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Issue 2
Nov 29, 2005 22:46:41 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2005 22:46:41 GMT -5
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Issue 2
Nov 29, 2005 22:49:18 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2005 22:49:18 GMT -5
Secret Society of Super Villains Issue 1: "Day of the Dark Lord, Chapter Two: Allow Me to Introduce Myself..." Written by David Peattie Cover by JFJ Edited by David Charlton
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Issue 2
Nov 29, 2005 22:52:04 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2005 22:52:04 GMT -5
Star Sapphire’s exclamation was not really necessary, because everyone in the room had turned to gawk at the five costumed figures as they crashed through the wall, and all of them were well known enough that they needed no introduction. The room erupted into a major melee as the four best known members of the Justice League…Superman, Batman, the Flash and Green Lantern…charged the assembled villains. There was also a fifth hero: the Amazon known as Wonder Woman, though as yet, she was not a League member. None of the assembled villains had any time to wonder what she was doing there, though.
Superman dealt Grodd a mighty right cross that temporarily laid the gorilla low. Meanwhile, the Wizard tackled Batman with a speed that seemed surprising for a man of his age. Zard’s criminal career had begun in the 1940’s; now, a little over 30 years later, one would have thought the man to be past his prime. Yet his actions didn’t show it, nor did his words.
“BLAST!”, he cried, his voice thick with outrage. “I came all the way from Tibet for this meeting…only to find myself betrayed! Someone will pay for this! THEY’LL PAY!”
Star Sapphire, though she heard the Wizard’s rantings, was unable to do much more than to privately agree with the sentiments behind it. She was too busy flitting across the room with her Star Sapphire gem, trying to evade the charging Wonder Woman. As she ducked past the Amazon’s lunge, she finally found a spare breath to reply to the magical malefactor.
“An excellent suggestion, Wizard,” she began, “but may I suggest: first, let us defeat our enemies…and then let us look for traitors! Oui, Copperhead?”
The slithering schemer nodded, tensing his muscles for what he saw was about to happen. “Anything you say!”, he replied.
With that, Star Sapphire’s purple gem flashed a beam of energy at Wonder Woman that enveloped her completely. The effect was gruesome and instantaneous; the Amazon’s body became as transparent as glass, and as stiff as a statue. Copperhead grinned in admiration.
“Take your gem-power and my serpentine skill,” he crowed, “and lady, we’re quite a team! You turn Wonder Woman into crystal…”
As he spoke, Copperhead grabbed Wonder Woman by the legs and prepared to swing her around like a translucent club.
“…and I use her like a bat…on Batman!”
Matching word to deed, Copperhead used the Amazon to crack the Caped Crusader across the chest. As he did, he let her go, and both heroes fell to the floor with a thud.
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Issue 2
Nov 29, 2005 22:52:55 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2005 22:52:55 GMT -5
Elsewhere in the room, Green Lantern was in hot pursuit of the Shadow-Thief, who was apparently so terrified that he forgot all about turning himself into an intangible shadow that would render him uncatchable and allow him to escape. By the same token, the Emerald Gladiator seemed so intent on capturing his prey that he overlooked Capt. Cold, standing off to one side and taking aim.
“Something’s wrong,” Cold thought as he drew a bead on his quarry. “Usually, heroes like Green Lantern can’t keep their mouths shut…but now, even as he’s gaining on the Shadow-Thief, the Emerald Crusader is about as talkative as a clam with lockjaw!”
As he pondered this, Cold fired a burst of his ice ray over Green Lantern’s head. Then, as if it had a mind of its own, the ice burst slanted downward and formed a barrier directly in front of the hero’s head. The ringslinger slammed into the now rock-hard obstruction like a speeding truck, and fell to the floor, unconscious.
“Can’t figure it,” Cold continued reflecting, “and anyway, who cares?”
As this was going on, the Shadow-Thief had stumbled and fallen to the floor himself. He had shut his eyes, dreading the capture that he now felt was inevitable…but when it didn’t happen, he opened his eyes again and saw how he’d been rescued.
