Greetings to you to the other side of the screen, I’m Matti Mali aka HedonisticActor, making my debut on the blog section. In this text form continuation of Old Shames I talk more about my old superhero comic Energycore of Power and its 15 issues that were never completed.
For those who haven’t watched my videos I wrote and drew my own X-Men inspired superhero comic between 2003-2007 just for my own amusement and I reviewed all of the 18 completed issues plus the unfinished 2009 reboot between 2012-2014. Recapping the whole story to the possible new readers would take too much time so I’ll just tell how everyone got their powers and who are all the members of the team as well as the members of their nemesis team Protectors of Humankind in the order of their joining. This segment about the powers is informative to the old ‘fan base’ as well because it features material that wasn’t told in the video series and was featured in the back cover of issue #18.
Brief History Lesson
1914 – On the planet circling around the star Epsilon Eridani (about ten light years from Earth and yes, the star actually exists) called Deneria its inhabitants – purple humanoids with imperialistic culture and three sexes – have made an amazing discovery: there’s a planet exactly at the opposite side of their sun. This planet is Kaldrea and it’s inhabited by yellow and short reptile-like creatures that have very old school religious, matriarchal society. Denerians introduced technology to Kaldreans but the Kaldrean queendoms didn’t agree on was such high tech gadgetry heresy or not. This started a civil war among them with Denerians siding with those favoring technology.
1919 – Kaldrean Civil War ended with millions dead, the technologists victorious and majority of the nations changing from monarchy to democracy (although men weren’t allowed to vote for a while). How that war managed to last as long as it did is anyone’s guess and added to that this was apparently the first Kaldrean conflict that was caused by religious differences. I mean this is a culture that has more than million years of recorded history – majority of it in the form of religious text – yet they never had a more heated debate about their doctrines before?
1982 – After a long period of peace the leader of Denerians, corrupt and senile president Refde Gumres, authorized rather questionable experiments to try to copy Kaldreans’ most unique ability: creating magic which – as it would have later been revealed – is caused by the mysterious radiation coming from the planet’s core but Kaldreans have thought it to be gift from their Goddess. Kaldreans performed complicated moves when casting certain spells and Denerains tried to learn it by mimicking them which pissed of Kaldreans because of it being a sacred gift just for them. Denerians came to the conclusion that there must be something in Kaldreans’ organs that allows them to perform magic easier. Therefore President Gumres authorized the kidnapping of some Kaldreans so they could study their genetics and therefore turn some unwanted Denerians into Kaldreans in order to make them better magic users. It so happens that Kaldreans also hate evolution theories and were naturally pissed off when they found out Denerians are playing Goddess. Refde Gumres made a pre-emptive strike and thus The War of Species began.
Interesting ideas about conflicting cultures but there’s one tiny problem: IF DENERIANS HAVE SUCH A HIGHLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY THEN WHAT DO THEY NEED MAGIC FOR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?1+1+1+1+?!?+!+1+1+1+ (Well there was this energy crisis but it’s never established much.)
1984 – During the last battle of the war the mightiest war ships of the warring factions shot their super mega laser beams at each other at the same time, both weapons using materials not found from Earth. However when the beams met they created new kind of red electric bolt that flew to space. Due to this unexpected event both parties agreed to put the battle on halt. However Refde Gumres was secretly planning a larger attack but before that could happen two criminals who wanted to stop the war, a Kaldrean called Kaffre Arnof and a Denerian called Dreg Zeffres, assassinated almost the entire Denerian government with only the Minister of Defense Nraidi Lerfos surviving. This was unfortunate because before she was overthrown and put into a less influential position Nraidi punished the killers by banishing them to space in pods that move half faster than the speed of light. Because, you know, she couldn’t come up with a less costly method. After that the war ended.
