Right. Linguistic drift has given “Luddite” a modern meaning that has little to do with its roots. The historical Luddites weren’t, for the most part, anti-technology in general. They were opposed to very specific technologies that were endangering their jobs, and even then their vandalism was in large part a desperate attempt to force the mill owners to negotiate. If there’d been a way to preserve their incomes they’d likely have gone back to work on those very machines without demur. But there wasn’t, and quite a lot of them wound up beaten, killed and transported overseas by a government that didn’t care about anything as radical as “workers’ rights” were back then.
1 Like
The Randomizers:
Background 4, 3, 3 [Options: Performer, Military, Law Enforcement, Unremarkable, Medical]
Power Source 2, 3, 1 [Options: Accident, Training, Genetic, Experimentation, Mystical]
Archetype 10, 2, 1 [Options: Speedster, Shadow, Physical Powerhouse, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer, Psychic]
Personality 5, 3, 10 [Options: Impulsive, Sarcastic, Fast Talking, Nurturing, Analytical, Jovial]
Accord
Real Name: Zoe Eastman, First Appearance: Casus Belli #1, June 2013
Background: Military, Power Source: Training, Archetype: Speedster
Personality: Analytical, Principles: Honor, Veteran
Status Dice: Green d10, Yellow d8, Red d6. Health: 28 [Green 28-22, Yellow 21-11, Red 10-1]
Qualities: Self-Discipline d10, Ranged Combat d8, Alertness d8, Fitness d8, Military Diplomat d8
Powers: Lightning Calculator d10, Speed d10, Presence d8, Teleportation d8, Lightning Bug (spacefighter) d8
Green Abilities:
- Flash Drive [A]: Attack using Speed. Defend yourself using your Min die.
- Terrain Scan [A]: Boost or Hinder using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max die. If you roll doubles, you may also Attack using your Mid die.
- Principle of Honor [A]: Overcome a situation to maintain your code of honor and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
- Principle of the Veteran [A]: Overcome a tactical challenge using knowledge of a previous conflict and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
Yellow Abilities:
- Battlefield Tactics [A]: Boost yourself using Lightning Calculator. That bonus is persistent and exclusive. Then, Attack using your Min die. You may use the bonus you just created on that Attack.
- Countermeasures [R]: When you are attacked by a nearby enemy, the attacker also takes an equal amount of damage.
Red Abilities
- Bust In [A]: to three nearby targets using Lightning Bug. Use your Max+Mid dice against each of them. You cannot use your Signature Vehicle power for the rest of this scene and until it is recovered/repaired.
- Emergency Teleport [A]: Boost yourself using Teleportation. Use your Max+mid dice. Then, you may end up anywhere else in the scene, avoiding any dagners between your starting and ending locations.
- Frozen Moment [A]: Attack using Lightning Calculator. Use your Max+Min dice. Ignore all penalties on this attack, ignore any Defend actions, and it cannot be affected by Reactions.
Out
- Remove a bonus or penalty of your choice.
In 2013, the Venture Comics writers decided to try and shake up their status quo with the Casus Belli crossover, a four-issue limited series with major tie-ins to Celestial Travels and Protean, along with smaller stories in Champions of Truth and Heretic. In this story, an alien ship carrying unknown but powerful ancient technology crashed onto Earth and was claimed by several alien nations, and with Earth unprotected by the Galactic Union, it seemed as though the planet was about to become the centre of a major intergalactic war.
The ship itself was recovered by the American military, which was how Zoe Eastman became involved. She was a military attache and diplomat who specialized in first contact scenarios, and was called in to try to figure out the alien ship’s secrets before war engulfed the planet. As the Celestial Travellers and the Champions of Truth fought against early raids, and Protean and Heretic tried to deal with human supremacists hoping to take control of the ship and use it to cut the planet off from the galaxy for good, Zoe was able to bond with the ship, discovering that its enhanced FTL capabilities allowed it to jump between stars without the use of dimensional energies. With this information, Earth was able to convince the warring parties that if the planet was attacked, they would simply hand the Lightning Bug to the enemies of whichever power invaded them, while also lacking the ability to reproduce the technology or capitalize on it. Faced with a Mutually Assured Destruction scenario, the rival raiders were forced to back down, and Zoe Eastman became the official pilot of Lightning Bug, the human diplomat known as Accord!
The plan was that Accord would start the process of Earth’s welcoming back into the galactic community after three decades of isolation, gradually allowing galactic civilization to prepare for the spread of FTL technology that wouldn’t require the established and defensible network of dimensional gateways. Instead, Accord was a flop. Fans who wanted superhero punch-ups were turned off by the utterly opaque diplomatic stakes that the comic set up with minimal explanation, and fans of opaque diplomatic stakes got annoyed that they always ended up resolved by a punch-up. Accord was also deeply unclear as to whether Zoe was a representive of the United Nations, the United States, or some other group, with her reporting structure and support cast nowhere near fleshed-out enough, and the writers of Celestial Travels made it clear that they absolutely did not want the FTL drive to become common practice, because it would utterly shred the hand-wavey borders and nations they had established. Ultimately, Accord was cancelled in 2015 without fanfare after twenty issues, and the concept of an FTL drive was never revisited again.
Behind the Scenes
One more major crossover that ends without much fanfare. I’m always amused by storylines that plan to shake the very foundations of a setting by introducing a major change, and then everyone is just like, “No, I don’t like that major change” so they quietly remove it and never reference it again. Accord herself isn’t a bad idea, and a superhero/alien diplomat could be a great story, but the implementation was bad and clashed with existing stories.
3 Likes
Randomizers:
Approach: 4, 10, 7 [Options: Underpowered, Focused, Overpowered, Generalist, Ninja, Leech]
Archetype: 10, 8, 8 [Options: Inhibitor, Squad, Calamity, Legion]
Upgrade: 12, 4, 7 [Options: Villainous Vehicle, Quality Upgrade I, Brainwashing Zone]
Mastery: 4, 3, 1 [Options: Annihilation, Conquest, Enforced Order]
Miss Entropy
Real Name: Raiva sutu-Wej, First Appearance: Vanguards (Vol. 2) #105, April 2014
Approach: Underpowered, Archetype: Calamity
Upgrade: Quality Upgrade, Mastery: Annihilation
Status Dice: Scene Tracker Green: d6, Scene Tracker Yellow: d8, Scene Tracker Red: d10. Health: 30+5H (Upgraded 50+5H)
Qualities: Fitness d10, Alertness d8, Banter d6, Roll with the Punches d8
Powers: Corrosion d8, Vitality d6, Awareness d6, Presence d6
Abilities:
-
Ticking Time Bomb (I): When the scene tracker is yellow, any die you roll with a result of 2 or less is treated as a 3. When the scene tracker is red, any die you roll with a result of 3 or less is treated as a 4.
