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Issue 5
Jan 10, 2006 20:14:14 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 20:14:14 GMT -5
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Issue 5
Jan 10, 2006 20:17:09 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 20:17:09 GMT -5
Secret Society of Super Villains Issue 1: "Day of the Dark Lord, Chapter Five: The Old Order Changeth." Written by David Peattie Cover by DrDread Edited by David Charlton
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Issue 5
Jan 10, 2006 20:21:49 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 20:21:49 GMT -5
The day after Hi-Jack became a member of the Secret Society, a small red spacecraft, the nosecone of which was adorned with three golden circles, parked itself in a geosynchronous orbit around the Earth, its lone occupant apparently not caring whether or not the satellites dotting the area saw him. Mentally commanding an envelope of pure oxygen to surround himself, the man in the ship opened its glass canopy and then leaped out, propelling himself towards the verdant planet below. As he entered the Earth's atmosphere, a trail of re-entry flames followed in his wake. Yet he felt them not at all; his mental powers not only enabled him to breathe in the vacuum of space, but to shrug off the heat of the fire as well.
Long ago, so long ago he can hardly remember when, his name was Adam Blake, and he was human…an Earthman. But that was before he learned the truth about himself…that he was different.
For many years, he spanned the spaceways, searching for himself. At last, he was coming home. Capt. Comet had returned to the world of his birth.
He'd been across the galaxy twice aboard his ship, the Cometeer; visiting a thousand worlds with his flight belt…an amazing garment that allows him to defy gravity. He'd seen sights no man has seen before him, or will ever see again. Yet throughout it all, one world had remained ever foremost in his mind: Earth. Home. And of all the cities of Earth, there was one city closest to his heart. San Francisco, California. And therein lies the next chapter of our story.
"All I could get out of that Green Lantern, Gretti, before he died was that Sinestro was heading for Earth to join something called the Secret Society of Super-Villains, and that the meeting was being held in San Francisco," Capt. Comet mused. "I remember reading stories about super-powered heroes and villains that operated during the 1940's…the Justice Society, the wartime All Star Squadron, and their enemies. But for the most part, they'd retired or disappeared by the time I reached adulthood and started having my own adventures."
By now, the glistening Baghdad by the Bay was in view. Using his mental powers once again, he shielded himself from being seen by any of the people below him as he passed the Transamerica Pyramid in the city's Financial District, looking for a spot to land.
"I suppose new super-humans could have cropped up in my absence," he continued. "I have been gone quite a while."
Indeed he had. More than twenty years, in fact.
For a mutant like Captain Comet, a man born 100,000 years before his natural time, it's but a blink of the cosmic eye. But for the rest of the world, it's almost a lifetime….and in a lifetime, things change.
As he pondered these things, Capt. Comet finally touched down, in a deserted alleyway between buildings on California Street. Then, with another mental command, a shimmering yellow mist seemed to envelop his form; when it dissipated at last, his red and white costume was gone, and in its place were more civilian clothes. These consisted of a pale gray suit and white shirt, accented by a navy blue tie and a white fedora hat. Feeling himself to be more properly attired for his surroundings, Adam Blake walked out of the alley onto the street, bustling with people of all types.
When he saw them, he got his first surprise of the day.
"Well," he thought with some bemusement, "looks like I've made a small error in judgment. I switched from my special protective suit to civilian clothes, in order to be less conspicuous…but it seems I forgot a little thing called style!"
He looked around himself intently, drinking in the current fashions.
"Apparently," he noted, "for the most part, men don't wear hats anymore…and women don't wear skirts! Clothes seem tighter, somehow…more casual. And the colors…! Seems I've got a lot to learn about the good old U.S. of A. And the sooner I start, the…"
He was about to add "better," but was interrupted by a shrill screech from a few blocks down the street.
"A scream?", he thought with some alarm. "Some things never change!"
He immediately started running down the street in the direction the cry had come from, mentally enticing people to get out of his way as he did so.
"When I left Earth, the big problem was juvenile crime…street gangs, rumbles. And today…?"
As he came within view of the situation, his eyes nearly left their sockets with surprise. Heading his way were a gorilla and a man dressed like he'd stepped from a deck of playing cards. This man had an oddly flat-shaped gun in his right hand, and both he and the gorilla were frequently looking over their shoulders as they ran. It soon became clear what they were looking for: the impressive figure of a second man, wearing what Comet recognized as a Green Lantern uniform, was flying through the air in pursuit.
"Great stars!", Comet cried involuntarily. "What..?"
