Comics News: FRACTURE Returns in a BIG WAY!

FRACTURE RETURNS TO SHATTER THE STATUS QUO!
Action Lab Entertainments flagship “Hero” returns in an all-new mini-series.

Pittsburgh, P.A._- Action Lab Entertainment, the company taking the comics industry by storm returns to it’s roots. Fracture, a series that began as a successful Kickstarter campaign and launch pad for the company itself returns in an all-new miniseries. Created by writer Shawn Gabborin (Snowed in, Angry Gnome Comics) and artist Chad Cicconi (NFL Rush Zone, Baby Boomers), Fracture Volume 2 is a follow up to the critically acclaimed story of  Superheroes, Supervillians and multiple personalities.

The City of Lower Triton is a city of heroes with the highflying Virtue first and foremost among them. However, for every hero there must be a villain and Malice, the technological terror, reigns supreme. But what happens when a normal guy named Jeff discovers he’s both?
Now, Jeff tries to move on with his normal, humdrum life, leaving the newly cloned Virtue, with his personality in place to become a full time hero. Virtue tries to protect Lower Triton while Jeff tries to keep his Malice personality at bay, which isn’t easy when he can’t get the drugs he needs! But life in Lower Triton is not normal by a long shot. Who is the newest villain on the scene, Vice? Who are the Croc men? And just how fractured is Jeff’s mind?

All of these answers and more can be found in the pages of Fracture, Volume 2 issue 1, featuring a variant cover by Molly Danger creator Jamal Igle.
Fracture #1 hits shelves on December 18^th at comic shops everywhere.

 For more information, retailers can contact Kelly Dale at kdale@actionlabcomics.com. For press and conventions you can reach Jamal Igle at jigle@actionlabcomics.com.


About Action Lab Entertainment
Formed in 2010 with the purpose of pooling their collective talents into a single, powerful entity, the members of Action Lab Entertainment have countless years in multimedia publishing, design, and business.  Their first release, Fracture, was successfully funded through Kickstarter and since then they have continued their mission to produce high quality, genre-spanning entertainment.
Since its formation, the accolades for A.L.E continue to build on a daily basis.  Among its more popular titles are all ages material like the Eisner, Glyph, Shel Dorf Award nominated series PRINCLESS, NFL RUSHZONE (based on the Nickelodeon Television series), Jamal Igle's MOLLY DANGER, Artist/ Writer Jeremy Dale’s hit series SKYWARD, and Gale Middleton’s (My Little Pony, The Littlest Pet Shop) monstrously adorable VAMPLETS.


Action Lab’s Mature Readers imprint ACTION LAB DANGER ZONE continues to push the envelope of comics entertainment with titles as varied as EHMM THEORY and Dan Mendoza’s over the top horror-comedy ZOMBIE TRAMP, THE FINAL PLAGUE and BO, PLUSHY GANGSTA.
 
For more information on all of their titles, visit www.Actionlabcomics.com

Comic News: PC Magazine Counts Action Lab MOLLY DANGER Among Top 10 Digital Comics!

PC MAGAZINE TOUTS MOLLY DANGER DIGITAL
Counted amongst the top 10 digital comics you should read right now!

Pittsburgh, P.A., PC Magazine, the world’s largest tech publisher calls Molly Danger on the ten titles you should have on your smartphone and tablet.
The series, created by Inkpot award winning creator Jamal Igle stars world’s most powerful ten-year-old girl. A seemingly immortal, superstrong hero, Molly has protected the city of Coopersville for the last twenty years. Kept in constant isolation and watched closely by D.A.R.T. (The Danger Action Response Team), an organization created to assist in her heroic deeds and monitor her movements, Molly battles the Supermechs. Molly longs for a real life with a real family. Her life changes when D.A.R.T. recruits a new pilot, Austin Briggs. Briggs has his own motivations for joining the team; newly remarried, Austin is having trouble forming a relationship with his new stepson, Brian. Austin wants to use his connections to impress Brian, an avid Molly Danger fan. However, things change when Molly and Brian form a friendship of their own. She believes she’s an alien whose family died when their ship crash-landed on Earth and before the atmosphere could fully alter them. She also believes that she’s alone, the last of her kind. Everything she believes is wrong.

Published in print by Action Lab Entertainment, Molly Danger is available digitally through Comixology.com  



About Action Lab Entertainment
Formed in 2010 with the purpose of pooling their collective talents into a single, powerful entity, the members of Action Lab Entertainment have countless years in multimedia publishing, design, and business.  Their first release, Fracture, was successfully funded through Kickstarter and since then they have continued their mission to produce high quality, genre-spanning entertainment.
Since its formation, the accolades for A.L.E continue to build on a daily basis.  Among its more popular titles are all ages material like the Eisner, Glyph, Shel Dorf Award nominated series PRINCLESS, NFL RUSHZONE (based on the Nickelodeon Television series), Jamal Igle's MOLLY DANGER, Artist/ Writer Jeremy Dale’s hit series SKYWARD,  and Gale Middleton’s (My Little Pony, The Littlest Pet Shop) monstrously adorable VAMPLETS.


Action Lab’s Mature Readers imprint ACTION LAB DANGER ZONE continues to push the envelope of comics entertainment with titles as varied as EHMM THEORY and Dan Mendoza’s over the top horror-comedy ZOMBIE TRAMP, THE FINAL PLAGUE and BO, PLUSHY GANGSTER.
 
For more information on all of their titles, visit www.Actionlabcomics.com

Free Comic: THE MAGNIFICENT BLACK MAGE #0

  As we continue our 1st year celebration, here is the reissue of The Magnificent Black Mage by our own Darryll B. Carter.


   Join Daniel Christianson as he discovers the powers dormant within him and stands against a darkness that threatens to consume Philadelphia.

Read it below.

Open publication - Free publishing

Cover layout for the Magnificent Black Mage #1

Check out the cover layout for the Magnificent Black Mage #1 at http://magnificentblackmage.blogspot.com/2013/02/cover-layout-mbm-1.html

Cyberforce REVIEW

Cyberforce  Vol. 4 # 1

By Jake Estrada

The description of the book reads:

TOP COW’S TOP-SELLING SERIES RETURNS IN A GROUND-BREAKING WAY!

Top Cow celebrates its 20th anniversary with the return of the series that started it all: CYBER FORCE! Top Cow founder MARC SILVESTRI (THE DARKNESS, INCREDIBLE HULK) returns to his first Image series as co-writer, art director and cover artist!

Co-writer MATT HAWKINS (THINK TANK, LADY PENDRAGON) and artist KHOI PHAM (MIGHTY AVENGERS, DAREDEVIL) join SILVESTRI to bring you a contemporary re-imagining rooted in cutting edge, real world technology. 

Carin Taylor, codenamed Velocity, has escaped from the CDI-controlled Millennium City and is desperately trying to find the one man she believes can help her prevent the end of the world. When she runs a group of other CDI escapees, will they help her… or turn their backs? 

