The pilot of a stalled storyline up in the gallery

[Tecknophyle]

Last year I did a "pilot" issue for a proposed Metrobay story that for various reasons stalled out. In a discussion over on Trishbot's forum regarding characterization and the way different writers will inevitably portray characters a different way, I realized I had the perfect example of exactly that and uploaded the images to demonstrate it what I was talking about. There aren't any plans to continue the story, but in addition to helping the point I was making, it seemed like a waste to simply leave the images mouldering away on my harddrives and not have anyone else see it.

http://www.mccomix.com/gallery2/main.ph ... emId=52924

[Northern Chill]

I think you clicked a password protection option on upload...can't see it.

[Tecknophyle]

So I did. Fixed now.

[Tony]

Now that was refreshing! Actually seeing Ms. Metrobay kick some butt. I, for one, would like to see more of this type of action along with how she manages to get herself in trouble. We usually only manage to see when the bad guys make the heroines look like dumb Bimbo's.

Or maybe, this is one of the hundreds of Ms. Metrobay clones running around from the Island!

I understand why the plot was taken down for a while. How would it fit with the other stories already in progress. Especially since she thought of Vallient Girl as backup. And she only thought of her being taken out 3 times. I'm going to have to go back through the published stories and get a current count of the real number. Maybe the plot can be brought up to date a bit and this could be published for real.

[Tecknophyle]

The story doesn't have to be brought up to date as it was specifically intended to be set at a certain place in the chronology, namely just after the Sentius arc. In the story I had (still have on my drive, I should say) there was no reference to events or people that showed up after that. This was very much intentional. The reason it didn't go anywhere didn't have anything to do with conflicts with ongoing stories because it was designed not to.

[MacroLass]

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I liked it too.

I think it would have been an excellent addition to Ms. M's mythology.

[Tecknophyle]

Well, there weren't any plans...mayhaps I should wait for some more feedback.

[MacroLass]

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About the only thing that seemed iffy to me (other than the fact there was no sex ) was Kelly's vault and handspring over the two drugthugs. That implied a degree of agility and gymnastics that we haven't seen from her before. (Funny how I can wrap my head around her being an energy vampire but an acrobatic flip seems an unrealistic stretch. ) Not saying that it ISN'T possible or even reasonable given her training, just that it looked like more of a Jackie Chan move than something a Golden Age heroine would bust out.

But yeah, the idea of seeing a batch of variant Ms. Metrobay's running around is intriguing.

[Tecknophyle]

Well, the whole point of the story was to show her like she hadn't been seen before, namely proactive and doing stuff. I've been one of the most vocal people here complaining about "superhero" characters not actually doing anything to justify that name, and in my mind she was the worst of the bunch.

Her major appearances (in chronological order, not necessarily the same order as the stories were released):

Original Sin: origin story, accidentally absorbs an energy blast near the start but does absolutely nothing else heroic. In her origin story.
Flashback from Hypnotica: Captured by Giolla
Twisted Tales and Superheroine Squad: either a maid, a Sentius drone...or another Sentius drone. Doesn't do anything else.
Tough Love: mind controlled masturbation courtesy of her daughter's powers
Adult Toys: scanned by Petto to create LISA, doesn't do anything else
Tasty Treats/Mad Science Annual 1: mind controlled by a greentooth, captured and mind controlled by Lambda, mind controlled and used as a milk source by Dairy King, only escaped because of her breasts (with no active role on her part)
Halloween Havoc 2: captured and controlled by Gothikka
King of Hooter County: Brown Sugar and Silver Satin do the actual superheroics. But she does turn off a machine to save her sisters, so that's something.
Forbidden Fantasy: mind-controlled by LISA
Sex Pets of the Wild West (currently incomplete): captured and mind-controlled.
To Love and Obey: brainwashed.
Halloween Havoc 3: she does something! she does something!...and then she's mind controlled again by Gothikka.
Tinkering With Nature: mind controlled, captured, experimented upon, escapes due to dumb luck, but at least it involves her powers.

