Starbolts #702: Working Nine to Five

 Hail!

    Our heroes have infiltrated the consulting firm and found that they are putting a team of metahumans together! To make things even more interesting, it looks like one of the members of the team is a Mosqukatara warrior. That's uh....definitely a choice there. I mean the bugs are known throughout the galaxy as tyrants, dictators and authoritarians. Does anyone think this guy might be any different? That remains to be seen. Like the old saying goes, you need to be careful of the company you keep. Sure you might want to keep your enemies close. But, a bug? That's a bit iffy. We'll see what happens like I said.

    I'm not sure what abilities the other members of this squad will have. I'm thinking one of them might have superspeed to compete with Marcus and another might have superstrength. I'm not sure. I haven't made their full character sheets yet. I assure you by next week's comic they'll have names, psychological profiles and power sets. Will they join the academy? It's hard to say.

    Leading this bunch is of course one of the Lady Liberty bots we met back in Starbolts #680.  I wasn't about to let that plot dangle. For some reason Dexter Howard thought Earth needed a Lady Liberty bot hanging around. Why? I don't know. It can't be for anything good. So, this team has a bug AND a bot. That's not a good look as far as the Starbolts are concerned. Firaxil's reaction is more than justified.

    That reminds me. I was tempted to make the blonde lady who hit on Firaxil a metahuman. But, nah. I don't think I want to mix up the office front with what Steve's organization is really doing. I'll be exploring that next time. For now, I think I'd better get that report on the boss's desk by five!

See ya next time!

Starbolts #701: Assembling the Team

Hail!

    Looks like our heroes are headed to the rat race this week. This time, however, they're on the trail of an actual rat. His name is Steve and if you've been reading the comics for a while you'll see that he was responsible for a lot of shady things happening in the Starbolts universe. First he tried to kidnap the Whitefox kids' mother Andrea. He got himself tangled up with an organization that unleashed several robots on an unsuspecting city. Finally, his organization woke up an ancient witch. The Starbolts have decided enough was enough. It's time to take the battle to the bad guys! 

    This week's comic also continues the arc from previous comics since Marcus and Crystal got engaged in Starbolts #700. I wanted to show how Marcus's parents reacted to the news about their son's engagement. Stan and Andrea's reaction was likely off camera and of course they were happy. I also wanted to show baby Dendra and how she's been doing and she's been learning how to shapeshift through animal books. Dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

    Anyway, our heroes are at work. We'll see if they get involved with office drama and if they find the former Iron Eagle. He has a lot to answer for and our heroes will be the ones asking the questions!

See ya next time!

Starbolts #700: A Decent Proposal

 

 Hail! 

    We're finally here! The 700th edition of the Starbolts and what a celebration we have this time! We all knew this was coming eventually. Marcus and Crystal became an item back in Starbolts #303 when they had their first kiss. The hints for the romance were always sort of there. I initially just wanted to test the relationship to see how it would fly and it worked out pretty well. Marcus and Crystal compliment each other well and now they're going to get married. That wedding is sure to be a star-studded event. I'm not sure when it'll take place. It might be in a comic in 2025 or 2026 depending on  my mood. I think it might be best to have it be next year. I'll have to talk to my editors about it and see what they think!

    Anyway, it was a long time coming for these two lovebirds since they had been pining for each other for ten years or so in the comic. Thankfully, they got their feelings out in the open and now they're ready to take the next step in their relationship.

    I do like how Marcus and Mateo mentioned Mateo's proposal to Aquita. You won't find that in the comic. That was actually in the prose version of Starbolts. As a matter of fact, I should probably put up excerpts from the prose version on the site. However, a lot of things are no longer canon and it wouldn't gel with how the comic is now. For example, Jack was a completely different person. He was kind of a jerk when he showed up. At least certain things remained constant when I transferred the story from prose to the comic.

    At least I can always do flashbacks to that time period. I do go back to the prose version of the story every once in a while and see what could be added. I'm always looking for ways to improve the comic and my writing as well. So many things changed since I started writing this story in the 1990s and sometmies you have to move forward. 

    Seven hundred comics is a lot of work and I've been doing this comic since 2008. Even in the comic there have been changes to how the sprites all look and I'm always looking for ways to improve my work here as well. Who knows what the comic will look like seven hundred comics from now! Time will tell. I'm not going to be slowing down any time soon.

     I'm glad I made it this far and it's good to have this romantic payoff for two of my favorite characters in the comic. Starbolts #303 was when I decided to elevate Crystal to main character status and I think that worked out for the best because it allowed me to make Carter, Firaxil and Jack main characters along with Marcus. That cast fits together well. My only regret is that it took my so long to find a group of main characters to focus on for the comic. At least that's a good group of characters! 

    I hope everyone enjoys the comic! Here's to many more!

See ya next time!

Starbolts #699: Partners in Crime

 Hail!

    As if it wasn't clear already, Crystal and Marcus are made for each other. They compliment each other nicely and that makes them the perfect partners in crime. Well, they are superheroes. The sentiment still holds! We've got a nice little romantic payoff this week and for the 700th comic I'll be taking a break from the action to see how things pay off. Judging by the ring in the last panel, I think you'll see where this is going. But, don't worry! This won't be the usual "man proposes to woman" trope. I'll be doing something a little different next time and I hope everyone enjoys it!