Not content in pushing the envelope just in terms of story and art, Top Cow will be the first major US comic publisher to launch one of their biggest properties with top tier creators concurrently for both the traditional print market and exploding worldwide digital market for FREE. That’s right: Thanks to the support of fans through Kickstarter and participating comic shops, you can get the first FIVE issues of CYBER FORCE at no

Cost.

I will be rating the elements of the book on a scale of one through five.

One is poor, two is mediocre, three is fair, four is good, and five is excellent.

My thoughts

The comic was free, I picked up three copies, give one to my son and the other to my daughter. They both read the comic and they enjoyed it. So I guess it worked in that level for a new reader that has never picked up a copy to learn about this new Cyberforce.

Quite honestly I felt like I was reading a remake of the original Cyberforce I read two decades back. When I see the new Velocity running I yawned in boredom. The story felt very padded, as it hit the key notes on what level and model each of these characters were in whatever particular series which I felt odd. It went by the numbers, had Shoc troops after Velocity and all I could do was like wow. This is almost a remake, sure they made it out to be more realistic they said, but that wasn’t even the case. It felt more like they were in the far future and I was watching some weird play reenact the old comic I had already read. The biggest change was that the characters seemed to be all artificial life forms now? I know they had cybernetic extensions in the past, but this time they took it further? I guess we will learn more about this in the future? I don’t know. What we got are a bunch a disgruntle robots that lived in the tunnels and sewers like they were secretly trying to find the secret of the ooze, as freaking depressed vagabonds.

The Art

The art was kind of weird; it had a very anime feel to a realistic look. It had Khoi Pham on pencils and a longtime name I had not seen in forever was Sal Regla on inks. I almost fell out when I saw Sal’s name. Finally there were artistic finishes by Stjepan Sejlc providing Final Art Polish. I don’t know what they meant about that but hey that was the team on the art. Finally this was all under the direction of Marc Silvestri.

Now the art was one thing I would say that it felt like I said at times very cartoony then it bounced over to this realistic look so I don’t know, but it had the typical Top Cow flavor of yesterday. Honestly, I hadn’t picked up a Top Cow comic in many years personally, and all I could think about was where was Stryker and when was he going to grace our pages. I know that the characters we had were many of the previous team members but they were drastically different in appearance and in some ways looked more deformed, and down right homeless. I don’t get this trend lately to make characters living breathing hobos. I guess it takes a great homeless person to rise above their issues to become a hero? I don’t know but this is a disturbing trend almost I swear. Hey lets take a character and make them look like hobos because we all understand the underdog a broke down poor person that can’t afford a proper appearance. Marc if you are reading this, why hose why?

ART 3

The writing

The writing what can I say they recycled the original plot, but of course they changed it up some but this was a more modern retelling of an ancient IMAGE title.

 

So we have Velocity running around the city doing her thing, she has her wolf dispatch of some of the Shoc Troops and she finally comes into meeting the man with the claws that we all used to love but finally remembered he was a Wolverine ripoff, Ripclaw. He leads Velocity to the others, and here is where it gets funny. First most of the male characters have hoods and robes on, but when they finally start to talk they remove their robes slowly as if they are prepping to get down and frisky with the latest female in the room. In fact this made me feel like I was watching a porno and I thought what the heck was Matt Hawkins thinking when he wrote this story, along with Marc Silvestri. I was totally taken back here for a second and laughing very hard.

Somewhere in the story we have Cyblade bust out in the story telling Ripclaw that they needed Serum, and they could use Velocity as leverage since they were rogue robots in heat. I was like Serum, so now they are drug users as well. Damn I thought are these damn time has been bad on Cyberforce.

The story goes through its ticks, it introduces us to several of the characters, the villains but it leaves out Morgan Stryker, so we are totally clueless on how he looks like here. However, at the end of the book all of the members of Cyberforce were left dead.  So the mystery thickens. Did they die? Did they go apeshit and try to kill Velocity in a heated sexual encounter and were all left dead and only Ripclaw won? I mean this dude was always badass, since he was a cool rip-off.

Damn Velocity, LOOK what you made Ripclaw do for your booty? Marc, why did you do this?

I about lost it in the end if I had bought this book I don’t know if I would ever pick up the second issue, but seeing as it is free I will check out the second issue for sure.

WRITING 2

Originality

I would say it wasn’t very original. Most people know this title, to the new reader they are giving a set of weird characters and I don’t know if they would be interested enough to pick up a second issue or care? I think we needed more punch for the story or a clearer story and not such a muddled mess. The story was all over and not quite sure what is going on nor did I care about all this corporate talk. I do wish they didn’t look like bums, and only wished they had more of a heroic appearance, but these days the lines aren’t as clear that the heroes are or who are the villains.

Originality 2

General overview

Cyberforce is back kiddies. These aren’t your quit clean cut heroes of yesterday, now we got a new grunge group of dirty nomads ready to fight against the evils of the world, but not before they get some hot tail. That is why the Shoc troops were after Velocity, she had no chance until Ripclaw found her and showed her off to his friends. Yet she was to busy screaming for Morgan Stryker. Hell I guess a man with four arms is hot!!

I think out of interest people should pick it up. It has a lot of different concepts; it and maybe it will come together in the next few issues. Heck it is free, and it is more reason to pick it up. Don’t lie free is good and sometimes, you can still have fun if you have a twisted mind like I do.

I do hope we get more crazy hot moments with Velocity soon. ;)

Where to pick it up

You can pick up the comic at your local comic shop retail shop, or you can hope over to Drivethru comics and get a copy as well, along with other digital download places. This download also includes a copy of the Darkness 101 so you get two issues for free, take advantage of it folks it is a steal.

Enjoy!

Jake Estrada

Under the Net #21

Under the Net with Jake Estrada

Zero Hunters

Welcome to the 21^st edition of Under the Net. 

Cover

I will be rating the elements of the book on a scale of one through five.

One is poor, two is mediocre, three is fair, four is good, and five is excellent.

Hey folks, I hope everyone is well. Welcome to the latest edition of Under the Net. My goal here at Under the Net is to find stories that no one has read, be it a digital or web comic. Here is my latest weekly update. I found a great title called Zero Hunters # 1.

Page 1

The Art

Artist Marc Borstel provides the cover and interior page art. The art is done in color, and the art is quite nice. I enjoyed the page layouts and the flow of the art. Everything is rendered nicely, and there is a great smooth reading flow.  It’s not very hard to follow the story. I enjoyed it, and I thought I would help bring people into the story.

ART: 4 STARS

Page 2

The Writing

The story opened up with a normal run-for-your-money vampire story. It was set in the future, but it had typical trappings where the guy is hunting the vampires for revenge. This revenge stemmed from the fact the lead hero, Garrick, lost his family to the evil Dravald and company. No one wants to partner with Garrick because he is a loose cannon and on a collision course to utter destruction.

