. When the bell finally rings, and he's tapped out to Brown's River Song, Alex does one last flip, of the kendo stick into the crowd, a symbolic ending to this phase of his career.
In July, he teams with Scott in another tornado title match, and they become one of the rare duos to compete on successive cards together in NOVA's variation of tag team matches, winning both times. As one of four matches at Three Rules in August, it's a testament to Alex's emerging job security with the company. Even Carson can no longer deny his significance to the company. Alex and Scott work a third tornado title match at Unleashed IV, the annual card celebrating NOVA's inception, this time on opposing teams.
Because he continues to win these matches, Alex is blindsided when he's left off December's card. NOVA holds one card a month where the whole roster might be expected to appear; their one hour weekly shows, because in the grand scheme of things they're a small company that makes sporadic house show dates, only have so much space to spotlight the roster. He spends a lot of time in an unfulfilling real estate career, hoping one day to put it behind him. The last thing he wants is to be showing houses during the last show of the year.
He also has to admit to a certain amount of professional jealousy: NOVA has signed one of the hottest prospects wrestling will see for the next half-dozen years, the Russian Koba, who makes his debut at Unleashed IV. Koba is pushed all the way to the top almost instantly, a fighting machine the lacks of which have rarely been seen, who so thoroughly dominates everyone he meets that he fairly decimates them. Unlike a lot of monsters who are monsters simply because they're limited workers, Koba understands the business so well it's virtually impossible to keep up with him. Alex realizes for the first time that perhaps his limited growth is a product of his limited skills, that if he wants to be seen as the best he has to be the best. He watches Koba and he wonders...In a few years time he'll have figured it all out.
Elsewhere in 2015, "Hustle" Paul Tugend emerges as the new face of WPW, the very man Alex is destined to succeed. In NWW, Iron Henry becomes the third generation in his family to ascend that company's ladder of success. He'll later compete in NOVA at the same level and help revitalize the company, what some will call an evolution. In RoG, BM Pro completes his transformation by winning the Super 8 a second time (this time against some true future standouts, including "Stunner" Steve Williams and Tommy Hart), and then winning the company's heavyweight title before abruptly jumping ship to WPW, where he will quickly dominate its ACW brand, foreshadowing his emergence as a superstar who will one day compete against Alex at World Famous under very similar circumstances...
For January's annual Idolwild card, the one NOVA always uses to introduce its latest acquisitions, Alex learns that he's working against Mistico, a wrestler who's adopted a famous moniker but who will never, like Sin Cara in another reality, amount to much as a commodity in the United States. Still, Colt Carson loves Mistico, and so he's booked to have a strong initial push, and that means a win over Alex, which means Alex has to work overtime to get him over, whatever he has to do, which because Mistico has virtually no experience outside of Mexico, basically everything. This one match puts so much psychological strain on Alex, he questions all over again whether he really wants to continue pushing this dream forward. What fans typically refer to as botches, happen practically once a minute. He's a mess once he reaches backstage, a sparsely catered ghost corridor, and throws up.
He begs Carson to let him work with Scott again. This will always be Alex's go-to solution. He's scheduled to work against Damian Goch, in yet another grueling kendo championship program, but Carson is tiring of Alex and gives in without much fuss, so the spot and the title go to Idan Judd, an upstart former Olympian who will never live up to his potential, who Alex will wrestle in April for the title, Idan's last match with the promotion, an unmitigated disaster of a match that further erodes Alex's self-esteem. To the paying fans he seems better than fine, but privately he's falling apart. For March's card, he's booked in a tornado title match where all he needs to do is put over the increasingly popular Cairo Brown, who has definitely been paying his dues, which will show when WPW comes calling for him, just like Alex.
In May, Alex shepherds the green Lloyd Cole, who will never amount to anything, in a basic and unsatisfying kendo match, before transitioning back to Brown in June, in a match Alex finally feels ready to cut loose. It's the end of his third and final run with the title, but Alex is more than ready to move on. Even if his preferred use of kendo sticks is graceful, contrary to the familiar brutality of the weapon, fans more often than not prefer Carson into delivering the expected. Of course there was a reason Alex never went with that style, because it's brutal and destroys the body. He can name plenty of colleagues who perform in constant pain because of these expectations, and he desperately wants to avoid becoming one of them. Brown obliges, and they spend half the match performing Alex's signature kendo stick monkey flip. When the bell finally rings, and he's tapped out to Brown's River Song, Alex does one last flip, of the kendo stick into the crowd, a symbolic ending to this phase of his career.
In July, he teams with Scott in another tornado title match, and they become one of the rare duos to compete on successive cards together in NOVA's variation of tag team matches, winning both times. As one of four matches at Three Rules in August, it's a testament to Alex's emerging job security with the company. Even Carson can no longer deny his significance to the company. Alex and Scott work a third tornado title match at Unleashed IV, the annual card celebrating NOVA's inception, this time on opposing teams.
Because he continues to win these matches, Alex is blindsided when he's left off December's card. NOVA holds one card a month where the whole roster might be expected to appear; their one hour weekly shows, because in the grand scheme of things they're a small company that makes sporadic house show dates, only have so much space to spotlight the roster. He spends a lot of time in an unfulfilling real estate career, hoping one day to put it behind him. The last thing he wants is to be showing houses during the last show of the year.
He also has to admit to a certain amount of professional jealousy: NOVA has signed one of the hottest prospects wrestling will see for the next half-dozen years, the Russian Koba, who makes his debut at Unleashed IV. Koba is pushed all the way to the top almost instantly, a fighting machine the lacks of which have rarely been seen, who so thoroughly dominates everyone he meets that he fairly decimates them. Unlike a lot of monsters who are monsters simply because they're limited workers, Koba understands the business so well it's virtually impossible to keep up with him. Alex realizes for the first time that perhaps his limited growth is a product of his limited skills, that if he wants to be seen as the best he has to be the best. He watches Koba and he wonders...In a few years time he'll have figured it all out.
Elsewhere in 2015, "Hustle" Paul Tugend emerges as the new face of WPW, the very man Alex is destined to succeed. In NWW, Iron Henry becomes the third generation in his family to ascend that company's ladder of success. He'll later compete in NOVA at the same level and help revitalize the company, what some will call an evolution. In RoG, BM Pro completes his transformation by winning the Super 8 a second time (this time against some true future standouts, including "Stunner" Steve Williams and Tommy Hart), and then winning the company's heavyweight title before abruptly jumping ship to WPW, where he will quickly dominate its ACW brand, foreshadowing his emergence as a superstar who will one day compete against Alex at World Famous under very similar circumstances...
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Brothers, at the Last (Monster/Frankenstein) Chapter 4
They're seated at dinner, enjoying each other's company, and Henry can't believe his luck. The most beautiful woman he's ever seen is in love with him. She keeps grabbing his hands across the table. She calls herself Olive. He doesn't think twice about it. They're waiting for the food, but the food doesn't matter, does it? Nothing else is real anymore. This is everything, Henry's whole world. He's forgotten the rest of it.
