#345: Untold Tales of the Lair Legion: More Candidates Go to Part Five: The Last Thing That Went Through His Head Go to Part Six: Prisoner: Cell Block X Go to Part Seven: Ghost Story Previously: CrazySugarFreakBoy! has announced the new line-up of the Lair Legion – and Visionary as it’s new chair. This is news to Visionary. And the new line-up. And the government. The Hooded Hood's Homepage of Doom Who's Who in the Parodyverse Where's Where in the Parodyverse *** 7. Ghost Story     Overseer Chavez had a reputation for being a real hardass. He slammed into Biolab 3 in a foul mood, waving the readout datapad that had provoked his temper.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What the hell is wrong now, people? We’re four hours behind schedule. Four hours. Again. What is it this time? Nanoplasma programming cascade? Gene-sequencer alignment coil diffraction? Windows Vista lockout? Or did the damn coffee machine just break down and you decided you didn’t mind getting executed for being late with Baroness von Zemo’s hyper-ebola order?”     A dozen scientists and technicians in B.A.L.D. rubber shell suits, lacking the traditional full-head beekeeper’s mask but complete with high-tech pocket protectors, stood and stared silently at their angry supervisor.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“We have a contract, people. We have a deadline. As in, if we don’t deliver the contract on the agreed schedule we will all be dead. If the Baroness doesn’t kill us for not delivering her sentient flesh-eating bacillus in time for the supermodels award ceremony then MODEM will. We are B.A.L.D. - Blatant Anarchists Loving Destruction – and we sell our science genius wherever it will weaken the government of the world to prepare for our inevitable global dominance. We do not stop to gossip about talent shows, soap operas, or what went wrong between Brad and Angelina. We do not even speculate about Rochford here’s strange facial mole, although we may need to dissect his face later in the interests of science. We press on, reliable, inspired, forging a new future by our genius and – why are you people all staring at me like that?”     The roomful of evil scientists remained motionless. Overseer Chavez felt something very cold and sharp prick into his neck.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They’re not staring at you,” Citizen Z told the overseer. “They’re staring at me.”     Chavez felt a chill scurry down his spine. At the periphery of his vision a ragged purple and black cape fluttered in an unperceived wind.     Technician Lugg raised a trembling finger and pointed at the intruder. “Dude, you got a superhero behind you,” he advised Overseer Chavez unnecessarily.     Citizen Z’s hand was cool. It felt colder as it took the tech-pad out of Chavez’s hand.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Talk to me,” CZ urged in low, menacing tones. “Beth von Zemo hired your research unit to make her new bio-toys. Stuff she couldn’t source from the diabolical Dr Moo because Moo still has a few ethics. Talk me through what she wanted.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You can’t get away with this,” Overseer Chavez told the intruder. “Already our advanced detection systems will have warned of your arrival. Our advanced defence countermeasures will destroy you. BRAWLER warriors. Dreadbots. Pain drones. The product of a decade of genius, distilled into one assault suite of lethal brilliance focussed upon your destruction.”     Technician Lugg winced but held his finger up again. “Yeah, she made us turn that off,” he admitted.     The knifepoint squirmed to prick Chavez’s flesh. “You are wrong,” Citizen Z advised. “I’m not a superhero. Superheroes have codes. Morals. Restrictions. Most don’t kill. Most won’t torture. I’m a vigilante, on a mission of vengeance. I want to see every last one of you dead and damned.”     Such was Citizen Z’s presence that she held the whole room frozen. Her masked face somehow projected icy rage and mercilessness. The shadows were deep wherever she stood.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“In all your ‘decade of genius’ did you ever invent a neural knife?” Citizen Z asked Overseer Chavez. “A weapon forged from psychically sensitive metal that could transmit the mental agonies of one person into another?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Er… no,” swallowed the overseer. Swallowing was a bad move. The blade-point pricked him and a trickle of blood rolled down to his collar.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You couldn’t. It’s mystical as well as scientific. Spiritual. It channels the concentrated madness of an ancient asylum into the unprepared mind of a mere brief human. At full power it doesn’t just burn out the neurons of the brain, leaving behind a drooling idiot, it brands all that insanity and torment permanently into the psyche, sealing the victim into his own living hell. So I’ll ask again, for the last time, what are you doing for the Baroness here in Smedjebacken, Sweden, in B.A.L.D. lab three?”     The knife suddenly seemed red hot. Chavez hastened to answer. “We’re preparing a virus. It turns humans into, er, diseased rotting mind-slaves. And also a parasite that makes other people more… suggestible. And a new breed of servitor drones that can adapt to then copy the powers of any metahuman they encounter.