“Cold, you’re a pal!”, the Shadow-Thief grinned. “Someday I’ll do as much for you!”
“That’s what I’m counting on, fella,” Cold replied as he scanned the room again. “Speaking of help, looks like Grodd could use some, the way Superman is plastering him all over the wall!”
The Shadow-Thief turned in the direction Cold was looking, just in time to see Superman punch Grodd in the face again and elicit another grunt of pain from the ambitious ape.
“Nonsense,” Grodd assured his fellow villains. “The day I can’t handle myself is the day I surrender to King Solovar. Nobody uses Gorilla Grodd for a punching bag…not even the vaunted Man of Steel!”
Gritting his teeth, Grodd surged forward with a flying block that would have been the envy of any NFL linebacker. Superman was apparently caught completely off guard, and fell in a heap under the superior assault.
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Issue 2
Nov 29, 2005 22:53:33 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2005 22:53:33 GMT -5
As the fourth Justice Leaguer was falling, the final attacker, the Flash, was feeding the Mirror Master a faceful of knuckles…a tactic that confused the hell out of the reflecting rogue.
“Don’t get it,” he thought as he grimaced with the pain. “Why is Flash just punching me…’stead’a using some super-speed trick? No time to think about that now, though…only time to use my new Prism Mirror…”
As these thoughts raced through his mind, Sam Scudder’s hand darted into another concealed pocket in his uniform and withdrew a small prism, which caught the rays of the ceiling lamp overhead. A small hum was heard to come from the device.
“…and blast Flash out of this world!”, he finished. Aiming the prism at his long-time foe, the Mirror Master watched with nervous anticipation as a white-hot burst of energy flew from the prism and played over the Flash’s body. As the Scarlet Speedster crumpled to the floor, no one was more astonished than the Mirror Master himself.
“HUH? I did it!”, he thought with glee. It was short-lived, however, as a cry from Grodd brought everyone up short.
“Gentlemen,” Grodd announced, momentarily forgetting Star Sapphire, “there’s something very wrong here! This isn’t Superman…it’s a robot!”
As the eyes of everyone in the room turned to the crumpled figure in Grodd’s hand, they could clearly see the broken circuits dangling from “Superman’s” limp body. Then, before they could ask any further questions, a new voice rang out from the back of the room.
“They’re all robots, Grodd,” the voice said.
Spinning around, his ice-gun at the ready, Capt. Cold snarled, “Who the he…”
“Watch your tongue, Cold,” the newcomer warned. He was a man who looked to be in his early thirties, with sandy-brown hair, wearing a red workout suit with flowing sleeves and a white tunic over it. It was cinched at the waist by a blue belt, and was festooned with different weapons in strategic places where he could get to them easily. White boots completed the ensemble, and a blue domino mask covered his eyes.
“You might say,” he continued, “that I’m your host substitute…and I go by the name Manhunter.”
This boldly worded statement, though essentially accurate, only told part of the story.
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Issue 2
Nov 29, 2005 22:55:08 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2005 22:55:08 GMT -5
The story of Manhunter began in the 1940's, when adventurer and big game hunter Paul Kirk grew bored with safaris and looked around him for new challenges. He was contacted by members of the Manhunter Cult, a secret organization that offered to train him for a new career: hunting down criminals and bringing them to justice. Kirk was so eager and enthusiastic about this prospect that he didn't ask as many questions as perhaps he should have, and so he failed to learn that the Manhunter Cult was really being run by a group of vengeful androids, who cared about justice only as a secondary goal. Their prime objective was to get revenge on their former masters, the Guardians of the Universe; in that regard, they had much in common with the renegade Green Lantern, Sinestro.
Kirk had joined the cult with pride, and a short while later, became one of two costumed crimefighters using the name of Manhunter. (The other, a former police officer named Daniel Richards, had also allied himself with the Manhunter Cult, but independently of Kirk.) During World War II, both Manhunters had also served as members of the wartime All Star Squadron. After the war, Kirk had become disillusioned with post-war society, and gave up his crimefighting career.
