Starbolts #709: Woman and Machine

 Hail!

    Well, it looks like Roger Stevens has escaped justice yet again. Let's hope our heroes can finally capture that scumbag! I'm sure they will. You can't say Crystal wasn't clever pretending to be the Lady Liberty android. It's just a shame the plan didn't work because it was a good one. Perhaps the team just needs to disable the portable transporter unit in Roger's suit! That couldn't hurt.

    At least this excursion wasn't a total waste. We finally learn that the androids cease functioning whenever they encounter the being they were based on. It's a strange flaw, I know. Let's just keep in mind that the Setleth built these androids. The Setleth are a clever people. However, their creations tend too backfire every now and then. It's too bad that the original Sentinel died in Starbolts #271. With him gone, the Sentinel droids are free to wreak havoc. The Starbolts will have to find the factory and defeat the so-called master mold.

    That adventure will have to wait as next week we'll be having our annual Christmas comic and the week after that will be our New Years comic. Look forward to this storyline wrapping up in 2025. I have an idea for how it ends and I think Steve here might be getting his just desserts. We shall see.

See ya next time!

Starbolts #708: Outsmarting the Brain

 Hail!

    Wow! It looks like Cyclone Consulting isn't quite with the times, huh? Yes. Doug and Remy are indeed a couple and the baddies here are not exactly LGBT friendly. This does bring up an important question, though. If they are against LGBT and are on a quest for perfection, why did they recruit them to the group? It seems kind of strange, doesn't it? Well, you could argue that they were just hired based on their superpowers and that's it. Doug is super intelligent and that could serve them well. In time Remy could be a useful spy with his shapechanging abilities. They could be kept around just to serve them but not actually take part in the whole perfection angle. It's a cult, sure. But, they'll still use other people in their plans regardless of who they are and who they love.

    At least Crystal is finally face to face with Lady Liberty Unit 925 and I don't think she'll be reacting nicely to the android.

    I do like that there are parallels with Doug and Remy and Marcus and Crystal. Both couples took their sweet time getting together. Though the difference here is Doug and Remy couldn't because of their ties with Cyclone. Marcus and Crystal could have hooked up a long time ago. But, she had her own things to deal with before she could even consider being in a relationship.

 Next week's comic will see the end of this phase of the cult playing cat and mouse with our heroes. I'm sure the Starbolts will be fed up with their antics. The week after that will see the holiday comic. Be sure to check that out as we've got a lot of things coming. Rest assured 2024 will end on a high note in the comic!

See ya next time!

Starbolts #707: The Brain of the Office

 Hail! 

    This week we finally learn who the real brain of the office is! Doug here has a superhuman intellect and it's amplified when he's hooked up to this crazy contraption. Why did Cyclone Consulting hook him up to the crazy thing? It seems a bit excessive doesn't it? I guess it's sort of the point. They're on a quest for perfection and studying Doug would help them attain their goal. Poor guy will realize soon enough that Cyclone Consulting also isn't his friend! 

    At least now we've learned how this group got tangled up with Cyclone Consulting in the first place. They all wanted to be Starbolts and were on their way to the Academy to sign up for classes when Roger Stevens stopped them before they headed to the admissions office. Remember, he was on campus and was also a teacher. So, it stands to reason that he could conceivably stop new students from being admitted AND had them join Cyclone. The worst part is he did it right under our heroes' noses. There really is no rock bottom for Roger is there? He just keeps going lower and lower.

    I also wanted to put a new spin on the fights with Remy and Babs. They really didn't want to fight the Starbolts to begin with. I don't know if it's true for the others on the team. But, I think once the dust settles those two may be admitted to the real academy. I'm not sure on the others. I think they'd fit right in. Time will tell on that front.

   Next time we'll see how things go when M'anta and the others show up to help take down Cyclone Consulting. Don't think for a second that this is the end. Don't forget Roger Stevens is running for President with an android version of Crystal as his running mate. Things will be heated for sure. 

See ya next time!

Starbolts #706: Stolen Identity

 Hail!

   Looks like our heroes definitely have their hands full! Not only did the android version of Crystal effectively stole the real Crystal's background they have to deal with rogue metahumans and a few Sentinel drones. You might say this is yet another day at the office for the Starbolts and you might be right. However, things are a little different now that Roger officially announced his candidacy. They'd have to take him out before the primary and before he can get any political momentum.

    Unfortunately, Roger is a former superhero and a popular one at that. By taking in a Lady Liberty as a running mate, he's pretty much assured a place in politics. Let's see if our heroes can stop them before it's too late!

    Meanwhile, we've been introduced to another new metahuman. This one's name is Inque and he's from New Orleans like a certain Cajun member of the X-Men. The only difference is that the X-Man known as Gambit actually has scruples, morality and is a decent guy despite his criminal background. Inque here doesn't seem to have any of that. We'll see how Crystal deals with him next comic. We'll also be seeing how Marcus handles the speedy lady.

    For now let's keep the faith and hope that our heroes can get out of this mess! By my estimate there's still one metahuman on that team whose powers I haven't revealed yet. I'm still trying to figure it out. I wanted to make him a master of magnetism. But, I don't know. I'll have to think about it. 

