Victory City: Lord Prospero saga

[Hector2]

Dear Mr. Cryptic

Victory City # 27 was heavy on talking, but the thing I enjoyed the most was seeing how well organized are the Evil and good Triskelion and League of heroes: They can update the status of someone as a minion or enjoy the porn in the reports they file.

So, all has come to this, Maria leading his own troops of heroes. As goddess of love and war, she could counter Prosperous.

The thing I liked most was the introduction of the Fomorians. Those guys seem like is very painful to be they.

I’ll wait anxiously for the new issue.

[Mr. Cryptic]

I intended there to be more action to balance out the talking, but ran out of time . We'll see more next time.

I had some comic relief in this update. Not sure if it was successful or not.

The Fomorians are a figure called "The Monk" (I don't remember who the vendor is) that I bought awhile ago, anticipating I would need some monster foot soldiers sometime. I called them fomorians because I remember D&D fomorians had two heads. I had forgotten how freaky the figure actually is (with the three heads blending together. The juxtaposition of beautiful woman and hideous monsters is interesting to see, I think.

[Hector2]

Dear Mr. Cryptic

I, for one, think your attempt at comedy succeeded.

And when I saw your comment:

The juxtaposition of beautiful woman and hideous monsters is interesting to see, I think.

I immediately thought: "freudian", But now I cannot be sure what my subconscious wanted to say with that

[Mr. Cryptic]

A squad of heroines faces off against Lord Prospero!
He's already enslaved Brickhouse with his sexual magic!
What does he have in store for American Goddess, Ocelot Woman, Sonic Siren, and the others!?
Will Maria Jones be able to lead her heroines to victory?
The battle continues in Victory City #28, in the member's section now!

http://www.mccomix.com/members/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=33518

[jrhcl2]

Hello Mr. Cryptic!! Nice installment!! The action is really starting to pick up!! The battle is going pretty much like i thought it would, the heroes are way out of their league against this group of villains and the mighty Brickhouse!! What happen to Pitbull and Liberty Omega?? Maria Jones has shown good fighting skills and sound leadership, but she's making a big mistake trying to take on Lord Prospero one on one!!

It may lead to him enslaving her again! Then commanding Maria Jones to remember she is Ishtar, using the magical energy he has gained from having sex with Brickhouse to put Ishtar under a spell of lust an enslave her again!! This time i think he will be able to tap into Ishtar prana, using that energy for even more powerful magic. Giving him the power to enslave all the heroines and use them for his plan to invade the heavens, with Ishtar leading the invade against her people. I fear Ishtar, the other Heroines and the home of the Gods are doomed to fall! If Maria doesn't get some help!! Looking forward to the next update!! C.L.

[Mr. Cryptic]

Pitbull and Liberty Omega are there, and I actually intended for them to be in this update, but time constraints forced my to make this a bit shorter than I would have liked.
Remember that because Maria Jones doesn't know she is Ishtar, she is sublimating all of her warrior abilities into her Maria Jones persona. The last time she faced him, she didn't know he was an enemy until after he had invaded her mind and will. Ocelot Woman used her lasso to remove Prospero's influence, so now she has full control of herself again (except that she can't remember that she is Ishtar). That she has the drop on Prospero like she does in that last scene is not good for him!

[Hector2]

Dear Mr. Cryptic:

Victory City # 28 is one of my favorites of your run: It has exactly what I love about comics: The heroines being cunningly outsmarted and captured by the villains!

First of all, seeing Maria Jones charging against the villains and discovering that she had bite more than she can chew (but that’s justified, being who she is… secretly).

Second, American goddess chloroformed by Agent Beauty? Genius!

To top on that, not only dr. Pretorious takes over Ocelot Woman, who in her civilian identity must be an sports commentator, because she loves to narrate the things that are happening right now: “Your chips are controlling my ocelot breast! Taming them with thoughts of sex and sleep” What could be more comic bookish than that?

But the best is Siren taken down by Brickhouse! Once you learn to serve Lord Prospero, you’ll be taking me” That’s the dialogue I long to read!

By the way, I think Siren deserves the spotlight, every other heroine has been explored by you except her. I hope she has her chance in this storyline.

And then, Lord Prospero. I understand that you consider him a great villain, competent leader and truly a menace, but the problem is that every single scene I saw him he manages to destroy his own efforts to victory. Here is not the exception: “Nothing can stop me now”, just when a very angry (and I must say, extremely competent) Maria Jones is right behind him.

Man, I can’t wait to see next issue and see an epic ass kicking!

Congratulations!

[Mr. Cryptic]

With Ocelot Woman, I try to portray her true to the way she appears in BC's stories .

This is a pretty big, crazy fight, and it's hard to tell what will happen. The heroines are getting picked off one by one, but Maria Jones has the drop on Prospero. We'll have to see what happens .

[Ghosthand]

With Ocelot Woman, I try to portray her true to the way she appears in BC's stories .

This is a pretty big, crazy fight, and it's hard to tell what will happen. The heroines are getting picked off one by one, but Maria Jones has the drop on Prospero. We'll have to see what happens .

What I think would be interesting would be if Maria Jones is more effective at taking out the bad guys than what Ishtar is! Seeing that she wasn't the first one to go down might indicate already that she is

[Hector2]

You're right Ghosthand... Maria could seem like an unpowered mortal woman, but even when she has forgotten she is a goddess, she is still a goddess with a lot of experience in battle (or so I think)

[Mr. Cryptic]

I think that the villains made a point to take the heroines out fast before they have a chance to fight back. American Goddess and Ocelot Woman have a lot of power, but those don't help them if the villains knock them out first. I think Maria Jones kept a lower profile.

