Timeline 17 Story Notes

In The Summer of Love, we travel back to the sixties and introduce two important storylines of the Quadrant universe! First, we get the sixties/seventies super-team of the universe in an early incarnation: the Defenders of Democracy!

Plus, we have the introduction of Aphrodite, a character that will be recurring in a few of these Timeline stories as we bounce around the decades.

1967 was an interesting year in American history, and I doubt I have done it the justice it deserves. But the purpose of this story was two fold: introduce the Defenders as characters and set up a few of the growing conflicts in American history for the next few years afterward.

I really enjoyed this one... be sure to drop a few thoughts on me here.

Super-Powered TV: Heroes 3.24: I Am Sylar

We open again with Nathan on television. We then flashback to eighteen hours later, back in Washington, as Sylar awakes in a different form. Sylar admits to Danko that he is losing himself, and he is unwilling to be a “nobody”. Sylar kills another victim and declares his nature as a living entity. Danko tells Sylar he needs something to connect him to his past. Sylar uses his federal clearing to get his mother’s belongings. Sylar then has a phantom conversation with his adoptive mother, as he transforms between his natural form and her.

Parkman tries to convince Hiro to give up the fight... that they have more to live for, as does he. But even though both Matt Parkmans leave, Hiro and Ando set out to bring down Building 26. FOr some reason, Ando doesn’t stop when they use themselves as bait for Building 26’s goons. But Hiro sets him up, lets him get hit by the darts, and replaces one of the guards. They try to sneak in, but instead have to use the GPS from a soldier’s cell after they are caught. They arrive at Building 26, but Hiro’s powers only cause a nose bleed.

The government corners Micah in a warehouse. Micah tries to convince Sylar to change sides. The words “You can save us all” stops Sylar in his tracks. Micah watches as he is shot on the pier... because Sylar has taken his place. Micah hides out in Sylar’s house and watches as Sylar has a self-conversation with his mother. But Sylar pushes Micah from his house with the threat that he will kill him if he sees Micah again. But Sylar mentions Nathan’s name as a suitable person to replace, an idea Sylar takes to Petrelli’s office. He again has a twisted self-talk. And mom’s words about becoming President seem dangerously close to coming true, as he takes Nathan’s form. He then goes on television just as we have already seen twice before.

Parkman takes the baby back to Janice, and wants to help her escape government surveillance. Parkman says he cannot escape with Janice; he has to stop the goons at the top level and end the entire situation. Parkman uses his powers to make his family invisible to the attackers.

Nathan sets out to stop the false Nathan from meeting the president. Peter follows. Nathan meets false Nathan in his office. The two have a heated conversation about the nature of the initiative. Before he can kill Nathan, Danko knocks the senator out. Sylar ignores Danko’s last request, and Danko stabs him in the back of the head. But Sylar gets back to his feet and pulls the knife from his head as the episode ends.

Once again it seems we have set ourselves up for a finale that is too busy. The sudden reemergence of Mohinder at tonight’s end seems to serve no purpose other than to add another face to the finale. But we will see how things come out as we hit “An Invisible Thread” next Monday. Does anyone else smell some Claude in the air?

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.9: A Spy in the House of Love

All apologies for the lateness of this post... real life has me backed up on just about all my non-Heroes television viewing, and I actually forgot for awhile that I had this episode to watch. Too bad, as it is one of the best so far.

We open with a shot at the end of the story where a lot of electricity and a gunshot come from Topher’s office. From there we start the flashback...

Right to Eliza Dushku in dominatrix gear. I love you, Joss Whedon. Dominic is being left in charge; that could be trouble or so I would assume.

Boyd and Topher discuss the possibility of a spy, as Topher has found a chip in the system that alters implants. In the aftermath, Echo volunteers to help, showing she knows how the process works.

We again flashback to Mellie’s imprint. We move on in the story with Mellie again visiting Ballard’s apartment. Mellie shows that she is actually November and that Mellie has been designed as a spy against him. The spy reveals that he needs to find out why the dollhouse exists before he can understand it completely.

We return from commercial with Sierra’s imprint. She takes the place of an Asian woman who really does not look that similar. She breaks in to a facility under Dominic’s orders to find a chip. She gets it, but she gets cornered as the segment ends.