That's what I talked about in the thread over in Trishbot's forum: I didn't want to do a story where she's no more than a semi-animated sex toy prop, but to do that meant I had to go into areas where other writers hadn't taken her, and show her doing things that hadn't been seen before. There are 13 stories up there (or 15, depending on how you count), and in a grand total of two of them she's actively used her powers non-passively, and only one of those intentionally. Of the major Metrobay characters, she's been by far the most passive when it comes to doing stuff aside from being sexually molested and mind controlled. LISA and Mechana, the two freaking robot based on her, have been far more proactive and less victim-like.

What I wanted to explore was the concept of someone who had, until fairly recently (as seen in the preceding stories) been an active and successful heroine for decades, of what she was possibly capable of. Who says she isn't an acrobatic fighter to compensate for her relative physical weakness when confronting stronger threats, used in combination with her powers?

[MacroLass]

I can dig it, brother. (Sorry, been watching Black Dynamite on Adult Swim lately. )

You're preaching to the choir, I've been saying much the same thing for a while now. I just never had the artistic talent to DO anything productive about it.

I guess my only point was that I saw her as someone was more of a boxer than an evasive style martial artist because her regenerative powers mitigate the one disadvantage of that combat style, that you tend to take almost as much as you dish out. But whatever. It's all good and I applaud your effort in trying to make her a more well rounded (pardon the pun ) character.

[Tecknophyle]

Fair enough. If I ever do that thing I may re-render the fight scene to make it stylistically different.

[dumbtime]

Hmmm. Ms. Metrobay as an old lady version of Rogue. That actually works for me.

I think, for the story, what would have been more to Kelly's character was if the doctor had some form of close combat mind control device. Over-confidence inflicts every SS heroine and she the leader of the group. I believe that moment would have been when Kelly would have been susceptible to the doctor's trap. Even though we've never seen her in actual combat, there had to be some reason she's the leader. I have assumed all the while that she could handle herself in combat, it's the wittiness of the mastermind villian that she has had trouble with.

[MacroLass]

Hmmm. Ms. Metrobay as an old lady version of Rogue. That actually works for me.

I think, for the story, what would have been more to Kelly's character was if the doctor had some form of close combat mind control device. Over-confidence inflicts every SS heroine and she the leader of the group. I believe that moment would have been when Kelly would have been susceptible to the doctor's trap. Even though we've never seen her in actual combat, there had to be some reason she's the leader. I have assumed all the while that she could handle herself in combat, it's the wittiness of the mastermind villian that she has had trouble with.

I don't think you need to go that far with her. She's got a reasonable metahuman ability that gives her advantages in a fight but doesn't make her a powerhouse. There's a huge difference between portraying her as being able to hold her own in a fight and giving her powerful offensive abilities. The oeuvre of Metrobay is that few metahumans are truly "uber"...and those that are such as Valient Grrl, Omega Woman, and MacroLass just don't strut their stuff that much because there aren't many villains of that caliber to fight.

As far as the villain being able to pull some trick out of her ass misses the point of this tale. This is a story where Ms. Metrobay WINS...at least for a sort period of time (since we don't know the intent of the figure lurking in the foreground of the last panel). It's about her proving her chops as a heroine...not just becoming mind control fodder again. She NEEDS a definative victory not only for her own self confidence but to show us, the readers, that she is all that.

Now get to work on your other stuff! Just kidding...

[Adon]

I for one would definitely be interested in seeing this continued, hope you plan on it. It's nice to see one of the protagonists actually do something other than get curb stomped as soon as they appear. If it isn't suddenly taking a firm hold of the Idiot Ball, it's suffering a bout of cutscene incompetence, it seems.

[Tecknophyle]

I for one would definitely be interested in seeing this continued, hope you plan on it. It's nice to see one of the protagonists actually do something other than get curb stomped as soon as they appear. If it isn't suddenly taking a firm hold of the Idiot Ball, it's suffering a bout of cutscene incompetence, it seems.

Ah, another afficianado of a certain website that Will Ruin Your Life.