 The story opens up and gives us a flashback to how he lost his family. Then we are given the full story of why Garrick hates Dravald so badly, but we are given some extra icing on the cake. We see that the hero has been reincarnated. Each generation, he returns and fights the evil Dravald and loses over and over. At first, I thought it was interesting. Then I got to thinking as the story progressed. What if this guy wasn’t reincarnated at all, but Dravald put those thoughts into his head, since Dravald claimed he was bored with life? I think I would have to read the follow issues, and I will because I would love to know more.

WRITING: 4 STARS

Page 3

Originality

I think the whole reincarnation angle to the story gives the story that extra push. Showing how Garrick and Dravald could be age-old enemies and going from one setting to the next is an interesting background. I could see how this storyline can run for many issues, and it could get many mini-series down the line. I think it has a nice flare.

ORIGINALITY: 3 STARS

Page 4

The Pros

The art work is beautiful, the lettering is lush, and the entire story has a dynamic storyline that wants you to continue reading to the end longing for more.

Page 5

The Cons

I think it being a vampire story may turn people away, but that is the only real criticism I think anyone would have, and some may not like the reincarnation angle.

Page 6

My Final Word

If you love vampires and broken heroes that want to get revenge, you need to check out Zero Hunters # 1. The first issue is free, and it updates here:

http://graphicly.com/cinemacomics/zero-hunters/1

 The main website is here for other titles from this company and creators.

http://cinemacomics.com/comic-books

Enjoy folks!

Jake Estrada

Email me at estradajake@yahoo.com for website suggestions. Thanks.

Jake Estrada is a published author who holds degrees in Multimedia Design and Criminal Justice. He is a father to three wonderful children and married to his beautiful wife, Beth. You can find his comics at http://graphicly.com/estrada-media and other fine online stores.

Under the Net

Under the Net with Jake Estrada

The Honor Brigade

Welcome to the 15^th edition of Under the Net.  

I will be rating the elements of the book on a scale of one through five.

One is poor, two is mediocre, three is fair, four is good, and five is excellent.

Hey, everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. Hopefully everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July and I figured since today is a day of celebration we should celebrate superheroes an American creation at its best!!

Today’s review is of a small comic that has had a history of being printed and is now being presented as a web comic series. The book is in full color, and it is worked on Tom Stillwell and Brad Bowers.

The team is compromised of:

Toy Boy: A former thief turned hero.

Lightning Rod: A guy born to failed heroes and out to redeem the family name.

S.U.I.T: A half human, half machine and quite pissed off all the time.

Mystery Girl: Like her name, she is a complete mystery!

Deadeye: A cop who happens to be a ghost trying to solve the biggest case of his life, his own murder!

 Here is the line up of the series.

I only was able to review 17 pages, so I will do what I can with that. J

The Art

The art is up to standard for a modern-day comic. The cover has a huge smiley face; it kind of reminded me of Watchmen. We are introduced to Toy Boy in the first issue. The comic is full color, and I will say the comic came off kind of odd to me, and the art was strange but up to standard. It flowed fine and I could understand what was going on. The lettering captured my interest more, and I will say that it was done nicely, it had those nice effects, and it was clear and crisp. 

ART: 3 STARS

The writing

The writing, well with the 17 pages I did review, it left some to be desired. However, I considered that this comic was originally a print comic. The flow and pattern of the characters flowed better as the series progressed, and it wasn’t originally designed to be a web comic so it had the normal padding and stretching of a plot to fill out. That is one of the major problems with modern comics, and it makes it harder to adapt some comics to web. I was interested in why Toy Boy was messing with the rent-a-cop. In fact, I thought it was just outright mean to test his skills out on a poor slob that was merely doing his job. I would say it was very non-hero like and rather pointless. After I felt that way, I had to reread the comic book pages about three times. It kind of confused me. At first, I felt it was someone that worked with him and his partner and he was just testing it on someone that was employed for him, and later I saw it was Toy Boy breaking into a place where one of his potential enemies was located. I only say this because he then left a message for the Rent-A-Cop to tell Conroy he was by to see him. This kind of left me scratching my head, but like I said, it is the nature of comics where most stories are padded out to fill the pages. Of course, I would like to know who the enemy was and what Toy Boy was about even if that meant he was out to get his enemy for stealing his flowers, but what I got here was some sort of message to be delivered. I will have keep an eye out for future pages to see how the story progresses.

WRITING: 3 STARS

Originality

The themes behind the book reminded me of a Teen Titans book, but the fact that it took about 17 pages to introduce Toy Boy and no one else, I can’t gauge the entire book with what I saw. I felt that Toy Boy being a former criminal now trying to be a hero also had this Thunderbolts vibe, but with Toy Boy messing around, showing off his skills, and then having a Rent-A-Cop take him down for a second, did make me laugh. I think having a hapless hero who is not that superhero-like all the time is quite nice.

ORIGINALITY: 3 STARS

The Pros

The lettering and effects are good. The book has a very polished, professional look to it.

The Cons

I wish the action was faster and that the overall plot was revealed to the reader much quicker, because if they are trying to gain more fans, well, they may not get them. Considering that this was a print comic before a web comic, one is not afforded reading the entire product how it was intended to be. I guess I could purchase the actual comic to read it to get the entire picture, but with what I read, I would wait until I read more before considering buying the title.

My Final Word

The comic is a fine comic. It has some of the basic trappings of other comics we all have seen. I would say give the book a try and see how you feel. It has good qualities to it, and I know I will continue to check back. I think it shows great promise, and I am considering that it was designed as a comic to give you the entire punch in one sitting and not at a page at a time in this piece meal fashion. I suspect it will get better because it is a long-running comic series. J

The comic updates here:

http://www.honorbrigadecomic.com/

Enjoy folks!

Jake Estrada

Email me at estradajake@yahoo.com for website suggestions. Thanks.

Jake Estrada is a published author who holds degrees in Multimedia Design and Criminal Justice. He is a father to three wonderful children and married to his beautiful wife, Beth. You can find his comics at http://graphicly.com/estrada-media and other fine online stores.

SILVER THORN # 1

SILVER THORN
Issue # 1,Volume 1
Rated R
July 2012

Created and Written by Frankie Rodriguez

All characters were created by Frankie Rodriguez. Any similarities of people are purely coincidental. Cover by DeAndra McFadden & Darryll B Carter! 


"HARSH SPRING, Part 1: The Blooming Time" 


Heiress Suites, Penthouse Floor
December 12th, 2011
Scion City, FL

         My name is Rose Tendou - Riley. I'm am a FBI agent. And my pussy is so wet right now, my shower would be jealous.

      Rose's brown hair was a nice contrast to her African American/Japanese features. Her skin was a warm carmel. Her body fit within her dress jacket and her leather slacks. Her shoes were stylish but practical, given there were currently the sounds and light of bullets around her. Rose looked to one of her teammates, a  Caucasian man named Kyle Matthews. His cropped brown hair easily seen as he empties his semi automatic. Bodies were on either side and between the 2 of them.

      Before you judge, allow me to say that I haven't had decent sex in the last two years. All that secret agent, James Bond shit, ain't real? Not for me anyway. Some people find that a little vulgar of me. But then, when you work with the FBI, you learn that the shit you'd find vulgar ain't really anything compared to what we see. 

