Podcasts/Episode I-70

The Letters Page: Editor's Note 70

Original Source

Libsyn Audio

Intro

Back to normal! More or less!

Show Notes:

Run Time: 1:44:03

We've got goofs! Surprised? I feel like you shouldn't be, by this point. Still, goofs abound!

But also, a schedule:

Tuesday, September 5th: Episode #259: Writers’ Room: Xtremeverse Omnitron

Tuesday, September 12th: Episode #260: Creative Process: OblivAeon Refugees

Tuesday, September 19th: Editor’s Note #71

Tuesday, September 26th: Episode #261: Writers’ Room: Rook City Renegades #100 (The Death of Sk8blayd)

Mostly dead shows! Just preparing for the following months, which are spooky, as is traditional.

We read letters! We answer questions! We create issues for the future, and I'm not talking about comic book issues here!

Join us next week for Episode #258 - Writers’ Room: Tabitha Taft defeats an Alpha foe! Who could it BE now?

Characters Mentioned

Summary

Questions

You’ve said that La Comodora, NightMist, Ra, and Scholar are all dead and/or gone following OblivAeon - but you’ve also said the same thing long ago about Grand Warlord Voss while exploiting a loophole in that he was no longer the Grand Warlord, so I’ll ask directly: have we seen the last of John Rhodes, Faye Diamond, Maria Helena […] de Falcon (specifically the one who had decks in the card game), and Dr. Blake Washington, Jr.? They have no idea who this “John Rhodes” guy is. Dr. Blake Washington, Jr. was a notable archaeologist who went missing following the OblivAeon event and so everybody assumes that he must have been one of the many casualties during that terrible time. Faye Diamond was some paranormal investigator type, but her “shop” has seemed to shut down after OblivAeon as well. For real, though - they mean for deaths to be permanent because they wanted the deaths to mean something. OblivAeon was a huge deal. They even put in more superfluous deaths because it was necessary that there be deaths. Sorry, but they don’t intend for these characters to come back. [Adam: with one exception that I’m not going to tell you about.]
[Long letter regarding Singular Entities and how Wager Master is seemingly the only one who prefers direct confrontations, with even OblivAeon being subtle in terms of “trapping” the entity of Order that became Faultless.] How did OblivAeon lay that trap? Was it weakened somehow first? Why didn’t he trap more other Singular Entities this way? The basic gist to remember is “Singular Entity stuff, don’t worry about it,” but there is a bit more they can get into. There’s a common trope about beings who are extremely Orderly in this way being fragile. Once you can get the smallest crack in something that cares that much about perfection, perfection is no longer possible and it’ll grind itself to dust in short order. Could he do this to more Singular Entities? Maybe, but this one in particular happened because OblivAeon not only had the means, but the opportunity. If OblivAeon had a knack for corrupting Singular Entities we would for sure have seen more of them and that probably would have made the “fight” to protect the Multiverse unwinnable.
Isn’t it odd how Wager Master, who is the Singular Entity of Chaos, binds himself to following rules? Is this related to Faultless somehow - did Order and Chaos “fight” over something in the past that imposed rules on Wager Master but weakened the entity of Order? Maybe a bet where Chaos wound up winning a portion of Order’s power? That’s a fun fan theory, and a legit one that isn’t outright contradicted by the knowns of the situation, but there is no Sentinel Comics story in which this happens. You’re not off-base on this - it totally could be what happened. They don’t know either - most Singular Entity stuff is intentionally vague and inscrutable. To explain Singular Entities “fully” is to lessen them - they just aren’t explained in the comics. Furthermore, while they have to decide on actions taken and results of those actions for some Singular Entities when necessary, they actually decided for themselves that they won’t explore “all there is to know about them” in the first place. It would take away the “otherness” of them.
Did Wager Master, being a Singular Entity, travel back in time to ensure that when intelligent life evolved it would be inclined to play games (since what fun would reality be without people who understand the concept)? Is he ultimately responsible for Sentinels of the Multiverse existing? Wow… Well, as a Singular Entity, Wager Master would be aware of our reality and he would have access to it.
Had you given any further thought to ArchIon (the inverse of OblivAeon where Archaeon came out on top over Oblivion - although that would require an entirely separate Multiverse)? Man, are they not ready for the work involved in making up an entire new Multiverse. No, they have not given him more thought. That way lies madness.