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #705: Saving America

 Hail!

    Well, this is an interesting turn of events! The Lady Liberty bot is going to be Roger's vice presidential hopeful in his race for the White House. Interesting because the real Crystal is a bit too young to be vice president. She's like twenty-six years old at this point. It'll be mentioned in the next comic for sure. I'm sure people will focus on her age more than the fact that the Lady Liberty running with Roger is actually an alien android. Yeah. If you know anything about politics, it's always ONE issue that people will focus on the most and it's never the most obvious issue with a candidate.

    Either way, I don't think they'll have a leg in this race. They might not even make it to Election Day. We'll see how things go. Right now it looks like Roger wants to take his message to the national stage.

    This week I've introduced us to Jamal. Jamal is the magic user on this new team of metahumans. But, is he really a magic user? That's hard to say. He's really a metahuman who can tap into magical energies and make it look like he's a magic user. It's a strange power and it's currently unknown what the extent of his abilities are. 

    It's also interesting to note that Roger appears to look normal to everyone else even the reader. The events of last week's comic left him cursed. He now sees his old enemy Jade Skull when he looks at himself in the mirror. Creepy, I know. I suppose it could really just be an after effect of having Jade Skull's spirit inside of him. I'm not 100% sure what Medea and the original Iron Eagle did to him. But, I do know that he's now cursed. Will he lash out? It's hard to say. Stay tuned as we tag along with Roger on the campaign trail!

 

See ya next time!

Starbolts #704: Yesterday's Iron Eagle

 Hail!

    Happy Halloween! I decided to go a different route this Halloween because I wanted to give the Soldier Six ghosts a little vacation. They deserve it after the whole "pass the spectral necklace" fiasco. So, I decided to go with the ghost of Carter, Jack and Crystal's grandfather Steve instead. Steve teamed up with Medea to cause a little bit of trouble for Roger Stevens, the second Iron Eagle. It's always good to see Medea and it looks like she's still on her redemption tour.

    I did reference a lot of old Starbolts comics this week didn't I? Here's a series of links if you'd like to check them out:

Starbolts #240-275

Starbolts #437

Starbolts #688

     Whew. That's a lot of comics. At least I summed things up neatly this week. It seems that Roger has been keeping a big secret. He's not as free from the Nazi Jade Skull's influence as we thought. Every time he gets angry he reverts to the Jade Skull form. All Medea and Steve did was draw it out as a form of punishment. What this will mean for our heroes is unknown. I doubt it'll change much since Roger was well on his way to becoming a fascist anyway. Now it's just more apparent because he has the mark of a fascist villain in his soul. If there was no way for him to be redeemed before, there's no way to redeem him now. Once you go full fascist there's no way he could ever redeem himself. 

    Steve did his best to try and turn his successor to the light and in the end it failed and obviously the Jade Skull possession had nothing to do with how Roger became Iron Eagle. That revelation will be made clear soon. 

I hope everyone enjoys the Halloween comic! Have a great Halloween! See ya next time!

Starbolts #703: The Buzz Around the Office

 Hail!

   Wow! Isn't this a huge surprise? It looks like the Starbolt known as Dragonfly is back and is working for Shrall. King Shrall sent our buzzing buddy to investigate the man who bought the Sentinels and the Lady Liberty android from Barbo. There may be more to the story here. But, we'll have to see. At this point you have to wonder who is really working for "Cyclone Consulting" here. We have four Starbolts "working" in the office and now we have Tanis down with the metahumans. The only saving grace here is that the higher ups don't suspect a thing! That's probably going to change soon enough.

    Speaking of the metahumans, we have now been properly introduced to the ladies on the team and their names are Heidi and Barbara aka Babs. Heidi's basically the tank of the team. Her powers include superstrength and invulnerability. Babs serves as a speedster. They also referenced someone who is a reject from the magical Order of Korun. Could he be another magic user? It's hard to say at the moment. The team has three more members and in time I'll give them names and powers. I just have to think about what powers to give them. Nothing is set in stone except for the ladies. I really wanted to make one super strong and the other super fast. I'll work on the others' abilities soon!

    It looks like the organization they all work for doubles as a cult that wants to perfect the human genome. This falls in line with Crazy Steve's lover picking him to be the father of his child. She felt he was the best person to help usher in a new age for humanity. The people in the cult are obsessed with the idea of perfection through genetics and that includes metahuman DNA. This also falls in line with that attractive woman hitting on Firaxil earlier. She probably had her eyes on our Inobe friend and his genetic potential. I wonder what her reaction would have been if she knew he was an alien.

    We also got a little insight into one of the Alliance treaties. Hostile aliens must visit Earth and any other Alliance world via diplomatic channels or else there'll be severe consequence such as military retaliations and the like. Makes sense give how many times the bugs invaded Earth.

    The next few comics are going to be interesting as our heroes will have to deal with the cult, the androids, Tanis buzzing around and of course their original target: Crazy Steve. But, before we get there we're going to have our annual Halloween comic next week! Should be a good one!

See ya then!