Even before Refde’s assassination the scientists of both species had started studying red electricity. They discovered its usage as an energy source and pinpointed the electric bolt’s destination, namely Earth. They speculated the planet could have life so they took about 40 volunteer prisoners – Kaffre Arnof and Dreg Zeffres being among them – and with red lightning gave them powers to drain red electricity from living beings and storage it inside of themselves. With scientists, energy drainers, some military personnel and diplomats the group led by Kreffeck Gardaling – the first male president of Kaldrean’s most powerful nation Knoring – and Nraidi Lerfos – now having the relatively harmless position of a vice diplomat who the new Denerian government put on this group just so they could easily get rid of her – set their destination towards Earth.
1989 – Kaffre Arnof and Dreg Zeffres reach Earth. Due to having their last requests granted they had computers which allowed them to study human culture and blend into the society. They make it sound so easy.
1994 – The red electric bolt reaches Earth and strikes an influential Caucasian American (this is the standard ethnicity and nationality of the characters unless said otherwise) electricity mogul Eric Morrone who lived in Boston, Massachusetts. It gives him powers to control rain and thunder and turn himself into gas form and due to this he abandons his former life. To do what, you ask? Nothing really, he just controls weather for the next ten years while his former chief of security Garet Lake watched his actions. Quite soon a ten-year old child Stanley Stromberg, who had ran away from his home because he felt his big brother got more attention, meets Mr. Morrone aka The Storm who gives him shelter from Boston’s abandoned power station.
September 2004 – The Storm has started to get tired of Stanley because of him being a friendless loser – although this is later ret conned into him getting tired of Stanley’s long grudge towards his family – and decides to get rid of him. However do to spending so much time in the power station and getting 20 volts of electric shock for the past ten years 10000 volts merely pinch him (just go with it). The Storm tries to load a more powerful red thunderbolt but Stanley tricks him and gets the bolt to collapse to every direction hitting both of them and getting The Storm to drop to a nearby lake where he explodes. Yep, that was the end of the first super villain of this series in its first issue.
A tidal wave caused by The Storm’s death carries Stanley to the apartment of a Chinese karate teacher Lei-Jan Fei. She was also hit by a red thunder bolt so she got the power of heightened accuracy in her fighting moves. The tidal wave also carried two other people: Garet Lake, who now can shoot and turn into water, and a French-Italian gangster Jack Lepuzzi aka Ripper who can rip himself to avoid impacts and who sees this new bunch of righteous super heroes as a threat. During the short battle scene Stanley discovers to have the power to control electricity and blasts Ripper who however escapes. The three decide to fight against scum like him and after taking the aliases Stormkiller, Ninjagirl and Waterman they form Energycore of Power.
Current Members of Energycore of Power
Stanley Stromberg/Stormkiller – The main protagonist of the series is… kind of an immature asshole. In the previous issue this reached its peak as he tried to kill his fellow team mate to get the girl he has been obsessed. Even before that he has been quite a poor leader but for some reason everyone has followed him like obedient dogs. And this is the guy who can control weather and is in fact having symbiotic relation to the world’s water cycle: if he dies so dies the planet due to drying. May God help these poor souls.
Lei-Jan Fei/Time Empress – After her introduction she changed her alias when she discovered her powers had developed to “other directionâ€, namely being able to slow and rewind time. Her personality is quite non-existent which is partly because so far the series hasn’t told anything about her past. Don’t worry though, that will be fixed soon.
Matt Mailton/Hedgehogboy – My thinly veiled author avatar who started his superhero career as Insulinboy who could changes his hands into steel needles and spray insulin out of them. However taking the medicine that could cure diabetes his powers changed and now he can spring out steel needles throughout his body. When he still had diabetes he complained about how “no one understood him†but curiously the said disease had no negative effect on his life so he basically complained about nothing. Added to that he has lost the one thing that made him somewhat unique in the first place.
Harvey Stromberg/Lucky Guy – Stormkiller’s big brother who also happens to be the Governor of Massachusetts at the age of 26 which according to U.S. laws shouldn’t be possible. His power is luck which as a power is vague although there’s a reason for that which I’ll reveal later. He’s supposed to be Stromkiller’s voice of reason but so far it has fallen flat due to poor writing.