Since OblivAeon wanted to destroy universes, would ArchIon want to preserve them? Maybe, in some sort of stasis where time would stop moving forward? How would that be different than just destroying one like La Comodora did with the Iron Legacy timeline? No, ArchIon would want to create universes/multiverses. You’d just get more and more of them that the guys would then have to write about.
Since Singular Entities are not as temporally-limited as most beings, could a Singular Entity travel through time to meet itself? No. Wherever a Singular Entity is, that’s the one version of it that’s there. That’s part of what makes them Singular. Now, Wager Master can do Wager Master things and make “duplicates” of himself for a gag, but that’s still just one mind/being spread out into a bunch of bodies. They can exist across multiple places and times, but its the same entity.
As the “mantle” of a Singular Entity can pass from one individual to another, could different Singular Entities of the same concept meet one another? Has that happened? How bad would it be? In talking about how it couldn’t, Christopher talks himself around to the idea that you could contrive a situation where it happened. They’d look at one another and recognize the other one as just being a different expression of Order or whatever and that it would be fine. Even if it was the Singular Entity of Conflict, they’d recognize that “we are Conflict”. Sure, they’d fight after that because of course you do in that situation, but that’s good for them.
Do we ever get to know much about the Singular Entity of Order (either the being that became Faultless or the successor being)? Would they be invested in Law or is that a separate concept? Would there be an Entity of Law? Are there Citizens Law and Order that follow Dawn? There are specifically not Citizens Law and Order as they were trying to avoid an IP issue was potentially there as a problem. Law is an implementation of Order in a specific, generally “human” scale and so there isn’t a separate entity for it. Regarding the Order entities, it’s a mix of “no” and “time will tell”.
Do Dana Bertrand and Emily Parsons have any sort of relationship with each other? Given they’re both married to members of the Freedom Five, I could see the two of them at least knowing each other through a Freedom Five barbecue or something, but do they ever get together to commiserate over the shared experiences of having superhero spouses or anything like that? They’re in different generations, walks of life, and social circles. They certainly know each other and are on good terms, but they’re solidly in “friends you see a few times a year” territory. They have good feelings towards one another, but don’t really interact a lot. Nor is there much for them to talk about outside of their spouses’ connection. They probably also have some vague awareness of the good stuff the other is doing in the worlds of politics and social awareness respectively.
How do you feel about other products that aren’t technically comic books, but are similar? The obvious examples are My Hero Academia and One Punch Man, but what are some you know about and like? Would you consider something like the recent Dungeon & Dragons movie a ‘superhero’ movie? That’s a fantasy movie, but one in which most characters have some kind of special abilities/powers. Adam liked it a lot, but Christopher hasn’t seen it. Adam likes a lot of manga, chief among them is Dragon Ball Z and he thinks that Akira Toriyama is one of the greatest spacial storytellers out there. He knows that that’s an “entry level” answer, but he really thinks there’s not a better action manga out there. Christopher doesn’t have a lot of things in mind that are “like comic books but aren’t comic books” other than manga - because they agree that manga is just comic books. Christopher mostly reads books. Adam mostly reads comics.
[Guise writing in chat] So what’s your favorite moment in the Multiverse era that involves me? Yeah, yeah, I’m self-absorbed and everything, but I was maybe feeling sentimental about all the cool people I’ve been able to spend time with and was maybe hoping there was a meaningful moment I might COUGH … have maybe make them proud? They really liked The Banana Game. Also a lot of the space stuff near the end where Guise learns some hard lessons but is still fundamentally Guise and works within those constraints while becoming a better person.
Of all your creations, would you say that Gumbo has the highest ratio of fan engagement to published content (he only appears on two cards, but people have big feelings about Gumbo)? He isn’t. For one thing, Soothsayer Carmichael is on one card and one Writers’ Room cover and he’s got much more fan engagement than Gumbo. People love that guy. But there’s one… thing… that has a lot of fan engagement while having no appearances anywhere. They really love the moments when people latch onto little stuff like Gumbo, though.
Wait… So did anyone from the Meta-Metaverse join the fight against OblivAeon? Probably somebody just fighting in the background someplace. It’s not like anybody in the Universe 1 would know where they were from or the significance, though. Gregory Lindsdale from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Just out there wielding a pipe wrench. And now he’s stuck there. Adam initially was thinking about the Metaverse and that’s easier. One of the artists drew himself into the background of one of the huge “everybody fighting” panels.