There's a toddler seated near them, part of a large party of people obviously enjoying themselves, even while the toddler pitches a fit. Henry can't tell why and he doesn't care about that, either. It's strange, he think vaguely, that he doesn't care. He wonders that the man seated next to the toddler looks familiar, but he's so distracted, he doesn't care about that, either. His whole world is Olive, and it surely always will be. She's laughing at something, and he pretends he understands, but really he doesn't understand anything anymore, and doesn't care about that, either. When love finds you, that's all that matters.
The toddler won't stop its tantrum. Henry finally takes a closer look, and sees that it's a girl, and then he looks at the man, and he's startled to see that it's Sabin. How is that even possible? They've been sharing more and more of their secrets. He's completed his genealogy, and now he knows the truth, that he's descended from a mad scientist named Victor Frankenstein, and that Sabin was created by this ancestor, and...Last week they found out that Sabin lost his tenure. Last week they found out that everything they'd taken for granted was over. Last week he saw Sabin angry, truly angry, for the first time, and it was...it was terrifying. There is no greater anger than the kind generated by intelligent minds, and Sabin is easily the smartest man Henry ever knew.
He panicked. He didn't even think twice of abandoning the man. After all, he suddenly had something far better in his life.
Sabin doesn't look in his direction at all. He's finding ways of calming the toddler, and they're working. Henry suddenly wonders if he's the only one who even noticed, who cared, and he's shocked at the irony.
The food arrives, and Olive winks at him, because for her this is truly a special occasion, indulging herself in her favorite food, which she never eats, because life in the modern age is about denial, because there's no greater sin than being true to yourself, but rather conforming to hideous standards that look great on the surface but are...
He steals another glance at Sabin, and he feels awful. They'd come to mean so much to each other. He doesn't understand what happened, none of it. He still has the books, and he feels like a coward because of it. He should have returned them. He really should have. He doesn't know what to do with them, and it's been bothering him for weeks, the one niggling problem in his otherwise obscene good fortune of late, the miracle of Olive, who...
Wait. Sabin just winked at him, too. Of course he would know Henry was there the whole time. That's Sabin in a nutshell. Too smart for this world.
It makes him think...Olive? He remembers, like an idiot, the Row identity. Olive...Olive is Olivia Row, the latest in a long line. Sworn enemies of Sabin, employed from a long time ago to hound him to the grave. Again. By his creator, Victor Frankenstein.
Of course Sabin knew right away who she was, too. Henry feels her pulling at his hands again, and he fights the instinct to recoil. He instead excuses himself, making some brief comment about everything he's been drinking this evening. He nearly stumbles getting up, and again fights himself as he desperately wants to run out of there. He heads to the restroom. He's not surprised when Sabin enters moments later. He's standing in front of the sink, staring blankly into the mirror, and Sabin is there behind his left shoulder.
"We need to talk," the monster says.
"Certainly," Henry replies.
"She and her kind have stalked me all my life," the monster says. "Time for it to end. Nothing personal."
"Listen, I feel terrible...," Henry stammers. "About everything."
"The one thing I want you to understand," the monster says, "is that none of this matters. But you already knew that."
"You're in danger," Henry says.
"Story of my life," the monster says. "You never asked who I was before all this."
"His brother," Henry says. It's not something he'd discovered in his research.
"His brother," the monster says. "Somehow I think that makes all of this better. I was Victor's brother. I can't account for his thought process. He brought me back from the dead. I still managed to disappoint him. You always fear family most of all."
"Listen...," Henry says. "That makes me your brother, too."
"Yes," the monster says, and then walks back out of the restroom. Henry never sees him again.
When he emerges, Olive's gone, too. He's relieved, somehow. The whole party Sabin had been with is still there, except for Sabin and the toddler. Henry wonders. Is the child Sabin's?
He's somehow okay with the uncertainty of it. But then, he's still got the rest of his life to figure out, too.
There's a toddler seated near them, part of a large party of people obviously enjoying themselves, even while the toddler pitches a fit. Henry can't tell why and he doesn't care about that, either. It's strange, he think vaguely, that he doesn't care. He wonders that the man seated next to the toddler looks familiar, but he's so distracted, he doesn't care about that, either. His whole world is Olive, and it surely always will be. She's laughing at something, and he pretends he understands, but really he doesn't understand anything anymore, and doesn't care about that, either. When love finds you, that's all that matters.
The toddler won't stop its tantrum. Henry finally takes a closer look, and sees that it's a girl, and then he looks at the man, and he's startled to see that it's Sabin. How is that even possible? They've been sharing more and more of their secrets. He's completed his genealogy, and now he knows the truth, that he's descended from a mad scientist named Victor Frankenstein, and that Sabin was created by this ancestor, and...Last week they found out that Sabin lost his tenure. Last week they found out that everything they'd taken for granted was over. Last week he saw Sabin angry, truly angry, for the first time, and it was...it was terrifying. There is no greater anger than the kind generated by intelligent minds, and Sabin is easily the smartest man Henry ever knew.
He panicked. He didn't even think twice of abandoning the man. After all, he suddenly had something far better in his life.
Sabin doesn't look in his direction at all. He's finding ways of calming the toddler, and they're working. Henry suddenly wonders if he's the only one who even noticed, who cared, and he's shocked at the irony.
The food arrives, and Olive winks at him, because for her this is truly a special occasion, indulging herself in her favorite food, which she never eats, because life in the modern age is about denial, because there's no greater sin than being true to yourself, but rather conforming to hideous standards that look great on the surface but are...
He steals another glance at Sabin, and he feels awful. They'd come to mean so much to each other. He doesn't understand what happened, none of it. He still has the books, and he feels like a coward because of it. He should have returned them. He really should have. He doesn't know what to do with them, and it's been bothering him for weeks, the one niggling problem in his otherwise obscene good fortune of late, the miracle of Olive, who...
Wait. Sabin just winked at him, too. Of course he would know Henry was there the whole time. That's Sabin in a nutshell. Too smart for this world.
It makes him think...Olive? He remembers, like an idiot, the Row identity. Olive...Olive is Olivia Row, the latest in a long line. Sworn enemies of Sabin, employed from a long time ago to hound him to the grave. Again. By his creator, Victor Frankenstein.
Of course Sabin knew right away who she was, too. Henry feels her pulling at his hands again, and he fights the instinct to recoil. He instead excuses himself, making some brief comment about everything he's been drinking this evening. He nearly stumbles getting up, and again fights himself as he desperately wants to run out of there. He heads to the restroom. He's not surprised when Sabin enters moments later. He's standing in front of the sink, staring blankly into the mirror, and Sabin is there behind his left shoulder.
"We need to talk," the monster says.
"Certainly," Henry replies.
"She and her kind have stalked me all my life," the monster says. "Time for it to end. Nothing personal."
"Listen, I feel terrible...," Henry stammers. "About everything."
