|
|
FEMFORCE #31
COVER: Nadeau / Heike
EDITORIAL CONTENT: None
MILESTONES: The Black Shroud's connection to
Klyness is revealed as he taints Dragonfly with his evil;
1st AC app. Mirror Man
1st Story: Untitled (Femforce story) (7 pgs)
Credits:
Bill Black, story / edits; The Count, pencils; Mark Heike,
inks; Walt Paisley, letters; "TB. Shroud", demolition
Synopsis:
Nightveil uses her teleportation powers to instantly convey
her and Dragonfly to the Weir Asylum. They arrive in the
midst of a furious battle between the Vault heroes and the
Shroud's minions, who have just been released from their
imprisonment by the Shroud's surprise attack. The two
Femforce members help tip the scales in favor of the heroes
until the Anti-Paragon emerges from the Shroud's teleporter
beam, rounds up the villains and brings them back into the
beam, leaving a frustrated group of heroes, especially
Nightveil, wondering if their efforts against the Shroud
will ultimately have any meaning.
|
|
Others
|
None
|
|
Geography
|
Upstate New York
|
|
Sites
|
Weir Asylum grounds
|
|
Time
|
Present; immediately after FF 30 (1)
|
|
Magic & Technology
|
Nightveil's and the Shroud's teleportation beams
|
|
|
Notes:
Dragonfly's savage enjoyment of the battle and her
willingness to destroy the Monster is evidence of the taint
of evil the Shroud has planted in her (as shown in the
second story).... Some of the heroes, not realizing that the
Anti-Paragon is a Kronon clone, believe him to be a
turncoat.... Nightveil knows the origin of the Anti-Paragon,
having heard it first-hand from the Shroud, but is unaware
of how the Shroud came to be allied with Klyness, a tale
which the readers are privileged to learn in the next
story.
|
2nd Story: Alliances (25 pgs)
Credits:
Rik Levins, story / letters; John Nadeau, pencils; John Dell III,
inks; Bill Black, edits
Synopsis:
Back in 1927, a group of fleeing bank robbers encounter Klyness,
whose arm has been slowly regenerating since being blown off by the
Latigo Kid a half-century earlier. Over the next few decades,
Klyness's knowledge of the future helps the thugs invest their way to
fabulous wealth and power. One day in 1953, Richard Latimer
approaches the group seeking backing for his electronics company. The
part of Latimer's persona possessed by the Shroud detects the
Kronon's presence, and he confronts the alien. Unaware that their
initial meeting is to take place only a few weeks hence, the Shroud
mystically influences Klyness to relate the complete story of his
past (actually future) alliance with the Shroud, their joint defeat
of Captain Paragon, the creation of the Anti-Paragon, the Shroud's
betrayal of the Kronons, and the fateful battle in the Old West.
Klyness, having now lived a long life on Earth since the 1870's,
plans to meet his younger self when he arrives on Earth to avert the
disasters that have befallen him. The Shroud, however, puts Klyness
to sleep to prevent that meeting and plans to meet the younger
Klyness himself, thus keeping his schemes intact.
In the present, the peace of an Arazello family picnic is
shattered by a battle between Dragonfly and a Psiborg construct who
knows her identity. To avoid endangering her family, Nancy shoots
straight up into the stratosphere with the Psiborg in her grasp. She
is soon helpless, however, and is saved only by the mysterious astral
presence of Kuromoko, who teleports her to his sanctuary. Kuromoko
reveals himself as the Shroud inhabiting the businessman's shell, and
explains that he needs to combine his powers with Dragonfly's to
defeat their common Psiborg enemy. Intoxicated by her new power
levels, Dragonfly toys with Kuromoko until she believes him dead,
then seeks out and destroys Psiborg. After she departs, Jong Sue Chae
recovers the broken robot and returns it to the Shroud, who has it
reassembled by his hirelings. Allowing Dragonfly to only think he was
killed, the Shroud removes his power from Nancy along with her memory
of the incident. Leaving the taint of evil within her, the Shroud now
has both her and Psiborg, as well as the just-emerging Anti-Paragon,
to summon at will in his upcoming war with the Earth's heroes.
|
Others
|
Arazello family; Kronons (F); other bank robbers (F);
Shroud's disciples; Janie's boyfriend
|
|
Geography
|
Austin, TX (F); Elizabeth, NJ; stratosphere; Bayport, Wl;
Jungle Island; outer space (F); Apache, TX (F)
|
|
Sites
|
Arazello home; Kronotech Industries (F); Shroud's Jungle
Island lair; library(F)
|
|
Time
|
Summer 1927 (F); Winter 1943 (F); Fall 1953 (F); Present,
just before FF 26 and 27
|
|
Magic & Technology
|
Psiborg's destruct ray; Kronon ships (F); Rurian ships
(F); Latigo Kid's six-shooter (F); Klyness's blaster(F)
|
Notes:
The nature of Dragonfly's possession is such that her personality
becomes more aggressive but she is otherwise normal, oblivious to the
fact that the Shroud can take command of her at a whim, as he does in
FF 36.... This is another key story in understanding the Shroud's
impact on the AC Universe over the years, focusing in this case on
his involvement with the Kronons.... As Klyness explains, the Shroud
tricked him into helping him create the Anti-Paragon, letting the
Kronons believe that the Paragon replacement would rise to great
power and ultimately surrender Earth to the Kronons.... This is a
retro-continuity story that takes place before Nightveil, Weir,
Paragon, and Tara go to Jungle Island to confront the Shroud; the
evil genius mentions his alliance with Dragonfly in the second part
of "The Devil Below" (FF 27).... Presumably, the older Klyness ceases
to exist once his younger self arrives on Earth. |