It wasn't long, though before he put the clues together. The man in the air was obviously a member of the Green Lantern Corps; he should have realized that sooner or later, the Guardians would recruit someone from Earth to their ranks. Just as obviously, the man and the ape he was chasing must be villains…possibly, members of the Secret Society that Sinestro had headed for Earth to join.
As he watched, his suspicions were soon confirmed. Realizing that they couldn't outrun the hero, the card-man and the gorilla…Hi-Jack and Grodd…stopped suddenly, having decided to stand their ground instead. Grodd's mighty arms encircled a nearby lamp post, and with apparently little effort, he wrenched it from its concrete moorings and began to heft it over his head.
"You've chased us far enough, Green Lantern," Grodd proclaimed. "It's time we took a stand against your persecution! Am I right, Hi-Jack?"
"Completely," his comrade agreed, aiming his strange gun at the hero. When he pulled the trigger, a series of playing cards shot out, rapid-fire, just barely missing the Emerald Gladiator.
For his part, Green Lantern…who had been born Hal Jordan, and who normally worked as a test pilot for the Ferris Aircraft Company of Coast City, California…smiled grimly as he dodged the cards. He formed a giant shovel with his power ring, given to him by the late Ungaran Corps member Abin Sur when the latter crashed his spaceship on Earth years ago as his dying act.
"Cut the gas, Grodd," Jordan said with a trace of impatience. "You know you're cornered. There's nothing either of you can do against my power ring, except surrender!"
"Surrender?", Hi-Jack retorted. "So you can kill me? No way, Lantern! You think I'm playing with half a deck?"
So saying, he thumbed a dial on his gun that changed it to a new setting, and fired it at the sidewalk below him. A puddle of cards began growing at his feet, and the cards all stuck together, as if they were magnetized.
"Frankly, fella," Green Lantern responded, "I don't care. I'll just shovel you guys aside, and then…"
Unfortunately, no one got to hear what Green Lantern intended to do next. Because as he was speaking, and slowly aiming the shovel at Grodd (who still had hold of the uprooted lamp post), Hi-Jack then waved his gun upwards, and the pile of cards, still clinging to one another, rose up and smacked the hero in the face. The blow wasn't hard enough to do much damage, but it did sting, and Green Lantern grunted with the pain.
From his vantage point nearby, Capt. Comet sized up the situation.
"It's a good thing I had the foresight to erect a mental shield around my thoughts," he told himself. "My quick psychic scan shows that the talking gorilla…whose name is apparently Grodd…has rather formidable telepathic powers of his own. And a scan of this Hi-Jack's mind tells me that he and Grodd are both members of the Secret Society…and that Sinestro is still with the group, too!"
His brow furrowed in a scowl. "The nerve of them, setting up shop here in my old home town! But running into these two gives me an idea on how I can infiltrate the group, and bring them all down from the inside! But to do that, I'll have to make sure they get away…I hope I'll have the chance to apologize to this Green Lantern later on!"
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Issue 5
Jan 10, 2006 20:25:31 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 20:25:31 GMT -5
As this was going on, Grodd took advantage of Green Lantern's momentary pause to make his own move.
"I find your card tricks amusing, Hi-Jack," the ape intoned, "but speaking for myself, I prefer a more direct approach. SO!"
With that, he swung the lamp post he was holding and struck the giant, verdant shovel Green Lantern had made. Though the blow was a mighty one, it was not enough to damage the power-ring-created tool…but it did snap the lamp post in half like a twig. It also caused the shovel, and its creator, to tremble from its sheer force. Caught thus off guard, Green Lantern allowed the shovel to fade away, and turned his attention for the moment to his own well-being.
"Vibrations…knocking me off balance!", he thought. "Grodd is as strong…and smart…as ever!"
Luckily, it was only the work of a few seconds for him to use the power ring to check his fall. Then, executing a deft barrel roll, he turned his attention back to his foes.
"Tracking him to San Francisco was hard," the Emerald Crusader continued, remembering how his Justice League comrade, the Flash, had been contacted by Gorilla City's King Solovar and alerted to Grodd's escape…and how only a thorough check of the news feeds had shown them the reports of a talking gorilla attacking a government post in Santa Cruz earlier in the week. Since the Bay Area was closer to Green Lantern's home base of Coast City than it was to the Flash's bailiwick of central Ohio, the Green Gladiator had volunteered to do his old friend a favor and check it out personally. "but something tells me capturing him and Hi-Jack is going to be harder! Well, no sense grousing about it…if I've got to fight, I'll fight!"
As he made this determination, he sent a power-ring-made boxing glove at Hi-Jack, who managed to dodge out of the way. Mentally, the Green Lantern cursed himself; the ringing in his ears was throwing his aim off. Hi-Jack's taunts didn't make his day, either.