It is true, and I probably should be careful about this, that the more powerful heroines tend to get defeated more often, mainly because its more interesting to me to see a powerful heroine defeated than a less powerful heroine. Keep in mind that when Prospero first defeated Ishtar, he actually defeated her as Maria Jones first. which left her vulnerable as Ishtar.

[jrhcl2]

I think that the villains made a point to take the heroines out fast before they have a chance to fight back. American Goddess and Ocelot Woman have a lot of power, but those don't help them if the villains knock them out first. I think Maria Jones kept a lower profile.

It is true, and I probably should be careful about this, that the more powerful heroines tend to get defeated more often, mainly because its more interesting to me to see a powerful heroine defeated than a less powerful heroine. Keep in mind that when Prospero first defeated Ishtar, he actually defeated her as Maria Jones first. which left her vulnerable as Ishtar.

Hi Mr. Cryptic!! When you said that the heroines of Victory city are very powerful,it make me think of a question i've been wondering about for sometime now, after reading the different series ?? Ishtar is said to be the most powerful of the heroines, but is Ishtar are even Brickhouse that much more powerful than these other heroines?? Brickhouse can match Ishtar when it come to the strength and invulnerable department and Ocelot Woman did a whole lot better than Ishtar did against Lord Prospero!! If wasn't for Ocelot woman Saving Maria and freeing her from part of Prospero spell!! Ishtar would be on the Guild Island serving Lord Prospero and the Guild. American Goddess showed she had a lot of skill in the Victory legion story, tracking down Ishtar and even putting Dr. Pretorus under the spell of the ring, American Goddess would have won the day if wasn't for his wife(Brickhouse)!! Something Ishtar haven't been able do the two times she has faced him!!

I think Brickhouse is stronger and more invulnerable than Ishtar, if wasn't for Ishtar other magical powers, Brickhouse would be the most powerful of the heroines!! That being said, Brickhouse can not resist any form of mind control! As least to me, Ocelot woman is the most skillful and the most resourceful of the heroines, i was very impress with how she was able to recover from Prospero spell , saving Maria and forcing Lord Prospero to flee!! Ishtar and Brickhouse may have more power than these other heroines, but their not the most skilled of the heroines when it come to using their powers. It good to see the other heroines shine!!

[Mr. Cryptic]

I'd say that out of the heroes of Victory City, Ishtar is the most powerful. It's a little tricky to say that one heroine is the best, since some have weaknesses others don't have. Ishtar can be defeated by a number of different methods. This might be kind of a weird comparison, but I imagine Ishtar being kind of like a vampire, in that vampires are mostly invulnerable, but very susceptible to a certain kinds of attacks (crosses, garlic, sunlight, etc.). Ishtar is like that in that there is a list of things that can stop her (irridite, overuse of her own powers, extreme sexual arousal, her need for intercourse to dissipate prana, etc.).

Brickhouse is similar in strength and invulnerability to Ishtar. I want to give my other heroines some room to grow. I don't imagine Ishtar getting more powerful than she is, since she's already the queen of the gods.

Pitbull is a lot like Wolverine, and probably similar in power. I originally imagined her having a bite attack (instead of a claw attack). I decided it would be better to not be so literal and instead make her really good at grabbing and pinning opponents. She's not nearly as strong as Ishtar or Brickhouse, but she has a superhuman ability to find pressure points and weaknesses in order to pin more powerful foes in wrestling holds.

Sonic Siren's offensive ability is pretty good, although her blast are not strong enough to hurt Brickhouse (at least we can assume that since her blasts didn't phase Ultra Maxima who has Brickhouse's power). Siren can also hypnotize with her voice, but she hasn't been shown using that yet (I don't think her hypnotic abilities are quite as powerful as some others). I'd like to do more with both of these characters eventually.

Ocelot Woman is BCs character, so I try to keep her true to his stories. She's kind of like Ishtar, in that she can be captured easily sometimes, but she's tends to escape too. I infer from her stories that her lasso is pretty powerful (like Wonder Woman's). She can alter memories, and I kind of inferred that she could use the lasso to restore Maria Jones' will.

[jrhcl2]

Hello Mr. Cryptic me again!! I'm off today and have nothing to do!! So i've been blogging most of the day for something to do!! Ishtar being the queen of the Gods, doesn't mean she has superpowers!! It could be her brith right, her being the union of mortal and God, her being born with no powers or her being mortal with no powers and marrying the king of the gods. her being marry to the king of the Gods, would make her queen, giving her power to command a army of gods who will obey her every command!! Without her having any superpowers, i know it not the case!! I'm just saying that Ishtar being queen of the Gods doesn't mean she would have superpowers herself!! All her power could come from her title as Queen, having an army of Gods to command!!

You never revealed if Ishtar was marry or not!! Gods fool around all the time, especially when your talking about mortals!! Mortals are nothing but toys for them to use and throw away after their done!! I know you said she doesn't have long term relationship with mortals because she may become enslaved by love, but i wonder if that one of the reasons she won't have a long term relationship with a mortal ( like Paul Barnes), is because she think of mortals as being less than her, she will have sex with a mortal to disipate her prana and when she is being mind controlled by a mortal villain, i wonder in her mind if these are these only acceptable ways she will ever be with a mortal, her being a Goddess, and not just any Goddess the Queen of the Gods ??? C.L.

[Mr. Cryptic]

Those are all good questions, CL.

Ishtar's relationship with the other gods is complicated. I don't think she can just order the other gods to go to battle for her.

I think Ishtar, at least at this point in her life, sees mortals and gods as more similar than they are different. Why she refrains from a committed sexual relationship will be addressed more in the future.

I'm planning a series called "Secrets of Ishtar" which will reveal more about Ishtar's origins and the nature of her people, the Annunaki. It'll probably be at HIP Comix since I do more updates there.