   Rose ducks under another hail of bullets before she grips her own firearm. She aims, firing several rounds ... all but one meeting their mark, on 3 men that surrounded her main prey, a man with black hair, strong facial features,  wearing a navy suit coat with a vibrant royal blue shirt and jeans.

    The asshole that were behind the three men I just dropped is Cesar Monticello. Current second-in-command of the Monticello crime family. Been after this little asshole for years. He's got a hard on for me cause one ... I rejected any sexual advances he made towards me; and two ... I put his brother in jail nearly a year ago. But hey . ..  he and his brother were involved in a mass drug traffic scam for a brand new drug called Trinity.And testing it on high school and junior high kids. Kinda hate that shit.

   Cesar and four other men shoot another barrage of bullets at the two FBI agents. Cesar and his men stopped for a moment. "You fuckin' cunts! You got my big brother in jail and stopped us from making a lot of money. Come out of there!!"

   Cesar and his men shoot another barrage of bullets. Rose and Kyle kept themselves behind two large pillars. Kyle looks at Rose.

   "You know Tendou ... you know how to show a guy a great time!"

   Rose chirped back, "Must be cause I don't put out on the first few dates!"  She shot three shots from her current firearm then dropped it. She looks down.

   Ugh! I hate this shit. But a woman's gotta do what she's gotta do. Taking weapons from the dead would be wrong in the eyes of some but expected in others. And I want to live.

   Rose quickly grabs two blood soaked guns from two dead men and begin to unload their rounds, taking down another of Cesar's men while Kyle takes down another with a head shot.

    Nice to know that Kyle can pull his weight. And with two more down, we're about to . . .

 Another seven men pour into the room behind Cesar with more weapons. The new hail of bullets struck, slicing past Kyle's arm.

   get fucked! And while I feel bad for Kyle's, his stubborn ass won't say it hurts. Still ... this turns me on. The danger. The Risk. And the sweet reward once we take down a bad guy. It's ... it's like I am having an orgasm every second for the next hour, each one better than the last. And the RUSH ... dear God ... this rush is incredible. This is why I mentioned that I am leaking like a shower head. And wait till I take down Cesar!

Kyle and Rose take down a man a piece but there are simply too many men as they move in. Rose and Kyle turn back after shooting at their attacks, glancing at each other.

  "Tendou. I'm sorry," shouted Kyle.

   Rose replied, "What for? We're not dead yet."

   "Kinda gonna be cause ... I'm out of ammo," Kyle replied.

   "Oh joy. I am almost done myself," Rose said as she looked around. "Any radio contact from Rave?"

   "No. This might be it for us . Listen Tendou . . . if anything happ . .."

   Rose held up a hand. "If you start with that last words shit again .. . I will personally use one of my last bullets to shoot you in the ass."

   Cesar held up an arm. "They're out of bullets. Move in. Let's finish this."

   Cesar and his goons were closing in and me and Kyle were pretty fucked at this point. I go over in my mind all the techniques my dad taught me. Yet, it would also mean lasting long enough to dodge bullets. And Kyle doing the same. Shit. Why can't we get a last minute . ..

  Suddenly, the doors opened behind them with SWAT and other FBI agents in full gear coming in with guns ablazing. One of the other FBI agents went over to Rose, his blonde hair gave way to his blue eyes that looked her over.

    "Tendou ... you okay?"

    "Nice to see you too Parker. I owe you a round of shots after this," Rose answered with a hint of a smile."Just don't take so long next time."

   "We told you and Matthews to wait," Parker replied. "But I'll take that round."

 Another agent looks over Matthews as the others are in a fire fight. During the ensuing fire fight, Cesar and two of his men followed him out the door his reinforcements came in from.

  "Fuck!" Rose gripped a new gun provided by Parker. "Where the hell does Cesar thinks he's going?"

   Rose began to shoot as she closed in towards the doors to follow Cesar. Parker and Matthews continued to fire as they watched her go.

  "What the hell," Parker exclaimed as his bullets struck down another of Cesar's men.

  Kyle sighed as he simply began to run after her. Parker yelling profanities as the two agents went on their own . .. again.

 Rose hand her gun out as she was quickly going down the hallway. Kyle was slowly coming up behind her, making sure he wasn't followed by anyone that was not the law. Right before he caught up to Rose, he stared at a barrel of a gun.

   Rose gripped the gun. :"What the hell are you doing? Fall back."

  "And miss the chance to get Cesar or hear you brag how you took him down alone? No thanks," replied Kyle.

Suddenly, the two men with Cesar popped from either side of a group of large doors.

  These two are getting annoying as all fuck.

  Rose quickly ducks for a moment then charges at them, gliding past bullets over head as she starts to kick. away the two mobsters' guns. Rose gives a hard fist to one guy's side while she elbowed the other. Rose ducked under a fist as she headbutted her assailant.

"Matthews ...move your ass. Get Cesar. This should take a minute," she commented. Matthews raced paced her as she was snapping the neck of the other assailant.

    Matthews raced inside to see an empty room with another massive door just ahead of him. Rose knocked out the other attacker as she wanted into the main penthouse living room.

  I ran in to join Matthews as he was about to open another big door. Yet as his hand was touching the door, I felt cold prickling sensations up and down my neck. I felt like I had seen this before. And I have. Mostly in movies. My eyes widened as I yell while standing next to a sofa. It was too late . ..


BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!

 Much too late.



In the Dark
Unknown Place
Unknown Time


       I feel ... it. I feel . ..  my god. What is ... happening? I feel someone ... their tongue. Why can't move ...feel muscles. Strong ... firm. Wow. Whoever this is ... is incredible. Their ...their touch ...Uah.
 Oh my god. Never ... never felt so ... so gooooooooooood. What ...why do I feel .... Oh my God! OH MY GOD!!!

      "Since you . .."

   I can't make out all the words. Feels like ... so disjointed ... but God, it has never felt so GOOD!

  "" . . . periments, I will . ..  you."

    Whoever this is ... please God, don't let  them stop. I can feel every kiss. Every touch. Every last thrust. I feel it all and my body feels like it's singing. Ah.

  " ... seeds will grown within you."

    Suddenly, it feels like my body is ... AH ... the pain! Yet ... the pleasure ... it's overwhelming. Oh ... oh! O-!



Kelsey Crusher Hospital, Room 541
July 4th, 2012
Condor Falls, NV

    The sun had beamed into the room after a quick zip removed blinds from their place. a woman with long brownish aurburn hair stood over a sleeping Rose. Her skin was slightly lighter than Rose's but her eyes were similar. With a sigh, the woman sits on a chair next to Rose while gripping her hand. Rose's hand and mouth have tubes in it. Her hair matted and combed, Rose lied still as the woman spoke.