"Uhh!", the Royal Flush rogue gasped as the giant fist sailed by. "Close, GL…but no cigar!"
"You want closer, card-king?", the Lantern rejoined as he swooped in closer. "Then how about this?" And as he spoke, he sent another boxing glove down at his target. This one hit its mark, and Hi-Jack slumped to the ground, stunned.
"No," Capt. Comet thought, stepping in a little closer. Knowing that Grodd would notice and begin trying to read his thoughts, the spacefaring hero let his mental shield slip, and filled his surface thoughts with sentiments of outrage at Green Lantern and sympathy for his foes.
"I've seen all I need to see," Comet thought for Grodd's benefit. "This man, Green Lantern, has enormous power…and he's using it to injure his fellow creatures!"
As he thought these things, he also sent a telekinetic command that once more enveloped him in yellow smoke, changing his clothing back from the sedate civilian attire to his Capt. Comet costume.
"By comparison," he continued, again for Grodd's perusal, "their abilities are minuscule, and clearly he attacked them. There can be no question: Green Lantern must be stopped!"
With that, Capt. Comet launched himself into the air. Less than an eyeblink later, the Emerald Crusader heard a voice cry out behind him:
"Green Lantern, HALT!"
…caught a glimpse of something speeding at him…and then, the human missile that was Capt. Comet struck with both fists. So unexpected, and so strong, was the blow that Green Lantern was immediately stunned, and fell to the roof of a nearby building, quite unconscious.
Nearby, Grodd watched all of this and for possibly the first time in his life, he was struck dumb with surprise.
"Impossible," the ape thought. "Green Lantern…struck down by this costumed stranger?" Then, as Comet turned and flew like a bullet towards him, he continued, "Now…attacking us?"
"No, my friend, not attacking…rescuing.", Comet said as he grabbed both villains by the wrists and flew up over the surrounding skyscrapers. "I'm an ally, not an enemy."
"You can read my mind…?", Grodd asked incredulously.
"I can read your thoughts," Comet replied. "There's a difference, friend Grodd. I'm just a man, after all."
As Capt. Comet sped away with his new "allies", he reminded himself that it might be best not to lay it on too thick.
For his part, Green Lantern had recovered his wits enough to make his way from the rooftop he'd landed on back to the street, but was still far too groggy to even consider giving chase to his fleeing foes. Realizing that the battle was over, the crowd had returned, and began to solicitously surround the hero.
An attractive woman with blonde hair asked, "Lantern…are you okay? You want we should call a doctor?"
"I'm fine, miss," he replied wearily. "And boy, am I mad!"
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Issue 5
Jan 10, 2006 20:28:55 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 20:28:55 GMT -5
At this point, though, we'll have to leave Green Lantern, since our story concerns villains and not heroes. Someday, we may learn the extent of the Emerald Crusader's anger…but not today.
Instead, let's look to a certain skyscraper in downtown San Francisco, known as the Loman Building to most citizens…and the Citadel Sinister to a very select few.
Inside the building, in the Secret Society's top floor headquarters, Capt. Comet stood off to one side by the window, patiently waiting as Grodd and Hi-Jack finished making their report to the others. Seated around the table were Star Sapphire, the Mirror Master, Capt. Cold, Sinestro, and Manhunter. It took a lot of will power for Comet not to attack Sinestro then and there for his brutal murder of the Green Lantern called Gretti; but knowing the time wasn't right, he stayed still.
"Manhunter, I'm telling you," Hi-Jack whispered, "the guy was terrific! There we were, Grodd and me, just starting my entrance 'exam' by fleecing the First National Bank…when who shows up but blasted Green Lantern! Last time I saw Greenie was when I worked with the Royal Flush Gang, before I started on my own…and let me tell you, I was scared! Grodd and me, we put up a fight…but if this Comet guy hadn't come along, we'd be goners! Right, fuzz-face?"
This last, of course, was directed at Grodd…and was more false bravado than anything else. Bad enough he'd had to admit to being afraid of Green Lantern…he wasn't about to let his teammates know that many of them scared him, too.
Grodd gave Hi-Jack a withering look before agreeing. "To a point, Hi-Jack," the gorilla rumbled. "Because you're new to the Secret Society, I'll forgive your insulting reference to my hirsute appearance this time. As for Capt. Comet…while traveling here, I examined his thoughts, thanks to my own rather formidable mental powers…and I learned that the good Captain isn't at all what he seems!"
Comet had to suppress a smile at this point. His ruse was working perfectly; Grodd had apparently swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker.