-
Multiple Redundant Organs (I): Whenever you would be reduced to 0 or fewer Health, prevent that damage and reduce all your power dice by one size. If this reduces any dice to below a d4, you are knocked out.
-
Bloodspray [A]: Attack multiple targets using Fitness. Defend against all Attacks against you until your next turn using your Min die.
-
End of the Line [A]: Attack multiple targets with Corrosion. If the scene tracker is Yellow, use your Max+Min dice to Attack and take irreducible damage equal to your Min die. If the scene tracker is Red, use your Max+Mid dice to Attack every target in your location and take that much irreducible damage.
-
Corrosive Shield [R]: When Attacked, Defend yourself by rolling your single Corrosion die. If your roll reduces the damage to exactly 0, Recover Health equal to the damage reduced, Boost using that amount, and Hinder the source of the Attack using that amount.
-
(U) This Time, For Certain (I): Increase Miss Entropy’s Fitness to d12, her Alertness to d10, and her Banter to d8.
-
(U) Master of Annihilation (I): If you can cause massive collateral damage without regard for casualties, automatically succeed at an Overcome where a show of overwhelming force can solve the problem.
Common Scene Elements:
- A Doomsday Device that is Boosting Miss Entropy as it ticks down towards the end, putting an entire region at risk.
- A Major Government Building that Miss Entropy intends to destroy.
- Multi-Stage Challenges as everything in the area begins to break down.
The Vanguards’ second volume saw the team return to their original mandate, protecting the Earth from extradimensional threats and the people who would misuse them, and helping work with the Jotari provisional government in the building of a functioning democratic nation. Both of these objectives were filled with dangers, and it probably made sense to someone to unite the two in the form of Miss Entropy.
Raiva sutu-Wej was a servant of the powerful House of Jotu-Wej, one of the traditionalist enclaves that opposed the provisional government through deniable assets and attacks. The House of Jotu-Wej secretly reached out to their opponents and counterparts Earthside, SCOURGE, in order to create a weapon that would help to break Earth and Jotarus apart and allow each side to ‘govern their own’. Of course, both groups intended to betray the other, but SCOURGE’s knowledge of dimensional rot combined with Jotu-Wej’s knowledge of the flames of the Empress were sufficient to create a weapon - a living incarnation of entropy whose powers would build to an overwhelming moment, and then unleash a dimensional calamity. Raiva was the servant chosen to undergo the procedure, without being informed of the dangers or the likelihood of her own death in the process.
Jotu-Wej sent their entropic bomb to infiltrate Washington, and the Vanguards responded to signs of dimensional flux to discover Miss Entropy beginning to panic as she realized that her masters had betrayed her. Overcome with rage, she nonetheless tried to finish her mission, only for the Vanguards to successfully contain her. She seemed to implode, collapsing into an entropic singularity, but Neuclion theorized that she may have simply fallen through a dimensional rift.
This prediction proved true five months later, when Miss Entropy returned, this time on Jotarus. Now overwhelmed with rage at both the humans who defiled her world and the Jotari who had used and thrown her aside, she had harnessed even more of her power and intended to tear a rupture in the heart of the Jotari homeworld that would pull its capitol directly into the same dimensional space as Neulyons, destroying both cities. Once again, the Vanguards responded, and once again Miss Entropy was defeated, collapsing in on herself and vanishing.
But she wouldn’t make a third appearance. Despite the idea of a living bomb being interesting to some readers, Miss Entropy didn’t have any real motivation or personality beyond “fanatical rage”, and she didn’t have any real tactics beyond “make everything around me break down to slow down the heroes until I explode.” Most fans didn’t catch that her name was a pun on “misanthropy” and probably wouldn’t have cared if they did. She just wasn’t interesting as more than a one-time thing, and the writers chose to pivot, paying off the failed partnership between Jotu-Wej and SCOURGE with the two factions going to war over Miss Entropy’s failed attack.
Behind the Scenes
Underpowered Calamity is maybe the funniest combination I could think of. It’s a villain that’s just not very good until they hit Red and start exploding, tearing holes in the fabric of everything. Can the heroes beat them down before it’s too late? Power Upgrade would probably be a stronger choice than Quality Upgrade, giving an extra shot of survival and buffing all of Miss Entropy’s dice more evenly, but it wasn’t on the list, so instead she’s just particularly focused in her upgraded form.
This is another D-Lister who ends up a D-Lister not because there’s anything wrong with their story, but because their story isn’t big enough to make a huge splash or interesting enough to get variations. Miss Entropy’s a fun one-time thing, and probably folks liked her first appearance. The writers just didn’t really do anything with her. But hey, she’s not dead, and it’s only four years in comic-time between her last appearance and the Diamond Age, so the chances of someone trying to dig her up to fight Venturer are pretty high.
Probably only once, though.
3 Likes
Randomizers:
Approach: 7, 3, 2 [Options: Skilled, Prideful, Bully, Focused, Specialized, Overpowered]
Archetype: 9, 5, 10 [Options: Indomitable, Loner, Squad, Domain, Warden, Titan]
Upgrade: 3, 6, 9 [Options: Group Fighter, Quality Upgrade I, Calming Aura]
Mastery: 9, 1, 6 [Options: Annihilation, Mercenary, Superiority]
Invictus Fel
Real Name: Colby Zhu, First Appearance: Gale Force #3, August 2015
Approach: Overpowered, Archetype: Warden
Upgrade: Group Fighter, Mastery: Superiority
Status Dice: Scene Tracker Green: d10, Scene Tracker Yellow: d8, Scene Tracker Red: d6. Health: 55+5H (Upgraded 75+5H)
Qualities: Close Combat d8, Alertness d6, Gang Boss d8
Powers: Toxic d12, Strength d10, Awareness d10
Abilities:
- Venomous Frenzy [A]: Attack multiple targets using Toxic and use your Max die. Hinder each target using your Mid die.
- Adrenaline Surge [A]: Attack using Strength. Use your Max+Mid+Min dice. Hinder yourself with your Max die. Take damage equal to your Mid+Min dice.