 "It's been over six months, nee-chan. Six months since the explosion. After everything that happened, you are starting to look better now than you did before the explosion." Rose's sister, Jasmine took a soulfully long breath. "It took nearly 5 months till the agency would let me see you.Parker told me that they had moved you to a few different hospitals before settling her 3 months back. They wanted to make sure to keep you alive after . . ."

   Jasmine took a free hand to wipe the tear coming from her eye. "You know, I don't know how you felt. If you felt any of it at all. They showed me all the burns. The cuts. What ... You are lucky to have survived. If you call this surviving."

 Jasmine gripped her sister's hand tighter. "Shit Rose. This ain't you. This whole ... comatose, laying on the bed shit isn't you. Sure, you were a bit lazy growing up . . ."

  "And as an adult too," called out Parker as he walked in with another guy; a larger, bear of a man with dark brown skin and greenish brown eyes with glasses on. "Crane and I wanted to see how she was holding up and the usual sweep."

Jasmine dried her eyes."I appreciate it Parker but next time knock."

Crane murmured under his breathe, "Yep. Definitely her sister."

 "What was that Crane?" snapped Jasmine.

 Crane nervously replied, " Ah ... nothing. How are you? Any change in Rose."

Jasmine has placed one finger up, planning to verbal evisceration of Crane but Parker stepped in between them. "Seriously, Jasmine, we'd like to know."

  "No real change. She's healed. She's healed from just about everything," she stated as she looked back at Rose. "Whatever healing she's been doing, it's helped her immensely."

  "She had burns, broken bones, spinal damage ... and you say she's all better?" Parker inquired, finding it hard to believe that Rose could recover from such dangerous injuries.

  Crane added, "I knew she was healing well but I am still surprised that she's healed from all that. Spinal damage too."

  "The doctor's originally said that she'd need several operations on her spine alone. I was told by the doctors's that she'd recover in time but all better?"

  Jasmine chimed," Parker, they were saying her spine somehow realigned itself to the point she doesn't need another surgery. Yet, what I want to know is that ... if she is all better. When will she wake up?"

  Parker and Crane just paused, Crane putting his head down. A doctor walked in with dirty blonde hair and some blue and white heals.She came into the room.

  "Mr. Parker, Ms. Tendou. And ... " the doctor paused, looking towards Parker and Jasmine.

  "Go ahead. He's been visiting and he's got the clearance," Parker stated.

 Jasmine chirped, "Not from me. If this was a civilian in the hospital . .. "

  "But she's not a civilian.  She's FBI. Let's not get into that here Jasmine," Parker replied.

  Jasmine pointed a finger right at Parker as her voice spat frustration. "This is MY sister in my bed. Don't you dare tell me I do not have a say on who has access to my sister after you assholes kept her from me and my family for months."

  Crane began to step back. "I can go .. ."

  "No," Parker cut off. "You are fine."

  "If you are gonna all carry on, I will throw you all out of this hospital," the doctor stated, hoping her threat would calm down the people in the room.

   Jasmine hissed, "You even try it, I will have your career and the careers of every member of your family till I am dead and buried."

   Parker added, "And you would be impeding federal officers from doing their business. Which will land you in jail. So, I suggest you don't try us."

  Crane threw up his arms. "Do  you both have to be so damn stubborn. The lady is just trying to do her job!"

  Parker and Jasmine glanced at each other than back at the doctor. Crane sighed as he looked at the doctor, "Go ahead, Dr . . .?"

  "Grimes. And believe me, I will be putting in complains and getting my lawyer for this.But before all that, my  patient seems to have been healing remarkably. Any spine damage that was left after the first operation had seemingly healed itself. Burns, skin ... no real markings. It is as if her body's immune system got a boost cause she didn't even need skin graphs and their are no real signs of scarring."

 Jasmine took a small sigh of relief as Parker and Crane both seem surprised by the doctor's words. Parker asked, "How is it possible? I thought that she would need the spinal operations and she had some scarring last I was here a month ago."

  "The treatments she has been receiving have helped her so very much. Maybe it is a miracle but she is turning around nicely," Dr. Grimes stated.

Crane gave a small smile as Jasmine just glanced at her. "That is all well and good. And even I have to admit, she looks great. But what the hell is up with her that she can't wake up?"

  Dr. Grimes stopped for a moment. "Well ... at the end of the day, I think the mental trauma of all what happened must have her trapped in her own head. Or maybe there are issues with the brain we still need to examine but from all accounts, she should not be in a coma now."

  After Dr. Grimes said those words, the two FBI agents and Rose's sister all turned to look at the fallen agent, wondering why won't she wake up.



Kaleidoscope Night Club, main office on top floor
July 4th, 2012
Glitztown Section of Scion City, FL

     Within a section of the city stands a large, oval shaped building with large spotlights on it. It is Kaleidoscope; the most popular night club in the state of FL and one of the most well known nightclubs from around the world. The rich, the famous, the poor yet hungry ... all gather under the banner where you can see the pecking order but pretend you are part of it ... for the right price. Past the multiple floors, bars, tvs, dancers and bartenders, you get to the top 3 floors. While many storage and dressing rooms are on the last two floors, the very top floor holds the large main office/deluxe apartment setting for the manager of Kaleidoscope, Ren Pizzimenti. Ren sats comfortably with two naked women around him when he heard the door open.

   Cesar Monticello, one of the clubs main owners, walks in with five men and three women of his own with him. Ren rummaged his hand through his brown hair as he got up and hugged Cesar.

  "Ah. So good to see ya, cuz. Happy Independence Day!"

  Ren and Cesar ended their hug as Cesar looked around. "Nice to see business is booming as always."

 "Are you kidding? I had to turn away former child stars tonight. We got this place hopping, cuz," Ren said as he went over to the table then sniffed the already set lines of cocaine from it.

 Cesar walked towards the nearest window, gazing at the fireworks that were popping all over the sky over the shoreline. He turned back to his cousin.

"Not much for chit-chat at the moment, Ren. What's been our sales tonight?"

  Ren played with his white coated nose for a minute, wiping away the coke as he came up to Cesar. Ren snapped his fingers and a large, husky man came in with a silver briefcase. The man opens it to reveal a score of bills.

  "Nearly over a million in Trinity sales tonight. Fuckin ' fiends love it. Keep tellin' me that they love it. Never had a drug so good they said," Ren directed as the man with the briefcase gave it to one of Cesar's men.

Cesar's eyes quickly shifted, glaring at Ren. "You didn't take any of the shit, right?"

  "What? Trinity? Nah. Not yet but .. . " Ren started when Cesar immediately cut him off.

 "Never take the junk, you hear me? Never take Trinity."

   Ren's face folded in confusion. "But why not?"

 Then, one of the women Ren was playing with before Cesar walked in, came over and said, "Why not? It's really fucking fun. Especially during sex."

Ren and Cesar looked at the woman. Her hair was matted in some places, wild like fire in others. Her eyes had dark black holes that seemed to be sucking her eyes in and her body seemed to be too skinny as her ribs were easily seen while her mouth was white.

Cesar merely takes his arm and slaps the woman away. The woman lands on the floor with a big bump and beings to laugh hysterically. "This is why I don't want you do it. The junk makes you go cookoo."