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, that’ll be awesome,” approved Technicial Lugg before he remembered where he was.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“The codes to get me into the sealed areas so I can destroy them?” demanded CZ.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“We don’t have the codes,” argued Chavez. “Only MODEM has the access passes to the deeper facility areas. We run things from up here. We can’t… aaaaaghhh!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That was the knife part of my neural knife,” Citizen Z explained. “But ears can be sewn back on. Want to try the neural part, for which there’s no possible fix?”     Overseer Chavez explained the backdoor systems that would get the phantom avenger into the deeper levels of the manufacturing complex.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you, like, going to kill us all now?” worried Lugg.     Citizen Z considered it. “I’m just going to hurt you all very much,” she decided. “You’re going to have a long sleep with some very bad dreams, and when you finally wake up you may want to consider new career choices.”     And then she hurt them. ***     The B.A.L.D. manufacturing facility had state-of-the-art perimeter defences and one of the world’s most sophisticated computer counterassault systems.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh please,” said Al B. Harper as he deactivated it. He planted a small text file as a rootkit that would offer useful critique for the programmers when they came to find out how their systems had crashed.     Once he’d taken control of the first and second tier systems he was able to tap the monitor feeds and examine the complex. All the guards in the upper compound were unconcious. A quick scan suggested they’d had a neural shock that had temporarily neutralised their higher brain functions. Likewise the techhies in labs one to four were out. Defence systems on the lower manufacturing plant were offline.     Al B. thumbed his Lair Legion communicard. “Looks like the satellite sensors were right,” he told Hallie. “Citizen Z’s here.”     It hadn’t been easy to set up a worldwide detection grid for the unique biopsychic signature of the phantom avenger. The archscientist felt justifiably pleased. He reprogrammed the B.A.L.D. bioweapons console to make him a cup of coffee.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m going inside,” Al B. warned Hallie. “The base is constructed of transmission-blocking materials so I’ll be out of touch. CZ’s headed down deep to the automated manufacturing levels, presumably to put a stop to whatever B.A.L.D. was constructing here.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“An order for Beth von Zemo according to the datalogs you just squirted over to me,” Hallie judged. “I’m shunting the data over to your kids for them to look at but I don’t think there’s anything here that’ll stand up in court against the Baroness.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Is there ever?” sighed Al B. “Who else could take over the planet then sue us for stopping her?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“The Baroness is a mission for another day,” Hallie advised. “Today you’re making contact with Citizen Z.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yep. And I’m going in.” ***     Citizen Z dropped down through a service hatch and landed on a grill gantry in the automated assembly plant. Lurid red light flooded the vast space, filling the dusty gloom with unexpected shadows.     Shadows no longer frightened Citizen Z.     There were remote weapons platforms here, not tied in with the main defence grid. CZ somersaulted over the balcony to land of the first of them as it hovered closer to analyse her. She cored its main processor out with her blade, sent it spinning down to explode into the second platform behind it, then extended her combat stave to hook onto the third drone and avoid a plummet into the bio-vats below.     Citizen Z judged her performance as she took down the defences. She no longer remembered how she’d developed her physical combat skills but the moves came to her easily. The body she occupied was naturally limber and becoming moreso. Her neural discharge discs worked as effectively on programmed technology as on living beings. Her energy levels were good, lodged as she was in her possessed mortal host; she could escape Herringcarp Asylum for extended amounts of time as long as she was paired with the comatose Bethany Shellett.     As she dropped down to the assembly level she judged that so far her performance was satisfactory.     There were remote-controlled BRAWLER suits ahead and a refitted Technopolitian combat tripod but by now she was ready for them.     When the last of the B.A.L.D. defences were destroyed Citizen Z passed towards the main control area where she could end the Baroness’ lethal equipment order. She found a black man in a white lab coat finishing his latte macchiato.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hello,” said Al B. Harper. “And thank you.”     Citizen Z hefted her battle stave. Wisps of ectoplasm drifted from its metal tips. “Thank me for what?” she demanded.