- Spread The Curse (I): At the start of your turn, create a d8 minion. Choose the one basic action it can take. It acts at the start of the environment turn.
- Caged Beast (I): At the start of your turn, reduce all penalties on you by 1, take 5 damage, and reduce your maximum health by 10.
- Step In [R]: When a nearby ally would be Attacked, redirect the attack to yourself and Defend against it using your status die.
- (U) One-Wolf Army (I): When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
- (U) Master of Superiority (I): As long as you are manifesting effects related to a power you have at d12, automatically succeed at an Overcome involving usage of those powers.
Common Scene Elements:
- A Villainous Mastermind that Invictus Fel is acting as a bodyguard for
- Empowered Gang Toughs. D8 minions. Gang Toughs have +1 to saves.
- Lostwood. An environment with magical civilians who may accidentally cause as much harm as help in a crisis.
One of the first enemies that Gale Force faced in her solo adventures was meant to be her primary foil and rival. In one of her early outings, she tangled with a man she expected to simply be another crime boss, only for him to transform into a hulking wolf-monster and nearly take her down. Their battle was interrupted when, seemingly hale and healthy, he abruptly retreated and left the field to her.
The backstory of Invictus Fel was revealed in the next issue. Colby Zhu had been a small-time gang boss in Ferristown, working under the broader umbrella of the Table, until he was bitten by Rougarou and transformed during the events of Concrete Jungle. Like the other victims, Colby was returned to his human form at the end of the event… but he longed for his lost power. He sought out Doctor Freak, and willingly had himself injected with an experimental serum to give him the strength of a werewolf with none of the weaknesses. The serum Doctor Freak gave him was incredibly potent, but when Colby triggered the effect it would burn through his system in a matter of hours, leaving him exhausted and bruised but unharmed. Anyone who he infected with lycanthropy while infected would experience the same thing - a brief, potent transformation into a monstrous form, followed by a full recovery.
Armed with his new powers, Colby set out to become a big name in the Underworld, working as the right hand for whoever would pay him. He could empower his minions just before battle, creating a small force of dangerous werewolves who wouldn’t lose control or be trapped with an endless curse - the only drawback was that anyone who wolfed up would need several days to recover afterwards.
The intent was for Invictus Fel to be a dark mirror to Gale Force, a mercenary for the wrong cause able to appear in any of her stories as the right hand of the villain of the week. But while Fel’s concept was solid, his execution left something to be desired. The timer that the writers had created so that he could escape from scenes left audiences feeling like he was a chump, an easy mook for Gale Force to smack down on her way to the real threat. At the same time, his positioning in the story was as a terrible, powerful threat that needed to be taken seriously. The combination left audiences cold, and after a handful of appearances over Gale Force’s first two years, Invictus Fel was dropped until the writers could figure out a new plan for him. That new plan never coalesced, and Invictus Fel disappeared.
Behind the Scenes
A little bit Plague Rat, a little bit Apex, a little bit Kraven the Hunter and a little bit Jaws from James Bond - Invictus Fel does it all! Badly!
Colby has a ‘bonus’ unique ability on top of the normal ones he gets, which helps him stay active at the cost of winnowing his massive health pool at a pretty steady clip (enough that with 3-4 players, he could actually just have to flee right at the end of the scene even if no one hits him.) This is probably a net zero effect and might even be a drawback, which is why I let him have it on top of his other abilities instead of as one of them.
And it’s the net zero effect that is the core of why he’s a D-Lister. He literally takes himself out if you can survive him long enough. This could be a very fun mechanism for a villain who appears once or twice in a single campaign, but it’s poison to long-term success.
3 Likes
Interesting mechanic with Caged Beast there. Working with the right allies might offset it a bit with healing effects, but the constant reduction in Max Health is inescapable.
1 Like
Yeah, a very interesting concept indeed. Clearly he needed to go back to Doctor Freak after his second or third defeat for an upgrade that leaves him more dangerous and more unstable!
3 Likes
The Randomizers:
Background 4, 6, 2 [Options: Criminal, Military, Law Enforcement, Unremarkable, Dynasty]
Power Source 5, 9, 4 [Options: Experimentation, Mystical, Radiation, Cursed, Alien]
Archetype 8, 1, 5 [Options: Speedster, Blaster, Flyer, Robot/Cyborg, Sorcerer, Transporter]
Personality 2, 10, 1 [Options: Lone Wolf, Natural Leader, Impulsive, Nurturing, Analytical, Jovial]
Technopath
Real Name: Frieya Saliensa, First Appearance: House of Jotu-Kal #1, Jan 2017
Background: Dynasty, Power Source: Mystical, Archetype: Robot/Cyborg
Personality: Lone Wolf, Principles: Zealot, Powerless
Status Dice: Green d8, Yellow d8, Red d10. Health: 32 [Green 32-25, Yellow 24-12, Red 11-1]
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Magical Lore d10, Alertness d8, Investigation d8, History d8, Techno-Priestess d8
Powers: Radiant d12, Power Suit d10, Speed d10, Awareness d6, Flight d6
Green Abilities:
- Nanoweave of the Chosen (I): Reduce the amount of physical damage taken by 1 while you are in the Green zone, 2 while in the Yellow zone, and 3 while in the Red zone.
- Blessed Technology [A]: Boost yourself using Power Suit. That bonus is persistent and exclusive.
- Principle of the Zealot [A]: Overcome a situation that tests your faith and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point.
- Principle of the Powerless [A]: Use your knowledge of the limitations of super powers in an Overcome action and use your Max die. You and each of your allies gain a hero point
Yellow Abilities:
- Sacrificial Lamb [R]: When another hero in the Yellow or Red zone would take damage, you may redirect it to yourself and Defend against it by rolling your single Awareness die.
- Call the Host [A]: Overcome an environmental challenge using Radiant. Use your Max die. Either remove any penalty in the scene or Boost equal to your Mid die.
- Chosen Strike [A]: Attack using Radiant with a bonus equal to the number of bonuses you have.
Red Abilities
- Smite (I): Whenever you Attack a target with an action, you may also Hinder that target with your Min die.
- Martyr’s Cry [A]: Attack multiple nearby targets using Power Suit. Use your Max+Mid dice. Take irreducible damage equal to your Min die.
Out
- Boost an ally by rolling your single Magical Lore die.
