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An occasionally-Acrophobe LNH title
Issue #3
Fire And Ice
Part 6 of Leftovers
Written by and copyright 1997 Saxon Brenton
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Cover shows a string of alt.ernate Looniearths being pushed together
between a pair of hands. On the wrist of one of them is a watch with
three hands.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Some say the world will end in fire.
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire."
- Robert Frost
"The Earth and Heaven shall become worn out as old clothes.
Some day you shall fold them up and replace them in kind."
- Hebrews 1:10-12
"Certainly the rise in entropy means that some regions of the
universe are decaying, but this need not require that the total
disorder continually increases. If a mechanism could be found
to inject new information or order into the universe, then
although the total entropy will continue to rise, this could be
matched by the appearance of more and more new order.
- Paul Davies, _The Runaway Universe_
\continue{flashback}
The scene opens with an interior shot of some sort of monitoring room.
The place is partly in shadow, so that we cannot see the face of its
sole inhabitant, who is seated before a bank of screens. We can, however,
see that he's wearing jeans, sweatshirt and sneakers.
"Hello everybody. Just a quick update on what's happening. The
Looniverse has been sundered, and the Siblings - the two cosmic entities
who embody the space/time continuums of the two largest pieces - have
developed a mutual antipathy to each other, and have arranged for a
contest of champions to determine which of them (and their respective
universes) has to bite the bullet. At the moment, the publicly known
score is: Looniearth-DC 2 compared to Looniearth-Marvel's 1.
"Of course, destroying one universe or the other isn't going to solve
their problems, and if anything it's only going to make things worse."
Our unknown host cocks his head to one side, and although we cannot
see his features properly enough to identify him, it's clear that he's
grinning.
"Fortunately, I'm here to fix all that."
- o o O O O o o -
Macroman versus Makkaroni:
I wonder how these two have gotten on? Maybe they've gotten out of that
rut they were in last time we checked?
"No. Tag, you're it."
"No. Tag, you're it."
"No. Tag, you're it."
"No. Tag, you're it."
Nope. Don't look like it.
- o o O O O o o -
Meanwhile:
In another two splinter fragments of the Looniverse (Looniverses
-Dakota and -Ultra) there were two cosmic entities embodying the entirety
of their respective continuums. These two little bitty RoboMAC-like
beings (one purple, the other yellow) were similarly waging cosmic war
through net.ahuman proxies.
But we really don't have time to go into that right now, okay?
- o o O O O o o -
Lobotomy versus Wolfenblitz:
By now the street had been more or less wrecked, but the two brawlers
were oblivious to this. They were also pretty much oblivious to the SWAT
trucks that had encircled them and the twenty or so heavily armed men
in riot control gear who were pointing semi-automatics at them. They
only just barely bothered to pay attention when they started having
orders barked at them through bullhorns.
"Freeze! You two, down on the ground. Now!"
Wolfenblitz snarled, "Piss off, ya flamin' wankers. Mind your own
flamin' business."
Shots were fired at the two of them, but being net.ahumans they waded
through it all like it was just spring rain. Angered, Wolfenblitz hurled
a hubcap that cleanly decapitated one of the men, then hit a SWAT truck's
fuel tanks and ignited a fireball that toasted the remaining men on his
side of the street.
On his side of the avenue Lobotomy had taken similar steps to
exterminate the rest of the interlopers. Then the two of them got back
to the serious business of trying to kill each other.
- o o O O O o o -
Elastic Sock versus Mr. Thingy:
Two malleable forms contorted around some form of technical lab, making
it almost impossible to make sense of the scene. For this reason I have
asked the artist to crop as many panels as needed to be close-ups, okay?
"Surrender, Mr. Thingy. I have no desire to hurt you."
"I appreciate that, but as long as there is hope I have no intention
of giving in."
Elastic Sock said nothing in reply, but instead kept grimly at his
attempt to catch up with Mr. Thingy's head. He had already discarded
as useless any attempt to confine any other body parts. The Woollen
Wonder guessed, however, that if he could capture and bind and blind
Mr. Thingy's head, then his opponent would have to brings his hands into
play to remove Elastic Sock from that critical area of the body. One of
the biggest problems for Elastic Sock so far in this confrontation is
that Mr. Thingy had been clear-sighted enough to keep his head, arms,
and legs widely separated, preventing Elastic Sock from getting an
overall constraining grip on all of them.
Nevertheless, he had noticed that Mr. Thingy had not attempted any
similar strategy in return. Elastic Sock smiled grimly. Clearly his
adversary was on the defensive. He was confident that soon he would
have Mr. Thingy where he wanted him, and then he could claim this
contest as his.
The sock was completely unaware of the flaw in his logic.