Another of the women come over to them and kneels by the girl."Leave her alone. She ain't do nothing to you." After saying those words, Cesar turned to one of his men then gave a nod.

  A tall man with a mustache came and picked up the woman helping the other woman on the ground. Cesar quickly grabbed a needle from  the table while another of his men came out with a vial of thick, crimson red liquid. Cesar drenched the needle in, taking in enough till the needle was fool. The woman held by the man in the mustache was fighting to get free when Cesar came over to her.

   " Sweetie . . . in this family, you learn to shut up when the big boys are talkin.' Since you feel we're being so unfair to the chick, you can join her!" Cesar's words ended with him stabbing a needle of Trinity directly into the defiant woman. She went from clawing at the sky to dropping like a ton of bricks onto the ground. She began to cunvulse as she began to foam at the mouth while shaking.

    Ren smirked, "" You feel it babe. Yeah ... the pain. Ah the lovely, blissful pain that you're in. Almost makes me wish I was you right now."

   The woman began to scream with drool and foam falling from her lips. Ren picks up the first woman who was struck down earlier. "Daphne ....see what you did. Your girl might not live through the first two rounds. Trinity shot up like that ... with that much ... hahaha."

   The woman, now feeling the affects of the overdose of the drug called Trinity, was stretching out as her body felt nothing but waves and waves of pain. Then, within second, she began to scream, clawing away at her own skin.

   "She made it to the second round. The delusions. Ah ... whatever is in her pretty head must frighten the fuck outta her, " Ren smirked.

  As the Daphne, Ren and the other mobsters watched the woman cutting away at her own skin, a cellphone rang. Cesar went into his pocket and picked it up. Within seconds, Cesar ended the call with a smirk on his face.

  Cesar chimed in, "Looks like this is gonna be my favorite holiday after all."

  Ren asked as the woman continued to scream with part of her arm's muscles now exposed from her tearing her own skin, "Why's that?"

  "Simple. They finally found my lost little flower," Cesar smiled as he went over and took a drink. He turned to his men. "Get your  sun screen gents . .. we're going to Nevada."

   Ren inquired, "Hitting Vegas? I thought Sammy West said ..."

  "Fuck Sammy West and his gang of bitches. Not going there anyway. Looks like I'm gonna be taking a trip to Condor Falls. Happy Fourth of July cuz!" Cesar smiled as the woman on the floor stopped screaming painfully ... and changed to euphoric moaning.


FBI -Scion City Division, the old Scion Herald Building
July 7th, 2012 
Scion City, FL

     Right on a stretch of beach that has a boardwalk, the only Scion City Herald building stands. Inside it, the FBI special division has set up base inside, using the facilities as needed. Inside a conference room, division head, Derrick Chambers steps inside with some papers in hand. Sitting in sides around the conference room are four other agents; a long black haired beauty named Erin Baxter; a short, black haired guy by the name of Victor  Negron; Parker and Crane. Derrick folded his arms, waiting for his crew to stop talking before he starts.

    "You know, I can cut your salaries a little more if you want to keep wasting time," Chambers barked.

 Parker chimed, "I  think we're good."

   Everyone focused on Chambers. " Good to see things working out. Anyway, we got word that the Monticello's have been moving more and more Trinity. So much so that they damn near sold out of it  during the 4th."

  Erin sighed, "Bloody fuckin' kids."

 "Not just the kids, Baxter. It would be easier if it was just the kids. No . .. we got everyone from junior high kids to well know celebrities to even some politicians who got a piece of this latest shipment. We are gonna need to up game and make some big moves soon," sternly proclaimed Chambers.

 Victor stated, "Our intel gave us that much but let me guess, no supplier yet huh?"

"There have been hints of two major suppliers. One you know real well, Erin. Lucien Winters," said as he looked directly at Erin to see her reaction.

Erin grimaced at the mention of  Winters. "That son of a bitch. I was hoping he'd be smart enough to die before I catch him."

  Parker asked, "So, you've got history?"

  "Boy do they ever," started Crane."Sees as if Winter's went from being a small fry to a big one within a year, killing anyone that was his competition and Baxter her went undercover and . .. "

   Crane stopped when he noticed  Erin's eyes making daggers towards him. "I'mma shut up now."

 "Please do before you force me to shoot you," Erin stated with a grim calm.

  "What the fuck did I sign up for?" Victor jokingly asked when Chambers cleared his throat. The rest of the group turned their attention to him.

   "Anyway, we got another issue. Cesar's been quiet since yesterday. He's only been seen around town a couple times till he went to the airport about 30 minutes ago," Chambers said, as puts down the file. Pictures of Cesar and some men slipped out.

    Victor chimed, "Well, if Cesar's gone, all we gotta do is take down Lorenzo ..."

  "No! We don't have enough to pin Lorenzo to anything at the moment. We'd be tipping our hand," Chambers walked around the room as the rest of the team examined the photos.

  Parker gave a simple question as he looked up at one picture. "So where is he going?"

 Chambers looked to Crane. Crane simply brought up his new hand-held touchscreen computer as he tapped it a couple of times. This is eyes flashed with worry.

   "Um . . .he's going to Nevada."

   "Oh my god," Parker started.

  Erin added, "Then he must have found her."

  "How?" Crane started, "We've been so damn tight lipped about this."

   Victor raised his hand, as if he was in school. "Tight lipped about what? What's going on?"

  "Victor, we only mentioned it a couple times but one of our members has been kept hidden for the last 7 months in order to protect her and heal. Cause she had Cesar dead to rights before what happened went down," Erin stated.

   " Why am I only hearing about this now? I've been here for like 3 months."

Chambers simply answered, "Cause you didn't need to know yet. Now you do."

  "I'll be on the first flight to . . ." Parker said as he stood up.

  "The hell you are Parker. Crane and Baxter can ..." Chambers started.

 Parker replied, "I was there, Chambers. I was there when it happened. I only got a few scratches but she and Kyle . ... please."

  Parker and Chambers stared at each other for a full minute till Chambers chuckled. "You are a stubborn son of a bitch. You and Baxter go. Crane, since you are staying here with Negron, catch him up and start finding some leads to Cesar's supplier." Crane and Negron stood up and left the room. Chambers turned to Parker and Erin. "Get there, get Rose and get her out. Make it quick and as quiet as possible."

  "And what if we are facing down Cesar?" Erin inquired.

  "Then he should duck cause I will put a bullet in his head if he so much as touches Rose," Parker's words will full of confidence without a single hint of hesitation.

  Chambers chuckled again. "Well, you heard him. Get on the nearest jet and beat that bastard to her."

Parker nods and he and Erin run out of the room.



Kelsey Crusher Hospital, Room 541
July 7th, 2012
Condor Falls, NV


         Oh my god. What ...what am I seeing? The sky. The sky looks so beautiful. The purples ... the reds. Wait ... the stars. What is this?! What the fuck is going on? I can smell ... sulfur. Three moons? Who the hell is writing this dream? Why do I feel so ... warm? God, I feel ... the wind. And I see . .. I see ..