In 2017, with the Overseer defeated and the Jotari Provisional Government in a shambles, a new rebuilding effort was accompanied by a new team of heroes, collected from across the twelve dimensions of the former Authority. House of Jotu-Kal would focus on an unlikely collection of heroes from across the world: Partisan, his still-somewhat-villainous brother Mindscape, the rebel heroes Jester and Sage, human ambassadors Pulsejet and Irogane, and one last hero representing the other species that had been under the Jotari thumb, Technopath.
Frieya Saliensa was one of the people of Critan, the third dimension conquered by the Jotari. She was the last of a long line of techno-natural priests who integrated technology and magic into their rituals; the Jotari authority suppressed them as dangerous elements, and they had fought from the shadows for over four centuries against their conquerers. When the Authority fell, and the provisional government began reaching out to their former colonies to discuss transforming the government into an alliance of species, Critan’s population was heavily divided between those who believed this could be a new start, with the benefits of a multi-dimensional nation but not the dangerous of oppression, and those who wanted to cut the planet off from the Jotari and go their own way. Technopath was chosen as the representative of the people, to go to Jotarus and learn whether this change of heart was true.
House of Jotu-Kal was a moderately successful title. It had always been meant to be a series that would run for a few years, creating a new status quo for the Jotari that would eventually connect to the rest of Venture’s cosmic stories, and it provided a balance of political difficulties and superheroic battles as its team fought against revisionist nobles, extremist rebels, would-be interdimensional invaders hoping to take advantage of the fall of the largest empire in dimensional history, and anomalies triggered by the Empress of Ash and the Overseer in their respective attempts to claim the throne.
Technopath was not.
It became quickly clear that the writers had included her because they needed someone to be the voice of the other eleven dimensions ruled by Jotarus, but it was equally clear that they had not sat down to design her culture or beliefs beyond “they think technology is natural and has a spirit, and in their dimension they are right.” She was a mishmash of New Age slogans and spiritual pablum, flipping inconsistently between fury at the Jotari and a willingness to be diplomatic and friendly with them. She was, by far, considered the weakest aspect of the title. Instead of correcting this, the writers responded by slowly reducing her page count and focusing on the relationships that were more interesting to them - Partisan and Pulsejet dancing around whether they were friends or had romantic interest, Sage and Jester’s tense relationship with Mindscape, and Irogane seeing shades of her own history in the treatment of the lower classes.
Ultimately, when House of Jotu-Kal was cancelled as part of the Passing the Torch storyline, the editors at Venture promised that they would be returning to the Jotari once they’d established the framework of the new post-timeskip Earth. They didn’t say it directly, but it was generally understood that Technopath would not be part of that return.
Behind the Scenes
Technopath is a good idea done bad. It’s been mentioned quite a lot that the Jotari technically control twelve ‘dimensions’, although it’s not clear what that actually means and I suspect it varies a lot from writer to writer. Early on, it was probably just what it sounded like - twelve entire universes under Jotari control. Later, someone realized the scope of that was ludicrous, and most of the ‘dimensions’ became single star systems. Some of the dimensions the Jotari control might even be far-flung stars in our universe, which can only be accessed through dimensional travel. The fact that dimensional travel unites the Galaxy means that it can do the same thing in other places.
But anyway: there are at least eleven other species under Jotari control, and while I’m sure they all get named at some point, most of them don’t get a lot of screen time. Technopath is an attempt to fix that, and it does not work because they didn’t do the work.
Mechanically, she is not good in Green. She can give herself a persistent/exclusive Boost and has minimal damage reduction, and that’s it. Once that’s set up, she’s pretty much limited to basic actions or to taking twists to get her Yellow abilities out. Those are much better; a great environmental solve, a redirect that takes advantage of her damage reduction (although it’s not good defense) and a strike that gets stronger the more times she gets Boosted.
Also, Sage and Jester got a second run. This still leaves them at just under 36 issues, and they’re secondary characters in a secondary comic, so they don’t ascend out of D-List status, but it gives them a little bit more awareness.
And… that’s it! This is the last of the D-Listers, and another phase of Venture Comics’ history is complete.
Tune in Monday to see what comes next.
3 Likes
I mean, pocket dimensions are a Thing, some of which might not even be the size of a star system or bear much resemblance to one even if they are fairly big. It might sense if they were actually much more common than “big” universes like ours, and while finding any specific one might be hard or require a specific requisite (eg a dimensional conjunction or an elaborate access formula) there are so many of them that reaching one at random for the first time might be easy enough. You can bet the Jotari would play up having conquered a “dimension” even if the place is smaller than your home town - which might still be an actual prize if it serves as a nexus for travelling to others with more real estate and obvious value.
Sure, but she could always just repeat Blessed Technology instead of doing a basic or twisting. She can throw her first P+E bonus into the second attempt, hopefully getting a better bonus the second time, and even if she doesn’t Chosen Strike will benefit from the “spare” exclusive bonus later on. Not always a good idea - if there’s a Principled Overcome available that’s probably more productive - but it’s a viable option, especially with a probable d10, d10, d8 pool. And a lot of the time you’ve only got two Green turns to work with - barring some villain with the Calming Aura upgrade. 
d6 is as bad as it gets, but she ought to have at least a 2-point P+E bonus tp throw at it and that’s the equivalent of an average d10 sans mods. If it’s physical damage (which she’s going to keep an eye out for when using her reaction) add another 2-3 points of de facto damage reduction and you’re stopping 7-8 damage on average, which definitely isn’t bad. All falls apart if her P+E’s get stripped off or she’s forced to take the wrong damage type, but it’s way better than the generic Mid die defensive reaction.
1 Like
Yeah, and we’ve established through Broken Mirrors and Venture into the Unknown that there are a lot of pocket dimensions out there, and Earth’s dimensional size is a particularly rare scope. This is probably a big part of why the big names are so eager to use Earth as a way to gain access - they can start spreading across a vast dimension that way.
1 Like
“Tune in”?
will we get live media alternates next week?
1 Like
Hah, that would be a trip. But no, not at this time.
Here’s the plan! As I have noted, I have a lot more stuff planned for Venture Comics. One of these plans was to collate everything I’ve been writing, and as I’ve messed around with that I’ve discovered that my love of symmetry is going to require a few more characters to be created so that I don’t just end up creating a 500+ page PDF. But October is really busy and on top of that I want to start dropping my review of Dagger in the Heart as soon as it moves from pre-orders to available to non-backers. So I’m taking a book-keeping break!