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Well, it’s taken me some time to work out when you were Citizen Z and when it was Beth von Zemo and Silicone Sally and when it was someone else entirely,” Al B. Harper admitted. “But once I determined that you had a parapsychic component I was able to figure it. You’re the CZ who turned up at the end of the Baroness’ world coup and saved Magweed, Griffin, and Sam from HAGGIE. You’re the one that was around when we were off in the Stitchworlds.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And you claim to be the real Al B. Harper.” Citizen Z was sceptical.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Want me to prove Fermat’s last theorem for you? Listen, I know you’ve got some major mad-on at Beth von Zemo – Lee pulled the records before he… The Librarian discovered that the original, male, Citizen Z was murdered by Baron Heinrich Zemo in world war II. You’ve clearly got this whole revenge thing going on with the house of Zemo, but there’s more to life than revenge. Want a coffee?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I do not drink… coffee,” answered Citizen Z.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’re one complex tangled parapsychic event, that’s for sure,” the archscientist admitted. “I haven’t seen reading this dense since I did a scan on the Lair Banshee.”     The battle-stave oriented on Al B. “You’re a better last defence than I expected,” Citizen Z told him. “More imaginative than B.A.L.D. usually is. But you won’t stop me from destroying those monstrosities.”     Al B. put down his mug. “Yeah, about that. I’ve been going through these computer files for Big Beth’s order and there’s something that doesn’t make sense…”     Citizen Z lunged at him. The archscientist yelped and fell backwards off his chair.     Citizen Z plunged her stave into the main hard drive of the manufacturing facility and unleashed madness into it.     Things began to explode.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I really wish you hadn’t done that,” said Al B. Harper.     Giant monitor screens lit up all around the room, each projecting the face of Baroness von Zemo.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Well now,” said the Baroness, “if you’re hearing this, ‘Citizen Z’, it’ll be because you were stupid enough to walk into my trap. You’ll be learning that the bioweapons order wasn’t my real contract with B.A.L.D. What I actually commissioned was a means of containing and destroying you.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And that’s why I wish you hadn’t done that,” Al B. noted. “Like I said, there was something about the files…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I have no idea who you are or what you want,” Beth von Zemo went on. “If I was interested enough to find out I’d be interested enough to kill you personally rather than contract it tp others. But I’m a busy woman, so I’ve outsourced your death to B.A.L.D. They’ve turned that whole manufactury into a death trap – psi-suppressors, arcane mines, subatomic causal strings, logic verification lances, ectoplasmic confinement mesh – everything one needs to dissect a ghost or whatever you are.”     Al B. stared at his scanner. “Ooh, yeah. Now that’s more like it. Very smart.”     On-screen Beth sniffed. “Anyway, I have a rather nice dinner awaiting me. Do have a long and excruciating destruction. Goodbye.”     Around the complex various remote devices hummed to life.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“A trap,” hissed Citizen Z, “and I walked into it! I know her! I know how tricky she is! And I still walked into it.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Happens to the best of us,” Dr Harper comforted her. “Er, do you think we could maybe escape from here now? Only anything calibrated to rip you to spiritual shreds will work just fine on me as well.”     The first wave of psi-shielded killbots came in. Citizen Z took them down with combat skills alone. “If you really are the Legionnaire Al B. Harper then you’d better think of an escape,” CZ demanded.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I need more information,” the archscientist demanded. “Who are you? What are you? What’s your feud with the Baroness? What powers do you have that she’s prepared counters for?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m…” Citizen Z fended off the next wave of killbots. They’d learned from previous set. These were smarter and faster. “I’m a mystery.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I need to know. Without data I have nothing to work on.”     CZ caught her breath after the second assault. “I’m undead,” she admitted. “I was murdered by Beth and now I’m back. I can channel some pain and madness I experienced through the psychic metal of my equipment. I can possess willing subjects or weak-minded people for a time and operate in their bodies. I’m in a borrowed form right now. When I’m a ghost I can only be solid for a few minutes before I have to evaporate away and… be recharged.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You have a Citizen Z suit.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Beth von Zemo had a number of them made, for when Silicone Sally couldn’t assume the form. She had a whole arsenal designed to fit into it. I took one and modified it, personalised it. I’ve suffused her kit with my neural traumas so now it’s half-scientific, half-mystic.”     She had to break off then. The third wave of killbots dropped upon her with matter-rippers and ectoplasmic lashes, attacking on the physical and psychic planes at the same time.     