Victor is next, as he goes on a lonely hearts engagement as Roger. After visiting an older lady though, he moves on to meet with DeWitt, who is apparently the real client. After getting rid of the phone, the two have a fencing match that leads to sex. Later, Victor awakens to a weeping DeWitt, but we still don’t know why.

We move on to an imprinted Echo. She interrogates Topher, Echo, Ivy the assistant, and the doctor. But Sierra returns, and apparently Ivy is the spy. But Echo says the true spy is Dominic. He reveals himself by attacking her. They have a bit of a kung fu battle, before Echo takes him out. Echo takes Dominic to meet DeWitt. He reveals that his mission with the NSA was to keep the Dollhouse from imploding on itself.

So, we actaully take a big step forward this week, as we learn what exactly the attic is. And even in his eventual demise (mentally anyway), Dominic takes a bit of solace in the fact that eventually, Echo will bring them all down just as he predicted. Dominic has one last attempt at breaking free, even manages to shoot DeWitt in the side, but in the end he gets “sent to the attic”, and his memory left on another imprint disc.

We end with Boyd becoming the new head of security, and the declaration that Echo may not need all that much protection anymore. And we meet Travis, her new handler. But even as she takes the imprint, her eyes stray back to Boyd....

Wow, so different this week. I could have done without the odd narrative format, but otherwise this is easily the best non-Joss scripted episode so far. I am still not sure I buy Dominic as the man funneling Ballard information (why would he do that?), but we put things together to move the show forward more than we have in most of the show’s episodes. Hopefully, we can wrap up the current saga fairly well as we wind the show down over the next three (and possibly last) episodes.

Super-Powered TV: Justice League the television movie

The thing I love about the internet is it’s ability to keep even the most obscure program, desperately unwanted by its original creators, to be available for viewing. A prime example of that is the mid-nineties television pilot movie based on Justice League of America. It may in fact be the worst example of television superheroes gone wrong.

In the terribly named city of New Metro, we meet Ice, a local meteorologist, unsure about everything.

Barry Allen, the Flash, a ne’er-do-well without work and unable to keep any money.

Guy Gardner, the Green Lantern, Barry’s friend. We meet him as he is serenading his love interest with a bit of opera. But he gets another call on his watch beeper, a call from the JLA I would assume.

We have B.B. DaCosta (a much darker in skin tone version of Fire). She is an actress, but unable to get any work past wearing a banana costume. SO, yeah, we are all complete losers.

Ray Palmer, a uber-nerd, is the Atom. He is a high school science teacher that no one really listens to.

The villain is apparently an idiot in an incredibly bad costume called the Weatherman.

As the storm picks up, a young boy is in trouble, but he is rescued by the glowing green lasso of ultra-heroic Guy Gardner. Seriously, Guy Gardner is the friendly pretty boy?

Fire apparently can barely project her powers out of her hand, while Atom’s costume makes him look even worse. In some bad super-imposing effects, he rescues a cat from beneath a house.

The Flash, as a cartoon character, stops the winds of the hurricane by running the opposite direction (in another terrible costume).

We meet the whole team through painful interview segments. Very painful interview segments. Segments that have no purpose but to annoy.

Barry is feeling a crisis of conscious as he doesn’t know what to do with his civilian life. He is staying at the house shared by the rest of the team, a house very similar to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in design. Oh, and B.B. used to date Guy.

Meanwhile, Tori, the future Ice stumbles upon something strange at the meteorological lab, spills water upon it, and is covered by a strange mist. as she leaves, she accidentally freezes everything in her past with an incredibly bad frost effect. She discovers the power at a lake when she accidentally freezes it all.

In the middle of the night, Tori is kidnapped from her home by a mysterious figure. The voice tests her powers, knocks her out, and the team discusses her future with the mystery voice.

She wakes up back in her own bed, covered in ice, only to wake up for real. A nervous researcher at the facility keeps popping in and out, a man named Arliss. No one suspects him except for Tori. Her superior acts strange upon her suspicions however. He leaves, only to run in to the same man. And a kid sees the strange ones hand turn green.

Guy again tries to court his girlfriend, but one of the cheesiest hailstorms on the planet invites trouble. A flying Fire (under really bad special effects) melts the hail down to a thunderstorm.

