VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

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VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Mr. Cryptic » December 18th, 2011, 7:12 am

In my first member's section update at MC Comix, we return to the story of Candice Carlson:
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As Brickhouse, Candice is a one woman dreadnought against villainy!
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Candice/Brickhouse faces the double threat of the sorceror Lord Prospero, who has targeted her for capture and enslavement, and the mind control technology of Doctor Pretorius, who is secretly her husband! Brickhouse's struggle against domination begins today!

http://www.mccomix.com/members/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=33518
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby jrhcl2 » December 19th, 2011, 7:31 pm

Hello Mr. Cryptic!! Interesting start to Victory City # 22! I see that the guild stay true to form, they again have a well thought out plan. And the hero has no idea she's walking into a trap!! Even those Brickhouse maybe a powerhouse, she doesn't have a strong will, in the past installments of Victory city she has fell victim to mind control very quickly and completely! I wonder will Brickhouse be the first soldier in Sebastian army of heroines, and is this his first step in his plan to bring about the down fall of the Annunaki Gods?? I know, i'll just have to wait and see!!
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Mr. Cryptic » December 26th, 2011, 5:53 am

Glad you liked it, CL. I'm very much looking forward to rendering and posting the upcoming chapters!
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby steverogers5 » January 12th, 2012, 1:55 pm

Yeah, I too enjoyed this opening segment. So many interesting plot threads kicking off here. Really Loved the alliance of villains plans, and I hope they have some real success there! LOL! Love the possible irony of a villain potentially capturing his wife not realising she's a heroine! :D
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Mr. Cryptic » January 13th, 2012, 11:34 am

Thanks, steve! I would also like to note that I came up with the idea a married superheroine and supervillain before I was aware of Akonkid's Golden Girl and Baron Von Vile :) . I've enjoyed reading that storyline, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Akonkid develops it in the future!

It was nice to finally get a real gang of villains together. Up until now my heroines have been taking them on one or two at a time (plus their nameless minions).
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Hector2 » January 14th, 2012, 6:25 pm

Hi there Mr. Cryptic.

I loved the irony of the marriage of Ronald and Candice Carlson, two people who cannot confess each other that they are a heroine and a villain. The best part is precisely that their mutual secrets are the reason they cannot be sincere: How can I expect sincerity from my significant other while I'm living a literal double life? It’s so better to blame an infidelity to really discuss their problems. Talk about a strained relationship.

Lord Prospero is the leader? Oh my, they are good as dead. At least Agent Beauty is capable, but Dr. Pretorious doesn’t seem so professional taking callings for his wife. The fact that these two are working as a supervillain and a superheroine is a clear conflict of interest. Suspecting an affair from his husband is so eaiser to Brick House than to face the truth, so why not a little of the old ultraviolence to lose yourself and those nasty toughts?

Sovereign is an interesting character. He is clearly enjoying Ultra Maxima under his thumb (and speaking of that, a beautiful and incredible arrogant supervillain? Who would not?). But the problem here is clear: Unless the collar has some mind control properties of it’s own, Ultra Maxima is a dangerous individual, too powerful to depend in only a little mind control. If Sovereign were a villain, I could understand being too proud or too foolish to trust himself to make it work. But he is a hero (and apparentely, a very competent one) so why not to develop any other kind of containment? If Ultramaxima breaks free, she can conquer easily the world and that sounds like a really bad idea. Could it be that Sovereign really enjoys having her as his particular prisoner more than the safety of the whole world?

Page 14 nicely explains my point: even under mind control, Ultra Maxima can exploit Sovereign attraction for Brickhouse. Sovereign must realize that this cannot end well.

Hey, Gotham City has the Crime alley, Metropolis the Suicide Slum, Marvel has the Yanci Street and Victory City has the War Zone. Catchy names! Abandoned warehouses crawling with crooks! Now the whole world is under a recession. Why a girly juggernaut looking up to blow off some stream has to do for any attention?

Oh my, Razolwolf feral said hello! Lucky girl! :D

Really, this issue was great! I am anxious to see next.

So only one observation: As SteveRogers5 commented, Ronald and Candice marriage is a good idea. I think that Akonkid has a whole different idea (Golden Girl didn’t talk with her husband about being a superheroine, and when he discovered it, the shock was so great she created Varon Von Vile (a cliché cleverly exploited). Now we are witnessing a very interesting turn in their relationship. They are trying reconciliation… or something… well, the point is that they have survived his relationship problems, while the Carlson are on the beginning of that path.

Oh, and Ishtar is still trapped in her secret identity? (great twist!)