Citizen Z fought well, but it was evident to Al B. Harper that she wasn’t going to win this one.     He had to think fast. Fortunately he was Al B. Harper. “Okay, CZ, this trap was designed to destroy you, but I think I know how to beat it. You’re going to have to trust me.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t trust anyone anymore.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Then you’ll have to start or you’ll really be dead.”     The killbots closed in on Citizen Z, co-ordinating for their final assault.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What do I have to do?” CZ demanded.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You said you were possessing that body. Jump into mine.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“What?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Come to me. Those drones are set to eliminate you, but I’m betting Beth or B.A.L.D. or both will want your remains for autopsy. When they sense you’re no longer in that flesh they might stop their attack.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And attack you instead.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Only if you’re in charge in here. And believe me, that’s not going to happen. Now jump!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“If I leave this flesh it will be helpless. She’s my friend.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“They’re not locked onto her flesh, they’re locked on to your sentience. Come on!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I don’t trust anybody.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’ll need to learn to trust your fellow Legionnaires when you’ve joined us. Now’s the time to start.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m not joining the…”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Jump!”     Citizen Z made her decision. She slipped out of Bethany Shellett’s comatose form, allowing the body to crumple onto the grating, and hurled herself into Al B. Harper’s mind.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Wow, it’s big in here!” ***     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Simple,” said Al B. “Once the system sensed you were gone it went on to the next phase, the clean up and diagnostics. There are soul-catchers installed here like the ones on the Parody Master’s prison planet. They’re supposed to retain your ghostly essence and then the Baroness can interrogate your physical host or your captured spirit at her leisure.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Nice,” spat Citizen Z as she reinhabited her best friend’s body.     Al B. had reset the whole system now the attack was over. He’d even triggered the self-destruction countdown to provide Smedjebacken with a new crater for snowboarding. “I’m not sure of the ethics of you using someone’s vacant body for a vehicle,” he told CZ.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Then it’s a good job it’s none of your damn business.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“But it will be, after you’ve joined the Legion. And if you think I’m bothered about it wait till you meet Visionary or Mumphrey. Or the Shoggoth.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m not joining your Legion,” Citizen Z insisted. “It… wouldn’t be a good idea.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s been foreseen, if you believe in Caphan prophetesses. Or CrazySugarFreakBoy! press conferences. Besides, hasn’t today illustrated how it’s better to have someone at your back? And don’t you want to use whatever… afterlife you have for more than just revenge? Aren’t you just a little bit juiced at the idea of being with the world’s foremost superteam?”     Citizen Z turned her back on Al. “I don’t want to hurt the Legion. I don’t want to let them down, or betray them, or destroy them.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Same here,” the archscientist agreed. “I still joined.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“There’s information you don’t have.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Are you secretly Baroness von Zemo infiltrating us to take over the planet?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“No.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Then we’ll work the rest out later. Give us a chance.”     CZ wavered. “You’re not the ones who need the chance,” she confessed.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Then take a chance,” Al B. advised her. “You have to trust someone, sometime. Trust us.”     Citizen Z, timelost Amnesia of Herringcarp Asylum, memory-wiped superhero sidekick Laurie Leyton, hesitated. She could summon her z-wing flyer and disappear. She could continue her remorseless vendetta against her murderer. She could return to the accusing darkness of Herringcarp Asylum.     She could be a Legionnaire. *** Next: The final new recruit may also be the shortest-lived: Hunting Season Images by Visionary *** Original concepts, characters, and situations copyright © 2010 reserved by Ian Watson. Other Parodyverse characters copyright © 2010 to their creators. The use of characters and situations reminiscent of other popular works do not constitute a challenge to the copyrights or trademarks of those works. The right of Ian Watson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.