Ray has a heart to heart with Tori at the party, and tries to help her through her “problems”. They instantly take a liking to each other. But Ray has to leave with Guy to go investigate the possible identity of the Weatherman. He shrinks down to avoid a laser (with some real cheap computer effects) and limbos under. He finds schematics for something or another. Tori skips out of the party and finds Ray in the lab. He invites her to check the schematics, and then makes his way out of the room thanks to his powers.

Our suspect Arliss leaves with a box from the facility, and the Flash follows him to the front of the institute head Wellesley Eno’s house. Flash accuses him of being the Weatherman, but instead finds the device is only a weather predictor.

Tori goes to investigate the device she found earlier, the one that gave her powers, but finds it gone. She heads to the roof and finds another message from the Weatherman... who is her boss Wellesley Eno. Oh, Miguel Ferrer, why? Why? Why? Bad enough you are in this movie, but you are the painful villain? You were Shan Yu for goodness sake!

Tori comes to the front door of the Justice house. She reveals that the Weatherman is actually Dr. Eno.

B.B. is still dealing with the courtship of a younger man in a seemingly pointless subplot. But she has to back out of the date when duty calls. This time we don’t even see powers in effect, only the aftermath. Tori arrives at the scene, and the rest of the team brings her in to meet their mysterious leader at a secret elevator beneath a major bridge. It takes them to the bad CGI headquarters of the Justice League. Why do they need a headquarters when they all seem to live together? I guess mystery leader needs some place to stay.

And we find the true identity of the mystery leader, J’Onn J”Onzz, the Martian Manhunter (otherwise known as M*A*S*H’s David Ogden Stiers under a very obvious mask). The other heroes invite Tori in to the Justice League.

The love interest sees his earrings on Fire, and realizes who she is. (Perhaps the fact that she is just B.B. behind some green face paint should have made it more obvious.) He eventually tries to convince her he knows her identity, but Martian Manhunter uses his powers to convince him otherwise.

We flashback to Atom’s painful origin as he tells the story to Ice. He helps her past her final fears by revealing his secret identity. We then go in to some more painful documentary bits. Why would we be doing documentary segments out of costume? Kind of defeats the secret identity doesn’t it?

Anyway Ice concentrates on mastering her powers, focusing them in the direction she wants it to go. Instead, she just starts freezing everything around her. Oh, with painful, painful acting. Does that go without saying at this point?

At her home, Tori investigates her files to get a clue about Eno’s whereabouts, only to be paid a visit by Eno himself. We get Eno’s terrible motivation as he tries to convince Ice to join him. Ice refrigerates him, steals his case, and runs for it. Why not just freeze him completely? Wouldn’t that have solved the entire problem?

But the device Tori retrieved was a tracking device. A heat beam hits the base, trapping the team. The team leaves Tori behind as they rush off to fight the effects of Eno’s weather manipulator. Eno uses the device to set off a tidal wave. Eno throws the weather manipulator away to stop Green Lantern from stopping the wave (although a green catcher’s mitt would have easily done the trick). Ice uses her powers to save the day, finally showing that she can be a hero. Eno runs off, but Green Lantern easily lassos him.

The team visits Tori at home and invites her on to the team as Ice. She agrees.

The show ends with the Weatherman making his escape, Ray and Tori enjoying a night on the town, and Ice being sworn in to the Justice League. Heartwarmingly stupid. It ends with a terrible voice over by Tori, and the march of the heroes (including Tori in the worst costume ever). Really, ever.

While not the worst of the shoddy productions of television past, Justice League is low on the totem pole. Not Corman Fantastic Four or Generation X bad, but still bad. But still somehow mind-numbingly entertaining. So bad it’s good. Or maybe still bad. Anyway, Justice League gets a mild recommendation (if you can find it).

Super-Powered Web: World Superhero Registry

You ever sitting around and realize “Dear God, the villains of the world are out to get me! Who can possibly save me now?”, this is the site for you.The World Superhero Registry offers a complete list of active superheroes around the world. And we’re not talking those fake guys in all the comic books, novels, tv shows, and movies. Oh no. Everyone of these men and women are real life heroes.

These brave individuals patrol their cities day and night to keep them safe for all forms of villainy. Outside of the several dozen heroes featured on the site (such as Nostrum, Angle Grinder Man, and Green Scorpion pictured here), the site also features FAQs, Interviews with real life heroes, hero-based organizations, hero support groups, a forum, a shop, links to the heroes’ pages, a dissertation on heroic philosphy, the webmaster’s blog, and and even an assistance request page.