Mr. Thingy dodged around the lab again, keeping the bulk of his body
mass just ahead of Elastic Sock. Meanwhile, his arms once again returned
to a device that they had been constructing under a table, and made the
final adjustments to it. It had taken a while to put it together, because
of the need to keep his arms moving around the room like the rest of
him, so as to keep Elastic Sock from becoming suspicious, but now at
last he was ready.
Mr. Thingy brought up the device, a small battery powered box, and
touched it to the unsuspecting Elastic Sock's body. The effect was
instantaneous. Elastic Sock's body became all tingly and numb, making
his movements sluggish and heavy, and where he touched the ground he
had difficulty getting his body away from the floor.
Mr. Thingy took the opportunity to collect up the prone sock's limbs
and bring them back to his torso, where he pined him. "I have captured
you," he observed. "I suggest you surrender. I, also, have no desire to
harm you."
"I... have no choice. Very well then. But what did you do to me?"
"Static cling," answered the other simply. "I created a device to
produce massive amounts of static on you while we were manoeuvring."
"Ah. Undone by such a simple thing," Elastic Sock noted with just a
touch of regret. "Well, I can only hope that my fellows fare better than
I have."
For the first time Mr. Thingy's face showed something than clinical
detachment - irritation, perhaps even anger. "I have no intention of
letting either Looniverse perish because of some childish game. "Come
along. There is work to be done. I can only hope to whatever powers may
be watching over us that some others of the combatants have found a way
to delay the Siblings' unholy judgement."
- o o O O O o o -
And above the sky a watchman watched:
"Oh, they have Mr. Thingy, they have." The shadowed form of a young
looking man sat at a console and checked various screens. "Good old
net.heroes," he said to himself. "Utterly predictable, but utterly
dependable for exactly the same reasons. You can always rely on them
for having a darn good stab at saving the universe.
"Lessee, there are quite a few who've decided to try and pull the wool
over the Siblings' eyes. Good for you, guys. Now, I'd better reel them
in and give them the laydown on what's going on."
- o o O O O o o -
Squidman versus Fearless Leader:
A street. The sewer grill was pushed aside from beneath, and two
net.heroes climbed out.
"We'll be out of here in a second," said Squidman. "Are you all right?"
His associate answered. "Swallowed some water and took a bump on the
head. You're good with that... Squidrang, you called it? But I'm fine...
except for coming up short. I lost, and maybe doomed an entire
looniverse," he said, neatly summarising their contest - which was
basically identical to the Batman/Captain America fight in _Marvel Vs.
DC_ #3 and thus is something I'm not even going to bother showing.
They looked around. "We're both still here, so this isn't over yet.
What now?" Fearless Leader asked.
"I'm not sure. I didn't expect... Wait. That glow. What...?
With a -BLiP- the two of them suddenly appeared in a large room of
some kind. Several other costumed individuals stood with them, looking
equally perplexed. Squidman recognised Kid Not Appearing In Any Retcon
Hour Story, Macroman, and Elastic Sock. "Where are we now?" he asked
rhetorically.
"Hi there," said a young man in jeans and a T-shirt sitting in a chair.
"Welcome to my home." He stood up, walked over, and shook hands.
"Where are we?" repeated Squidman.
"This is the Drizztsat. I'm the Drizzt. Pleased to meet you."
"Indeed," said Kid Not Appearing In Any Retcon Hour Story. "I am
afraid we do not have much time for pleasantries, Drizzt..."
The Drizzt held up a finger. "Actually, you have even less time than
you imagine. And that's THE Drizzt," he gently reproved. The net.heroes
stared at him. "It's true. In many cultures the using of the wrong form
of a name is a grave insult."
"How much time do we have?" pressed Fearless Leader.
"Something like three hours," the Drizzt replied. "That's how long
it'll take before the Siblings discover your various deceptions," he
said to Maui, Macroman and Makkaroni.
"Explain yourself," Mr. Thingy said.
"Maui here cast an illusion of himself and Kid continuing their fight
in order to delay any rash actions by the Siblings. Macroman and
Makkaroni did something similar."
"We snuck away and grabbed a holographic projector," explained
Macroman. "Then we taped a few minutes of ourselves chasing each other,
and then put it on unlimited replay."
Makkaroni grinned. "As far as the Siblings can tell, we're still
where they left us, screaming 'Tag, you're it' at each other."
"Why did you bring us here?" Elastic Sock asked the Drizzt.
"I've got information that you'll need if you're going to save the
looniverses."
"How do you know all this?" asked Maui pointedly.
"I'm a five dimensional entity," the Drizzt replied simply. "I co-exist
in multiple universes, and remember all of them simultaneously. Even
ones that have been... revised. Like these ones."
"I suppose this happens a lot then?" Maui asked, intrigued. He liked
knowing things, and new ways to be devious fascinated him.
