David Andersson wrote:

My apologies for the butchered format. This mail
service sometimes converts apostrophes and ... signs
into code. I'm making another attempt through pasting

>from raw text format instead of Word.

% I know the feeling. This version was fine, though.

DB Sommer <sommert@connecttime.net> wrote:

%Some people actual results are what counts. 

More like visible spectacles. ;)
 

% That too.

% Footnote. Overrider is responsible for the influx of
cash. More on that later.

Well, since she has an ability to override computers
(including those of companies or banks) that does make
sense, but if there's an entire race of Phantom Cats
with those abilities how come they haven't already
subjugated humanity through spreading transaction
chaos and crashing world economies in the information
age?
 

% Same reason they didn't in the Geobreeders series. Whatever it was, 
since they didn't do that there either. :)

%

% The Handbook has that. I should post the updated
version of it now that Act II is done. If they aren't
in there, they're almost certainly originals.

I didn't know about the handbook. Will check.
 

% I'll do it in several days, I think. I'm a bit busy now, and I did 
just post a story of this. I don't want people thinking the handbook is 
what that was.

% He's been a bt traumatized by everything. And one
thing the HE was infamous for was not using humans to
help him outside of his very earliest days. There was
a guy that claimed he worked for him, a knockoff
called the High Technition, that was never validated.

Well, there were Jessica Drew's parents,Nathaniel
 

Essex & those New Immortals (name?) guys.

% That was in Wyndoms pre HE days. I meant after he dubbed himself the 
High Evolutionary. There probably have been a handful he has done, though.

He also
allied with the White Tiger's Heroes for Hire,

% I didn't get the revival of that title, so I missed all of that. 
Besides, Hector Ayalya is still the only real White Tiger in my book. 
Need to finish picking up Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine so I have his 
whole story.

so he
doesn't seem entirely averse to human
aides/bodyguards, more like that he prefers evolved
animals who owe him everything and thus may betray him
less frequently. 

% Heh. Actually they have a high rate of betrayal too. :)

If Reed Richards applied for
apprenticeship I think HE would accept the help. ;)
 

% Of course, but I'd wager HE's knowledge of genetics surpasses Reeds, 
the same way Doom's knowledge of robotics and time travel exceeds his. 
Reed's probably the best all around scientist, though, espeically when 
it comes to combining fields of study, since he never really specialized 
in one.

% No. He wants one already in the movement, though
he'll be relying on the Ani Men more than anything.

He's not planning for scientology-style recruitment &
brainwashing? Unwise, since the Ani-Men + Overrider
aren't much in terms of hig-power cannon fodder.
 

% No. The plan will be revealed in 2 or 3 chapters.

% We'll see later when he tells the reader of his
scheme. :)

No 4'th wall breaking I hope? ;)
 

% More like bragging once he feels he's going to win no matter what, and 
bragging to an underling rather than someone of power.

to find out, you tasty litters of cowering prey.
You'll get what's coming to you for trying to get
ahead of a true predator in the evolutionary food
chain.'

% In this universe MB's motivations are slightly
different (though he's still insane and damn near a
personification of evil as you can get). 

I don't qualify his category of absolute evil as
insane. People with strong compulsive disorders,
neuroses, terrified manias, lack of touch with
reality, uncontrolled emotional responses and no
understanding of what they're doing have the insanity
excuse.  His type is frighteningly conscious,
calculating, sane and self-centered to the point of
completely lacking any semblance of conscience or
compassion. I understand him as a hardcore
social-Darwinist, which is completely reasonable
(though very one-sided) from a purely objectivist
standpoint, but still makes people into about as
genuine monsters as humanly (or in MB's case,
inhumanly) possible.
 

% That maybe more accurate. One thing about him is his obsession with 
massive amounts of slaughter. That's all he's ever been interested in, 
from trying to prod HE into destroying the old counter earth, to is 
attempt to wrest the Infinity Gems from Warlock to everythig in between

%I'll go ahead and say it now since he'll be saying it
at some point in the future chapters, but basically
the HE discovered that humanity was given a
evolutionary boost by the Celestials. MB also
discovered this, which is why he refers to them as
genetic aberrations.

% The opening of Act IV will reveal what happened to
the Eternals and Youma, who were also created at the
same time.

