Starbolts #790: The Cave of Sorrows

 Hail!

    This week's comic had to go through a bit of a slight edit as I was unsure of how to work the angle with Marcus meeting that apparition. Initially, I wanted Marcus to meet a version of him that was exposed to the Black experience. But I wasn't sure how to go about it. I think I got the point across. Marcus was born to two superheroes and one of them was from Kenya. The other one was a military guy and as a result Marcus never had a "normal" childhood. His best friend growing up was a guy with wings growing out of his back! He never had a "normal" childhood experience. So, he lived his life the way he wanted. Sure he did stuff for his fellow African Americans but he fears that there would be scorn and ridicule along the way.

    Once Marcus delivers that spell safely to Crystal, they're probably gonna have a long talk about what the apparition told him. I tried to give Crystal's spell some of Crystal's own personality and I think it works here. Of course she says things our Crystal probably wouldn't. But at least the intent is there. I think the two of them will be in for an interesting bonding session once the magic returns to our redheaded heroine. 

      Now, we come to the dragon. I was never going to make him that big, really. Huge dragons are kinda a cliche. Looks like he was a wee bit obsessed with television. We'll see how this plays out now that his viewing mirror is gone. Will he help our heroes restore their friends' magic? We shall see.

    As for what Jack saw? I have a few ideas. Most of them involve Soldier Six and the fact that he never learned magic. I'm not sure what Heidi saw. Maybe she saw something related to Lucy. It's hard to say. 

 I'm not sure if I'll play up on Marcus's reaction to the vision at some point. He'll talk about it with Crystal, sure. But there's little else he can do at this point. I do think the edit is a lot better than what I had before. Nothing like a good old fashioned polishing to get things right!

 See ya next time as we march on to Starbolts #800! 

Starbolts #789: Escape from Crazytown

 Hail

    Well, this adventure with the Faeori has definitely took an interesting turn. It seems that their magic can undo any mystical bond between couples. Oh, dear. If Marcus, Crystal, Tanis and Heidi get out of this mess they're going to be spending the trip home reconnecting. It shouldn't be a problem. I hope. The bond was tenuous at best because Crystal and Tanis are magic users and their bondmates aren't. It takes time, effort and a lot of maintenance in order for the bonds to stick permanently. Since they're young, our heroes were exceptionally influenced by the spell our cult leader friend cast on them. 

    There just has to be a way for our heroes to get the magic back and they will succeed once Jack and his team face the dragon. One problem. Marcus and Heidi are obviously affected. Let's hope they can hold it together and save Medea and the others before it's too late. I don't think Medea and co like what that guy is selling. 

    It was a bit of poor planning to have a bunch of magic users on the ship for this adventure. But it is what it is. Though, I am pretty sure Firaxil can take out the cult of no personality without his Centurion powers. There just isn't enough time to get everyone there and back. Here's hoping Jack can save the day yet again. I just don't think a dance-off is going to work this time.

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #788: The Cult of Personality

 Hail!

    Wow. The only thing more dangerous than a cult is a cult on drugs. Looks like our heroes are really in a pickle. The sooner they deal with that dragon the better. That beast has definitely sucked the brains out of the Faeori along with their magic. Once "Kolor" has been dealt with they should return to normal. Well, aside from all the withdrawal symptoms and everything. That's going to be a huge pain for the village. Good thing Shenra has elected to stay once this mission is over or else they'd have no idea how hard the recovery will be.

    In other news, we have learned that Crystal is planning on writing a book about her life. I can't say this is a surprise because it's something I've discussed with Sam and my other consultants about from time to time. For those who don't know Crystal is a survivor of abuse and her book could help millions who have been in her shoes. It's always been a plan of mine to have the Whitefox sisters outshine those who harmed them. Carter is on a fast track to winning a Nobel. Crystal is for sure going to win awards for her story. We'll see snippets of it and who knows it may even be a good jumping on point for new readers. I haven't done one in a long time and I should probably get around to making one as we head to Starbolts #800.

    Before we get that far we're going to have to fight a fearsome drug dragon. It was definitely not cool of the cult to cast illusions of Medea's dead parents. If she could be tricked by an illusion, it means that the dragon is far more powerful than they think. Then again the beastie did hide a solar system and cause a technological blackout. I'm going to have to try something really unique for this magic eating dragon. I don't think it'll look like eastern or western dragons in Earth legend. But I promise it will be epic!

It probably won't be another space turtle. Stay tuned!

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #787: Independence Day Aquarius

 Hail!

     There's nothing like starting a Independence Day celebration with the execution of a giant orange space cockroach! In this week's comic, we return to the Alpha Quadrant to see what the rest of the Starbolts are up to. Jenna and Mateo are on Aquarius with Stan and Andrea Whitefox celebrating their independence from the Mosqukatara Empire. Of course things don't always go as planned and so Shrall and Mateo had to go hunt down the guy who vandalized the palace's reflecting pool. Good thing our heroes were on hand to stop him. 

    I liked teaming Shrall and Mateo up. For some reason the comic reads like a buddy cop movie. I do feel sad that Jenna was sidelined. It can't be helped. She is VERY pregnant and the baby will be coming soon. Very soon. How soon, you ask? How does Starbolts #800 sound? Sounds like a plan to me! Mateo should team up with his brother-in-law more often, I think. Shrall used to partner up with Marcus a lot of the time in the prose stories I used to write. Not so much now because he's got Firaxil to be his straight man. And besides if two wisecracking heroes team up not much will get done.