"Listen…and listen well…", Grodd went on. He then proceeded to fill the others in on Capt. Comet's history…or at least, as much of it as Comet had allowed him to learn on the way to the Sinister Citadel.
"About forty-five years ago," Grodd related, "a comet flashed through the sky above a small Midwestern town. It was like an omen to the parents of a child born that night…a child they named Adam Blake."
Upon hearing this, Comet frowned for a second before he caught himself. He hadn't really intended for the ape to learn his real name; Grodd must have caught it from his own scan of Comet's mind. He reminded himself to be very careful when the gorilla mastermind was nearby.
"As Adam grew to adulthood," Grodd went on, "he found himself possessed of strange abilities: telepathy, great strength, clairvoyance. He was a mutant…but how important this was didn't become clear…until the day a mysterious giant top appeared in Arizona…and began to siphon off the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere."
At this, longtime Flash villains Mirror Master and Capt. Cold exchanged glances. They both remembered having heard about this incident during their childhoods, but had dismissed the stories as being urban legends. But both men knew that the story had also served as a partial inspiration for another late comrade of theirs: Roscoe P. Dillon, who had done battle with the Flash many times as the costumed villain called the Top. Cold, in particular, knew Dillon well; the man was romantically involved with Leonard Snart's younger sister Lisa, who made her living as an ice skater of some renown, using the pseudonym Lisa Starr. Dillon had been fascinated with the story of the giant top for years; the two Flash Rogues were no little surprised to learn that the story was apparently true. Apparently unaware of these musings, Grodd continued his narrative.
"Wearing a protective suit of his own design, Adam…now a full-grown man…attacked the top, and discovered it to be the product of a highly advanced alien civilization," the ape went on. "Apparently, the top was controlled by someone off the Earth, in outer space. To stop the top, and others like it which had appeared across the globe, Adam had to find the top's controller. And find the controller he did, in an alien spaceship orbiting the moon. There, he met and fought Harun, leader of an alien race called the Astur…and who were destroying Earth's atmosphere, in order to colonize our world."
The members of the group who hailed from Earth frowned grimly upon hearing this. At this stage of mankind's development, most people of Earth were well used to the fact that life did exist on other planets, and that some alien races were hostile towards the Earth and its denizens. But this was one encounter with an alien threat that the governments of the world had kept a secret from the rest of the planet, and it didn't sit well with them. In that, at least, they were in agreement with the average citizen.
"After defeating the Astur," Grodd added, "Comet went on to battle other foes…until finally, a few years later, he decided to leave Earth, once and for all. He was so far beyond mankind, intellectually, he felt lost on our world…and so he went starward, seeking his destiny…and ultimately, himself. But recently, he became somewhat homesick and curious to see how the world had fared in his absence…and so he returned to Earth, and upon witnessing our battle with Green Lantern, he seems to have mistaken us for the victims and Green Lantern for the aggressor."
Everyone paused for a few seconds to let that sink in. Then Manhunter arose from his chair, having come to a decision.
"Apparently, then," the skilled assassin declared, "Comet is ignorant about Earth's current…ah…'super' situation."
The meaning of this seemed to escape some of the others. After a few beats, Star Sapphire took it upon herself to break the silence. "What are you saying, mon ami?", she asked.
"Yeah, pal, spit it out," Capt. Cold added. "Riddles aren't my game!"
"I believe I understand Manhunter's implication, Capt. Cold," Grodd said smugly. "Comet knows nothing about the Justice League..."
"…And will believe anything we care to tell him,"
Sinestro finished, "assuming, of course, that Grodd's mind-shield continues to protect us from his telepathy."
"Fat chance," Comet thought, while keeping his poker face intact.
"You want us to make him a member of our Secret Society," Grodd observed, "a dupe in our war against good…and I, for one, vote yes!"
"Me, too!", Mirror Master seconded.
"Oui," Star Sapphire added.
"Absolutely," came from Sinestro.
"Yeah, sure," Hi-Jack joined in.
Only Capt. Cold refrained from voting or saying anything. He preferred to keep his own counsel about Comet, at least for now.
"With Capt. Cold abstaining," Manhunter concluded, "the vote's unanimous." He rose and motioned to Comet to come join them. He then placed a friendly hand on Comet's shoulder.
"Comet…welcome to the Secret Society!", Manhunter said warmly. "Welcome…home!"
"Thank you, my friend," Comet said graciously. "Thank you all!"
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Issue 5
Jan 10, 2006 20:29:25 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Jan 10, 2006 20:29:25 GMT -5
To be continued!
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