The Celestials & Eternals are part of your world?

% more like 'were'. None of them will have a direct bearing on things, 
as will be explained later. It's more a roundabout thing.

I think the official version is that the Celestials
didn't immediately boost primate evolution for the
head branch (the Eternals & Deviants not included),
but rather installed the potential for eventually
developing superhuman abilities, so it could
ultimately birth new Celestials. Humanity built the
foundations of civilization (up to now) on its own,
but its later phase of development with different
types of mutation was another matter.
 

% Meh. In the early days as I recall, they did that create three races 
thing to every planet they came across. The Skrulls were the Deviants 
from their world, which won supremcy. The 'Living Druid' turned out to 
be the last Kree Eternal who ended up on Earth for a while and 
eventually went back during the Kree-Shi'ar War.

% Thanks. And no, I haven't. I should get back to him
as I was enjoying the story.

Me too. The entire cast is handled extremely spot-on.
With the exception of being much harder on Kasumi 

% Kagome, I think you mean. Yeah, she's being used for a good bit of 
comedy.

Wait a minute... I remember skimming an introduction
   

text to an anime show based on this premise a while
back. A schoolboy skipping back and forth in time

over

the summer break to prevent his girlfriend from

dying

I believe.

% I read a blurb for it. But it was only 2 or 3 eps
long, and reviews for it said it was just done way too
quickly and not that good, so I skipped it.

Me too. So it didn't inspire your decision? It was
just a Ravonna reference?
 

% Not on my part. All will be explained by the end.

% Not like I have any shortage of things to watch,
just little time to do it I'm finally finishing up
Trinity Blood, which I had laying around for over a
year and at last got around to watching the last few
weeks.

I have lots of shows I'd like to sit down and watch,
but most turn into disappointments (some unexpectedly
so. I'm still perplexed that Tenchi OAV 3 wasn't any
better than it was) or are too damn long (Full Metal
Alchemist) for me to get the time.
 

% Just finished the FMA movie, which I had sitting around since April or 
so. Very nice closure to the series. What the Evangelion movie should 
have been to the series, but wasn't. And praise be it wasn't yet another 
godawful 'retelling' of a series, all of which fail miserably. 
Escaflowne, Utena, Rahxephon, by now you'd think they would know better 
than to try that sort of thing.

% I am playing a little loose, but not in some ways
either. I'll eventually build up to his identity as he
becomes more panicked as time begins to run out. Right
now he still has lots of breathing room to change
things the way he wants.

Ok, so is he a character you've previously introduced
in a pre-Kang guise?
 

% Not telling.

% He thinks he can. In any event he's basically only
trying to prevent one event in such a way as to not
negate his existence as Kang. 

Yeah, but his logic is all off. Even if he avoids
affecting himself directly the chaos butterfly
indirect consequences would still cause many
paradoxes. It's easier to say that he's affecting a
timeline parallel to his point of origin.
 

% He's convinced he has it beaten. He figures he can prevent the 
tragedy, his 'present self' becomes Kang, and goes back to become what 
he is now.

% As to MM and WW, I'm thinking they probably didn't
exist here. One complication that came about due to
Steve Rogers not getting the Super Soldier formula was
that a lot of other people didn't try to put
everything they could into their own SS programs since
they didn't know if it could be done. In the canon
universe, Captain America was living proof it could
succeed, so everyone tried making their own, which is
how there was MM, WW, the 50's Cap, Victorious, the
version that helped create the Man Thing, the man
named 'X' (from Power Man), etc, etc. :)

Yeah, I expected as much, but I still loved Byrne's
designs for them (bleh for Master Man II/Nacht
though). 

% There's a reason no one had him reappear.

They're guys you love to see the heroes pound
on without being pushovers. They were both near
Namor's level I recall.
 

% The old Marvel Handbook probably said it, but I think they were around 
class 25-50

 


% In a way, I am sorry I haven't had the
time/resources to keep up a lot of Marvel titles, as I
saw a resurgence in the pre FF monster lately. A
retcon with Ulysses Bloodstone (A decent character
that should never had been killed, and miraculously
stayed dead) and Doc Druid hunting some classic
monsters way back when. Something with Fin Fang Foom,
and a number of others.