I had trouble getting this story past the spam filter. In the end I had to delete the links to parts 1-4 of the story (which led to the Hooded Hood's Homepage of Doom) before I could get it past.

Another current board technical issue is that on the Search page none of the drop-down menus will drop-down for me. I can search for the pre-set default six months on the pre-set all-types setting but nothing else.

Citizen Z is not a nice vigilante. I think she might even make Messenger uncomfortable... But that might just be because dead women stir up a lot of baggage with him.

A fun return of Untold Tales, provided ear-removing vengeance can be called fun. I should think so, especially when Al is along for the ride. It was an unusual pairing that worked well, and of course proved quite fortuitous for Laurie.

It's going to be difficult to reconcile her methods with the Legion's, but lord knows they owe her a save, and she could desperately use that last chance. I look forward to seeing how it goes (and to seeing how She gets along with Marie).

As always a good story.

I've recently been reading some old issues of Brace & The Bold, like here, I think some of the best issues of that series was when the team-ups were between people you wouldn't normally think would work together.

I'm worrying about who this final, shortest lived recruit will be. I've got a few ideas who it might be but won't say until I read the story.

Well, she's baulking at killing bad guy henchmen, so I'd have to say that on the whole Messy's more extreme.




Without Al B. I think this might have been the end for Citizen Z.




You were asking for a character who could be an atagonist within the group - and you know I'm always happy to oblige people's suggestions.

On an entirely different topic, do you still have an artwork website? I was discussing your art with some publishing folk and creative types the other day and the only samples I could offer were the ones from the PVB and my homepage (I showed them the dryad, your latest Magweed, Tanner, Kinki, and the Detonator Hippo).

If anybody needs your contact details is it okay to pass on your e-mail address?

Al B. and CZ seemed like an interesting match-up and allowed for a relatively quick resolution to a story that is supposed to be one more layer in a suite of join-the-LL stories.




You're right to worry. As for the story, let's just say that [spoilers blacked out] CSFB!'s recent announcement and the consequences of it aren't forgotten, and the criminal underworld decide the best way to push back is to let a little blood on the new roster - with a $5m bounty on a new Legionaire's head.

Probably. I'd hate to know which parts Messy cuts off first.





It sure looked that way. Great video farewell from Beth by the way... Just the right amount of smugness combined with the traditional villain's lack of concern over actually observing to see that the hero dies as planned.




I certainly see her as stirring up some interesting debate... I'm just not sure I see her as the bitchy, manipulative one that's traditional.