From now through the end of December, I’ll be updating this thread on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The weeks of September 30th and October 7th will be behind-the-scenes book-keeping notes. I started all of it while I was working on the D-Listers, to identify holes and spaces to slot them in, so even though you’re about to see some huge text dumps, they’re pretty much already written. Wednesday, I’ll be posting my notes about heroes who are currently missing for large spans of time, and Friday I’ll put up the creators I’ve designed and what they say about the metaverse of Venture Comics. Next week, I’ll be running through the current full list of titles, what annuals come out as Venture progresses, and what limited run series I have and need to develop.
The week of October 14th, I’ll start posting my retcons - appearances and titles that haven’t been mentioned or contradict previous information. Monday will get the Silver and Bronze Age retcons, Wednesday gets the Iron Age ones, and Friday gets the Plutonium Age ones. This is going to include a few D-Listers who are getting bumped up to C-List for storyline reasons.
The week of October 21st, I’m actually away, so there won’t be any updates. I may have time to look at questions, but I’m not making any promises, it’s a work trip. I may answer some questions the week of October 28th, but I’ll probably be setting up, because starting November 1 , I’m going to be filling in all of the villains from the various ages, connected to the different comic lines that I’ve created. This will involve a few villains each for the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron ages, and a lot of Plutonium Age villains for all our new titles. These villains will be mostly randomized, but because I’m attaching them to specific titles I’m going to be using the randomizer for inspiration, rather than strictly following it - so I won’t bother posting the randomizers here. I’ll still be limiting how many of each Approach, Archetype, Upgrade and Mastery I use, so that we continue to have a good spread.
And then starting in January…
Lieutenants .
Yep! I’ve designed a lieutenant randomizer and I’m going to be filling in the support characters and jobbers of the Venture universe, one age at a time. Like, a hundred of them. So that should be fun!
4 Likes
I’m increasingly a fan of using (mostly) lieutenants when I want to throw a villain team at the players, with maybe a single real villain written up as the leader/team badass. You do have to be a little careful about overdoing it though. H/2 as a scene element can be overwhelming even if you add up multiple elements and then divide, and hero teams that lack early Max die Attack options or good Hinder options can really struggle to whittle down a lieutenant team fast enough.
You made me go do a head count. I’ve only done 73 of them on my blog to date, and quite a few of them are rather specialized for use with specific villains. We’ll see if this weekend’s in-person game gets me enthused to do some more.
3 Likes
Appearances
I’ve been running through all of my characters as part of my general book-keeping, and I’ve noticed that the slightly haphazard way that I’ve cancelled and launched titles has created several strange gaps. Today, I’m just going to mention them, with solutions coming in the retcons phase.
There are six big issues:
Madame Liberty: Despite being the most venerable and theoretically one of the two most popular characters of Venture Comics, Madame Liberty keeps vanishing! In the Bronze Age, she loses her own series in 1975, then vanishes completely for a few months when Champions of Truth is cancelled in 1977 before returning for the new Liberty’s Dream. Then, after being big throughout the Iron Age, she vanishes in 2005 and doesn’t return until the Champions of Truth reform in 2010, at which point she’s still just part of the team and doesn’t have her own comic.
Reverie is another one who sort of comes and goes. She’s highly active from her introduction through 1998, then disappears for four years, comes back for a short-run series from 2002 to 2005, and then is entirely absent from 2006 to 2018. This is an issue, because I like her. I may give her some major billing in Cryptic Trails and make it a classic anthology book with two or three leads.
The Drifter keeps drifting away, which is perhaps fitting but also a little weird. After a series of stories to set him up throughout 1970-1973, he disappears completely for seven years, comes back to a single miniseries in 1980, vanishes again and then comes back in 1983 for the short-run lead-up to the end of the universe. Then he’s a headliner in the popular Broken Mirrors series from 1985 to 1994, after which I do not have a single reference to him anywhere in any of my comics for the entire rest of the timeline.
Zeitgeist is even worse. After being a key part of Earthwatch from 1979 to 1989, he leaves with the dissolution of the team and is never mentioned again for the next thirty years. I guess it’s possible that everyone actually stopped writing him, but ten years of popularity first.
Hyperstar is the opposite problem. She’s introduced in 1978, becomes a key part of Earthwatch for ten years, gets a limited series in 1990, and then vanishes for seven years before inexplicably becoming one of the Champions of Truth.
And finally, after being introduced, becoming a key part of the setting, and even joining the Champions of Truth, Penitent leaves the Champions to join the Elemental Fury limited series in 1997-1998, and then never appears again.
There are also a lot of smaller issues, some of which I’ve already technically solved:
Flatfoot vanishes at the dawn of the Iron Age, but he doesn’t come back for ten years. That’s a long time for a main character to be gone. It’s sort of claimed that it’s because the company didn’t have faith in an anachronistic robot detective, but… I dunno, I feel like I may need to make some adjustments there. On top of that, his writeup says that he was one of the two leads of Company Town during his time, but he’s not mentioned as still being there after Paradox joins the Rogue Agents and Company Town becomes their title. I think I may need to move his return date up a bit and codify what happens in Company Town.
Knightgrave is a big deal from 1985 to 1996, and then his comic is cancelled and he vanishes. We’ve discussed that he has a one-shot in 2002, shows up every 1-2 years in the Plutonium Age, and appears in 2019, but it does seem like he should have more runs.
Big Brain, Irogane, and Half-Life previously had no appearances after the end of Covert Tactics in 2002. They are now all part of the new version of the team, but still vanish after 2011 (Big Brain joins the Vanguards in 2016, but their comic ends at the end of that year so he’s still not around.) Revenant has the same problem, except that he was actually gone for a little bit longer, having left the pages of Company Town after the Rogue Agents took it over.
Aquila is a big part of Greenheart’s comics from 1976 to 1995, but after Into the Green is cancelled, he’s gone forever. I just brought him back as part of Covert Tactics in 2002, which keeps him around until 2011, after which he’s vanishing again.
Similary, Alchymia vanishes with the rest of the Remnants in 1995, but comes back for Elemental Fury before joining Liberty’s Dream. Then it’s cancelled and I have no references to her post-2005. She’s minor enough that she might actually have faded away. Not sure.
Wicker and Golden Retriever don’t have any appearances after the end of Earthwatch in 2013. This may be fine, because the setting is slowly falling apart, but I do like them so I need to remember to give them guest appearances in various places.