You're thinking of the Monster Hunters in Roger
Stern's Marvel Universe series.  I think it's a shame
that it was put down. Ulysses Bloodstone was replaced
by his hereto-unknown daughter Else, a Lara Croft
knock-off. :(
 

% Although I admit to liking her as well. Would have made a great father 
daughter team.

% True. He'll go on the backburner again for a while
as we focus on the main villains in this arc. The only
other planned 'delay' is when the mysterious business
woman gets fed up with the Avengers screwing up her
schemes and hires a pair of assassins to kill them.
That one will have long term effects on one of the
characters as well. I neat twist I think people will
enjoy.

The owner of the Super Adaptoid? Why not just let it
kill all of them? Or is it Madame Tofu Hydra (the
vegetarian alternative for Greek heroes ;) )?
 

% And risk it when it cost so much and is unique? Heck no, hire cheaper, 
more expendable pawns.

When small (and visiting the country) I read a large
b&w Danish anniversary reprint of several 'classic'
Marvel books. One of the stories featured an old fight
between Wrecking Crew, Iron Fist & Captain America and
I think Franklin was handled like just another grunt
there, which I believe was his second or third
appearance. I thought the engineering skills were
added later to flesh him out?
 

% No, in their initial appearance they were looking for an old bomb he 
hid in the foundation of a building, and were knocking some down to find 
it.

% No. He'll be seeking something to prolong his life
again, as his aging was only cut by a third and he's
starting to feel old.

Well, if all 3 were born around the 1910-1920 that
would make him/them 25-35 in 1945 with aging slowed
down to a third during the next 60 years, so 45-55
physically then with 60-150 years left depending on
current age and if he lives to be '75' or '95'. That's
not so shabby by human standards, but if he thought
that a serum was responsible the first time why not
find another?
 

% No Kang around to give it to him, which means locating something 
through alternate means.

% The other three consisted of an actual giant robot,
a giant jet pack, and the Skull head shaped bomb. They
combined into one big Doomsday Device. Kirby and Lee
had fun with Cap back then.

Sounds fun. Was this during Cap's original 40's run or
in flashbacks during the revival later on?

% Issue 101-02 of his post Tales of Suspence run

How did the
Doomsday device composite compare in effectiveness to
the 4'th Sleeper?
 

% Apples and oranges, despite their robot status.

% Heh. Looked over some of the old Caps since I needed
to read how the 4th Sleeper worked. Sharon Carter back
then went between two extremes. Sometimes she was a
damsel in distress, while other times she was a 
highly competent SHIELD agent that could be quite
ruthless when it came to completing a mission. Now
she's been modernized into a fairly unlikable bitch. 

That was mostly Waid's doing. I have no idea what Cap
saw in her during this time? However Claremont was the
one who turned unsympathetic bloodthirsty
über-bitches fashionable back with Ms ("If I have to
sacrifice me you and all your hundreds of innocent
passengers to stop the Super-Skrull then I'll do so
without a second thought!') Marvel 

% in defense of Ms. M there, I believe she was still suffering from the 
mentally imprinted Kree psyche, and Kree hated Skrulls with a passion.

and the later parts
of his X-Men run. Heck, he even sympathized with
Mystique, who was nearly pure evil as far as I picked
apart and deciphered her. 

% Yeah, some villains should stay villains. Magneto, stay. Having 
Sandman turn good, worked (you gotta figure by the 100th loss of his 
career some villain would want to call it quits). Of course they undid 
that one.

In any case Ed Brubaker has
managed to salvage Sharon into turning likeable
without being wimpy again.
 

% Cool.

% Then again, Cap probably has the worst cast of love
interests of any Marvel character due to blandness.
Tony Stark probably had the best, and in Stark's case,
he slept with damn near all of them. One thing Marvel
did do with Tony was have him really be a playboy and
end up in the sack with a lot of women.

I don't think Cap is bland when handled well,

% Nononono. I meant his love interest were bland. Carter and Diamondback 
were the only decent ones. Bernie Rosenthal bored the heck out of me, 
that lawyer love interest was bland enough I don't remember her name. 
There were a number of others that made me doze off and were bad enough 
I don't remember them.

% Thanks again for the help. Hopefully can start writing the next 
chapter soon.

DB Sommer

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