Starbolts #760: Christmas at the Vault

 Hail!

   Happy holidays from the Starbolts! This year, I thought I'd do things a little differently and have the spotlight be on the villains at the Vault. As you can tell it is an unusual prison. For starters both men and women are inmates at the same facility. They're also free to move about a heavily guarded living area. A prison for metahumans is bound to be different from a normal prison. The use of their powers is extremely limited as well since Jack Lantern, a plant controlling metahuman, could only generate a small Christmas tree. It's not that impressive.

    I turned the spotlight on Spectra since we don't really know much about her other than the fact that she was transformed into a light being by her father, Dreadwing. He was also responsible for transforming Granite over and over again until he was freed a while ago. 

    I was originally going to take this comic down a different path and have her be with Tom. I decided not to since Tom appeared sympathetic in the early draft of the comic and I didn't want that. Tom is beyond redemption and help at this point. He is likely never going to be freed given what he and the others have done.

    Spectra on the other hand is on her way to freedom. Using what she knows, she could add onto her father's sentence. Tom could have stopped her from talking. However, I think he was still perplexed by the idea of Spectra and Granite being together since Granite is a rock monster. 

    I like to think it was Carter's idea to help free Spectra and Valentina supported her efforts. They were both controlled by Terra Nova at one point and now the two are working to help free former members of the Legion who deserve to have their freedom. So far they've freed Simon, Syntax and Granite. Spectra is now the fifth member of that team to potentially be free.

    Will it happen? Will Spectra be free? It's a possibility. This week's comic sets up an arc I want to do down the road once I finish with Tanis's arc. Several former villains are getting their redemption arcs. It's not an unheard of thing in comics. However, I am going to have to make new villains since several of them are turning over a new leaf. I highly doubt any more members of the Legion will be freed. I'm just freeing the ones who deserve it the most and Spectra has been an unwilling participant in many of their misdeeds.

    Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a fantastic new year! We'll be sure to visit Spectra again very soon. Like...perhaps in the New Year's comic? That is the comic where I recap stuff that happened in the last year and introduce new arcs. 

I do think it's funny that I have three holidays represented this week. A ghost normally seen in Halloween comics, Santa and a woman who calls herself Valentine. Crazy. Hmm...would Jack Lantern count as an Arbor Day reference? Hmmm....

 See ya next time!