Synthesis is part of Earthwatch for four years, then vanishes for eleven years before joining the new Earthwatch. This is probably okay; she was introduced for a specific storyline, and I expect that she has a guest appearance as a prisoner/scientific advisor every year or two in various comics.
And Partisan leaves the Vanguards in 1989, and does not return until 1999, ten years later. I had a note about a limited run series for him in 1990, but no details, and nothing for the next nine years.
Also: I do not have a single millionaire superhero. This is not necessarily a problem that needs to be solved, but it’s definitely unusual.
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No millionaire (or simply wealthy) supers does seem off given the number of them in real life publishing. Not just big name A-listers either, chumps like Nighthawk qualify. And Upper Class is a pretty good background.
Maybe flip the usual trope and make a super who became wealthy after they got they powers? That hero with unconscious luck powers who won the lottery because of course they did. The supergenius who does the hero thing to demonstrate the value of his latest inventions to investors. The legacy hero who made a fortune just by doing an ebay junk sale of their dad’s stuff - and maybe tracks down suspicious purchases afterward.
“Who would pay that much for a giant novelty penny? It must be that criminal capitalist, the One Percenter!”
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Yeah, it just sort of happened. The Big Four are an outcast, a robot police officer, an ancient demigod pretending to be a mild-mannered musuem assistant and a covert rebel. The Vanguards have a ton of cash, but that’s because they’re government funded. The Celestial Travellers are in space. Covert Tactics funds themselves by stealing resources from the villains they beat, and Earthwatch is also funded by a government (either a space government or the UN, depending on the iteration.)
The main issue is that there’s no real place to put a millionaire hero who isn’t a rapidly-vanishing D-Lister. I can’t think of who I would revise to be a millionaire, and I can’t think of where I would put a new one.
edit In the Golden Age, Lewis Lamont was a globe-trotting probably-millionaire and his sidekick Wayne Alton was definitely a rich college kid, actually. So there’s those two. But they go away and never come back (aside from Acid Rain, of course.)
edit 2 Oh my god, the Penitent is absolutely a millionaire. She literally has Scion of Wealth and Power as her background quality. I just completely forgot that she had money when I was thinking about her stories!
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I mean, you can be swimming in money without it being a background as such. The Fantastic Four are only ever hard up for money when a plot relies on it (I can think of several, all ridiculous) thanks to Reed’s patents, but I doubt he’d be an Upper Class if written up. Tony and Bruce are tycoons and Tony might even be UC, although I suspect Bruce fits Tragic better. I suppose Ollie is also a kajillionaire, but that’s just because all he could do in the Golden Age was imitate Bruce. Arrowcave, really?
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I always remember in the Kevin Smith GA book a resurrected Ollie asks what happened to his car, plane, and cave and Bruce replies - “Good god man, did you ever have an original idea in the old days?!”
Lore question did Skybreaker 1 publicly talk about his powers being Celtic magic? Does Skybreaker 2 publicly claim to be a Celtic demigod? Many people including A-list heroes in Marvel think Thor is a modern guy with a gimmick from literature.
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That’s a question whose answer varies a lot from age to age.
Golden Age Skybreaker was a Golden Age superhero; he didn’t specifically conceal his identity, but he wasn’t public about it, either. The only people that he told about the Spear of Assal were people who had already encountered some form of dark magic (usually Formorians) so he was prone to be believed.
Silver Age Skybreaker was a public superhero, but he was concealing his identity. He probably had occasional public proclamations about his spear being the Spear of Assal, but he didn’t tell the public that he was a demigod and most people probably assumed he just had science-based powers and a theme. Rhonda knew, and so did the Champions of Truth and a few of his Celtic foes, but that was about it. And since the Champions already had an immortal djinn in their ranks, a Celtic demigod wasn’t much of a stretch to them.
In the Bronze Age post-Atlantis, the existence of the Fomorians was known publicly, but most people thought they were just another group of interdimensional aliens like the Jotari Authority. At that point, Skybreaker probably acknowledged being a demigod sometimes, and most people would assume that his powers were interdimensional in nature, possibly with alien genetics giving him his strength and vitality.
The Sovereign wiped that information out during the Iron Age reset, and Iron Age Cooper was specifically trying to be a normal human. He would have kept a lid on his demigod-ness as much as possible. This probably remained true until Acid Rain, where enough stuff blew the lid off it that Skybreaker being Cu Chulainn became public knowledge again, and by the late Venture era magic is accepted enough that no one really bats an eye, although there’s probably a lot of conversation about whether the Celtic gods were actual gods or just fae or interdimensional aliens.
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Creators of the Metaverse
As I mentioned, I’ve started name-dropping creators, and I have not been keeping track. So here’s my book-keeping notes about the creators of the Venture metaverse, and where they are likely to exist. And it’s good that I checked, there are some questions here! I’ve added a few notes as connective tissue that weren’t originally present.
Editors-in-Chief
- Venture’s currently-unnamed Golden Age EIC was the one who invented the [C][T] naming structure, and was annoyed about Cosmic Tales. This editor probably lasted about ten years, and then retired in 1949
- The second EIC was Joe Manzetta. Manzetta started as a writer, submitting scripts from the front during WWII, took over as EIC in 1949 and retired in 1966 after the failure of the Venturers.
- The third EIC was Harold Mossby, who took over from Manzetta in 1966 and spent a decade leading Venture into the Bronze Age. Mossby creates a strong overall direction, but his style of management starts to create rifts in the editorial teams. Mossby retires in 1975, having already been a veteran powerhouse when he took over.
- I may or may not know who the fourth EIC is. They come in without strong leadership, and the individual desks split and feud under them. I think they manage to get experience and right the ship in time for the Sovereign of Silence event, but it’s possible that they actually can’t hack it and leave in 1981, and someone else shows up to run things from about 1981 to about 1988.
- The EIC in charge in 1985 is H.R. Randall. This is either the fourth EIC with experience, or the fifth EIC stepping up.
- A fifth (or sixth?) EIC takes over from there, and gets swept up in the speculator boom. They end up stepping down in 1995 after the disaster of the collapse.
- My current guess is that there’s one successful EIC from 1995 to about 2005, then one from 2005 to 2010 who wants to make room for fresh faces, and does it by sidelining the veteran heroes increasingly over his tenure; after the disastrous failure of Kid Liberty and the Champions of Freedom, he steps down in 2010 and is replaced by a third EIC, who sticks around through Passing the Torch, planning to step down in 2020, and then ends up staying through 2021 due to Covid. So that’s a total of either eight or nine EICs. I should make a final decision on that.