"More than you can possibly imagine. Remind me to tell you about the
events of Retcon Midnight sometime, or the problems that DeFacto V gave
Mecha Force," he replied off-handedly.
[_Retcon Midnight_ and _Stranger Tales_ #7, respectively - Footnote Girl]
"If there is not much time, then we should proceed," pressed KidNAIARHS.
"Very true," agreed the cosmic entity. "So it's important that you know
that you don't have to _just_ stop the Siblings from warring against each
other. Terrible as that destruction of one of the universes would be, it
pales beside what is actually at stake."
"And that is?" Fearless Leader demanded.
"The destruction of both, of course," the Drizzt said, as if it were
obvious. "You have to understand, your universes aren't two separate
things. They're parts of a greater whole. That's why the Siblings are
siblings. They were born from a common parent. These two Looniverses
were once part one. That single Looniverse was split into multiple bits,
of which your two are merely the 'biggest'. As long as they remain
separate they're haemorrhaging and bleeding into each other. Destroying
one won't save the other. But neither will letting any exist separately.
All the pieces have to be brought back together. The Siblings don't just
have to be reconciled. They have to be amalgamated."
The net.heroes stared at him. "What you're asking is almost
unthinkable," said Fearless Leader.
The Drizzt blinked at him. "Why? Because it upsets what you perceive
as the status quo? And please, don't lets start with slogans like 'Live
free or die'. This is not some localised, ideologically based conflict
where people's opinions have to be galvanised over issues that are - at
bottom - just politics. If these Looniverses aren't repaired then you
will all die. That's a plain fact; no rhetoric involved."
The net.heroes didn't look comfortable with that, but they seemed to
have no other choice in the matter.
"How do we go about putting things back together then?" Squidman asked.
"I have preliminary plans to create towers that would act as 'tuning
forks'," offered Mr. Thingy. "These would allow the Looniverses to merge
together as their vibrational rates were integrated.
KidNAIARHS looked at him. "You came up with the details of that in so
short a time?"
Mr. Thingy coughed. "Well, no. I've had plans for them for a related
purpose, to repel a hypothetical invasion by Alt.nihilus from the
Net.ative Zone, for some time. I got the idea from a comic book," he
said, holding up a copy of _Crisis On Infinite Earths_ #2 that by amazing
coincidence he just happened to have on him. "It's just a matter of
calculating the harmonics to merge rather than separate worlds."
"Actually, that won't be necessary," said the Drizzt. "With the
Bifurcation, there came one who acts as a link between the splintered
Looniverses, and with the power to reform them." A monitor activated,
and the Drizzt pointed. On screen was a young woman dressed in green
and orange. "She's called... Net.Access."
"She's under attack," Makkaroni noted.
"Those are Ny!Lon!'s sockdroids," Elastic Sock hissed.
The Drizzt nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid Ny!Lon! became fixated with
conquering these two Looniverses..."
"Typical," Elastic Sock said.
Again the Drizzt nodded. "Anyway, he unearthed the relationship between
the two worlds, and Net.Access' part in all this. You'll have to go and
protect her as well as explain to her what she has to do to get the
Looniverse back in one piece."
Maui raised an eyebrow. "You are not coming?"
The Drizzt shook his head. "My five dimensional nature makes it
impossible for me to leave the shielding of this satellite without
wreaking havoc on the space-time continuum. The worlds are already in
bad enough shape without me making it worse." A few more hurried
instructions later and then he sent them on their way with another -BLiP-.
- o o O O O o o -
Alice Ashdown ran from the weird humanoid things that were chasing
her. They looked vaguely like men in bodysuits with long stockings over
their heads dangling down like Earthworm Jim. But they seemed to have
no rigidity to their limbs, making them run with a disturbingly inhuman,
loose jointed gait. They were nightmarish, like the world they inhabited.
One moment Alice had been on campus at Dave Thomas Deluxe University,
and then the world had changed. Admittedly, Dave Thomas was hardly a
place of refuge from weirdness, and there had been a fight scene going
on nearby, but unless serious hallucinogens or powers of illusion were
being thrown about, then nothing that she could think of could have
produced this. The world seemed to have split in two, and the net.heroes
from the two halves had been set against each other to determine which
of the pieces would be the sole survivor of a slugfest. She remembered
experiencing the broadcast from the Siblings along with everyone else
which explained the purpose and origin and rules of the contest of
champions. But while everyone else had reacted by dividing on partial
lines and begun barracking fro the net.heroes they knew best, she had
paused in stupefied amazement and thought to herself .oO(But that's not
the way the world is!)
And now she was running for her life. Every so often one of the
bogeyman-like creatures would close in on her and she would teleport
away. She'd discovered that talent the first time they'd almost caught
her. They'd always find her again though, and she was beginning to tire.
