The cops vs capes series “Task Force Twilight” will be taking a brief break as we return to the world of Champions Online.
“Future’s Guardian”, the series set in the world of the Champions, will be resuming its stories, starting with Issue #13, which is scheduled to be released on November 30th.
Creator/Editor/Publisher David 2 says that it was never his intention to leave “Future’s Guardian” for that long of a time.
“This is still a one-man operation”, he says. “It’s really a matter of how much time you can put into any one project. I had an opportunity to resume my stories in the now-defunct ‘City of Heroes’ using some unusual means, and I wish to keep them going, but at the same time, I had this still on the back-burner.”
“Next thing I know, four years have gone by.”
When last we saw the once-and-former Omega Incarnate heroine, Galatea Future was experiencing the worst day of her new life. Her best friend in this world had become the supervillain Malizia, based on Galatea’s own memories of the “other city”. Malizia actions jeopardized the legal career of Candace Sinclair, and threatened to overturn the legal decision that liberated Galatea from Markman Gold. Even worse, publicity over Malizia affected Galatea’s civilian life as a proposed film deal based on her book series fell apart.
With her best friend in a special “hot sleep” chamber while she is purged of all things Malizia, Galatea is eager to do anything to get away from it all. Thankfully, her friends and allies have a place just right for her: Burning Sands.
“Burning Sands is one of those locations that seems to have a lot of things going on at the same time,” said David 2. “It’s based on a real-live location – White Sands, New Mexico – but then Champions put their own surreal twist to it, so it’s the place where America went absolutely crazy with all sorts of nuclear testing. And then they ended up creating this giant villain named ‘Grond”, and he inspires followers, and they form their own community in the middle of the most irradiated part of the world. So you have all sorts of mutated people living in the radioactive ruins of buildings with nuclear warheads littered all over the place. And some of those warheads are still active.”
But as any player of Champions Online would tell you, the desert is more than just radioactive hot zones.
“There’s a strange version of ‘Westworld’ there,” said David 2. “There is a literal ghost town full of ghosts. Some genius made the decision to put a Super-Super-max prison there. And if that’s not extreme enough, there is Area 51. And we know from Issue #12 that something is still there.”
David 2 says he doesn’t know how much of the in-game content in the desert will be incorporated into the comic yet. Instead, he is focused more on getting the characters caught up.
“Four years is a long time to get caught up on things,” he said. “Global politics have changed dramatically since then. Thankfully the one thing that has remained stagnant during that time is Millennium City.”
David 2 credits fellow comic creator V. Phillips (aka .Ra) in reigniting the interest in Champions Online through his own publication at CoX Comics.
“When I heard that characters in ‘The Crucible’ were going to appear in Champions, I made a brief reference to the fact that Galatea Future is already there. Next thing I know, he’s creating a 3D image of her and adding her to the story. That got the interest going again.”
To mark the return of “Future’s Guardian”, we offer this free 1600×900 widescreen wallpaper of Galatea ascending from the pits of the wasteland. This same breathtaking image was also used for the issue’s cover.
(Click on the image to view it full-sized. Right-click on the image to save to your computer.)
“Future’s Guardian” #13 is scheduled to be released online on November 30th.
Battlerock Comics 