It is all a little... different, but the site is no joke. These folks take their costumed heroism seriously, even through all the bad costuming and pretend super-powers. But you really cannot fault them for their love of community. We can all do worse than to want to keep our streets clean and safe. In tough economic times, it makes you feel good to see people willing to help, to look out for the fellow man, without need for government intervention or ridiculous stimulus packages.

Enjoy the site, take in the pure heroism, and someday maybe you too will decide that superheroing is the career path for you.

Super-Powered TV: Heroes 3.23: 1961

“1961” opens with some more grave-digging. From there we move in to a flashback to 1961. All she gives us (outside of flashback) is that every member of her family died here. But even as she speaks the words, someone is watching them. But an argument about the need for the company causes Peter to leave.

Coyote Sands is apparently an internment camp for super-powered children visited by Angela and her sister Alice. We meet Charles Deveraux, Linderman, and another young male named Bobby Bishop. They begin to suspect something is not right, even as Angela tries to protect her sister... a sister with weather control powers.

Claire and Angela continue to talk, but they are struck by bursts of uncontrollable wind. Noah is caught in the storm and dragged away, by Suresh. Suresh and Noah discuss the elder Suresh’s time with the product.

In the flashback, Angela warns Chandar that he is going to be a murderer, serving as an analog for Nathan.

Angela goes outside to confront her sister. The wind dies down and in the aftermath, Angela is gone. Noah warns Suresh not to think the worst of his father... yet.

In the past, Devereaux pressures Angela to run without her sister, something Angela does not want to do. She agrees, and she lies to Alice about where she plans to go. In the present, Angela wakes up in a messy shack of some kind, filled with old papers and refuse. And she finds her sister’s old copy of Alice in Wonderland. And then she stands face to face with her sister.

In the past, Devereaux (who apparently is a telepath) tries to soothe Angela in a diner. In the present, Alice revealed that she stayed behind despite the death because of the lie told her by Angela fifty years ago: that she would safe as long as she stayed behind.

Back in the past, Alice refuses the shot. Her powers go haywire as she fights back. Suresh slaps her and her father uses his powers to fight back. From there the shooting begins and the powers die. And we learn exactly why Angela stole socks all those many episodes ago. Wow, that is some actual good writing by the folks at Heroes. Angela admits she lied that night, and Alice goes crazy. The sight of Mohinder pushes her farther in to her craze and she blasts him down. Angela tries to talk Alice down, telling her she has a family again. Alice refuses to listen this time and disappears in to the night.

In the aftermath, Peter gives Mohinder footage of the elder Suresh. Mohinder isn’t sure he wants to watch it, but he does know he doesn’t want to move on. He remains in Coyote Sands.

In the past, Angela reveals that she had dreamed of the company and the evil they would commit. The company began with her on that night. Nathan plans to go back to Washington and set things straight, but the episode ends with Nathan also on screen. It seems Sylar has taken the Senator’s place.

This is the episode that actually ties the mess of the previous three seasons in to some kind of coherency. It does very little to set up the end of this volume, but it does clear up a few problems left in the past. We will see what is left for volume four next week with “I Am Sylar”.

Tales of the Living Legends: Meet... the Black Owl!

The newest Tale of the Living Legends is now up!

We are back to one of our original Living Legends as Doug Danville, the Black Owl, faces off with crime on the streets of Chicago! I mean look at this guy... doesn’t he just look like he could bitch slap your... *Ahem*

With art by Jack Binder, the Black Owl is easily the prettiest strip Tales of the Living Legends has featured so far. And under that pencil, you can see for the first time the looks of both Black Owl and his lovely wife Teresa “Terry” Dane!

Anyway, now Tales of the Living Legends will feature a full page five days a week. How is that for awesome?

Super-Powered TV: Heroes 3.22: Turn & Face the Strange

Been busy watching and reviewing Wrestlemania, but I am still on track with a very early Wednesday morning update! Ha, I am finally getting ahead of schedule on this thing! Anyway, on to tonight’s episode.

Hiro and Ando are having their own problems with a baby that doesn’t want to go the same direction they are. Ando finds that he has to make an odd gremlin face in order to keep the baby happy and allow them to continue towards Washington.