How do the Prime Wardens afford food (as far as I know, the only one of them with a job is Haka and I don’t think a substitute teacher’s salary can support five grown adults)? Fanatic either doesn’t need to eat or can just conjure food. Tempest can snack on stuff he catches in the ocean. Argent Adept has a job (Christopher points out that he left the bartending gig a long time ago - maybe he goes back to cover a shift occasionally). He could also busk pretty effectively. Captain Cosmic is a lawyer. Sure he’s MIA for long stretches, but it still comes up now and again. As things are, he could probably afford to buy food for whoever needs it. The joke about him being Space Dad continues here where if the team ever finds themselves in a place where somebody needs cash to do a thing, he’s the one who has to get out his wallet.
Has Citizen Dawn ever actively looked for a superpowered individual that has a superpower when it comes to writing books? Has she ever asked Baron Blade, or Blood/Sweat/Tears, or some other superpowered individual to kidnap a great writer to give them superpowers? Finally, is there is a story in sentinel comics where this detail of Citizen Dawn’s character is used a a plot point? They don’t think it’s been a plot point - it’s just a character feature for her that comes up without actually driving a plot. Other than the Dawn/Absolute Zero incident we don’t even really see much in the way of her actively trying to recruit people as the story. They’re fun thought experiments, but they’re not addressed in the comics, partly because they’re more fun to think about than they are to write.
If you had to design an open world video game centered around 1 hero who would it be? Who would the main villain be? What would the main environment be? The easy answer is Wraith in Rook City stopping crimes with the Chairman being the main villain that the overall story is concerned with. Christopher would also really enjoy a Ra game set in various wilderness/magic areas - that’s probably better for a non-open-world game. You need somebody with a high degree of mobility - Wraith can grapple hook, but for long distances she also has the ability to just use her Maia Montgomery money to get around (oh - making the game let you pick when to be Wraith vs Maia is fun). Tachyon could also be solid. Oh, with a “crafting” system where she picks up stuff while out on missions and can make stuff when back in the lab. Upgrades to bases and cities is a neat mechanic when implemented well and Tachyon making a thing and Megalopolis getting to benefit from it is cool.
So it was my impression that Fashion wasn’t around for the major events during the multiverse era. She shows up in 2013, was decided explicitly to have “been busy” during the Progeny event, and we have no word to my knowledge about OblivAeon? So I’m asking straight, was Fashion involved in the OblivAeon event? Most of the other notable heroes introduced in the teens were quickly wrapped up in the big events, so what was she up to? What she was up to is probably a bunch of “space science” stuff since she was mainly a space hero. She’s definitely around during OblivAeon, but her role isn’t one that would require retcons to the story as already related to us. While some other characters do obviously make major contributions along the way, things really do boil down to the Freedom Five in the end.
Is Vagabound’s Tale still in your spreadsheet? You know, because you put the Scholar’s backstory somewhere else now? Some backstory stuff just gets told a few times over the span of decades and the VT telling in the ’70s is going to be different from the later one they recently told us about.
I recently started my in-person SCRPG campaign, and a question came up from a player that might become relevant, and definitely feels like the sort of thing that would get a ‘Who can say, time will tell’. The question is what would happen if a non-Wager Master Singular Entity got trapped in Universe One, without a ‘copy’ outside the sandwich bag? Would whatever aspect they embody start to unravel? Or would the other Singular Entities be able to keep things together until they got back? It’s a problem. We know there is at least one Singular Entity that’s stuck in Universe 1 and think about how none of the ones outside have any influence over Universe 1 now. The subconscious “intent” of the sandwich bag was for this cut-off universe to be able to operate without Singular Entities’ involvement, but that’s not long-term sustainable.
Does Bloodless ever show up again in the Multiverse era after being sealed away by NightMist? Yes.
Fanatic can make pretty much everything true if she believes in it - could she allow Guise to actually break the 4th wall rather than him just believing he’s doing so? Thinking about how this would actually impact how Guise works might be a false start. Fanatic probably could give him this ability, but it is not a thing that would happen. No one believes Guise. That’s the joke.