Returning to big game hunting, Kirk found out the hard way that his skills in the jungle had grown rusty. He was caught in an elephant stampede, and trampled nearly to death. Indeed, the other members of this ill-fated safari reported him dead upon their return to civilization. But Kirk was not out of the fight yet.
His body was rescued and restored to full health by another secret organization, this one calling itself the Council. The brainchild of noted scientist Dr. Anatol Mikros, the Council had plans to eventually take over the world. However, when Kirk finally awoke in their headquarters…they had placed him in suspended animation for nearly twenty years…they assured him that their motives were utterly benevolent and harmless.
At first, Kirk believed them, but he soon found out their true goals and spent the next several months in combat with them. During his time in suspended animation, the Council had also cloned Kirk several times; each clone had been specially trained to have Kirk's fighting prowess and martial arts knowledge. Finally, with help from the Batman and some other allies, Kirk had been able to destroy the Council and Dr. Mikros, sacrificing his own life in the process.
In the time since then, it was thought that the Kirk-clones had been destroyed along with the Council's headquarters. But one of the clones had survived, and it was this clone that addressed the assembled villains now.
As he casually strolled from the doorway into the rest of the room, Manhunter began the rest of his carefully prepared speech.
“In a way,” Manhunter declared, “this fight was a demonstration…a practical display of the need for a Secret Society…to fight them. The heroes…our mortal enemies!”
Turning, Manhunter led the way into another room. It had several maps mounted on the walls; a globe of the planet Earth, several banks of computers, and a large table, with enough chairs surrounding it to seat all the team members. Standing motionless by the walls, as if to flank the villains, were statues of the various Justice League members whose robotic doppelgangers had been destroyed just moments before. As the villains filed into the room, Manhunter spoke again.
“Each of us here is what society calls a master villain,” he began, “an outlaw…a renegade.” This last was directed at Sinestro, who bristled but kept his tongue.
“You, Sinestro,” Manhunter went on, “used to be a Green Lantern…until greed corrupted you, as it corrupted the Mirror Master…and Star Sapphire, and Grodd, and Capt. Cold. All of us, in fact. I’m the clone of a man named Paul Kirk…and greed’s got me, too.”
He paused, and once more scanned the faces in the room. He clearly had their interest; now, to keep it. “I had hoped there’d be an even dozen of us here today,” he noted, “but apparently, the Catwoman and Angle Man decided they had better things to do. So we’ll have to make do with just the ten of us.”
“We’re loners,” he continued, “or at least, we were. But that’s all changed, now…if we so decide. We can have our own Secret Society of Super-Villains…our own head- quarters…even our own butler.”
“And the catch, Manhunter?”, Capt. Cold asked suspiciously. “There’s got to be one.”
“There is, Cold,” Manhunter replied smoothly, as he sat calmly on the table’s edge. “We each need to prove ourselves to our financier…a man who, at the moment, prefers to remain nameless.”
Manhunter stood back up again, so that his next words would have more impact.
“And the first two who’ll have to prove themselves…are you two!”, he finished, pointing twin fingers at Grodd and Copperhead. Though stunned into silence at first, the pair did not stay that way long. Copperhead found his voice first.
“HUH?,” the reptilian rogue exclaimed. “Are you crazy?”
“This is an insult, my friend,” Grodd snarled. “In fact, this entire affair is a farce! Prove ourselves to some unknown, mysterious benefactor? Why should we? WHY?”
Manhunter forced himself to remain calm as he spoke, but his eyes narrowed with anger.
“For the same reason any of us do anything, Grodd,” he retorted. “Enlightened self-interest. You..any of you…are free to walk out any time you want. We have replacements lined up for anyone who chooses to do so. But if you do walk out, you forfeit your right to profit from any venture we take on.”
This gave the villains something to chew on, and they did so. When they spoke again, both were far more agreeable.
“Yeah…”, Copperhead began, “Maybe. If this Society is as good as I think it can be…”
“Very well, Manhunter,” Grodd conceded, “a test. Tell us what to do…”
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