"The one thing I want you to understand," the monster says, "is that none of this matters. But you already knew that."
"You're in danger," Henry says.
"Story of my life," the monster says. "You never asked who I was before all this."
"His brother," Henry says. It's not something he'd discovered in his research.
"His brother," the monster says. "Somehow I think that makes all of this better. I was Victor's brother. I can't account for his thought process. He brought me back from the dead. I still managed to disappoint him. You always fear family most of all."
"Listen...," Henry says. "That makes me your brother, too."
"Yes," the monster says, and then walks back out of the restroom. Henry never sees him again.
When he emerges, Olive's gone, too. He's relieved, somehow. The whole party Sabin had been with is still there, except for Sabin and the toddler. Henry wonders. Is the child Sabin's?
He's somehow okay with the uncertainty of it. But then, he's still got the rest of his life to figure out, too.
Monday, May 22, 2017
Rue the Day (original version)
2195
“Your life
is not what you imagined it to be.”
These were words spoken by a subordinate
to her superior officer, Captain Dar of the Osprey,
a Space Corps ship of the line stationed at the border of Danab space. The speaker was Porto, Dar’s first officer,
an Omoxian who like all Omoxians lacked humility. She felt free to speak her mind, besides, at
the request of her captain, who encouraged such candor, and sat amused
listening to another of Porto’s diatribes as a result. They were debating the merit of a being of
apparent limitless power, calling itself Tenru, which had appeared in the
command center of the Osprey earlier
that day, proclaiming that it was in fact the very reason Dar was captain of
the ship. Dar was a Danab, a true rarity
of the Space Corps, as the Danab were traditionally enemies of the
organization, but she didn’t wear the traditional helm of her people, and so
her rueful expression was plain for Porto to see. They both understood that Porto was in essence
agreeing with this being’s claims.
“Unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of
believing such things,” Dar said. She
relaxed against a terminal other captains would’ve outfitted as a desk. The Osprey,
like other Space Corps ships, sat idle amidst the stars, waiting for orders
that never seemed to come, its crew ever anxious for something to do, except
fight in a war of course. That was why
most of its complement had other assignments, such as Belano, the human who
specialized as a cultural analyst, and who stood off to the side of this
exchange, equally bemused as his captain.
His fondest ambition was to be a writer.
“I’m sure no one is arguing that you ought
to, Captain,” he said.
To Belano’s right stood the perennially
anxious Sidel, another human, a security officer who was there mostly to keep
tabs on the ship’s more official guest, the Tikanni ambassador Lord Phan, who
was presently resting in his quarters. Sidel was known to harbor ulterior motives,
and wasn’t generally trusted by anyone, but his role was also essential and so
he had to be humored at all times.
“Porto isn’t suggesting that we accept
Tenru’s assertions at face value,” he said.
Across the room stood Madam Nordica, a
Puck whose role as science officer didn’t necessarily require her more
elaborate side projects, most of which made everyone nervous, especially the
ones some of them thought intersected only too well with the kind of power
Tenru had so casually demonstrated earlier, projects like studying time and
space itself.
“I think he’s pretty interesting,” she
said.
Also absent from the room was Stuart
Everest, the crewman doing the piloting, but everyone knew he had a huge crush
on Madam Nordica, and so what he
would’ve said would have come as no surprise, had he been present.
“I didn’t ask for comments,” Porto
continued. “Captain, this is a dangerous
situation. We know from the ship’s
records that this being has appeared before, seventy years ago, aboard the Virox.
We all know what happened to that ship’s crew. We have to take this threat seriously. We have to formulate a response, a decisive
one, and unfortunately I think it begins by limiting your role in events. You are already a wildcard. Tenru suggests that if it weren’t for him,
you wouldn’t even be captain. Since we
all have memories of our service under you, we have to operate under the
assumption that either he’s lying or this is already an alternate reality, and
if that’s the case, that he may have done what he did for a reason, one that is
potentially a threat to the whole Space Corps.”
“I’m afraid she’s right about that,” said
Belano. Of the crew he was Dar’s closest
ally, or at least the one she trusted the most.
“This puts us all in a tough spot.”
“I don’t have the luxury of basing my
decisions on guesswork,” Dar said. “That
wasn’t why I was given command of a starship.
We can’t exactly take everyone we encounter at face value. Our first duty is to uphold our ideals, which
we’ve often found to clash with those of others. He obviously has an ulterior motive, but it’s
my job to make sure we don’t play into it.
I’m not stepping down, not today and not tomorrow. Sorry, Porto.
You know I value your council, but not on this one.”
Everyone in that room was thinking the
same thing, and Dar knew it: she was a Danab in a world where the Danab were
the bad guys, and she was asking them to forget that.
“You’ll understand if we hesitate,” Sidel
said.
“Of course,” Dar said. “I’d hardly respect you if you didn’t. A good captain expects her crew to do nothing
less.”
“I for one am glad you’re captain,” Madam Nordica said. She let out a slight chuckle, but no one much
paid attention, because Puck were known for that sort of behavior.
“None of us mean to suggest anything
less,” Belano said.
“Certainly not,” Sidel said, though few in
the room found the words convincing.
“Captain,” Porto said, hesitating before
continuing, knowing how the room had shifted against her in the last few
minutes. “Captain, you know I support
you. I hope you don’t consider this a
personal attack, but I don’t think the best of intentions are important at the
moment. We all saw what he could
do. We know he made some of the crew
disappear and then appear again, and for a moment every one of us forgot they
ever existed. I know it’s difficult for me to reconcile such an experience,
knowing I had memories ripped from me, and then returned, knowing they were taken.
This isn’t something I can just forget.
Omoxians have long memories, too long sometimes. We value them. Fifty years from now I will remember that
moment, that void, as clearly as I
remember it now. That’s frightening. To anyone who didn’t experience it, who’ll
just hear about it as just some adventure,
it won’t mean anything, but it means a great deal to me. How am I supposed to reconcile that with what Tenru says about you?
That’s what I’m saying, Captain.
Even if it’s not for my own peace of mind, I contend that your stepping
down, even if ceremoniously, is the right call.”
“How do we know you aren’t the agent of this being’s mischief?” Dar asked. “I don’t for a moment believe that, but
that’s your argument, isn’t it? Doubt?
That’s what Tenru has really introduced, isn’t it? Doubt.
I don’t believe that’s Space Corps policy.”
“But a minute ago that’s exactly what you
said,” Porto said. “You insisted that
Space Corps exists to uphold its ideals.
But what is that but a case for doubt?
Aren’t ideals something we put forward when we don’t really have
anything better to say? Isn’t that
working doubt? It’s such a nebulous
mandate. It can mean anything. Which is to say, doubt.”
“You’re becoming a philosopher,” Dar said.
“Hold on,” Belano said. “I want to write some of that down…” If anyone else had made that remark, it
would’ve been taken as a joke.
“I appreciate your stance, Porto, but I
can’t run a ship that way,” Dar said.