At Building 26, Noah receives a visit from Sandra. So she knows where their base is but otherwise it’s a secret? Noah knows that the body isn’t really Sylar, and will take any risk to prove it. Like Parkman with Danko, Sylar wants his own revenge on Noah. But Sandra serves him with the divorce papers, and Noah doesn’t know how to respond. It is a lie though, as this Sandra is really Sylar. The signature on the divorce paper gives away Sylar’s shape shifting secret. But he thinks that the first Sandra is Sylar. But a phone call from Lyle saves her life before he can shoot. But it just serves to push his wife farther away from him. Noah, sans glasses, visits Danko’s office with a couple files. He implies he isn’t Noah, but instead Sylar. Danko walks right in to a trap, and Noah draws on him. Danko tells Noah the supposed secret identity of Sylar, but it is instead an innocent man, an innocent man that Noah killed. Noah is left on the run, just like the other heroes. After he leaves, the corpse recovers and transforms back in to Sylar.

Mohinder wants to flee, but Parkman is ready to go after Danko once and for all. Matt uses his powers to push Danko towards the person he most cares about. Danko visits a young foreign woman as Matt watches. After Danko leaves, Matt breaks in to her house and tries to force himself to kill her in return for Daphne’s death. Instead he sits down and has a chat with her, and learns she is actually an escort. Parkman tells Elena about Danko’s true life. Parkman still cannot kill her, but Hiro arrives in time to stop Danko from killing Parkman. Hiro introduces Matt to baby Matt, and in the process, gives Parkman something to live for.

Angela and Peter, Claire and Nathan, the compromised Noah, and even Suresh all are pointed towards a place called Coyote Sands. Angela and Peter are the first to arrive, followed shortly by Claire and Nathan. They start digging until Nathan finds a skull with a bullet in its head. But Angela reveals that they have only found the first. As Noah arrives, they uncover more and more skeletons... a mystery that will have to wait until next week and “1961”.

A good episode, coming back from some of the missteps of last week quite well. The shape-shifting nonsense is going to get old really fast, and will almost certainly be a game breaker just like Peter and Hiro’s old abilities. It reminds me a little bit of Dollhouse where you are always left to guess exactly who is real and who isn’t.

Next episode will clearly be another flashback: one that will apparently tell us the true, true, true origin of the powers. That sounds somewhat familiar... I’ll be back then, as volume four of Heroes nears its close.

Super-Powered Comics: Jersey Gods #1 through 3

So, yeah, I originally meant to do a review of the first issue after it came out. Then I was going to review issue one and two. But I have been dreadfully behind on all my reading, my comics most of all, so those fell by the wayside. But having finished the third issue (itself now over a week old), I have to weigh in on Image Comics newest ongoing.

Written by Glen Brunswick (Killing Girl, Gray Area), Jersey Gods plays off classic Kirby much like Joe Casey and Tom Scioli’s Godland, but unlike that title, JG focuses on a pantheon of New Gods-esque characters. Barock is our lead, an oddly white (considering his name) deity in the story’s Orion role. Like Orion, he is his people’s premiere warrior. Unlike Orion, he is a good-looking chap with a well-rounded personality. While facing off one of the enemy gods in a New Jersey mall, he meets Zoe, and the beginnings of an intergalactic romance seems to be in the wings.

But three issues in, and we really haven’t got to it. We see scenes where both think about it, but most of the story seems to focus on Barock and his companions Helius and Rushmore as they go on a space adventure. This gives the title a rather odd pacing, but things seem to be picking up with issue three.

Issue three also gives a solid selling point in the beginning of a back-up series written by none other than Mark Waid. Waid’s task seems to be to flesh out the thousand year old war between the two alien races of our title. The first story was very short, but offered some room for future intrigue.

The art by Dan McDaid fits the title perfectly. He channels Kirby without ever aping classic Kirby. His faces weaken when drawn from a distant, but his figures mix normal humans and massive superheroes perfectly. Covers have came from some great indy artists as well: Mike Allred, Darwyn Cooke, and Paul Pope so far. I especially love Allred’s cover to issue one, so much so that I made it my wallpaper! (Click the image to see it full size!)

Jersey Gods oozes with potential, even thought it hasn’t quite realized it yet. Nonetheless, it gets my Recommendation.