    Meanwhile Tom got himself into a huge pickle as Marcus put it. He was in some serious trouble with the locals and his universal translator malfunctioned at the worst possible moment. It's never a good sign when an alien princess wants to hurt you and ideally you shouldn't stop for a second in a dark alley in a strange neighborhood. Good thing Marcus came by to save him albeit reluctantly. Other people would have let him suffer a bit. Marcus has a good heart. But, Tommy was definitely not grateful. Because of this he's not going to learn the truth about Zarantha and Hexuba's customs.

    The way I see it. Hexuba and Crystal talked a lot about Tom on the way to the garage and in the air. That was when they created the plan to trick Tom. In order for it to work, Marcus had to be kept in the dark. I'm sure he would have kept his mouth shut. But, it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure we'll see Hexuba and her father, R'ndor again some day. Diplomatic channels are now open so anything is possible.

Next time the comic celebrates its 700th edition! I hope everyone enjoys it! See ya then! 

Starbolts #698: Mistaken Identities

 

 Hail! 

    It shouldn't come as any surprise that Cobra killed R'ndor's wife. Cobra has a history of killing women and/or stealing their babies. The question is why didn't our new friend tell his daughter what happened to her mother. Well, maybe he did tell her and she didn't want to believe it. Who knows? Maybe Tom tried to tell her he had nothing to do with her mom's death and hat he was different from the man in green. In a sense that's true. He wasn't seen in the battle the Legion had with R'ndor and Ulxana. Poor Hexuba probably doesn't know the whole story.

    I think Crystal will give Hexuba and her father the details next week while Marcus chases after Tom. I don't think he and Hexuba will be getting together any time soon. That relationship went south REAL quickly! I don't think they'll be recovering from that.

    We're getting close to Starbolts #700! It should be a good one as events in this arc have been leading up to it. But, first we need to close the book on Tom for now. See you next time when Marcus and Tom have a showdown!

See ya then!

Starbolts #697: An Interdimensional Incident

   Hail!

    Leave it to Tom to cause an interdimensional incident. That man is a menace on Earth and in the Outlands. Let's hope our heroes can clean up this obvious misunderstanding and do it before he mates with Princess Hexuba. Then again they might not even be compatible. Sure the denizens of the Outlands look humanoid and everything. But, are they physiologically compatible? I'm not sure. I'll have to hammer out the details on that.

    We never had much information about the denizens of the Outlands before and now it's a great time to go into details about the people and their lives. Obviously, they're a monarchy and their king is definitely someone you do not want to mess with. I think he borrowed that sword from Garazo. And maybe the outfit. Either way, the guy has a short fuse and Marcus and Crystal may be in trouble.

    It's interesting to note that R'ndor said the floating island has brought nothing but chaos. I can believe that. Since all the defensive measures protecting the island from intruders has been disabled the natives are free to finally check the place out! I don't think they're going to like what they find! 

    Meanwhile, it seems that Crystal and Carter have become friends with Heather. I wonder what plans they cooked up for Marcus. We'll see it in Starbolts #700. Stay tuned for that!

 We also have M'anta enlisting the aid of Nikki. She'll be helping to bring the organization responsible for toying with the Starbolts down. She won't be joining. But, she will be siding with them on this one goal. Will they succeed? Time will tell. For now it just seems like Marcus and Crystal have their hands full with a guy who looks like a cross between Macho Man Randy Savage and He-Man. This is gonna suck for them.

See ya next time!

Starbolts #696: Betting on the House

 Hail!

    Well, that was one way to end the threat posed by the wicked witch Zarantha. Marcus was betting on his bond with Crystal being strong enough to save them and it was! Now, I didn't want this comic to read like everyone was saved by the power of love or anything. That's not it at all  Zarantha was defeated by plain old hubris. She sorely underestimated Crystal and Marcus and that ultimately led to her downfall. She had no way of knowing that our heroes bonded the night before. See Sttarbolts #686 for details.

    Crystal and Marcus had been trying to bond on the mystical level for a while now and this time they found a way to make it stick. She bent the rules of magic to suit her desires and thus a bond was formed. I see her going to her parents for help on the matter and Stan and Andrea likely gave her some valuable pointers because after all they were the original rule breakers. Stan and Andrea did their best to buck tradition and it paid off for their children. Though, I have a feeling it'll be a lot easier for Firaxil and Carter to bond. Jack and Anya might go a different route. 

    As far as Zarantha goes, she has a fitting fate. She's stuck in a universe that was once teeming with life and is now completely dead. There is no life and because there's no life there are no souls to consume. She might find a way back but her powers are diminished and now she has to stay there forever. She is immortal and is now the only thing living in that universe. Well....I don't know if I'd call her "living". She looked kind of undead when she was pushed into the portal.

    Next week is going to see a epilogue of this adventure. I imagine some loose ends are going to need to be tied up in a neat little bow. That new organization our heroes have been fighting has been doing some pretty nasty stuff lately. First it was the robots and now it's this wicked witch. What are they planning? Why must they test our heroes? These are all good questions! Stay tuned and find out the answers!

See ya next time!