Thanks, Hector.
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Mr. Cryptic » January 17th, 2012, 12:04 pm

Hector2 wrote:
Lord Prospero is the leader? Oh my, they are good as dead. At least Agent Beauty is capable, but Dr. Pretorious doesn’t seem so professional taking callings for his wife. The fact that these two are working as a supervillain and a superheroine is a clear conflict of interest. Suspecting an affair from his husband is so eaiser to Brick House than to face the truth, so why not a little of the old ultraviolence to lose yourself and those nasty toughts?



Lord Prospero is pretty tough actually. He did conquer Ishtar after all. Granted he had some good luck, but he did it from a much lower level of magical power. Now that he has learned secrets of magic from Ishtar, he is very formidible.

Hector2 wrote:
Sovereign is an interesting character. He is clearly enjoying Ultra Maxima under his thumb (and speaking of that, a beautiful and incredible arrogant supervillain? Who would not?). But the problem here is clear: Unless the collar has some mind control properties of it’s own, Ultra Maxima is a dangerous individual, too powerful to depend in only a little mind control. If Sovereign were a villain, I could understand being too proud or too foolish to trust himself to make it work. But he is a hero (and apparentely, a very competent one) so why not to develop any other kind of containment? If Ultramaxima breaks free, she can conquer easily the world and that sounds like a really bad idea. Could it be that Sovereign really enjoys having her as his particular prisoner more than the safety of the whole world?

Page 14 nicely explains my point: even under mind control, Ultra Maxima can exploit Sovereign attraction for Brickhouse. Sovereign must realize that this cannot end well.



Sovereign is enjoying dominating Ultra, but he's really trying not to enjoy it too much. Ultra Maxima's mutant supremacist philosophy includes the idea that super-intelligent, strong minded mutants should dominate weaker minded mutants. The more Sovereign keeps Ultra as a slave, the more likely he is to be seduced into her way of thinking.

The collar Ultra was wearing has no special properties. It's for purely psychological/symbolic reasons. The same is true for his keeping her naked. He's doing everything he can to keep her mind on being a slave. He is aware of how risky what he's doing is, but he actually doesn't have a lot of options. Given how dangerous Ultra is, Sovereign has actually considered the possibilty of having her summarily executed. However, now that Ultra has Brickhouse's invulnerabilty, Sovereign's not entirely sure it is possible to kill Ultra, even if he chose to do so.

Hector2 wrote:
Hey, Gotham City has the Crime alley, Metropolis the Suicide Slum, Marvel has the Yanci Street and Victory City has the War Zone. Catchy names! Abandoned warehouses crawling with crooks! Now the whole world is under a recession. Why a girly juggernaut looking up to blow off some stream has to do for any attention?



Yes, the War Zone is like those places. Also, Victory City is inspired by Paragon City in City of Heroes, the superhero MMO. There are several zones in CoH's Paragon City where heroes and villains (from the City of Villains game), can go head to head. There are also various zones in the Paragon City that are so overrun with monsters and or criminals that they are basically cordoned off by the police to protect civilians. That's basically what the War Zone is inspired by. In the game, when you take your hero there you know that there will be lots of enemies to fight, and that's almost exactly what Brickhouse is doing. A tank like her can usually walk through places like that without getting into much danger (of course, that's assuming the enemy just uses violence, and not mind control :) .

Hector2 wrote:
Oh my, Razolwolf feral said hello! Lucky girl! :D



Not sure if anyone remember the Panthera Khan comics I posted on my own website before I jumped on board with HIP and MC Comix, but Razorwolf first appeared there (as did Agent Beauty and Prospero). I'm kind of pulling a George Lucas right now in that these comics lead up my original independent Panthera Khan webcomic. Once we get caught up in continuity, I'll be posting a revised version of that webcomic in the free area.


Hector2 wrote:
So only one observation: As SteveRogers5 commented, Ronald and Candice marriage is a good idea. I think that Akonkid has a whole different idea (Golden Girl didn’t talk with her husband about being a superheroine, and when he discovered it, the shock was so great she created Varon Von Vile (a cliché cleverly exploited). Now we are witnessing a very interesting turn in their relationship. They are trying reconciliation… or something… well, the point is that they have survived his relationship problems, while the Carlson are on the beginning of that path.


