Epitome Comics #1 “Bad SEED”



The masked man was big. Easily six foot five in his steel toed boots and, as Sergeant Loggia’s grandfather would have said, “as broad as a barn door”. The plainclothes detective could not figure out how this brute could have gotten so close to the hostage without anyone noticing.


“You,” Loggia levelled his service pistol, “release Reverend Davis now! Then get on the ground and place your hands on top of your head!”


The masked man didn’t even look back over his shoulder, “That’s not happening, Sergeant. I have a job to do here and prostrating myself at the feet of Parodiopolis’s most corrupt power-broker is not the way to go about it.”


“Do it, or I will- aw shit!” there was a rush from the crowd as one of Davis’s bodyguards attempted to engage the attacker. He fared as poorly as the others flanking the podium, as the masked man simply waited until he was close enough to wrench the collapsible truncheon from his grip and drop him with a casual elbow to the face.


“I admit your men are loyal, Davis. Or maybe they’re just as rotten as you and don’t want to be found out,” the masked man hoisted the community leader up by the collar of his $3500 suit high enough so that his $450 loafers dangled off the raised dais.


Loggia and several of his uniformed brethren continued to hold the attacker at gunpoint. This was the worst possible circumstance for this to happen under, “This is your last warning! Let go of Davis or we will shoot you!”


“Sergeant, your impotent threats have convinced me you’re a dumbass. I’m going to ignore you from here on out. As for you, Davis,” the masked man shook his hostage so violently he became a blur, “time to confess.”


“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Ah! Ah! What?! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Davis cried once he stopped spasming.


The attacker adjusted his cowl’s chin strap with his free hand, “Yes you do. It’s not anything you haven’t heard before, only this time its coming from someone who can make you answer.”


Heisting Davis over his shoulder, the masked man leapt off the platform and towards the structure that had drawn the crowds, the press, and presumably the masked man himself.


“Strategies for Equal Economic Development,” Reverend Davis could see his attacker smirk as the identified the non-profit Davis headed, and was currently pinned against, “A lot of promise in those words. But what’s the truth?” The masked man swung a fist back and punched through the brick wall up to his elbow.


“My god, what are you?!” the reverend’s face was ashen as he watched his assailant yank his arm free, dust from the broken mortar caking his glove and arm, “How are you doing this?!”


There was the familiar pop pop pop of gunfire. Davis yelped as he saw the policemen’s bullets strike the back and shoulders of the masked man. The shots did nothing more than put several holes in his double breasted leather jacket.


“I’m the solution to the problem,” he kept smiling. A quick pivot of his heel, and the man had swung Davis around so he was facing the police and the crowd once more.


“Hold your fire!” Loggia ordered.


“Don’t shoot! Jesus, don’t shoot!” Davis flung up his arms.


“Own up, Davis, or next maybe it’ll be you that gets put through this wall,” the masked man cajoled.


“I- I- All right! All right! I admit it! The slush funds, the kickbacks, the money laundering! Its all true. SEED is just a scam!”


“Very good,” Davis’s attacker dumped him to the ground. Stepping over his quaking form, he turned his attention back to the police, “Save your bullets. The only thing they have a chance of doing is ricocheting and hitting someone who doesn’t deserve it.”


“I need a tactical unit to Dubois Park, now! We are engaged with a suspect who is heavily armored and I don’t know what else!” Loggia screamed into his phone.


“As for the rest of you, I hope you got the message. It does not matter where you rank in this city’s pecking order; play fair or become a target of MISTER EPITOME,” the Paragon of Power gave a wink to the cameras and charged through the SEED building’s exterior wall, then several interior walls, until the newly christened six story boondoggle collapsed on itself.



Next: “Of Laws and Supermen”