ASH/HCC: Coherent Super Stories #32 - Making Contract

[Andrew Perron]

On Fri, 5 Jul 2013 21:15:57 +0000 (UTC), Dave Van Domelen wrote:

>      [Cover shows Doctor Developer at a crudely-constructed roadside stand
> with a sign reading "Psychotic Help - 5 cents" with a line of low-grade
> supervillains stretching off the edge of the frame.  At the head of the line
> is an embittered round-headed kid with a pictographic speech bubble
> describing his desire for an exploding football.]

Oooooooh. Doc Developer as Doc Samson?

>      "They say you're the guy to go to for big-leagues stuff that doesn't
> need a freak factor."

Ahhhh, not quite.

>      "Nope.  See, the thing no one knows yet is that while I'm grabbing all
> the camera-shots, my brother is working the crowd, or doing a little light
> looting.  But he's a normal, and I'm worried someone's eventually going to
> notice him and assume he's a super.  I want something that'll let him...I
> dunno, have a better chance.  Armor, or stealth, or a decent weapon.  So he
> can live long enough to escape."

Ah! Very nice - giving villains positive motives = yes.

> "We've been really lucky so far...that wad might not be enough
> to set anyone up for life, but right now, well, it's just money, right?
> Spend it smart or it's no good, my mom always said."

Indeed! Practical.

>      "There's a slip of paper in with the cash.  My brother says you use that
> Oozenet thing, there's a Peachy Peeky or whatever, and a list of groups he
> watches."

*snerk* It took me a bit to figure this out.

>      Collaboration has a history of gumming things up in ASH...witness how
> the entire output of three ASH writers was the three issues of Capstone the
> year it came out.  We'd cranked out a few dozen issues in the year before.

Eesh. ^^; I remember hitting that place in the archives and going "huh".

> So I approached High Concept Challenge #37 with some skepticism.  But I
> decided to go with a simple vignette using Google Drive to write in
> alternating fashion with Andy.

Oh, yeah, that works muy well.

>      The premise for Terra-Soar was that she was a C-lister who only lasted
> as long as she did in Detroit because there weren't any fliers in the city in
> the mid-90s, so as long as she scarpered before helicopters could box her in,
> she could act with relative impunity, distracting people from her brother's
> larcenous activities.

Interesting. I wonder what happened to her? (Well, she probably died with
all the other superhumans is what, but before that.)

>      Andrew had no notes to add, but he did say that the choice of the date
> lines up with a period where Doctor Developer was trying to make some quick
> cash so he could move out of Detroit.

Makes sense!

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, wonder what happened to her brother.