“It’d be downright reckless of me.
I’d be stripped of my command first chance brass got.”
“Maybe so,” Porto said. “As I said, it wouldn’t even have to be
official, just something we did for show, for Tenru’s benefit.”
“Not acceptable,” Dar said. The way she said it made everyone in the room
aware that it was the final word in the discussion. They began filing out, until it was just Dar
and Porto, and then even Porto left, reluctantly. That was when Tenru appeared again, right in
front of the captain.
***
“I’ve just
taken your pawn off the board,” Tenru said.
Physically, he looked like any other humanoid, actually much like any
other human, as did the Danab, which meant as did Captain Dar.
“I beg your pardon?” she said, practically
choking.
“Belano, the would-be-writer,” Tenru said, lacing the last few words with
sarcasm. “You’ll find he’s quite
indisposed at the moment. Ask your pet
Puck if you don’t believe me. She’ll say
he’s fallen into an inexplicable coma state, but I can assure you I’ve placed
him into deep meditation. He’ll emerge
with more than a few good ideas for stories.
Pity he’ll only spoil them.”
Dar, still leaning against her command
terminal, tapped the communications link and called for Madam Nordica to
confirm.
“Fascinating,” Nordica replied. “Whatever he’s done, he’s once again
appearing to tell the truth.”
“Appearing,”
Tenru said, sounding hurt. “Appearing. I’ll show her. Want to know her real name? I can make it so
that you’ll never have known anything different.”
“So you said about the captain of the Virox,” Dar said. “So you say about me as well, it seems, in a
manner of speaking.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Tenru said. “It never pays to do the same trick
twice. Lesson learned. I’m proud of you, Captain!”
“Save it,” Dar said. “What do you really want?”
“I want what gods have always wanted,”
Tenru said. “I want unquestioning
devotion. No, that’s not right. I want to screw around with the insignificant
lives of mortals, of course!”
“You may think sarcasm suits you,” Dar
said. “You’d be wrong.”
“Everything suits me, Captain,” Tenru
said. “That’s kind of the point. I truly have unlimited potential. Modesty, however, is not my best virtue,
although I doubt I can be blamed for it.”
“You think you’re clever,” Dar said. “You think you’re singular. I’ve known people like you my whole life.”
“Real or imagined?” Tenru said.
“I’m not going to play your games,” Dar
said. “I’m Danab. Regardless of what you’ve attempted to
insinuate, I earned my place in the Corps, and it wasn’t easy, and by that
virtue I can assure you that I know what I’m talking about. Even if it were conjured from your bag of parlor tricks, the results still
speak for themselves. Reality however
gained must still be reconciled by each observer. My crew respects me even when they disagree
with me. How do you explain that?”
“You play by rules you fashion on the
spot,” Tenru said. “Whoever said your
perceptions have any merit? A dream is
still a dream. Your thoughts may be the
plaything of some celestial child you’ve never even conceived, let alone the
likes of me.”
“And just what are you?” Dar said. “A madman with delusions of grandeur, as far
as I can tell. I don’t fear you. You’ve already played your hand. If my life is a lie, then the lie speaks for
itself, too. Isn’t that so?”
“That’s in truth why I do this sort of
thing, every now and again,” Tenru said.
“The humanoid predilection for unearned hubris. I assure you, it’s amusing. But I don’t have to stand here listening to
this. Let your Mister Belano explain it
himself.”
Tenru vanished as easily as he’d appeared,
and in his place stood a visibly befuddled Belano. “I’m sorry, Captain, what just happened?” he asked.
“I was hoping you could answer that for
me,” Dar said. “That’s what our guest
was just telling me. But first, can you
explain what you just experienced? I was
told you were in some sort of trance?”
“It was like nothing I had experienced
before, honestly,” Belano said. “It’s
hard to describe. One minute I was
leaving an incredibly frustrating and to be frank downright mutinous officers meeting,
and the next…I’ve never taken recreational drugs, but I’m given to understand
that maybe what I saw is something users might know well enough. I became a writer because I was able to
access that feeling all on my own, thank you very much. I hated every second of it. I lost all control. It’s one thing when a story does it, but
another when there’s no obvious agent, no obvious point, nothing obvious at
all. Just a bad trip. I wish I could explain it better. It was as if my mind were stuck on a single
thought, and that thought was utter nonsense.”
“That’s all right,” Dar said. “I can sympathize. One conversation with Tenru is a thousand,
and they’re all the same. Just a lot of
preposterous posturing. I don’t need
that in my life. I have enough headaches
as it is. Did you know that a
traditional Danab helm actually serves partially as an environmental
purifier? It helps you breathe. There are days I sorely regret giving mine
up. Not for the reasons some would assume. All this business about what Tenru supposedly
did…I can’t abide it. All my instincts rebel against it. It’s my duty. Yet I still can’t help think…”
“That Porto was right,” Belano said. “Damn.
Right.”
“To lose everything I’ve achieved based on
some idiot prank,” Dar said. “Only
yesterday it would’ve been unthinkable.
The trouble we ask for…They don’t prepare you for this. You’d think they would, but they don’t. Doesn’t any of the experience of our
predecessors count for anything?”
“They say that only fools fail to learn
from history,” Belano said. “The truth
is, I think, everyone necessarily makes history themselves.”
“Damn,” Dar said. “Ever write something this screwed up?”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t know,” Belano
said.
“You think this is all about chaos?” Dar
said.
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Belano
said. “The more power someone has, the
more they’re willing to abuse it.
History says that much.”
“He said you’d be able to explain it,” Dar
said.
“Think it’s over?” Belano asked.
“Not by a long shot,” Dar said. “Unfortunately.”
“I’d love to know what our Tikanni guest
thinks about all this,” Belano said.
“They’re all so mysterious. I’m
almost afraid to know.”
“That man hasn’t spoken a word to me since
he came aboard,” Dar said. “That should
tell you something. Doubtless he’s not
even curious. But something about the
previous encounter with Tenru intrigued me, when I researched it. Lord Phan was present then, too.”
“Think there’s a connection?” Belano said.
“Only one way to find out,” Dar said.
***
Stuart
Everest was keenly aware of the fact that in the grand scheme of things, he was
a more or less inessential presence aboard the Osprey. He’d enlisted into
the Corps, which meant that whatever responsibilities he’d ever get, it would
always be over things and not people.
Some people are okay with that.
Stuart wasn’t. He was embarrassed
about how things had turned out for him, and yet he was hard-pressed to come up
with a way for his life to have been any better. His parents and their parents and so on and
so forth had never left Earth. His was
one of the very few families that could say that in the 22nd
century, with a new one clear on the horizon, a long distance off from first
contact with aliens and the subsequent rapid advancement in technology and
prospects…for everyone else, anyway.