Not a question, but last Sunday I ran the SCRPG for the first time with Battle of the Bands and it was a lot of fun! Awesome!
You mentioned that Sensei Walker had a Scooby-doo style arc with some of his students back in the day - was a young Sophia DeLeon part of that group? Yeah. There’s also a brief discussion of whether he’s Sensei or Sifu Walker - this may have been during a period where the writers got the terminology wrong.
Would submitting the topic Dr. Blake Washington Jr. versus Ra be a worthwhile submission (say an arc exploring why the two of them stick together)? Possibly. They could do something with that. There are definitely stories that explore that topic.
Has Sentinels Comics created comic tie-ins for other media? I mean, Shear Force, yes, but otherwise? Almost certainly. Movie adaptations. Stuff like Classics Illustrated. They don’t get into that stuff, but it exists.
So, what does Fanatic think about a good demon like Painstake? Does she believe her? Does the concept frighten her? Or does she just see her as some demon? She just sees her as a demon and wants to smite her. She’s conflicted about it because Painstake heals her at one point. So, yes this is a problem and they put them together in at least one story because of it.
I realize this is probably a “time will tell”, but since OblivAeon, Pinion appears to have taken the role of NightMist in a lot of ways. Is she also doing paranormal investigation or is she not much for detective work? Is there any change in public reception to this takeover? Pinion has not taken over NightMist’s paranormal investigation “job”. She’s got her hands full with learning magic and also be the best at the magic at the same time (plus running the Aviary in general).
In Editor’s Note 68 you answered a question about popularity of Sentinel Comics characters in the Metaverse, but what of the disparity between their popularity there compared to here? Like, Legacy being the A-list #1 hero in the Metaverse but many here finding him basic or boring? Or how never-had-their-own-ongoing-series Darkstrife and Painstake being fairly popular here? Are there any cases like this where you were surprised by the (un)popularity of a character in the real world compared to how you’ve presented their reception in the Metaverse? That’s a good analysis of things, but they’re not really sure that any surprised them. The fact that some listeners (and in particular those who are Contributor-level Patreon supporters) hear about a minor character and latch onto them is kind of like how comics readers are. The minor characters are often the darlings of people who are really into reading comics as they’re the ones who actually learn about them. Maybe they are surprised at how popular NightMist is. They knew she would be popular, but it’s surprising just how popular. It’s “surprising” but not “shocking” if that distinction means anything. She might be more popular here than in the Metaverse - she had an ongoing solo title that had a really notable run eventually, but then it got cancelled and she was rolled up into a team book. She’s a well-known and popular character, but not “top 5” level.
[Preamble to another letter about character popularity and which “list” they’re on makes a note about their tendency to have their favorite characters be niche ones, which prompts an aside before getting to the question.] This is a thing that happens a bunch in the regular comics fandom and was touched upon in the previous letter. “Legacy is boring” is true, but the most similar character in terms of popularity in our world is Superman. He’s a very popular character, but he’s also acknowledged by a lot of people to be kind of boring. He’s a big moneymaker (comics, merch, adaptations, etc.) but the conversation around him is mainly that “he’s boring”. They disagree that he’s boring, but there is a level of him being the Mainstream™ option as opposed to people who say their favorite character is Gambit, who’s a pretty minor character in the grand scheme of things. Most comics fans that you talk to will tell you their favorite character is a niche one. But it’s not the comics fans who make Superman popular. Legacy is popular in the Metaverse at that level where NightMist is more likely to be the favorite of a comics fan. Doctor Strange was another good example of that - he was a favorite of comics fans for a long time, but nobody outside of comics readership had any idea who he was until his MCU appearances.
[The “question” is analysis of various heroes’ popularity largely prompted by the discussion in Editor’s Note 68 and the D-list Heroes episode. They don’t get into the whole letter, but talk about some of them.]
- Sky-Scraper not being high-popularity makes sense I guess in that she’s more of a hanger-on to more popular heroes and doesn’t get her own book until after the Multiverse. Yeah, that’s about right. She’s probably in that “Gambit” popularity zone. Maybe even less, like Marrow. One of the X-men who the readers like but isn’t super marketable.
