Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The League of Superheroes: Opening Day

It's Opening Day for The League of Superheroes, so we're having a kind of cast party. Any comments?
Rod Davies/Titan: The cover makes me look short and fat.
Allen Peters/Tachyon: Yeah. In real life, his temper's short and his head's fat. Otherwise he's tall and skinny.
Rod: And Allen looks taller than the rest of us. I think he hacked the cover graphic.
Allen: And I still forgot to give you your donkey head. I'll correct that for the next printing.
Steve: I'd like to introduce you, but I've more or less done that elsewhere.
Rod: You introduced the series there, too. So why are we here? It's not like you got pizza or something.
Steve: I thought we could discuss larger issues, such as the earlier versions of the League in stories I wrote in the eighth and twelfth grades--
Rod: The old "Charlie was first" bit?
Charlie Taylor/Micromegas: That was a Charlie. I don't think we were the same. He wasn't noticeably Christian--
Rod: He wasn't noticeably smarter than a pet rock.
Steve: He was honest, hardworking, and not terribly bright--unlike his friends, who used equipment their engineer dads had lying around to build something like a Titan suit.
Charlie: Which I--or he--got to test-drive.
Tom Reilly/Darklight: Charlie does take point in The League of Superheroes, though: He's the one sent in to look over our new headquarters. In the later stories, that's my job. In fact, it's my job late in the first book, too.
Steve: And the second League-style story had a wannabe linguist helping his friends develop an AI breakthrough.
Rod: Your point?
Steve: There's just a developmental history, that's all.
Rod: Yeah, right. Put it in a book and get it published.
Steve: There are literary dependencies, too.
Rod: And if you get Tom's dad in here, the two of you can talk about all that while we save the world or something. Mr. Reilly has a degree in that sort of thing.
Steve: Or we could discuss what I'm sure will be everyone's favorite story arc: "Rod Loses His Voice."
Allen: I'd buy that. You could even call it "The Conehead of Silence." I probably become convinced I've entered a state of grace.
Rod: How about a state of pain instead?
Allen: Just remember, I'm the only one who's ever given you a wedgie.
Rod: Because you cheated and sped up time.
Allen: Great idea! There: I can't keep him from talking, but at least now it'll take him all day to say anything. Tom, mark me down as saving the world again.
Tom: We haven't heard from Clarice, Genie, or even Uncle so far.
Genie: Your solution is impractical, Allen. You can only slow Rod down when you're right next to him.
Allen: I'll just do it while we're talking, and I'll speed myself up when it's time to leave.
Steve: Which won't be long now. Any comments relevant to the book?
Clarice/Goodcheer: I'd like to know why Tom isn't credited as the writer. He is telling the story.
Genie: And the writing style is his, not Mr. Rice's. I've analyzed their written corpora, and while there are similarities, there are also definite differences.
Steve: I'm his editor. Trust me, he needs one. Besides, the Troika and a certain other party insisted on this arrangement.
Tom: "A certain other party"? We don't even meet the guy until LoS 5, Genie Reborn. He can't go throwing his weight around this far in advance.
Steve: He's been throwing his weight around all along; you just didn't notice. But this looks like a good time to take a break and check on Darklight's invisible fan mail.

Join the forward-thinkers who have become Friends of the League! You can get your own Darklight invisible decoder ring!

Cathi's Chatter

2 comments:

cathikin said...

Umm, my decoder ring deciphers into Chinese. I have to find one of my old students to translate for me. Tom must have had something to do with the production. You know, we aren't all polyglots!

Steve said...

Being invisible, the decoder rings are hard to read anyway. One of Genie's little jokes, no doubt.

 
Powered by WebRing.