Stuart was keenly aware of the fact that he grew up with gadgets several
generations old. When his peers in
school were playing their favorite games using the latest holography, he had to
force a grin when he unpacked actual boards on camping trips. He knew he was the laughing stock of the
class, and that was the worst part, the absolute certainty of a life that was
meaningless before it had even had a chance to become established. He paid little attention to those who
attempted to convince him otherwise. He
knew what it was like to have been left behind in the steady forward march of
civilization, and to have had no one really care.
So he enlisted in the Corps, which was
really his only option, the same as countless others before him. At least he wasn’t risking himself in some
godforsaken military outpost, as his forebears had. The Space Corps was not a military
organization, even though basic training encompassed readiness to act as such,
because space had been revealed as another untamed wilderness, in which the
hunters were rampant and the prey ripe for the picking. Earth knew all about that, thanks to the
Danab. Allies were few and tenuous at
best, whether or not a whole Galactic Alliance could be taken at face
value. Stuart considered himself a
studied cynic, and with good reason.
So when he heard about what the officers
had been discussing about the terrifying entity that had invaded the ship, how
they were talking about Captain Dar stepping down, Stuart immediately started
to worry. People like him were always
the ones to lose in a power struggle.
Norda, that is Madam Nordica (she never seemed to mind his horrible
attempts at wooing her), had been the one to tell him; of course she was. He’d been manning the navigation post as
usual (all but automated, of course), when he became aware that she was
standing behind him. Her short stature,
even when viewed from a seated position, nearly made him overlook her for the
hundredth time as Stuart swiveled round to see who was there.
“It’s okay, Stu,” Nordica said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Oh, you’re fine,” Stuart said. “Just on edge, I guess.”
“You have every right to be,” she
said. “I suppose you’re hardly the first
person to find out what goes on around here.
Must be particularly unsettling with something like Tenru making the
news. Listen, I wanted to tell you,
there’s been chatter, about our other
guest. Lord Phan. The Tikanni.”
Stuart could hardly keep all the aliens
straight. Aliens had been on Earth for
generations, too, of course, but he’d hardly ever seen any, which he was forced
to admit was probably why he had a crush on the pixyish Puck standing beside
him now. The Tikanni…they were supposed
to be one of the big shots of the early Alliance days, he vaguely
remembered. Beyond that, he knew what
everyone knew about them, that they were the physical pattern the Danab had
modeled their armor after. That meant
one thing to someone like Stuart, and that was that he associated the Tikanni
with Captain Dar, who had always made him vaguely uneasy. She looked basically like just another human,
except she wasn’t. He would’ve wanted to
die before admitting how much he was attracted to her. He practically died of
embarrassment every time she looked at him, much less addressed him…The Danab
were sort of perfect human specimens, weren’t they? Thank god
they usually wore the armor…
“Anyway, that’s not the worst of it,”
Nordica continued, before lowering her voice, keenly aware that they were not
alone, and that the person she was about to talk about was not ten feet away,
even if Porto were distracted with other matters, discussing things with Sidel,
the same things. “Our Omoxian thinks the
captain and Lord Phan are in league with one another. She not only wants Dar to relinquish command,
but for the Tikanni ambassador to be thrown off the ship. But you didn’t hear it from me.”
Stuart felt his cheeks grow flush, for a
change not because of how he felt about Norda but because he’d been having the
same thoughts, apparently, as Porto, and it was infrequent enough that their thoughts overlapped. “You don’t say,” he managed.
“Can you just imagine what they’re talking about?” Nordica said,
apparently ignoring Stuart’s reaction.
“I can’t stand them.”
Stuart said nothing in reply. For the second time in the span of minutes,
he’d been taken unawares by the sudden presence of an interloper, the being
Tenru himself, who appeared between a startled Porto and Sidel.
“I’m sorry,” the being said. “I seem to have come at a bad time. It’s bad form to show your head when
everyone’s talking about you. If it
makes you feel any better, I confess to have implanted the ideas you’ve been
entertaining. I know, I know. As I’ve been told recently, I keep playing the same hand, and what’s worse, it’s
becoming all too obvious.”
At this, Tenru gave Stuart a meaningful
look, or at least that was how Stuart took it, although he had no idea how to
interpret it. Actually, as he thought
more about it, the being seemed more sad than cunning in that moment, but no
one else seemed to notice. Sidel
actually raised a blaster at Tenru, but it quickly disappeared from his hand. Porto raised both hands in some gesture
Stuart was equally incapable of interpreting, perhaps some Omoxian signal of
which he was entirely ignorant. Or
perhaps some ability? He’d never even
considered the possibility. He read
comic books as a kid; somehow he’d never really thought about any of those
aliens possessing…superpowers. Tenru
certainly, unequivocally, had powers, and Stuart found himself terrified more
than anything. He backed away, left his
post, left the command center, didn’t even think twice about it…He never even
gave Norda a second thought.
As he made his way through the corridors,
Stuart tried to clear his thoughts, and at any rate wasn’t paying attention to
his surroundings, and so for a third time within a span of minutes he was
surprised by someone. By the Tikanni,
Lord Phan. The man was imposing, all
right. Stuart had assumed he was without
having been given a single clue about his appearance, aside from the obvious. Somehow he gave off an aged impression, but
Stuart couldn’t even begin to guess how old the Tikanni might be.
“Pardon,” was all the Tikanni said.
“Where the hell are you going?” Stuart
found himself yelling, before he could help it.
“The god thing is in that direction.
If you have any sense at all you’ll get as far away from it as you can,
like I am.”
“Child, I have experience with such
things,” Lord Phan said. And Stuart
believed him.
The Tikanni continued on his way to the
command center, and Stuart continued hurriedly in the opposite direction. He didn’t even care anymore. He was ready to quit the Space Corps. He couldn’t imagine what Captain Dar might be
thinking, defying a being like Tenru. He
never thought he’d side with Porto, much less Sidel. He hated them both.
A fourth time…Stuart turned around and saw
Belano, the would-be writer, the cultural analyst, whatever he wanted to be
called, and was immediately aware, and surprised, to find that they were headed
in the same direction. How had Belano
caught up with him?
“Sorry, sir,” Stuart said, an apology the
first thing on his lips, thinking he was in Belano’s way. He had traveled so far past panic at this
point he had lapped himself.
“Actually, you were just the man I was
looking for,” Belano said.
“I am?”
Stuart started to sweat.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Belano
continued.
“Do you mind if I faint first?”
***
2121
It was late
in the night when Melody May realized that her name was no longer her own. This she understood, but for the life of her
she couldn’t remember what it had once been. That…thing had warned them that it would do
something like this. What was its name?
Tenru. He’d accompanied the Tikanni ambassador, Lord
Phan, on a supposedly innocent diplomatic mission on behalf of the
Bith-mari. Melody was captain of the Virox, a Space Corps ship of the
line. The Bith-mari had good standing in
the Alliance, and even had some of its kind serving in the Corps. Melody was aware of one particular officer in
good standing, working alongside Jacques Mendez. Mendez didn’t have to worry about the likes
of Tenru, Melody found herself thinking, not for the first time that
night. She ordered the lights in her
cabin on, half expecting to find the being sitting there watching her. She suppressed a shudder, not for the first
time that day.