Line and Desk Editors
I don’t have a lot of notes about these editors as people, only as teams. What I have is as follows:
- Company Town has a line editor in the 1940s who dislikes Flatfoot. This editor was in charge from 1940 to 1954, and left when the Comics Code was introduced.
- Celestial Travels had a line editor from 1940 to 1950 who did everything in his power to keep superheroes from entering the comic.
- Some of the desk editors in 1960 were around in the 1940s.
- In the 1970s, the company has three desks, which are rivals. This persists until 1985, when the desks are brought back under control.
- The desk editor of the Mystical desk in 1979 was Lewis Maron. Maron remained desk editor at least through the 1984 reboot.
Writers
I have a lot of notes about writers, not all of which come with names:
- An as-yet-unnamed Irish immigrant writer created Skybreaker in 1940.
- A young writer pitched the Steward in 1941.
- Madame Liberty’s first writer in 1941-1942 was from New York.
- Kit Granville wrote The Tellurian for Celestial Travels, but was starved of resources.
- The writing team of Covert Tactics from 1962-1965 had multiple clashes with the CCA, and were really mad after a story was shelved in 1965.
- Liberty’s Dream became a comic that Black writers worked on in the late 1960s.
- The Vanguards get a new unnamed lead writer in 1972, who launches the Firmament storyline. It’s not clear if this writer makes it all the way to the comic’s ultimate cancellation in 1982 or if a new lead takes over but can’t save the title.
- Head Writer Ernest Mallory takes over Celestial Travels in 1982, moving the comic fully away from the rest of the Venture line through 1985. As he’s forced to start including more elements from Earth, he chooses to end his World-Maggot storyline in 1987 with the destruction of the Xur’Tani homeworld and the introduction of Reckoner, after which he leaves the title.
- Harris Marvin takes over as the lead writer of Madame Liberty in 1985, interested in revising her origins and those of Kid Liberty.
- The same writing team that was working on Dark Rivers in 1984 was moved to Twilight Carnival in 1985.
- Charity Garrett was the head writer who launched Spectacular Skybreaker in 1985. She remained with the series until 1998 according to the Solace update, with her thirteen-year run being one of the longest in Sentinel Comics. This directly contradicts the Acid Rain writeup, which says that her replacements left in 1993, and the third writing team wrote the disastrous Acid Rain storyline and then left in 1995. This is a continuity snarl that will need to be addressed.
- An unnamed writer takes over Into the Green in 1985, and end up covering the “Consul of True Rome” arc from 1985-1987 and the Iwanesaku arc from 1987-1990.
- The writing team that takes over Celestial Travels in 1987 work with the writers of Earthwatch and Champions of Truth to develop the Peacekeepers storyline in 1988-1989.
- An unnamed writer who was involved in one of the Parse takes for Sentinel Comics in the 80s is poached from Sentinel Comics to launch Rogue Agents in 1990.
- Already-veteran writer Charles Morris is hired to create the Remnants in 1991. He is head writer for the series’ full run.
- Redmond Hayes takes over Spectacular Skybreaker in 1998, putting together the plan to create Solace.
- Jim Lowe (presumably not the singer, although the singer did retire from singing in 2004) is assigned to write Heretic in 2005; he deliberately sabotages the series by making it what he thinks fans will like, putting his reputation on the line, and he’s right.
- Deirdre Powell becomes lead writer on Earthwatch in 2010, and an optimistic but failed plan to create Tiberius Rex leads to her leaving and letting a guest writer handle the final eight-issue volume. (Almost immediately after publishing that update, I realized that it was wrong; the three-parter that got all the scorn ended with #152, and there’s no way she hadn’t written one or two more by the end of that storyline, so the exact number the final guest writer handled will probably only be three or four.)
- Starshadow is launched with one veteran writer and one young writer new to the industry; the young writer trades out every couple years, moving to other titles.
Artists:
- Cody Suzuki became a colorist in the late 1950s, and suggested the inclusion of Irogane into Covert Tactics in 1962. He would go on to be Venture’s first major non-white artist, working on Covert Tactics, Madame Liberty, and Vanguards.
- Alchymia was actually created by the lead artist for Remnants. I have not named her yet.
While this fact is probably comics-accurate, the list of writers for Venture Comics is heavily male-dominated. I’d like to add more women to the list, especially as I beef up the later ages.
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Oct 7: Titles
Today’s update is mostly a long list of ongoing titles followed by a paragraph of takeaways, so if the takeaways are what you’re interested you can just skip to the bottom. Anything listed in italics is already active at the start of an age, and anything listed in bold remains active past the end of an age.