You know, I had a professional website with all the concept work I had been doing over the last 7 years or so, and I went to pull it up and give you the address but it seems the entire web service had the plug pulled because someone's blog reportedly had a link to terrorists. It looks like it was somewhat big news in tech circles, since 70,000 personal web sites were deleted, but I just found out about it because of your request:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10692501

So... no. Apparently, I currently do not. However, the blog service provider has supposedly managed to get all of the data back from the web hosting service that pulled the plug, and they promise they'll be back up soon. So I might have a website again in the near future.




Sure... there was contact details on the web site for just such purposes. Just let them know that personally, I hadn't had anything to do with bomb-making. Well, okay... some of the video games I've worked on haven't been the greatest successes, but still...

Messenger just tends to accumulate body counts. And he once dropped Garrick down a lift shaft.







I have to walk a fine line with this one. Since the Baroness is a poster character I can hardly have CZ be so effective as to achieve her goal of destroying Beth and all her works, or making Beth look ineffective and pathetic. On the other hand CZ needs to have some impact. I reason that if the Baroness isn't that bothered about CZ yet then Beth doesn't really have to go all out to destroy her.







There's other brands of antagonism. We've done bitchy and manipulative.













That is so much cooler than the dog eating your homework.

A couple of years back we corresponded about your art site. In the end I dropped you an e-mail saying you could mirror it on the space I use for the Homepage of Doom if you need to, but I don't know if you ever got the note.







Traditionally fundamentalist terrorists and cartoonists haven't had the most happy partnerships anyway.

Sorry I'm late, had a really busy day in Florida today.

First, I noticed CZ's costume is remarkably similar to Lara Night's:

http://strike-two.com/php/galleryimg.php?file=../gallery/images/lara_painting3.jpg&fullsize=yes

(I'll find a better pic later, but that one's quick)

Second, I wonder what will happen when the body CZ occupies wakes up?

That does sound a little sensitive. It's supposed to weigh the number of links compared to the actual content.





That's an odd one, might take a bit for me to figure that one out. Probably an IE glitch.

Whoever it is, that's something Chiaki might take personally. She thinks of the Lair Legion like an extended family. She understands her limits, so she wouldn't try a direct assault. But she's very likely to not only help them, but call in favors, blackmail, or intimidate if she needs to.

The other semi-related thought is that the vast majority of the criminal underworld doesn't want attention from the Lair Legion - so they would pretty much turn their backs on anyone who kills a Legionnaire.

This is why we love what you do!

The first paragraph was pure genius and should be included in CZ's Who's Who entry.

The rest was excellent too, not least because of that smart as smart guest star.

And all your stories should have Visionary art. Just saying.

Looking forward to next - Hunting = HuntingJusticeDeathMarrow? Kewl.

Al B.

I think you're allowed vacation time.







I don't think they're that alike. Lara's is old-school superhero in black and white with empahasis stripes and she goes unmasked. CZ's suit is black and purple with a ghostly ragged look and ectoplasm smears. It's an adaptation of Baron Zemo's full pink and purple suit including the full face mask with the colours toned to darkness. One says spandex superhero and the other says supernatural phenomenon - at least in my head.




That's a good question. We'll certainly have a number of consequences and possible storylines relating to CZ's choices and even existence. In the first instance we'll need to log responses from at least Vinnie, Marie, and the Shoggoth.

And of course Laurie's old boyfriend Goldeneyed hasn't worked out that two of his romance interests are under the mask.

All of this is happening at the same time as other problems. So while Vizh and the new recruit are struggling for their lives here, G-Eyed and Alcheman are taking on Camellia, Yuki's in the Safe with Silicone Sally, Hatman's coming back from the dead to battle the Machine Shop, and Vinnie and Liu Xi are facing the Void Spectre. What we can say about the Vizh problem is that it'll all be over fairly quickly.




Usually true, but bear in mind that for the characters in the story all of this takes place the same week that CSFB! scared the hell out of the underworld with his announcement that the LL was coming after them to take them down. As far as lots of power bases are concerned it's the Legion that has broken the old "truce" and they're only striking first because they expect to get hit hard themselves. CSFB! declared war on them.