Super-Powered TV: Heroes 3.21: Into Asylum

Again, apologies for lateness. Heroes was a lot easier to watch in the days when my television actually got NBC. Hopefully, my internet will stick around so I can stay up with the love-hate next week.

We open with Claire and Nathan in Mexico, penniless and on the run. Nathan tries to win a drinking contest to pick up much needed cash, but it takes Claire’s powers to give the pair a win. Nathan once again vows to fix everything. When will he learn he isn’t particularly good at that? Nevermind, when sober, Nathan goes back to Nathan-mode 2: time to give up. Nathan is quickly jumping ahead of Mohinder in my please-kill-him-now bracket. Claire thought Nathan was amazing when they met? Was this when he and his mother were trying to ship her out of New York before the explosion? Or... ... ... Yeah, so they finish the episode heading north again.

Anyway, on to the episode’s other plot threads. Peter makes Angela take her to church as it is “where she’s supposed to be”. Angela is facing a lack of sleep which is eating away at her. Peter is back to whining, this time to God. I suppose I should respect him for taking it right to the top. Um, yeah, the government breaking in to a church would be a pretty big news story. Bigger than their crowd and press control could stop. Noah is the one who finds them hidden in a confessional and purposefully looks past them. Can we get a resolution to this Angela/Noah pact at some point? After finally dreaming, Angela decides they need to find Claire & Nathan, and then find Angela’s sister. Really, another Petrelli? That is some how going to help things?

Danko and Noah argue over an unknown power. After a threat to Noah, Danko has an unwanted sitdown with Sylar. Sylar offers Danko a deal: freedom in exchange for alliance. Sylar reveals that the killer Danko seeks is his own surviving man, actually a shape shifter. When did Sylar take on affectations and other characters? This smacks of the previous two volumes and their desire to change characters’ personality to the story’s whim. And why would Danko be willing to deal with Sylar when his irrational hatred for the more stable powers keeps him from working with them? That does not make sense in anyway. Not if his goal is to do everything in the most effective way possible. And if that isn’t his goal, what is it? Danko and Sylar trace Martin to his favorite bar, only to find the shape shifter disguised as Danko. The pair catch Martin after he runs, when Danko shoots Sylar in the gut. Danko stands aside and lets Sylar take Martin’s powers. Danko uses the shape-shifter’s body to fake Sylar’s death. The military guys seem to have very flexible outfits. Impressive how they can fit both Sylar and a woman half his size.

Wow, well, we have once again reached the point where the villain turns in to an absolute brain dead fool. This seems to be a symptom of every volume of Heroes and this is no exception. What exactly does Danko think he will be able to do once Sylar has gained every power in the damn universe? Does he think Sylar is going to let him put a bullet in the back of his skull? Or that Sylar will wander off to live his life in peace? What in the blue hell would possess anyone with Danko’s hatred of super-powers to trust the most dangerous of them all? This makes no damn sense. Okay, deep breath. We have three more chapters to go if my math is right. Maybe government agent Sylar vs the forty-seventh Petrelli will suck less than I expect. And here&8217;s hoping that with Fuller fully aboard and Loeb soon out, completely out of the loop that this kind of nonsense will soon stop.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.8: Needs

We open with Echo paying another visit to Ballard. Echo/Caroline comes on to Ballard, Mellie walks in, and this has to be a dream.

While the higher-ups meet and discuss the situation with the actives, the actives are actively having flashbacks. Not just Echo, but Sierra and Victor as well. And Caroline, not Echo, wakes up in her sleep chamber.

Everyone in the chamber wakes up with their original personalities but without their specific memories. That includes not just Victor and Sierra, but November and another male (Mike). And they are all more than a little confused about the nature of the Dollhouse.

Mike gets caught quickly, and treated. The four of them realize just what kind of danger they are in. But we learn that this is part of Dominic and DeWitt’s plan to test the house’s readiness.

Sierra begins to flashback to memories, but whether they are repressed or implanted, remains unsure. November remembers a daughter.

The others escape, but Echo remains to try to bring down the house. She cuts the power and confronts Topher.

Sierra confronts the man that set her up with the Dollhouse in the first place. He’s apparently a very rich man, that used his power to erase her original self in order to actually get her to have sex with him.

November learns that her beloved Katie, her daughter, is dead. Sierra and Victor realize they love one another. And at gunpoint, Echo forces DeWitt to lead all of the actives out of the facility. But as they leave, Echo drops to the ground. As do all the others. Apparently, their freedom came with a time limit.