I thought I had read all of the Liberty Legion comics, but maybe I missed some, since I'm not familiar with that part of Golden Girl and Von Vile's story. It was actually Akonkid's comics in the free area at HIP Comix that persuaded me that the HIP Comix universe was where I wanted to be.
Candice/Brickhouse was inspired by the internet model Deeann Donovan. I just kind of used her as a springboard and made up stuff from there. Since the inspiration was married, I made my character married, too. I originally imagined the husband being a very nasty supervillain, basically just as an interesting way to get a married heroine single and available. Then later on I reimagined the husband to be more sympathetic (he's not vicious, he's just trying to make money). So, we'll just have to see what happens :).
Hector2 wrote:
Oh, and Ishtar is still trapped in her secret identity? (great twist!)



Thank you! We'll be returning to Ishtar (or Maria Jones) in Adventures of Ishtar #10 after a few months of Brickhouse in Victory City. All these storylines will tie together!
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Hector2 » January 17th, 2012, 10:38 pm

Dear Mr. Cryptic:

Thanks for your soon, but very detailed answer. There are a lot of very interesting points, but unfortunately I don’t remember the most important: The name of the series where we saw the relationship between Gold girl and Baron Von Vile. There was a wiki for Liberty Grove, but I think that there is not anymore. Please excuse me.

I will post later some of your answers. Thanks

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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby MacroLass » January 18th, 2012, 8:40 am

Hector2 wrote:There was a wiki for Liberty Grove, but I think that there is not anymore.


Nope, it's still up...

http://libertygrove.wetpaint.com/
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Hector2 » January 19th, 2012, 12:20 am

Hi Mr. Cryptic and Macrolass

Thank you for your help Macrolass, thanks to you, I can show Mr. Cryptic what I was babbling about.

Behold the terrible dirty secret of a married couple (no, not disco music) in this detailed account of the Liberty Grove's characters:

http://libertygrove.wetpaint.com/page/Baron+Von+Vile
http://libertygrove.wetpaint.com/page/Golden+Girl

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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Mr. Cryptic » January 20th, 2012, 11:33 am

Thanks for the link! I had seen the wiki before, but wasn't sure how to get back to it. Googling "liberty grove" doesn't work (too many real liberty groves, apparently). I had not previously read the parts about Golden Girl and Baron Von Vile.

Someday I'll have to get a Victory City wiki going...
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Hector2 » January 22nd, 2012, 7:22 pm

Hi Mr. Cryptic!

I also think the idea of a Victory City wiki it’s cool.

About the Ultra Maxima problem, how to dispose of a villain who is unstopabble and maybe unkillable, I remember the same problem happened in a Justice League issue when they fought the Shaggy man, a laughable villain who was upgraded to nightmare fuel. They simply exiled him into a meteorite between Earth and Mars.

Harsh, hu?

Maybe if they build a prison for Ultra Maxima in the moon?

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Mr. Cryptic » January 23rd, 2012, 1:29 pm

Yes, Sovereign is considering options like that. Ultra can survive in a vacuum, and she can fly faster than most or maybe all of the heroes in the Victory Legion, so a feasible plan to exile her into space has yet to be developed.

I don't mind your ramblings, Hector. I created this situation to make it interesting to readers, so I guess it worked :) .
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby jrhcl2 » February 1st, 2012, 7:55 pm

Yes, Sovereign is considering options like that. Ultra can survive in a vacuum, and she can fly faster than most or (maybe all of the heroes in the Victory Legion), so a feasible plan to exile her into space has yet to be developed.


I have to ask, who is more powerful Ishtar or Ultra??? Because you keep hinting that Ultra maybe more powerful than all the heroes! Cl
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Re: VICTORY CITY #22: BRICKHOUSE IS BACK!

Postby Hector2 » February 2nd, 2012, 11:04 pm

Dear Mr. Cryptic:

There are a lot of things in this comic that deserve praise:

1. Razerwolf being easily defeated by Brickhouse… because he is merely a diversion so Agent Beauty can implant the empathic chip into Brickhouse!

2. The sad irony of being the very husband of Brickhouse who will capture her… and the double irony of him discovering exactly why Brickhouse is so unhappy, but not having any idea about Candyce.

3. Lord Prospero finding out about Razerwolf treason… and dismissing as an obvious event that he has planned in advance to counterattack.

I need to discuss Lord Prospero. Obviously you have him in high regard, but I haven’t seen him do any particularly cool. Of course that almost enslaving a goddess is not little feat, but the word here is “almost”. He only managed to make her forget her secret identity, and he loses his precious prize. I think we need to see Prospero doing cool things: enslaving heroines or making his plans work. I think this is a step in the right direction.

But the part I loved most was the Emphatic Chip, a chip that can read the feelings and even influence them without the knowledge of the target? Oh my, that’s an invention! All the stories that you can do with that!

I am anxious to see next issue!

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