   It's face was round and purple. It's two eyes farther apart then humans. It hand, with only three fingers, rested on Rose's brow.

     WHAT THE FUCK IS . . .?!

  Rose wakes up from her hospital bed, gasping for air as cold sweat rained on her brow. Rose quickly looks around to her surrounding, with her vision slightly blurred. She rubs her eyes and looks around.

  Where the hell am I?

  Rose turns to her left as she sees a dozen roses with a small card. She takes the card and raises it to her face. She quickly reads the print:

    Rose,

          I love you honey.Hope you wake up soon. Daddy and I miss you.


                                               Love your little sister,

                                                    Lillie


           P.S. Jassie's been on a fuckin' rampage since what happened. Please wake up if only to calm her down.

    "What the hell happe . . ."

   Flashes of memories fill her head. She sees her in a gun fight. Then she sees millions of stars. She sees Kyle going with her after Cesar. Then her head fills with thoughts of a weird silver substance dancing around her. She sees Kyle going in after Cesar as she kicks a guy in the face. She sees the weird purple-hued being. Then it all fades to white.

       "What the fuck?" I ... I was in an explosion. Dear God. Kyle. What happened to him? What happened to me?

    Rose quickly began to feel her face, her hair and even the rest of her body. Okay. Everything feels like it's okay.  Rose glances at her breasts and stomach. Oh wow ... they are definitely okay. I feel lighter too. Shit, I need to get blown up more often. Looks like I lost 10 to 15 pounds. God, Jasmine is gonna be so jealous. Still, I need to find out what happened and what's going on. I'd like to know where I am too. 

  Rose takes a minute to look around the room. She steps on her feet, feeling the cold floor on her toes. Awww . .. someone was nice enough to give me a pettie.  Rose glanced at the room and found a discarded newspaper. The Condor Times . . .. July 4th ...

  "2012?! What in the hell? Oh ... I need someone to explain this to me. I been knocked out for seven months?!"

   As Rose saw the nurse's button on a remote, a nurse walked into the room. She was carrying some white roses into the room. She looked at Rose amazingly.

   "You're ... you're awake! And you're standing up!"

  Rose replied to the nurse, "And walking around. Why am I in . . ." glanced at the newspaper again and looked back at the nurse, "Condor Falls, Nevada? Why is it seven months later? What happened to me?"

  The nurse nervously tilted her head. "Well, you should really talk to the doctor about that. Did you ... um ... just get up?"

  "Yeah. And I am sore. But please ... give me some basics, girl. Like, when did I get here? What happened to Kyle? And please ... if you know who gave me my pettie ... let me thank them. My feet never looked better."

 The nurse sighed, "You know ... there was a lot of people worried about you. You coming all the way from Scion City and all."

  "Well, yeah. Which is one of the reasons why I am weirded out by this. So, if you don't mind filling in the blanks," Rose asked as she turned to the close door. She opened it to see the mirror. As her hand went through her hair, Rose kept her eyes on the nurse.

   "Well, you see, after the explosion, they ended up bringing you here to fix you up," the nurse said. "Still, you look great."

  "I know. I thought most coma patients suffer atrophy if they  are under too long," commented Rose.

The nurse began to fiddle with the bouquet of white roses. "Normally yes. But your recovering is nothing short of ... miraculous."

  "I know, right?" Rose said as she finished her hair. Rose stood there, touching her stomach for a moment.

The nurse dropped the white rose to reveal a gun with a silencer. Rose smirked as the nurse talked. "You should have stayed asleep, bitch. Cesar sends his love."

As the nurse emptied two shoots at her, with a blinding speed that defiled logic, Rose flipped over the bullets as they shattered her mirrors and inbeded themselves into the closet and wall. Rose landed behind the nurse then rammed her elbow into the back of her assassin. Rose then kicked away the gun. With a quick twirl, Rose's left foot smashed into the face of the faux-nurse, breaking her nose. Rose smiled.

  Damn! I am on fire. Like I never was ... asleep.

 The assassin fell hard on the ground as Rose stood over her. The assassin reached out to the gun ahead of her but Rose pulled her up by her hair.

   "Okay bitch. Where's Cesar?"

  The assassin laughed."Doesn't matter bitch. You aren't leaving Condor Falls alive."

 Rose laughed back at her attacker. Then proceeded to kick her face to the floor; knocking the assassin out.

  "Says the chick who just got knocked out."

Rose immediately picked up the gun then began to examine her assassin for any clues.

   Okay. The id's probably fake. She was fairly convincing her job but she was stupid. Anyway, can't worry about that now. Knowing Cesar, he's probably near by, to make sure that I'm dead. Ah ... the men in my life. Still ... I lost seven months of my life and none of the team is here. I need to contact them.Damn! No cell on her. She was smart enough for that.



Rose was quickly checking the gun when two doctors came in; Doctor Grimes and a male doctor with a sharp jaw and blue eyes. Doctor Grimes' eyes were wide while the male doctor seemed to smirk at Rose.

   "Oh my god! You're awake." Doctor Grimes looked at the ground and found the nurse on the ground. "Wait! What happened?"

   The male doctor asked, "What are you doing young woman with that gun?"

  "Protecting myself," Rose said as she held up the gun at the two doctors. "I want to see id. And I want to see it now."

  "Young woman," the male doctor stated, "I think we can come to an understanding but you need to put down that gun and let us examine you."

 "I think you can kiss  my ass and tell me what i want to know," Rose barks back.

 "Miss, we will get the police and have you ..." the young male doctor started.

  "Asshole ... last I checked, I am an FBI agent for the United States of 'fuckin' America. I outrank any police in the state! Now ... I want some answers or . ."

  The male doctor yelled back, "Or you'll shoot us? Committing murder will land you in prison, FBI or not."

Grimes fearfully replied, "She just wants some answers.Let's give her the answers the best we can!"

  "Don't be so damn weak," the male doctor said.

 "Um ... I'm the one with the gun, remember doc?" Rose exclaimed.

 The male doctor quickly pulled out a gun from his pocket and began to shoot at Rose. Rose easily sidestepped the bullet to plug too bullets into the Male doctor. Just as the Male doctor fell dead, one bullet left his gun.The bullet ripped through Rose's shoulder but the woman did not move.

 The bullet went clean through and Rose felt the hot pressure from the newly made hole. Yet, before Rose can touch her new wound . . .

  What the . . .? Why do I feel cool all of a sudden?

   Silver liquid material began to secret from her shoulder, cauterizing the bullet hole. Within seconds, the bullet hole was no more. Grimes and Rose took a moment to look at each other then back at her shoulder.

  "What the hell did you do to me?" Rose exclaimed in slight horror.

 Grimes looked and went from fearful to smiling. "Enough of this flesh suit." Grimes' skin began to rip and tear. But instead of blood revealing itself, yellowish good dripped from the breaks till purple skin was revealed. The flesh of Doctor Grimes simply dropped and suddenly, a purple skinned being stood reveal.