Tenru and Lord Phan had met them at Riva,
where the crew was to conduct a survey mission as a mere formality. No one expected to find anything of note
there, except their forthcoming visitors, who had business of their own
there. Melody supposed that she
should’ve known what that business was ahead of time, but that was
hindsight. There was nothing on Riva to
see, except the two strange individuals the Tikanni later claimed had gone
there for the very isolated nature of the planet that otherwise made it so
insignificant in the grand scheme of things, except as a battlefield in one of
the Vendaran wars no one particularly found to be of any note, as there were so
many Vendaran wars even the Vendarans probably lost count a long time ago. Supposedly Tenru had wanted a place he could
really let loose, which was how Lord Phan had described it. Again, no one bothered to find out exactly
what that meant until it was too late.
Melody had gone to the planet’s surface
along with Eddo, her Omoxian first officer, and one of the crewmen. Before they left, Melody hadn’t even bothered
to learn his name, which was to become her life’s greatest regret. His was the first life she ever lost under
her command. The name became emblazoned
into her memory from that point forward.
Somehow she’d placed more emphasis on Eddo’s kid sister, Porto, who had
been shadowing her for the past few weeks, still unsure as to whether or not
the Corps was for her. The first thought
Melody had had, when it happened, was that thank god it hadn’t been her. To her everlasting shame.
Melody and her team exited their
shuttlepod to a bleak landscape only dreamers would’ve loved. At first they weren’t sure that they had
landed at the right coordinates. There
was nothing around for miles, or so it seemed.
Eddo was the first to spot Tenru and Lord Phan, tiny specks on the
horizon. She suggested it was good
enough for the purposes of their survey, and so they all took out their
scanners. The crewman seemed nervous; he
was the only one brave enough to show it.
They could hear loud cracks reverberate in the atmosphere, which were
easy to dismiss as some form of local weather that only needed later
examining. Melody took another look in
the direction of their forthcoming guests, and thought that perhaps they were
fighting. She could see the distinctive
glow of a psiglaive, projected out of the hand of the Tikanni. It was common knowledge that their species
had mastered the art of that unique blade.
That should have been her first warning.
Instead, she nodded at Eddo, and together they continued their
scans. The crewman held back behind
them.
Her communications patch beeped. It was her security officer, Slone. “Anything wrong down there?” his voice called
out. “We’re reading some nasty stuff
going on. Just flared out before you
touched down. Mister Homage says there’s
the real possibility of a fight. Northup
concurs. I really wish you’d taken me
with you.”
Homage was their Puck science officer, who
was directing the survey from the ship, where he could analyze the data in
real-time. Northup was their cultural
analyst.
“Captain, I think one of our guests has
powers we didn’t know about,” Northup’s voice chimed in. “Could be god-level. The only thing that could prove a real
challenge for a Tikanni.”
“There was nothing about that in the
briefing,” Melody said.
“Such details are often omitted,” Eddo
said.
“Yeah,” the crewman added. “The important
stuff.”
Melody tried to hide her annoyance. She’d always believed that crewmen were the
most expendable personnel aboard starships.
Another thing she’d regret.
“Let’s…move forward. They’re
still our guests for the next few weeks, aren’t they?”
“Captain, I won’t let harm come to you,”
Eddo said. Omoxians were so far along
the evolutionary ladder, Melody had no doubt her first officer had a few tricks
up her sleeve, too. Suddenly she was
keen to find them out.
As they got closer, it was apparent that
Tenru was winning the fight, although it wasn’t clear how, since unlike Lord
Phan he was unarmed. That didn’t stop
him from parrying all of the Tikanni’s sword thrusts. The effect was mesmerizing, like watching a
pantomime with real stakes. There was no
reason to believe either combatant was taking it easy on their opponent. They expected a victor. In all her life, Melody had never seen a
Tikanni so vulnerable. That was when she
began to feel fear, or at least allow herself to acknowledge it. Her hand hovered over the communications
patch, almost willing it to contact Slone for her. She closed the gap between herself and Eddo.
The instant Tenru became aware of their
presence, he quit the contest, and Lord Phan followed suit in short order. They each bowed toward Melody, and that was
the first time anyone had done that to her, let alone two people. Her anxiety became bafflement.
That was, in hindsight, the exact moment
her name changed forever. “Captain May,”
Tenru said in greeting. “Melody. So glad to meet you.”
If anyone had been surprised by the name,
they didn’t let it register. She herself
had a moment, a split instant of confusion, but then accepted it as fact. “My crew was impressed with your display,”
she said in reply.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Tenru
said. “Lord Phan here has been a worthy
foe, but I’m looking for a new challenge.”
“I’ll do it,” Eddo said, immediately
stepping in. “No weapons necessary,
thank you.”
Melody was grateful, nodding her approval,
aware of how eager her first officer seemed.
But the fight never happened.
Tenru scoffed at Eddo, and instead turned his attention on the crewman,
who immediately vanished from the face of the planet.
“Penalty,” was all Tenru said, at
first. Then he shook hands with Lord
Phan, who did not offer his assent to what had just occurred, before turning
back to Melody. “Bring me to your ship.”
It must have been something he did with
his mind, making her overlook the disappearance of the crewman, what she
understood even then to have been his death, because that was exactly what she
did. Eddo was visibly upset, but that
was her prerogative, right? It was Melody’s
to make command decisions, surely. They
all entered the shuttlepod minutes later, minus the crewman, and Tenru insisted
on being shown his quarters when they returned to the Virox.
Hours later, only beginning to realize how
much Tenru had already violated the basic rules of reality, she sat awake in
the middle of the night, and remembered something much more important, the name
of the crewman, and shuddered violently.
Stuart
Everest.
***
What had and
hadn’t happened, what had and hadn’t been said, had already become a problem to
keep straight. Melody fought through the
mental fog and reached for her communications link beside the bed. “Captain May to Slone,” she began. “I need to know what you and Northup have
come up with concerning our guest.”
“Captain?” Slone’s voice called out,
filled with uncertainty Melody had never heard from it. “I’m sorry, what were you asking?”
“Our guest,” she said, agitation creeping
in. “What have you found out?”
But Slone’s voice didn’t respond again. She tried Northup directly. Then Mister Homage. Then Eddo, although she knew her first
officer was in deep meditation at that hour.
No responses from anyone.
“Captain May,” the voice of Lord Phan
called out. Now Melody was becoming
frightened. “I’ve taken the liberty of
inspecting your ship this evening, and I believe I may have some unpleasant
answers for you. For one, you may look
out your port window.”
She did as requested. The stars were spiraling. The
ship was spiraling. There was no one
at navigation. Now she was becoming
perturbed. She quickly slipped into a
uniform and went to investigate. Someone
was going to be in trouble. Her mind
drifted to the crewman she’d lost. The
last job he’d done aboard ship was acting as pilot, a job no one took
seriously. It was far too routine in a
starship as sophisticated as the Virox.