Supposedly, this situation would serve to give them closure for their existing traumas. Traumas that were causing the glitches. But whether or not that is really the case remains to be seen.

Oh, and Caroline apparently made a phone call during her attempted escape... to Ballard.

I am actually a little angry at this week’s episode. After last week, this almost feels like a reset for the series. With a show that has as tenuous a series progression as this one, I am not sure if that is the best movie. I guess we will see next episode.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.7: Echoes

Apologies to my regular Dollhouse review readers as when I finally did get time to watch the show, I lost my at home internet connection. But I’m back now, and we have two episodes to cover, so let’s get to it! First up, “Echoes”.

We start with a flashback of Caroline talking to DeWitt, acting as an agent of the Rossum Company.

In the modern day, craziness comes to that same Rossum Building.... a link! Apparently, crazy drug is loose on the campus which could mean trouble.

Echo, as Alice, is meeting her boy-toy from the first episode again. Very odd. Is he asking for her, or is this DeWitt acting very, very strange?

Echo remembers the Rossum building (that she sees on TV) while her boy-toy is tied up. More repressed memories...

Boyd encounters one of the crazies, and Echo/Alice seems to be confused for one of them. The flashbacks continue. Alice and Sam, one of the initial victims, escape custody and move to break in to the facility. They get cut off by Boyd. She says no to a treatment, and Boyd begins showing signs of infection! Y’know, this magic skin-to-skin drug reminds me an awful lot of the disease from the old “Return of Optimus Prime” Transformers cartoons, where everyone in the universe became infected by a crazy disease, and only white-paint coated Optimus could cure them. So obviously what I am saying here is someone needs to break out the white paint. But I digress...

Dominic is also infected and now has a pension for playing with his gun. And apparently, so are DeWitt and Topher. So I guess this establishes who is a doll and who isn’t...

Oh, and Mellie, our test subject is actually infected as well... as the drug causes her memories from her previous activations to return.

DeWitt and Topher realize the original situation was a set-up, a murder. And it appears Sam is the perpetrator. He smothers Echo/Alice with a cloth covered with it.

So, in our flashbacks, Caroline was Dushku’s character from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Really? An animal rights activist? This is how she got involved with this? Anyway, apparently her flashback to Caroline and the death of her significant other Leo allows her to tackle and restrain Sam, long enough for Boyd to lay him out.

The episode ends with a sitdown between DeWitt and Sam... who may just be the newest active.

We are moving now, and I respect that. The status quo of the first few weeks has been thrown by the wayside and the plot and story are racing along... finally. Even with a plot lifted straight from an episode of a cartoon, the show worked well. That’s it for this installment, keep an eye out for a review of episode eight, “Needs” in a few hours.

Living Legends 15 Notes

More on Dominique’s plans will appear very soon; this storyline will becoming to the forefront very, very soon.

Who is Starla Prince? Well, that will be a mystery now, won’t it. More will be answered as the secrets of all these characters continue to come out.

I debated as to how graphic I should make the sex in this chapter. I vacillated back and forth on it quite a bit for well over a week. But finally I decided that I needed to establish just how strong the feelings Isobel has for Lash are. And I already well established that I didn’t intend to aim this work at kids. So...

Silver Streak was another character who made his debut as a villain of the Claw. He actually first appeared in Silver Streak Comics, but not until the book’s third issue. Even then he was obviously not the character people wanted to see. What connection does this Silver Streak have to the past character? That will be revealed in good time.

Man, I am mysterious this month! Next month prepared to meet a few more cast members (I am almost done, I promise!) and learn a heck of a lot more about Claw and the Coward. Keep reading, ladies and gentlemen!

Random web super-heroics

So I have not been posting, mostly do to being far too busy with the baby and need of sleep. But I figured I would throw up a few links to other quality superhero bits and pieces over the last few days:

Matthew Killorin’s Capes on Film is running his Must Haves For Any Cape Movie.

nurgh has been posting Valkyrie pin-ups here, here, and here. One day I will go in to my love of the eighties Airboy book.

The Invincible Super-Blog is currently covering/mocking Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose. Even more fun than puzzling out an issue yourself!

Finally, Swanshadow gives us an amazing Steve Rude pin-up featuring Thor and Isis