The is a group that I have had a lot of return requests for. It took some thinking to come up with a good adversary for them. What better than one of the greatest monsters of myth?
The Totalitarians first banded together in STF #1380...
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YES!!! Shut Up & Take My Money!!! Loved the group from when I first saw the cover and it, like many others wanted to write the story based on the cover. This is being added to my list.
ReplyDeleteCavillier1970 - i await your writing it , i do want to read it ! strange grouping but that what makes this page interesting.
ReplyDeleteYES! Shadow Wing Tronix gets his wish. Powerful super-villains fighting (arguably) the most powerful villain in all of literature. After all; what behavior could be more villainous (to us mere mortals) than cosmic indifference?*
ReplyDelete*HPL's term. Not mine.
P.S.---I can't wait to see what you have in store for Saturday's issue!
ReplyDelete:-)
One of the greater storytelling tropes: usually-dangerous villains team up to defeat an existential threat. They get the opportunity to do things the way heroes do things -- except, of course, when egos get in the way, as they might in this case. And of course they rarely realize or acknowledge that they did anything heroic; they were just acting out of self-preservation.
ReplyDeleteI can just see the ending, where some hero is pointing out how they did things the heroic way, and four of these guys rail on about self-preservation, while one (I'd guess Mimic) is contemplatively quiet.
Nice! how about John Wick battling Marko of the Lost Boys for the lives of Bill and Ted?
ReplyDeleteBut, another important question is Will they have each others backs? Will they take pain for each other?? Is there a limit to how far each will go to help get their goal?
ReplyDeleteThey have long term goals so they don't mind waiting around as things happen, usually. This 'strange visitor' With powers and abilities that might be beyond their abilities of absorbing or duplicating ...or neutralizing. Pure energy on an entirely different level. "Our guys" work on level 1 thru 100. Mr C. works on a level of 100,000...or a yellow sun guy goes up against a red sun guy ...under a yellow sun.
And none of them specialize in energy or magic or have Bruce's mind or creativity.
Firecrackers against a superman.
@Det. Tobor: a superman whose secret identity would probably be "Keith Ulu" in the comics! You do raise an interesting question, though. Would Magnus, Robot Fighter, be able to take on either Amazo or the Super Adaptoid?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm talking about, baby! Wooo!
ReplyDeleteI mean...nice cover, Ross.
How about this for a sequel? Cthulhu vs. Ibis the Invincible!
ReplyDeleteAfter all; he's already bested a villain canonically known the Black Pharaoh. So, why not have Ibis confront someone higher up in the Lovecraftian pantheon?
If no for no other reason than it'd be a perfect way for the Invincible One to make his Ross-verse debut.
One last observation for today: how many think schlockmeister producer Larry Buchanan used Cthulhu as his visual inspiration for ZONTAR; THE THING FROM VENUS?*
ReplyDelete*A 1966 low-budget, made-for-TV remake of Roger Corman's IT CONQUERED THE WORLD.
If each of these villains gets a chance to demonstrate each of their powers, you might have one or two panels left for story development... but I doubt it.
ReplyDelete"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about."
ReplyDelete---Willy Wonka.
@Anonymous: As in "Willy Wonka and the Cthulhoclate Factory" ?
ReplyDelete@Carycomic (or is that Cthuarycthomic?) - brilliant! That is Ross's next cover right there!
ReplyDeleteRoss, another good 'un.
@Davejonz: Great Scott! I've created a punster.
ReplyDelete:-)
Backing up a bit to the mention of Bill & Ted: I'd kind of like to see them caught in the middle of the Time War between Kang and the Time Trapper.
ReplyDelete@Bob Greenwade: that might already be the case. See STF #382 (lower right-hand corner) from April, ten years ago.
ReplyDelete@Anon 12:33, good developmental thinking. Heroes are often outclassed, but even Superman died in his Doomsday. Just being a hero isn't enough.
ReplyDelete@ simon: I'll get on it, when I get a chance but working on my next book and begun scripting some possible comic book scripts for a local publisher here in Buffalo. But basically the idea goes like this;
ReplyDeleteThe Skrulls tired of being defeated by the Fantastic Four create the Super-Skrull, but unable to defeat the first family or the Earth's other heroes, the Skrulls send an agent to gather on the teams, the Avengers, the JLA, the X-Men among others. While gathering information on Superman's allies, the Legion of Super Heroes, at the Superman Museum, he was there when a lightning bolt struck the statuettes empowering Joe Metch. Unsure of what happened or the dying alien, Metch was able to get some information through his new telepathic powers (via Saturn Girl) then contacted a scientist he knew, Ronald Rafkin for help, bringing Rafkin the information & Skrull technology. Rafkin determined that Metch had absorbed the powers of the LSH through the lightning bolt hitting the figures. Metch began practicing with his powers testing his abilities, but underwent a psychosis, in the meantime Rafkin consulted with a former colleague, Professor Ivo and they discovered the extent of the technologies involved & Rafkin convinced his son Calvin to volunteer. At first nothing happened, but when Calvin was in public he came near the original X-Men and began to absorb their powers. Afterwards Rafkin and Ivo realized that both Calvin and Metch were having psychological issues they suspected were due to the alien technology being used on humans, and Ivo thought it could best be used in a robotic project he was developing and acted. Using it he created Amazo, who he exposed to the original JLA. Ivo needing tech support contacted the criminal group AIM, who agreed to support Ivo, as long as he shared the information with them and in doing so they created the Super Adaptoid, who AIM exposed to the original Avengers. Meanwhile Metch fully embraced his powers and developed a full psychosis in which he wanted to rule the world, despite the man's true nature. Calvin at times gave into a baser side but fought it attempting to be a hero he believed he could be. Eventually Metch now calling himself the Composite Superman and came into conflict with Superman & Batman, and eventually other heroes from around the world. At the same time the Super Skrull arrived on Earth looking to find out what happened to the Agent, and encountered the Composite Superman, and during their conflict the alien learned what happened and the pair came to an agreement to gather the research/tech and they'd work to conqueror the world together. Together the villains recruited Amazo and the Adaptoid, with Mimic as a holdout, with part of his psyche still wanting to be a hero, he eventually agreed to join the group, hoping to find a way to turn them for a force of good, seeing potential to protect the planet.
Of course this just a rough idea off the top of my head of how they'd form.
It's a shame that you didn't try to even out the DC /Marvel numbers (2 to 3) by using the old
ReplyDeletecomposite foe from Super Friends #3 a.k.a. the World Beater who probably had more folks powers than these 5 combined.
Maybe next outing?
"The Love Craft soon will be making another run..."
ReplyDelete"The Love Craft promises a groan for every pun."
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Cthulhu would do against Frazetta's Death-dealer?
ReplyDelete