- Harpy has the “goth girl” angle going for her, but she’s a relative late addition to the roster, even within her team she wasn’t an original member. Yeah, Harpy is probably even lower popularity than Sky-Scraper until much later. For a long time she’d be known by Dark Watch readers and basically nobody else.
- K.N.Y.F.E. might be a better Gambit analogue. She’s popular with readers and has an iconic look, but doesn’t break into popular consciousness much.
- Benchmark is as popular as he is due to just how much he was pushed. It was hard to be in a comics-related space at the time and not know about him. Whether you like it or not.
- How about heroes that didn’t exist/weren’t public knowledge during those episodes: Alpha, Rambler, Darkstrife, and Painstake? Alpha’s mid-tier at highest. Everyone else is pretty niche. Think Moon Knight or Ghost Rider.
I have a question on Guise’s name - his name is Joseph King, but if you shorten that to Joe, then it sounds like “joking”; is that intentional? Yes. If there’s ever a case where a name could be wordplay, then it is intentional wordplay.
After being prompted to go back and listen to Episode 180 about Grace and Owen Charles I have a question: What counts as a “power” for the purposes of Quiet Time’s negation ability? Would a character whose shtick is that they wield an ancient magical sword relic simply be unable to use the sword at all? Would it just act as a mundane sword? Would it crumble to dust? Would another hero like Headlong who got his powers through a relic experience the same effect? How about people like Muse whose powers are inborn? I assume somebody who gained powers later like Rockstar would be the “standard” type of person affected by Quiet Time, but what about Muerto or Aeon Girl? What about somebody whose “powers” (from RPG terms) come from Training or Gadgets? Adam’s take is that he would reduce anyone who has abnormal physiology that gives them extra abilities back down to normal human level. There is something about “metahumans” that lets them do things that nobody can just learn to do. Quiet Time affects those. He can’t turn off “training” but probably not a relic. He could turn off Headlong’s powers as he’s absorbed the power from the relic into himself. He could probably force Ra to revert to Dr. Blake Washington, Jr. but that wouldn’t destroy the Staff of Ra. He wouldn’t “shut off” Muerto because Muerto no longer has a human body. Could Alpha turn into a werewolf while Quiet Time is around? Are werewolves still considered “human” to the point where what they do is considered a power? Could he disable Maerynian’s weather-controlling ability? If we think that he could, then that makes them think that he probably could prevent werewolves from changing out of human form. That’s probably as far into these weeds as they’ll go. The comics don’t really get into the nitty-gritty of what constitutes a “power” for the purposes of Quiet Time.
In Editor’s Note 69 you provided the humorous mental image of Legacy flying his car around while sitting in the driver’s seat; in the spirit of the “bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly” meme - how do the various flying heroes fly?
- Does Legacy use a telekinetic kind of force to propel himself around? Does he throw a punch so hard that the momentum of his fist just carries the rest of him through the air after it? Does he propel particles out of his feet? He usually does a “jumping” kind of thing when he starts, but he can just hover in the air too. The closest you’ll probably get for him is that it’s a telekinetic-like force, but it’s not straight telekinetics as it’s not a mental ability but more a manifestation of his will. “He can just fly.” Don’t worry about it too much.
- Fanatic has big ol’ wings.
- Argent Adept can hover and whatnot using magic.
- Captain Cosmic is basically just making a construct around himself that he then moves around mentally. You can think of his constructs in general as a brand of telekinesis.
Does Legacy’s power have an evolutionary element to it? Kind of. Each generation gets a new power but that power isn’t necessarily related to “oh, the previous Legacy sure had to deal with [x] a lot” kinds of things. The line evolves over time, but not necessarily in response to stimuli.
Why was Felicia the first to have a mostly-offensive power? It worked out that way. The super strength one is pretty useful as an offensive tool, but you’re right that it also has a lot of utility beyond just “punches real good” and Felicia’s is the first that’s straight up “this is a weapon”.