Along the way, she encountered Mister
Homage, who seemed to be in a daze.
Melody walked right past him.
When she reached the command center, Melody saw Slone staring blankly
ahead, apparently worse off than the Puck.
Although he wasn’t looking at anything, in front of him was Lord Phan,
and Tenru. Lord Phan had his psiglaive
extended, although it wasn’t pointed at the man he had been dueling earlier on
Riva. It rested absently at his side.
“Everyone onboard, except for myself and
you, has had their intelligence reduced to nil by Tenru,” he said, calmly. “I expect he knew he couldn’t affect me. You, on the other hand.”
“Damn,” Melody said. She noticed that Tenru seemed mesmerized by
the empty navigation station, as if he’d overheard her thoughts about the
suddenly absent pilot, Stuart Everest.
“It never occurred to me,” he said. For a while he didn’t continue the
thought. “That man might have been
something important. This was going to
be nothing but fun and games, you understand, and it was, for a brief moment,
and then I thought, that man might have been something important. I heard you think it, and then I looked back
and saw that man’s whole life. I mean, I
really looked. Do you know what I mean?”
For a split instant, Melody could swear
that she wasn’t looking at Tenru at all, but Stuart Everest. She no longer knew what was real and what
wasn’t.
“I would advise you to leave the command
center at once,” Lord Phan said. “I will
deal with Tenru myself.”
“No,” Melody said, absently. “That’s okay.
I’m the captain of this ship. For
what other reason but situations like this?
No, I’m not leaving.”
The Tikanni offered no further reply. He switched off the psiglaive. It vanished from his hand completely. Melody found fury building within her.
“Get off my ship,” she found herself
saying to Tenru, a being of limitless power, who had already ably demonstrated
it. Had she lost her mind?
“I think I will, actually,” Tenru
said. And then he vanished, too. Not like Stuart Everest, but all the same he
was gone, just like that. Melody and
Lord Phan exchanged looks, and then she started sobbing. The Tikanni said nothing.
Slone sparked back to life the next
instant, and then a minute or two later, Eddo entered the command center,
followed somewhat irregularly by her sister Porto, who seemed to have been
crying, too.
“What just happened?” Eddo demanded.
“I don’t understand…” Porto said, to no
one in particular, still sobbing lightly.
There was no clear way to know what she was talking about. She didn’t even seem to be aware that her
older sister was still there beside her.
“She’ll have to go,” Melody said,
softly. Eddo assented, and nodded to her
sister. Only Slone seemed not to notice
the dagger in the room.
“Whatever it was,” he said, “He’s really
gone. I’ll write up a full report. I think that’s the only thing that’s going to
happen next.”
Melody watched as Lord Phan left the
command center. She felt vaguely that
she should stop him, but knew with certainty that he had had nothing to do with
Tenru’s actions, that he was likely the only reason things hadn’t been worse,
and sooner. Wasn’t he just an
ambassador? She made a mental note to
look up his profile later, but never did.
“Sounds good,” she said. “I’ll…go back to my quarters. Eddo, I hope you don’t mind if I ask you to
stay.”
“Not at all, Captain,” her first officer
replied.
“Slone,” Melody said, before heading
off. “Make sure someone takes
navigation.”
As she settled back into bed, later,
Melody again felt the nagging suspicion, about her name, about what had been
lost so easily. No, not just about her
name. About Stuart Everest. And whatever it was that had happened to him,
and to Tenru. She suspected that it was
Tenru who had lost the most in this encounter…
***
2195
“I don’t
understand,” Stuart said.
After their talk, Belano had brought him
to see Captain Dar, who by then had fully briefed herself on Melody May’s
encounter with Tenru. Stuart had never
had a conversation with the captain, naturally, and felt vaguely that it was
wrong under any circumstances for
that to change now.
“What does this mean?” he continued. “Am I the same man? Am I the Stuart Everest who served under
Captain May?”
“I believe I can answer that,” Tenru said,
blinking back into existence before the little group. None of them seemed surprised anymore. Just prior to this, the being had encountered
Lord Phan one more time. Again the
Tikanni raised his weapon at Tenru, and again they clashed, and Tenru was
astonished. “Just how long do you expect
to live, anyway?”
“Long enough,” Lord Phan had replied. His opponent sensing the futility of the
encounter, vanished again, only to appear before Dar once more. Then he whisked her away, along with Stuart
Everest.
At first Dar was confused, unable to
comprehend her surroundings. Then Stuart
piped up. “This is Apogee,” he said,
nervously. “An Omoxian colony claimed by
the Danab during the Correlian War. A
lot of lives were lost here. I was
always told it was cursed. I don’t like
being here, Captain.”
“I don’t understand,” Dar said.
“Naturally,” Tenru said. “You don’t remember ever being here, of
course. That was your old life. The one I took away from you. The least you could’ve showed me was a little
gratitude, but I suppose it’s my lot in life.
Such as it were. Do someone a favor…”
“I’m afraid that’s not good enough,” Dar
said, crossing her arms. “I don’t abide
riddles. You’re going to have to explain
exactly what you mean.”
“Look around you,” Tenru said. “What do you see?”
“The same as on any other world conquered
by the Danab,” Dar said. “The bones of a
previous civilization crudely covered over.
All plant life gone. Military
barracks as far as the eye can see. A
scorched earth. A bad place to live.”
“Precisely,” Tenru said. “A very thorough analysis indeed. That’s the kind of thinking that won you
command of a starship, my good lady.”
“But more importantly,” Dar said slowly,
trying to maintain her cool, “what does it have to do with me?”
“Everything,” Tenru said. “Everything!
If not for me, you would’ve lived here.
Died here. A thoroughly unremarkable
existence. Sad. A tragic loss for the universe.”
“I don’t believe you,” Dar said.
“A bee does not require the belief of a
fish to pollinate,” Tenru said. “All I
can do is show you; the rest is up to you.”
Dar and Stuart Everest then began to watch
time unfold, at first rewind and then move forward, so that nothing was
omitted. They saw everything. They saw the Omoxians come to Apogee, already
at the apex of their evolution, bringing their light to a dim world. They saw plants spring forth from the ground,
a miracle of terraforming. They saw
magnificent architecture rise into the very atmosphere. They saw Tikanni, Vanadi, and Vitell come
here, the Welborn, the Bith-mari, all of them, even the Puck, taking their
little recording devices and stealing as much inspiration as possible, as they
always did. They saw the Hesslans come,
they saw the Vendarans. They saw the
first Danab troops. They saw hellish
fighting. They saw the Omoxians leave
Apogee behind forever. They saw the
Danab carve themselves into the planet. They
saw a young mother walking idly, a look of worry on her face. They saw a little girl walking alongside the same
woman. They saw the girl grow, until she
unmistakably resembled Dar. They saw Dar
in utter isolation from the rest of her people, the Danab. They saw the look of defeat on her face. They saw what no one in recorded history had
ever seen: they saw a Danab cry. They
saw her, when she thought no one was watching, rage in utter impotence against
the universe. They saw her growing
older. They saw her utterly
defeated. They saw a lonely grave.