    Anyway, today is also America's 250th and I do hope all the Americans out there had a great one. I wasn't sure what else to write this week so I thought I'd go to the Alpha Quadrant. Next week we'll be going back to the Delta Quadrant to see what's been happening on the other side of the galaxy. We need to find the Faeori and get back to the Alpha Quadrant before issue #800. Jenna's baby is counting on M'anta and his team. Let's hope they get home safely!

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #786: Shenra's Choice

 Hail!

    This week Shenra made a clear choice and that was to stay behind with Andora. I guess they hit it off. I don't know if I'd call it "love at first sight" but I think they just found a connection. And let's not forget that Andora seems to have a thing for Faeori. Andora clearly has a type. But who are we to judge. Though, we still don't know how copulation works with Andora's species. I know Tanis isn't even eager to find out. It's no one's business but theirs. So it's best to let those two be. Shenra may have found her "happily ever after" and I'm sure our heroes would be happy for her.

    So now the team that's going to the village will consist of Medea, Marcus, Crystal, Jack,Tanis and Heidi. Solid team right there. We've got a magic user, a tactician, a couple speedsters and a level 100 witch. I think they'll be just fine considering Carter has to tend to Firaxil. He's likely out of commission. 

    We also learned a little bit about Heidi's past. She clearly had a sexual relationship with Lucy. We know she isn't the first bisexual Starbolt. Carter is and Valentina is as well.  And she was caught by her father in the back of a pickup truck. Whoops. Well, it happens. I guess they weren't careful. Still, that didn't stop her from continuing her relationship. She's still with Lucy and joining them is Tanis. All we can say is "Good for them". More on Tanis and Lucy when they return to Earth.

    Our heroes will unfortunately have to face a magic eating dragon soon. That dragon is likely the reason why the entire solar system is seemingly invisible. I like to think that the King and M'anta discussed their options with Toejani. The magical cloak is likely a recent occurrence and I'm sure he and neighboring systems would be very happy to see it go away. The King made his decision in order to facilitate trade with nearby Funkeezi. That would benefit both worlds and so M'anta gave Medea and co the go-ahead to solve the cloak problem. 

    I think our heroes will have to be careful dealing with the beastie. You never know what to expect with these comics. And as for Medea asking Marcus and Crystal about their bonding rituals. She's Medea. She's always going to ask that question. It's what she does.

    Next week we'll finally be going to the village and we'll see what's been causing the problem! It'll also be the 4th of July. I'm sure I can make it all mesh together. I mean Jack and Crystal are already on the away team. It shouldn't be hard to do!

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #785: A Big Decision

 Hail!

    Well, this week's comic certainly took some interesting turns didn't it? Let's see if I can unpack all of this properly. Firaxil's bit seemingly ended relatively smoothly. He wasn't under the influence of magi juice that long and so snapping him out of it was relatively simple. He still needed to get checked out in Sickbay. Poor guy. Nara probably gave him all kinds of icky space sickness we humans don't need to know about.   Fortunately, Dr. Arlandero will be able to make him well again. 

    Now we come to the main event. Looks like Shenra made a very good first impression with Andora. They ended up kissing on the couch and well....what they did behind closed doors is no one else's business. But is all what it seems? We know next to nothing about Andora's species. What looks like a woman may actually be a male and vice versa. For all we know they could breed like sea horses. You never know. Firaxil once said that it was a big galaxy and not everyone reproduces the same way humans, Aquans, Inobe and other races do. We have no idea what the specifics are for Andora's species. I'm going to have to come up with a name for them. I can't keep calling them "Andora's species" or "Nara's species" since Nara was the first representative we met from that race.

    Either way, Shenra made a new friend and it looks like she'll be staying behind once our heroes do what they need to do at the village. We'll be getting there very soon. As you can imagine there may be some fallout from this little tryst. I imagine Tanis has a lot to say about the issue. People were hard on him for his activities during a missing. Will they feel the same way about Shenra? Probably not because she was never technically a Starbolt. She isn't bound by their rules. She was an agent of Xemplara, though. 

    We'll see how everyone reacts to her decision to stay with Andora. I have a feeling they'd be okay with it....especially Tanis. We'll see what happens.

See ya next time! 

Starbolts #784: The Flaw in the Plan

 

 Hail! 

    This week's comic started off with everyone planning to visit the Faeori and instead we got a final confrontation between Shenra and Nara. I think it's safe to say that when the two ladies met for the first time on Funkeezi that she took advantage of Shenra being an alien and a magic user. Now Nara will face justice in the hands of her people. One has to wonder how long of a rap sheet she has. It's probably a mile long at this point. The question is why didn't she use the magi juice on herself earlier when she fought Heidi. Perhaps there wasn't enough time for her to inject herself with the magi juice. She injected herself with it at the same time she injected Firaxil and now he has to deal with the effects. Bummer. That same injection temporarily gave her superpowers.

    Now, then. Will this be the last we see of Nara? Not sure. I do know that Shenra and Andora seem to be hitting it off. We'll see more of them for sure. We'll be getting to the Faeori village soon and I can't help but wonder about the fact that they trust Andora more than King Alric. Hmm. There may be more to the story here.  All I can say about that is....Stay tuned!

 See ya next time!