Richard Strong/Pirate – This Gulf War veteran who can change his hands into steel hooks and shoot laser out of his eye patch was actually one of the founders of Protectors of Humankind. However his son’s tragic death made him see the errors of his ways and switch sides. Since then he has tried to make amends with his past and to this series’ standards has provided the most compelling drama moments especially in issue #12 which I think is the best of them. At the age of 45 he’s the oldest member in the team.
Peter Mailton/Muscleboy – The youngest member of the team, 14 years to be precise, is Hedgehogboy’s little brother and can grow his muscle mass to make him stronger. He’s quite a rascal, never thinking of ahead and he just wants to participate in action. Which is why he’s so damn entertaining.
Maria Echrone/Gravitygirl – A Romanian circus performer who can change her own gravity she used to be a member of United Heroes of Europe but left the team for the reasons that will be revealed in the very issue I’ll review on my next blog entry. Stormkiller developed quite an unhealthy obsession towards her and her starting to date Hedgehogboy didn’t help matters. So far nothing else is known about her but the series will eventually reveal more about her past which will be… quite something.
Jenna Bush/Shadowmind – One of the daughters of President George W. Bush – you read it right, he’s in this series – which disagreed with her father’s war mongering politics and decided to join in the team to put stop on her father’s reckless plans. She asked Stormkiller to give her super powers which he did so she gained ability to control people by going in their shadows. She’s the only super human in the entire series that keeps her identity secret although she has a good reason to do so.
Current Members of Protectors of Humankind
Daniel Forrestal/Chemist – The main antagonist of the series can control atoms which sounds like he’s ridiculously overpowered but what he can and can’t do with his powers remains inconsistent. Born in USA but raised in UK this chemist originally started his hatred towards Stormkiller because he thought he was responsible for the destroying the being that kept the weather in balance. When he found out tough that Stormkiller IS the one keeping the weather in balance his motivations watered down to ‘he’s too stupid to have so much power so I’ll try to tarnish his reputation/kill him’ but he has been starting to mellow out. His most notorious act was to turn Waterman into villainous Sodium Man who currently works for the super villain team World Order Coalition.
Jack Lepuzzi/Ripper – After his debut he became one of the founders of Protectors of Humankind. He has been responsible for the team’s most infamous act against Energycore of Power as he killed 14 teen agers who tried to rob him and then with the help of Smoker put the blame on Time Empress. His main objective is to be the psychopath of the rouge gallery although he occasionally shows something resembling moral back bone.
Annabelle Belacroix/Witch – Like Gravitygirl this French politician with vaguely defined career and vaguely defined Advanced Dungeons & Dragons based magic casting abilities used to be in United Heroes of Europe – she was in fact one of the founding members – before she quit and has kept good relations with her former colleague despite now working for rivaling teams. She’s supposed to act as Chemist’s voice of reason but it’s not clear how much influence she truly has on his attitudes. Also Ripper is her cousin, just putting that out there.
Shigeru Yakunome/Liar – A Japanese lawyer whose superpower is lying (well, duh). He used to belong to the super hero team Super Quartet of Asia until he was fired for using his powers for wrong purposes. He already helped Protectors of Humankind during the infamous ‘blaming Time Empress for the killing of 14 teen agers’ debacle but didn’t officially join the team until four months later. He has a family in Japan – a wife and three kids with the fourth one coming – which he visits every second month (that’s why he was absent from issue #14) although this raises even further questions about his motives to be in a super team in the first place.
Waldo Flex/Ratman – As his alias tells this African American part time homeless, part time circus performer has the abilities of a rat like being able to chew through concrete walls and survive from dropping high altitudes. He used to work in the same circus as Gravitygirl although that was never established clearly in the completed series. What also isn’t established is why he chose Protectors of Humankind instead of Energycore of Power and so far his only defining trait has been his atheism.
Tune in for the next blog – which hopefully will come soon – where I’ll finally tackle with the unfinished Energycore of Power #19.
Comments from Previous Manic Expression Site
BigBlackHatMan: There is a lot of fun in this. I have enjoyed your look back. Good work
