V09 – Pg09
Hello again!
I bet that’ll sting in the morning, eh? If he’s still alive after that, Spitfire has learnt a valuable lesson – When the fists start flying, the time for talk is over.
Digression: One thing I wanted to focus on when I started Vanguard was that, when Meta-Humans fought, that they would be brutal. Often I’d read comics when protagonists fought with abilities that could level cities, yet nobody really got hurt.
One title which kinda bucked this trend was ‘Invincible’ by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley. I like to think, maybe vainly, that the influence both Kirkman’s writing and Ottley’s artwork can be felt within Vanguard.
Story-wise, I’m working towards a big reveal, which’ll hit in a few months time. I’ve taken a gamble on the way I’ve told/written this tale by not sticking to a convention. If you refer back to issue one, there’s a definite set-up, which is subverted as the tale spins along. You’re expected to ride along with Luke/Spitfire as he finds his way in within the team. This doesn’t happen. Something is very wrong. The story isn’t playing out like it ‘should’ or, like one would expect.
This page won’t upvote itself on Reddit! Ha ha! Thanks in advance!
Dan
MrHades
Edited by
Gary Cohen
Holy shit. Spitfire can put out enough juice to burn an Alpha?? Is he even stronger than that?
Luke is young and his abilities, as they are natural, have some growing yet to do… how powerful he becomes, we have yet to see.
If he lives, that is.
Indeed. You’ll find out what happens to Luke/Spitfire in a few pages time.
Spitfire “I just discover I can weld my bones back together”
Spitfire will return before the issue is done, trust me. Welding his bones together? Hmmmm.
That’s a nice touch with the hair, most superheroes seem to get steel instead of keratin.
Yeah, I figured hair, even if it’s ‘super’ would get burned off in this type of attack.
Enjoying this very much. Saw what you did with the first issue. It was right out in front from the very beginning. In every war there are……
Thank you! Glad to have you onboard 🙂
Had to look at those last two panels twice, I thought he had ripped his arms off
Heh, that would have been curtains for Spitfire!
That eye should’ve been melted along with te rest of him. Also he knows they’re on the wrong side since he already met Max in a similar scenario in the middle east. Less talk, more BBQ.
If he lives through this, he won’t make the same mistake!
Not technically, it caught him on the side of the head and you can see in the first panel he closed his eyes with the impact. With a lot of thermo style blasts including real detonations, you get the shockwave impact first which in micro seconds would have him doing a natural reaction same as you have to instinctively close your eyes to a blow to the head, and then the heat will follow. Check out some cool Mythbusters episodes of explosions (like the RPG and the huge one in the quarry where they had to be about a mile away from it to watch for examples.)
Thanks man! I’ll go see if I can track that down on YouTube.
Actually, I don’t think that was Luke. Kingsword was backed up by a super we hadn’t seen before.
Back at the oil rig, that is.
Yeah-Ow. Less Talk, more fight kid.
*shudder*
Indeed! This isn’t a experience he’s going to forget in a hurry.
Long time reader, first time poster. Actually I admit I also thought he was ripping his arms off to beat him to death with, but the next thought would be now he has thrown him in the air, is to then fly up and punch him in the guts so hard as to split him in twain. Would certainly then “motivate” the remainder of the Vanguard not pull any punches and to take them down hard.
Indeed! That’d certainly get the team to up their game. That said, having one of your team mates get killed in front of you could demoralize even the strongest willed of people.
Spitfire can fly, the question is can he concentrate enough through the pain to keep himself safely airborne. And if MaX is done with him. I can see MaX flying after Spitfire to make Spitfire’s last moments even more painful and terrifying.
That’s the question. He’s still new to this game. Easy fodder for guys like MaX!
New reader here – just read through from page one (except for that one missing page in between :P) – and while I’m also a longtime reader/fan of the mainstream superhero comics, I also like the “what if” versions with a tad bit more realism. Your work so far seems to be the one with most realism that I can remember ever reading. People can get seriously hurt, even if they’re “super”.
The whole Dark Lord (forgot the name) claiming to be behind this all feels like it’ll become the major plotpoint in the longer run, and something to do with Herne’s warnings. Will follow with interest.
The Hollow Men – my memory keeps kicking me about that name, is it a reference to some TV series like Doctor Who (which I haven’t watched more than an episode here and there)?
Glad to have you aboard, Dakejev!
I think realism in comics has it’s time/place. Not everything has to be, but hey, it’s what I use to tell the story here. My outlook is, if characters can come back from the dead, where’s the threat? A lot of people say Superman’s ‘death’ funked things up and set a president that ‘anyone’ can come back. I’d argue that characters coming back from the dead in comics has been around since day zero.
The whole Woden/Hern thing will play out relatively soon. It should be interesting to see the reaction it’ll garner.
In regards to the ‘bad guy/gal’, I’ve approached it as, if I were a super-villain, plotting world domination, how would I do it? The same with the superheroes. Analyzing their various weaknesses, being it money, relationships, then attacking those, would be the sensible way to tackle these obstacles.
With the Hollow Men, I looked up the name before using them, but found nothing. Not to say there isn’t though! The name does have a relevance, which will be disclosed before long. Stay tuned!
BTW – Which page didn’t load? The Flash one?
“With the Hollow Men, I looked up the name before using them, but found nothing.”
My visual memory is far superior to remembering things like names, so could be they were officially called something else, but the point was that they were robot men/robot-looking suits that were (or at least were a major part of) some army that was dangerous to Earth certainly, and possibly also for the rest of the universe.
Also, “The Hollow Men” is T. S. Eliot’s poem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hollow_Men which ends with the famous line: “This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper.”
“BTW – Which page didn’t load? The Flash one?”
There was one page with just the blog entry saying the file had been lost. Nothing else loaded on that page.
Maybe the name was used in a book or some such? Regarding the poem, I was thinking of incorporating the T.S. Elliot poem into the Hollow Man motto, if they indeed have one.
I’m still looking for that .swf file though!