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FEMFORCE #49
COVER: Heike, after Al Bryant
EDITORIAL CONTENT: Photos, article on movie
candidate Julie Michaels
MILESTONES: Joan Wayne recovers her Ms. Victory
persona, and Lady Luger is defeated.
Story: The Eleventh Hour (Countdown to Victory (30
pgs)
Credits:
Bill Black, story / pencils; Dick Ayers, pencils / letters;
Mark Heike / Chad Hunt, inks
Synopsis:
Rampaging through downtown Orlando, Garganta is finally
brought under control when Buckaroo Betty and the Avenger
team up to douse her in a nearby lake. At the Mystery World
park, Luger defeats Joan Wayne with the timely help of
Voltzman's gas attack. Later, while having his injuries
treated at the same hospital where the injured David Burke
has been taken Voltzman inadvertently eavesdrops as Jen
Burke reveals her secret identity to her husband. Gordon is
furious at Jen's security breach, but later on it is Jen's
turn to be enraged at Gordon as Tom Kelly confesses the
manipulations the government has practiced on the Burkes in
order to have Jen replace her mother as Ms. Victory. Colt
interrupts their confrontation to remind Jen of their
intention to investigate the Mystery House park for its
possible connection to Lady Luger. Back at the park, Luger
has secured the weakened Ms. Victory to a giant electrical
bomb, planning to unleash her final, deadly vengeance. She
soon discovers that Voltzman, fed up with her abusive
treatment of him, plans to betray her, weakening her with
the same gas Joan has been subjected to. Joan, however,
fully regains her identity, and through sheer force of will
breaks free of her restraints just as Jen and Colt arrive.
Mother and daughter's reunion is cruelly punctuated by the
devastating blast. Meanwhile, Azagoth brings Nightveil to a
strange dimension, directing her to search a mysterious
castle for the answers she seeks regarding the source behind
Crimson's great power. As they approach, Azagoth is
assaulted by an unknown force. In a brief interlude, Tara
and Betty discuss Jen's identity while supervising Jason's
pool side play.
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Others
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Nurses; soldiers; Orlando residents
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Geography
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Orlando; Capricorn's realm; Everglades
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Sites
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FF HQ; Garganta's hut; Mystery World Funhouse;
Capricorn's stronghold; Federal Building; Nightveil's
Sanctum; Regional Medical Center
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Time
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Present; a 1-day period immediately following FF 48
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Magic & Technology
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Avenger's Starjet; Betty's lariat; Voltzman's
power-draining gas; Luger's bomb; Roberge's equipment
(C)
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Notes:
Betty's skillful rope work trips up Garganta, dumping
her into Lake Eola.... Luger uses her hatred of Joan Wayne
to feed her power during their battle.... Luger's ability to
hurt Voltzman after her fight with Joan indicates that the
super soldier serum did not work as well on him.... David's
awakening to the sight of Tom Kelly giving Jen a consoling
embrace prolongs his suspicions of her despite her
reassurances.... Gordon's fear borders on paranoia as he
again notes Miss Masque and the Avenger closely observing
him.... Joan experiences deja vu as the surface of the bomb
she is bound to cracks under her efforts to escape,
subjecting her to the same sort of electrical barrage she
received from Roberge back in WWll.... Luger appears to have
aged again after being overcome by Voltzman's gas.... As
shown in FF 55, Azagoth brings Nightveil to Capricorn's
realm while he directs her from the Dhagor side of the
portal.... Kelly, partly from cowardice, and partly from his
feelings for Jen, lays the blame for the Burkes' misfortunes
at the feet of Gordon, even though he appears to have
initiated most of it, judging from his "I play dirty"
response to Jen's initial refusal to become Ms. Victory....
Since Nightveil attends Jason Burke's funeral in FFUC 2 (1),
the episode of her capture, depicted more graphically when
she is found by Dragonfly in FF 50, must take place in the
near future following the events of the Claw storyline; this
aspect of the story, then, as well as the backups in FF 51
and 52, take place closer to the Capricorn Chronicles that
begin in FF 55, and in fact are a sort of prelude to that
storyline.
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