I'd like to thank all the little people...




The papragraph about Chavez being a hardass?




Technically, since Al's Legion and this is untold Tales of the Lair Legion, it's his series and CZ is the guest star.




I agree. Now that Shep's evaporated I'm having to coerce him more and more.




I'm afraid that while this is going on, HJDM is over getting into fights with Natalia Romanza after shooting Hatman.

In fact we have a really unusual situation here, in that huge amounts of our rogues gallery are tied up in concurrent plots. Not only are there seven parallel confrontations happening in Untold Tales but Hatty's Abandoned Legion series set its big battle with the Obliterator at the same time too. So we have vast amounts of cast locked into specific events. I'm really going to have to trawl deep to find a couple of uncomitted dozen supervillains-for-hire to kill Visionary next issue.

Suggestions?

It's an IE8 problem if it is. Specifically 8.0.6001.18702.

To be sure, to be sure.







No I meant all the way down to "And then she hurt them." and the first little set of stars ***.







Ooo - my chance to star!







Still no news on Shep?













Thighmaster
Candian Nightmare
oo oo - how about Ultizon IV?
Gromm, the Living Flatulence?

No wait, Desmond Djinn!!

You're the first person who said that.





In colors, you're right, they are different. In basic design, they're familiar enough that at first glance my first thought was I wonder if that pic was some kind of alternate version of Lara. Or maybe that's just me.

Btw, I found an uncolored (marker) pic by a friend of mine, CK Russell, that has a similar viewpoint - I'll attach it.







I meant specifically that the ghost will either have no one left to attach to, or will end up having to attach by force, which will change the whole dynamic of the friendship.

Attachments

jasonbday02.jpg (568 x 750)

Well, it's sometimes good to remind people why Al's there too.




She's no longer at the workplace she was - it's closed - so I've no idea where she is right now.

I bet the travel agent agreed.







It's just you. Lara's outfit is pretty symmetrical and the geometry of it is in parallel angles. It works because the lines pick out the different moving elements of her anatomy, effectively inking over the circle and line sketch marks an artist would make to draw a figure.

CZ's outfit works because it's deliberately set at different angles to the regular, empahasising her otherness. The Z-motif on her chest sends the eye flickering over her image, adding to its ghostliness. The tattered, undefined cape adds to the illusion.

In many ways the costumes, and the way they work, are opposites rather than similar.

[





Yes, it's a possible plot for the future. I've tried to make sure that this latest LL incarnation comes with some built-in storylines.

Yes, because I *was* the travel agent.





They're also both dark colored with light contrasting accents, and divide the dark part of the shape into triangles. I was much less interpretive, I guess.

Also there have been several variations of Lara's over the years both in written, art, and video game form. The color scheme was fairly standard, and the triangular divisions was fairly standard. The video game variation added lightning bolts on the boots at one point, and then eventually inverted boots (black on white).





Especially so if you consider the personality of the person wearing it.

You know I was trying to come up with a suitable femme fatal type. But now that Velcro Vixen is in Badripoor I couldn't think of one.

Visionary needs to have some harassment by such a type though.

Al B.

Cripes, that was an expensive trip. Went up to Niagara Falls with Lisa and Christopher. For an idea on how expensive things were, we went to IHOP (International House of Pancakes... a chain of breakfast restaurants) and they charged $17.99 for a stack of 4 chocolate chip pankcakes. I'm used to buying more than I can eat for breakfast for under $5. They worked hard to fleece every cent of our tourist dollars.






I'll have to give it some thought again. As it stands now, my website is built using the tools available at this hosting service... I'd probably have to rebuild it if I were to move it somewhere that didn't support it (wordpress, I think.)

In any event, my website seems to have returned while I was away:

http://www.adamdiller.net/portfolio/

That's mostly concept work from 1 year ago and older.





Some people just can't take a joke.