   Holy shit! It's like that creature in my dreams! What the fuck is going on?!

  Grimes spoke with a slightly deeper voice. "Seems that the experiment is a success. Yes."

  "Screw your experiment." Rose emptied the clip on the being. She did not care about what significance it was of what she was seeing in front of her. She did not care how special this being might be. The gun was empty with the barrel smoking but the bullets seemed to have little effect on Grimes.

Grimes opened forth her arms and suddenly, Rose was blasted by a mysterious force that knocked her up against the wall. Rose slipped into the ground as Grimes approached her.

   "I am so happy that you finally woke up. It was getting so boring and bothersome to be within that flesh and bones this whole time. Now ... to take you to the Q'in base. Ta'lys will want to see you."

 Rose's head had stood down as she was collecting her thoughts.

   So ... I have lost seven months of my life. And during that time, I ended up in Nevada, got some kind of alien experiment done to me and Cesar is still after me. And this bitch thinks I am just gonna come quietly.

  From Rose's eyes, the silver liquid began to fall straight down from them, running down her cheeks.

   She's wrong! Dead fuckin' wrong!

 Rose's stomach began to leak a little as her robe was now partial covered, as was her shoulder and left arm. The silver liquid had move like vines around arm to create an armor covering around it. Slight barb stuck up, like thorns to a rose.Rose's hair had gone from its brown to a brilliant rose red. Rose stood up.

Dear God ... that hurt like fuck but felt a little good too.

 "Sweetie! If you want me to go with you ... you are gonna have to beat me. And I will tell you right now, that ain't happening!" Rose stood down, with part of her stomach and her left arm and shoulder partially armored up while more silver liquid seemed to be making down her legs.And now . .. her ultimate destiny was about to begin.


TO BE CONTINUED . . .


NEXT: Parker & Erin arrive to the hospital as it becomes a warzone. Cesar Monticello, his man and the mysterious Grimes all want Rose but what happens when this flower fights back. Find out next month.

Not A Word In Edge-wise: Superman Vs The Elite

What happens when two people happen to want to do the same thing here on Broken Infinite? WE COLLABORATE!!! So, Me and Caleb have our separate views lined up with a discussion to follow.


Mike's Review: Superman Vs. The Elite asks some pretty intriguing questions to Superman. Is he the hero that today needs? Or wants? Are any of his values still resonate with modern society? These are great questions and they are fairly well answered in the film whilst leaving enough room for discussion for the viewer. The voice work, as been the case with most of DC's DTV movies, is solid stuff all around. Everyone sounds great and in character. The action is fast and snappy but not the main focus as has been the case in other DC movies. Plenty of time is spent on presenting this ideological conflict towards Superman. Bottom Line: Another fine addition to DC's film series. I'd dare say it is to Superman what the Red Hood movie was for Batman.

Caleb's Rewiew:

Before Justice League: Doom, I was ready to throw the DCUA team under the bus. Each of their films were direct adaptations with nothing really new to add to the work. After Justice League: Doom, I was so happy to be singing the praises of DCUA again, something I hadn't really done since New Frontier, and even that wasn't quite to the level of the praises I sung for Doom. Superman vs The Elite continues this trend, even if it takes the smallest of steps back towards the end of the movie. I think my ability to like this film is attached pretty prominently to my own philosophies and ideaologies, which may or may not be the case for all people. I think if you can let go some of those, or at least look past them, you'll find a very enjoyable film that's at the quality these DCUA films have been at animation and sound wise, but also at a story telling point too. 

Now, advance warning, while our reviews above don't delve into spoilers, our discussion does. You have been warned. 

 Caleb: So, what did you think of the movie to start off with?

 Michael Flinn: I thought it was pretty good. I'm coming from a position of not having read the source material so I can only judge the film on itself. I thought that it asked some interesting questions to Superman and while I did find his final response a little out of character at first, the end result was satisfying. Also, Black Manchester was the only one of The Elite of interest. The rest felt poorly done and just there as things for Superman to punch.

Caleb: Fair warning though, I must say that What's So Funny is my least favourite Superman comic ever. Superman vs The Elite, I actually really liked on the otherhand. That is, up until the final showdown.

 I think the Final Showdown still acts out of character to such a horrific degree to make the entire point Superman was making just as much against to him as it was to the Elite too. We don't like seeing our Police Officers kill people, but we're also not fans of excessive force. Superman, most definitely, gave excessive force. What's worse, is that the film almost seemed to be leading up to no showdown. I was wholey expecting them to not have that ending and to have Superman solve the problem with words.

Michael Flinn: One thing I did like is that they really nailed how scary Superman could be if he ever decided to really lose hope.

Caleb: Yeah, but I think that concept is done much better in the pages of Irredeemable, where the Superman like Plutonian becomes, as the title suggest, irredeemable. I think Superman's action is kind of right on thet redeemability line. Would have been much better if he had just asked: "Where does it end? You're willing to kill a murderer, government officials who you see as indirect murderers, and now you're willing to kill any hero who stands in your way? What will become of the regular people who stand in your way? What will become of the children who steal so that they don't starve?" And like it was as if asking them "Why don't you just put the whole world in a bottle?" Manchester would breakdown entirely.

Michael Flinn: Still, you'd have people pissed because it wasn't "faithful" to the original story.

Caleb: And those people could cry to their mama's. They're not even a 10th of the amount of people who buy the DVD.

Michael Flinn: None the less

Caleb: But what I liked about the film more than the comic, was that up until then, it wasn't anything like the comic. It had the ideas in there, but instead of a Holier Than Thou Superman, we had an honest and sincere Superman. A Superman I didn't think lorded over his superiority to mankind and had to act like our babysitter, our big brother, feeling we NEED protecting like he's Mister Majestic, but a Superman that seemed like he just wanted to be able to do the right thing, to help people, to stop threats no one else could, and to be a hero the world to look up to and be inspired by.

Michael Flinn: Yeah. I saw that too. It contrasts well with The Elite, who are representative of 70's hyper violence or, in the movie's case, 90's anti-heroes

Caleb: Not only that, but I felt for them too. Mostly for Manchester Black. But still, by extension, the entire team. They seemed like very well meaning people who felt that their action was the right one, and had power to back that up. But they were still misguided. In the end, I wanted to see Manchester actually learn something. I wanted to see them become honest to goodness heroes who tried to attone for their sins.

Michael Flinn: That would've been a pretty cool ending

Caleb: There's a line in the comic that says that he didn't actually lobotomize him, and that he just did a psy pulse. Makes no sense, but it makes it okay for what happened. The movie lets you think Superman actually lobotomized him. As much as I can see him needing to do that, I still think it's wrong to do it. 

Michael Flinn: I did think it was kind of harsh to take away their powers. Though I do like the heat vision lobotomy. Not as bad as Doomsday's but still awesome.


So the final verdict is that Superman Vs The Elite is a pretty solid film overall that actually makes the viewer think a little bit. Go and check it out.