Did Emily know about Paul’s family when they met? Not when they first met. She would have found out very quickly, but he was not yet Legacy when they met. Sure, he’s named the same as his very-public-figure father, but they were also in a very different media landscape. There’s some argument to be made (and Adam makes it) that he’s still too recognizable for her to not know who he is immediately, but Christopher’s preference is that the story is more interesting for them to meet and hit it off without her knowing. Like, she’s a very focused student and maybe she’s like the one person on campus who doesn’t realize who this guy is. She certainly knows who the famous Parsons family is, but didn’t make the connection to this guy in particular right away.
If someone threw a knife at Legacy, would it hurt him or bounce off? Bounce off. It’s hard to think of a situation where you’d be able to hurt him with a knife (they imagine a situation where you need to do surgery on him and keep blunting the scalpels). They get Tachyon to come up with some kind of “atomic blade” or something (Baron Blade’s ears perk up at the mention of that).
- [Chat, a little later:] But what if you throw another knife immediately after?! Well, 2 cannons is how you kill a Legacy.
If Felicia had a baby with somebody who had powers, would the baby have similar powers to the father? Obviously her first child is going to have powers and most of those powers will be the ones that she has. There’s a good chance that the father’s powers could influence what the +1 power is.
[Not a question, but the letter-writer’s kids read the background sound effect on DE Tachyon’s Hypersonic Dash “backwards” and say that she’s “Moo-ing” her foes.] That’s pretty fun.
Do you have any guidelines for when you stay true to the history of Sentinel Comics and when you introduce “improvements”? When it’s necessary. Creating the spreadsheet resulted in a lot of moving stuff around from where they’d initially put things, but they still have made the odd change here and there.
- Adam points out that the letter is asking something different: when do they remain true to the history of comics generally and when does Sentinel Comics “improve” on aspects of that history? They change things rarely. They do so 1) when it makes a better story and 2) when there’s a specific thing they’re trying to tweak. For example, Sentinel Comics publishes fewer books than “real world” comics, but each title is more popular than real comics. Like, Marvel and DC have way more books coming out month-to-month, but they envision Sentinel Comics as selling a comparable number of issues overall. Sentinel’s whole line is more popular than Marvel/DC’s whole lines, it’s just that the latter is a much wider landscape. As such, Sentinel has more cohesiveness across their properties. Think of it as Sentinel Comics being a huge comics company that operates more like an indie comics publisher in a lot of ways. In terms of social/political things like when the first Black character was introduced or what have you, they tied those things to specific real-world events as to why they happened when they did - there is still an event that could have inspired somebody to write a comics story, they just didn’t in the real world. An example there is that Haka’s creator was a soldier in World War II and met guys from a Maori regiment from New Zealand. Later, when he was writing comics he decided to base a character on these cool guys he met.
Do you have plans for a 5th new hero (to elaborate, you’ve introduced 2 decks so far in Alpha and Darkstrife/Painstake - you started telling us stories about Alpha shortly before revealing her and with similar behavior regarding Fashion and Rambler, that leaves me wondering if all three of the remaining boxes for DE will have a new deck)? Time will tell, who can say? Glad to have read the question on-air and give an unsatisfactory answer to.
Are there any Omnitron-X and Parse stories? I feel like their chemistry could be interesting (though hopefully in a non-romantic way). Yes, they’ve told one about Omnitron-X, Unity, and Parse all being involved… Haven’t they? Whatever, you’ll tel us if we didn’t. Anyway, there aren’t a lot of stories with that pairing, but there are some. It’s not a romantic one.
Has Baron Blade ever hired a villain to fight Legacy while he just sits from a far away safe location while taking notes on Legacies weaknesses during the fight? Absolutely. That’s a classic villain move. You have a Legacy villain, doesn’t even matter which one, and then cut away to Baron Blade at the end going “Fascinating.”
If both Quiet Time and Citizen Gain were affecting one powered person then would that persons power increase, decrease, or stay the same? Increased, but they couldn’t use them. It’d be tricky to set up given that you’d need Citizen Gain to be far enough away to not have his powers turned off. Quiet Time doesn’t have a lot of targeting ability with his powers. Could Citizen Gain amplify Quiet Time’s powers? Maybe he could then just blanket the world in a null-power zone and that’s how the Meta-meta-verse happened.
Does being trapped in the Sandwich Bag make RPG Wager Master suffer the same way he did in Madame Mittermeier’s Carnival Dimension? Not the same way, but it does make him suffer. Life is suffering.