And Dar was convinced. But the show had not yet ended. They saw Tenru visit the grave, the one
visitor ever. They saw Tenru raise the
other Dar from the grave. They saw Tenru
and the other Dar converse, but they did not hear what was said. They saw the other Dar fall to the scarred
earth again. And they saw Tenru vanish.
“What happened to Stuart?” Dar
demanded. She was angry now.
“Nothing,” Tenru said. “Everything.
I confess I don’t know. When he
was taken off the board, as it were, when he was still just a lowly crewman on
a ship called the Virox, I
transplanted him, body and soul, to a new life, as a lowly crewman on a ship
called the Osprey. All I did was convince everyone that he
belonged, and he was accepted, just as he was.
Accepted, should I say, as a
nothing. Which is to say, nothing at
all. I never understood how you claimed
to value life, but let life be neglected so easily. Humanoids.”
“I recognize no claim on your part that
allows you to judge us,” Dar said.
“Typical,” Tenru said. “I expected better of you. That’s why I gave you a second chance.”
“I believe you’re nothing but a liar,” Dar
said.
“Said the fish to the bee,” Tenru said.
“Stop the ride,” Stuart said. “I want to get off.”
“What did you say?” Tenru asked,
astonishment in his voice.
“I said…” Stuart begin.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Tenru said. “I know what you said. But you finally said it! I’ve been waiting a very long time for those
words. You’ve no idea!”
***
“I think I
know what’s going on here,” Dar said.
“Pray tell,” Tenru said.
“You don’t understand us at all,” Dar
said.
“I believe I just said that,” Tenru
replied.
“What I mean is,” Dar said, “all this, all
your nonsense, whether you yourself believe, whether you expect us to believe it, it’s all because you
don’t understand us, but you want to. This is some kind of test. I never did abide unethical behavior in the
sciences, and this takes it to a whole new level.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking
about,” Tenru said. “You don’t even know
where to begin! I’ll have to show you,
again.”
They were transported, all three of them,
one more time. When they materialized
again, there were only two, Dar and Tenru.
The captain thought to herself, that’s about right.
But then she saw where they were, and it
was on Earth, in Copenhagen, on the grounds of the Space Corps Academy, where
she herself had studied what now seemed a lifetime ago. A
lifetime ago…There was another mother, a human one this time, walking the
grounds, pregnant and about ready to give birth, by the looks of her. Dar couldn’t be sure; she’d never studied
human birth. There was still much to her
that was purely Danab. There was so much
that was the same, but they were also worlds apart. At any rate, the mother-to-be was talking to
herself, but more likely to her unborn baby.
Dar wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard her say…Stuart?
“I’ll make things right,” she was
saying. “You’ll have the life I never
did. You’ll make something of
yourself. You’ll be here as a cadet, not
just a visitor. You’ll…”
There was just time to see her begin to
cry when time accelerated to a hospital room.
A doctor was standing beside the woman, looking grim.
“I’m sorry,” he was saying. “We did everything we could. Please accept my deepest condolences.”
Later, alone, the woman was crying again
when she suddenly felt something move within her. Just above her, although she herself didn’t
see it, hovered Tenru, a separate Tenru.
The other was still standing beside Dar; she checked, twice, to make
sure. A deep glow emitted from the woman
in that moment, and then the second Tenru vanished. Dar watched as the woman gave birth, and then
saw as the child, Stuart Everest, grew. There
were instances when she thought she saw Tenru instead of Stuart. And then she understood.
They were alone again, back in Dar’s
quarters. She fought back tears. “I don’t understand,” she said.
“I had to know,” Tenru said. “There was only one way to find out.”
“He was you,” Dar said. “All along.”
“Something like that,” Tenru said. “Don’t look at me like that!”
“Like what?” Dar asked.
“Like I’m a child,” Tenru said. “As if I need your pity. I assure you that I do not. Nothing of the kind. Nothing human.”
A chime rang and Dar realized they had a
visitor waiting to be seen. “Open,” she
said. Porto entered. She looked angry.
“I don’t understand,” Porto said.
“Poor thing,” Tenru said. “I suppose I inadvertently ruined your life,
didn’t I? Omnipotence doesn’t really
cover everything, does it? You don’t
just have to know everything, you
have to be paying attention, too, don’t you?
You’ve caught me. Guilty as
charged!”
“Porto, as much as it pains me,” Dar
said. “Now is not the time. We’ll discuss it later.”
“If there is a later,” Porto said. “No
offense, Captain.”
“None taken,” Dar said.
“I don’t understand,” Tenru said. “How you can still act so casual about it.”
“Then you really didn’t learn anything,”
Dar said. “To be humanoid, it’s to
accept that even the bad things are worth it.
Those who give in to despair have lost their ability to appreciate
that. They’ve lost themselves. We embrace the
bad with the good. There’s a balance
somewhere in there. It’s tricky to find,
but it’s there. Doesn’t make life any
easier. And it shouldn’t.”
“Even if I made you that girl,” Tenru said.
“I doubt you would,” Dar said. “If I’ve learned anything at all about you.”
“I walk away,” Tenru said. “That’s what I’d do. I’d just walk away. Wouldn’t I?
Leave everything as I found it.
So to speak.”
“I don’t understand,” Porto said.
“The Omoxians call it attaining hope,” Dar
said. “But then, your people haven’t had
any in a long time, have they?”
Porto didn’t say anything.
Dar turned back to Tenru, but he was no
longer there, and somehow she knew she wasn’t going to see him again. “Rue the day,” she said to herself.
“Sorry, Captain?” Porto said.
“Something my mother used to say,” Dar
said. “Nothing. Never mind.
I honestly don’t know what to say about all this. Except maybe, you were right all along. I’ve lost perspective. I don’t deserve command of a starship. He had to explain everything…And I almost
didn’t believe him. What a fool I’ve
been…”
“No,” Porto said.
“The universe needs more people like you,
Porto,” Dar said. “Those who challenge. Those who don’t back down. You were knocked down. But you got back up. Not because of what anyone did for you. You just did.
I always admired that about you. I
hope you knew that. I want you to know
that I’ll be recommending you take command of the ship.”
“Captain…” Porto said.
“I already made up my mind,” Dar
said. “I saw something…I can’t turn my
back on that. Somehow I’ve got to find
the strength. I’ve got to be better than
this.”
“Captain, you were the finest officer I
ever served with,” Porto said. “I mean
that. My sister would have been proud of
you.”
“Maybe a good officer,” Dar said. “But a lousy humanoid. I can’t believe…”
Belano entered the quarters. “Captain?” he said, and then he understood,
without needing anything explained. He
now knew everything. He gave his friend
a salute, and then he and Porto walked away, leaving Dar alone, crying.
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