Techno Heroes 7: The League Strikes Back!

So much for my plans. I've had a very strong outcry from the League of Superheroes proper for not delving into a bunch of comics-geek issues. Fanboy alert! Too Much Information ahead!

Rod Davies/Titan: Too little information behind, you mean. You didn't even bring up the whole comic-book alter ego bit.

Ansric: By which I suppose you mean the "Addison is Colt" business. I think most readers could figure that out if they cared.

Tom Reilly/Darklight: That's just the beginning. Everyone knows Derek Colt is a caricature of Ty Addison, but what about Conner Bragg being Carver Wells?

Ansric: That's more speculative, isn't it?

Tom: No, it's the whole point. You see, Verne didn't do invisibility; that was Wells. So you have the Verne guy using a Wells gimmick.

Ansric: But Wells--Carver Wells--doesn't use a Verne gimmick as Titan.

Tom: Titan is "More Verne than Wells." Anyway, that's a joke on Wells' Jagannath character. There's even a brief mention in Titan #26 that Conner Bragg is a descendant of the original Jagannath, Miles—

Ansric: I thought you guys had actual lives. Besides, why not let Wells' character be Tachyon? Wells wrote "The New Accelerator," which could be considered the first piece of "Flash" fiction.

Rod: Are you sure this guy isn't related to your dad, Tom? Come on, that's silly. I doubt most people have even heard about that story.

Ansric: Okay, then, who's Grissom? Micromegas?

Tom: That's what Addison has suggested. But the rumor is that when Addison and Wells were writing themselves into the story, Grissom told them to leave him out of their pathetic schizoid fantasies--and sealed his fate.

Ansric: Namely?

Rod: If you look him up online, Grissom has a big nose. There are pictures drifting around the Web.

Ansric: You mean he's Krohn? That's pretty cold. Besides, he doesn't look like Krohn in these pictures.

Tom: He gets to be Micromegas when he's good. And would you draw yourself as Krohn if you were Grissom? But the big nose is in the script: he can't change that.

Ansric: Doesn't that bode ill for the team?

Tom: Grissom's a nice guy. Besides, Krohn's a dwarf--I think he's modeled on Dr. Sivana. But Grissom's big. In high school he was voted "Most Likely to be Mistaken for Hagrid." I had to look that up. Topical jokes just don't last.

Ansric: To get into something more relevant, what about your own character mismatches? Rod is more like Colt, and I'd say Tom is like Mandar. It's Allen who's like Bragg, leaving Charlie as the only one who more or less matches his character's alter ego. Why'd you pick such different favorites?

Rod: Bragg can handle himself in a fight even without the Titan suit. He's like a high-tech version of Dad.

Ansric: Interesting. I thought your preference for Titan was that he was the most realistic and doable of the Techno Heroes.

Rod: That too. But he's a geek who can throw a punch.

Tom: I like invisibility. And Colt's fun: he gets them into and out of most of their problems. I guess I like him because I'm the only non-scientist in the group--and always have been. I'd like to be the brain for once.

Allen: Tachyon--Mandar--does some hacking, though that's more Darklight's strength. He's not as reckless as Colt, but he does get things done while Antrez is still worrying about the effects on history. And it's kind of impressive to have the same kind of speed as a computer.

Charlie: I mostly just like the idea of shrinking down for a personalized version of Fantastic Voyage. But it's also true that Antrez keeps the others from getting careless. He stabilizes the group, which is what I usually try to do.

Personal note: I am experiencing singificant computer trouble, and my posting is liable to be hit or miss for a while.