Does Citizen Dawn know that only the first child in the Legacy line gets powers or does she see Paul Parsons as a potential source of powered children (that got creepier than I thought…)? Yeah, that is pretty creepy. They don’t think she knows that. The Legacy line has had a lot of only children recently. There were certainly Parsons siblings way back when and now there’s probably a bunch of distant cousins who might not even be aware that they’re related to those Parsons. If the Legacy line gets destroyed, could some random branch on the family tree suddenly inherit the powers? Now we’ve got somebody who has the powers but didn’t grow up steeped in the whole family tradition environment. That could be very interesting.
[Countdown of the writer’s top 5 best jumping-on points for the podcast:]
- Episode 117: Freedom Four #88, the first official Writers’ Room. It’s a fun story. We have the team being awesome and campy. Robots and Dinosaur skeletons being cool. Glamour being menacing. The whole “4th largest diamond in the world” goof. It’s got a lot going for it. They agree that this is a pretty good jumping on point as a “start here, listen to a few episodes, if you like it go back and start at the beginning” kind of thing.
- Episode 128: Deepest Space #1 - Void Guard! Bloodsworn Colosseum! Good character introduction/dynamics (Uncle Mainstay and Idealist being cute, Writhe and Dr. Medico being awful). It’s great!
- Episode 158, Tome of the Bizarre vol. 3 #151 Mystery Comics vol. 2 #326 - Harpy vs. the Court of Blood. [This is one they had to move and is correct in Definitive Edition.] It’s got great chemistry between Harpy and Blood Countess. It’s got silly moments, dark moments, and is an introduction to a Harpy variant in the game. This is only as low as it is because the question section is largely about Ra foes and has a lot of Phoenix talk that might be too inside-baseball. Honestly, your #5 pick of FF #88 is still their pick of your list so far.
- Episode 160, NightMist #35 - NightMist vs. Hyde. A personal favorite NightMist story and the twist at the end is so good!
- Episode 202, Freedom Five #508, the Wedding of the Lightyear. Everyone’s favorite speedster has to track down a space jerk to get her girlfriend back and they they get married. It’s so cute and fun and I love it. The question section is short and concise without too many rabbit holes. This is a good one too, but they still feel like FF #88 is better. This one works better if you’ve built up some attachment to the characters.
- Honorable mentions: 119 (Disparation vol. 1 #1 - Voss Conquers All and introduces the Oracle, points against are that it’s Disparation which makes for an awkward jumping-on point), 120 (The Guise Book #37 - Guise vs. La Capitan and the start of the Guise/Scholar team-up), or pretty much any of the holiday episodes (Haunted Fanatic, Fey-Cursed Setback, Wraith/Miss Information April Fools Day, or Daybreak’s Halloween).
Something I always loved in comics covers that I haven’t seen for the Writers’ Room is when several issues’ cover arts create a single piece of art when laid side-by-side - were these just not a think in Sentinel Comics? They love these too and they definitely happened. The problem with actually showing one is that it requires Adam to draw them in the available time since to do a triptych would take more than 3 times as long to draw since they’ve got to work as a whole and individually. They’re not ruling it out, but finding the right time/place to do one will be tricky. Maybe when we get a situation where they’re recording a few episodes at once to cover Christopher being out of town so he has a more than the 3-ish days to plan and execute a cover that he typically gets. Beyond that it’d have to be something for Definitive Edition or the History or something that has a less contracted schedule.
[Setup is that the writer has a long-running superhero RPG that they’ve been converting to SCRPG since discovering it - in that line, he has a size/density-changing character with metallic skin named Bunker. The scenario for the question involves a case where a comics creator quits at a big company, sells their characters’ books as an indie for a while, but then comes to Sentinel Comics] Would the Sentinel Comics editors allow a secondary line of comics to have a character that shares a name with one of their established characters? Would they require that this outside character be renamed in order to be published? Hmm… a character like that would probably not be published in the main continuity of Sentinel Comics. I mean, if this creator had their IP rolled into the canon of Sentinel Comics that would probably necessarily result in the creator losing control of said IP. What is more likely is that it would still be a creator-controlled comic that’s published by Sentinel Comics, but not set in their world. What they would want to avoid is what happened with Watchmen getting incorporated into DC’s main continuity. As such, with a separate continuity and the comics being published under a separate imprint, the name Bunker is probably fine. If they did get rolled into the mainline comics, it wouldn’t be fine.