Golden Age:
- Campfire Terrors #1-187 (March 1939 - September 1954)
- Celestial Travels #1-226 (March 1939 - December 1957)
- Cryptic Trails #1-195 (April 1939 - May 1955)
- Company Town #1-185 (May 1939 - September 1954)
- Covert Tactics #1-215 (Feb 1940 - December 1957)
- Madame Liberty #1-192 (Jan 1942 - December 1957)
- Flatfoot Adventures #1-186 (July 1942)
- Champions of Truth #1-88 (May 1943 - August 1950)
- Twilight Carnival #1-113 (May 1945 - September 1954)
Silver Age:
- Celestial Travels #227-370 (Jan 1958 - Dec 1969)
- Covert Tactics #216-265 (Jan 1958 - Feb 1962)
- Madame Liberty #193-336 (Jan 1958 - Dec 1969)
- Flatfoot Adventures #187-300 (Jan 1958 - June 1967)
- Venture into the Unknown #1-87 (Jan 1958 - May 1969)
- Skybreaker Stories #1-140 (June 1958 - Dec 1969)
- Vanguards #1-135 (Nov 1958 - Dec 1969)
- The Reactors #1-75 (Jan 1961 - Mar 1968)
- Wondrous Adventures #1-96 (Feb 1961 - Dec 1969)
- Champions of Truth Vol. 2 #1-57 (Feb 1962 - Dec 1969)
- Covert Tactics Vol. 2 #1-94 (Mar 1962 - Dec 1969)
- Into the Green #1-82 (Mar 1963 - Dec 1969)
- Cryptic Trails Vol. 2 #1-58 (May 1963 - Feb 1968)
- Liberty’s Dream #1-79 (June 1963 - Dec 1969)
- The Fearless Flatfoot #1-30 (July 1967 - Dec 1969)
- Myth-Makers of Jotarus #1-10 (Mar 1968 - Dec 1968)
- Power Flower #1-21 (Apr 1968 - Dec 1969)
- Dark Rivers #1-12 (Jan 1969 - Dec 1969)
- Hidden Champions #1-7 (June 1969 - Dec 1969)
Bronze Age:
- Celestial Travels #371-549 (Jan 1970 - Nov 1984)
- Into the Green #83-260 (Jan 1970 - Sep 1984)
- Covert Tactics Vol. 2 #95-267 (Jan 1970 - Sep 1984)
- Madame Liberty #337-425 (Jan 1970 - May 1977)
- The Fearless Flatfoot #31-136 (Jan 1970 - Feb 1979)*
- Champions of Truth #58-175 (Jan 1970 - Mar 1980)
- Skybreaker Stories #141-320 (Jan 1970 - Aug 1983)
- Vanguards #136-300 (Jan 1970 - Dec 1982)
- Dark Rivers #13-186 (Jan 1970 - Oct 1984)
- Wondrous Adventures # 97-111 (Jan 1970 - Mar 1971)
- Liberty’s Dream #80-130 (Jan 1970 - May 1974)
- Hidden Champions #8 -169 (Jan 1970 - May 1984)
- Power Flower #23-30 (Jan - Aug 1970)
- Fallout #1-80 (Nov 1970 - Aug 1978)
- Fly Boy #1-64 (Oct 1973 - Jan 1979)
- Cryptic Trails Vol. 3 #1-70 (June 1974 - March 1980)
- Lion Dancer #1-16 (May 1975 - Aug 1976)
- Liberty’s Dream Vol. 2 #1-83 (Nov 1977 - Oct 1984)
- Earthwatch #1-68 (Feb 1979 - Oct 1984)
- Thelema #1-28 (June 1979 - Sep 1981)
- Fearless Flatfoot and Fly Boy #137*-190 (Feb 1979 - Aug 1983)
- World of Wonders #1-16 (Feb 1983 - May 1984)
Iron Age:
- Celestial Travels #550-777 (Dec 1984 - Dec 2003)
- Champions of Truth #148-374 (Dec 1984 - Dec 2003)
- Into the Green #261-400 (Dec 1984 - Nov 1995)
- Earthwatch #69-120 (Dec 1984 - Mar 1989)
- Twilight Carnival #1-228 (Dec 1984 - Dec 2003)
-
Spectacular Skybreaker #1-204 (Dec 1984 - Dec 2003)
- Broken Sky #1-12 (June 1993 - May 1994**)**
- Covert Tactics (Vol. 3) #1-210 (Dec 1984 - June 2002)
- Broken Mirrors #1-110 (Apr 1985 - Aug 1994)
- Knightgrave #1-125 (Aug 1985 - Mar 1996)
- New Horizons #1-24 (May 1987 - Apr 1989)
- Company Town (Vol. 2) #1-179 (May 1988 - Dec 2003)
- Rogue Agents #1-80 (Oct 1990 - June 1997)
- Savage Defenders #1-12 (Apr 1990 - Mar 1991)
- Remnants #1-48 (Mar 1991 - Feb 1995)
- Fish Out Of Water #1-100 (July 1992 - Oct 2000)
- Pardoner #1-13 (Jan 1993 - Mar 1994)
- Protean #1-71 (Feb 1998 - Dec 2003)
- Upgrade #1-16 (Aug 2000 - Nov 2001)
- Earthwatch Vol. 2 #1-38 (Nov 2000 - Dec 2003)
- Cryptic Trails (Vol. 4) #1 (Nov 2002 - Dec 2003)
- Liberty’s Dream (Vol. 3) #1-14 (Nov 2002 - Dec 2003)
- Covert Tactics (Vol. 4) #1 (Aug 2003 - Dec 2003)
Plutonium Age:
- Celestial Travels #779-960 (Jan 2004 - Feb 2019)
- Twilight Carnival #229-410 (Jan 2004 - Feb 2019)
- Spectacular Skybreaker #205-393 (Jan 2004 - Feb 2019)
-
Champions of Truth #375-608 (Jan 2004 - Feb 2019)
- Kid Liberty and the Champions of Freedom #1-24 (Mar 2008 - Feb 2010)
- Company Town #180-360 (Jan 2004 - Jan 2019)
- Earthwatch #39-160 (Jan 2004 - May 2013)
- Protean #72-253 (Jan 2004 - Feb 2019)
- Cryptic Trails #17-207 (Jan 2004 - Jan 2019)
- Liberty’s Dream #15-36 (Jan 2004 - Sep 2005)
- Covert Tactics (Vol. 4) #6-100 (Jan 2004 - Oct 2011)
- Vanguards (Vol. 2) #1-137 (July 2005 - Dec 2016)
- Heretic #1-158 (Nov 2005 - Dec 2018)
- Accord #1-12 (Oct 2013 - Sep 2014)
- Gale Force #1-44 (June 2015 - Dec 2018)
- House of Jotu-Kal #1-26 (Jan 2017 - Jan 2019)
Dawn of the Diamond Age:
- Celestial Travels #961-973 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Champions of Truth #609-621 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Starshadow #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Vanguard Academy #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Veilwalkers #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Stutter #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Earthwatch (Vol. 3) #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Venture into the Unknown (Vol. 2) #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- World of Wonders #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
- Your Comic #1-13 (Mar 2019 - Mar 2020)
My takeaways: The Gold through Bronze Ages all make sense, but there’s a bit of weirdness after that. There’s a five-year period from 1993 to 1998 in which Venture does not debut a single new comic; this may in part be due to the speculator market collapse, but it’s a long gap. The Plutonium Age is even weirder; despite my intent for it to reflect a wave of crossovers, cancellations, and short-lived comics, my randomizers weren’t nearly vicious enough for this to happen, and seven different comics run non-stop from 2003 to 2019, with only six comics launched in the whole period (including a five-year gap after Kid Liberty and the Champions of Freedom.) I’m not sure if this is because Venture actually did the opposite of what I thought, falling back on their stalwarts even if they weren’t doing well and fearing any change, or if I need to retcon two or three titles into cancellation and replace them with shuffled-up versions that might themselves get replaced by versions that can still lead to the Diamond Age sequels I’ve got listed. I’ll have my decisions made and posted in the retcon period.
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