Two of them were upon her now. She began to summon up some last dreg
of strength and try to get away. Then they were gone, dragged away and
torn apart by high speed, barely-seen somethings. A voice called, "Don't
you two have better manners than to be grabby?"
Another voice said, "Here miss, allow me to help you up."
"Thanks... Kid Not Appearing In Any Retcon Hour Story." She glanced
about, and saw the rest of the net.heroes. "Oh wow."
While she was boggling, Fearless Leader asked, "You are Net.Access,
am I correct?"
She gave him a perplexed look. He sighed. "Perhaps explanations are
in order." And then he frowned and raised his BigGun to blow away one
of the sockdroids that had appeared en masse on the scene. "Mr. Thingy,
if you would handle the explanations, I believe the rest of us have a
fight scene to attend to."
Mr. Thingy did so, while in the background can be seem the horde of
sockdroids being righteously trounced by the forces of Good. He outlined
the situation, and the rather special role that the Drizzt had identified
for Net.Access in putting things aright. In turn, he was intrigued by
her description of the original, unsundered, Looniverse. Apparently the
inhabitants of the original had been displaced into the splinters, which
was good news for attempting to reintegrate the pieces. It implied that
the inhabitants would simply be sorted back into the tapestry of the
whole. He, and probably the others, had been concerned about the possible
loss of individual identity if the people from the separate parts were
merged with others in the recreation of the whole.
Net.Access was staring thoughtfully at her hands, which were beginning
to sparkle as she tried to plumb the depths of the abilities within her.
"I'm still not quite sure how to go about this," she said.
Mr. Thingy nodded. "I think now would be the best time to get some
advice from individuals with experience in energy manipulation and
matters cosmic. Maui? Kid Not Appearing In Any Retcon Hour Story?..."
- o o O O O o o -
Net.Access was nervous. Okay, so she'd had it explained to her how
to use the remnant link to bring the splintered universes back together.
In principle it was simple. It seemed that their current fractured state
was only meta-stable, and if given a 'push' in the right point they'd
fall back into place as one Looniverse. This, apparently, was why the
Drizzt hadn't simply scooped her up to his satellite as he had with the
net.heroes; the shielding on the Drizztsat would have made it impossible
to even reach that 'right spot.
Yeah, well, meta-stable or not, giving a push to two anythings the
size of universes was a daunting task. She concentrated, feeling about
for just the right 'place'. As she did so she lit up like a small sun,
and the sockdroids in battle around her suddenly went into a frenzy as
they tried to get through the ranks of net.heroes.
Overhead, the forms of the two Siblings faded into view in the sky
above the city. They were glaring at each other in a standoff, as if
trying to stare each other down. But even as they became apparent to
the mortal worlds, they began to move together and overlap, as if they
were double images that could be made into one by refocusing one's eyes.
And then it was over.
The two cosmic siblings were combined! And with their reunification,
the other splinter Looniverses were drawn in their wake into the
recreated original as well! Green and yellow and purple and pink and
infra-red and chequered and tartan and paisley coloured Siblings (among
many others) were all mooshed together! Once more, the universe was
whole! Where once there had been the sundered pieces, now once again
there was the unity. The recombined entity that embodied the Looniverse
in its totality ascended majestically into the heaven, watched by the
awestruck heroes. No longer was he divided against himself. Once more
he was...
...Size Of The Entire Universe Man!
- o o O O O o o -
The Looniverse was repairing itself. Her job done, Net.Access hastily
began opening a portal to what should be the real world - the undivided
Looniverse that she had originally been dragged from. This would be
cutting it fine, but she hoped that - by absurd comic book logic if
nothing else - there would be a brief period of overlap when the two
versions of the Looniverse(s) would co-exist and she would be able to
jump from one to the other. It was a plan that was not necessarily
plausible, but there was a precedent for it in the way she had been
brought from the original into its splinters without undergoing the
Bifurcation herself.
A glowing gateway opened. Yes! It was working. She recognised the area
near Dave Thomas Deluxe University that she had been in before all this
weirdness started. She stepped through..
...and got clobbered from behind.
"Hold the door, miss," said Ny!Lon! He hastened through the portal as
well, followed by the Atomic Shagpile who had just knocked Net.Access
out. They stepped over her prone form as the portal shrank and collapsed
in on itself.
The World's Wickedest Sock looked around. "So, this is the original
Looniverse, is it? The Land of Opportunity." He turned his masked face
to the Shagpile and said, "Come along my servant. We have a world to
explore. I want a proper reconnaissance of this place before I get down
to the serious business of crushing it beneath my heal."
- o o O O O o o -
Lobotomy versus Wolfenblitz:
Reality began to fade out as Size Of The Entire Universe Man began
reorganising his world back into the semblance of order. And as it did
so, Lobotomy had just enough time to poke his tongue out and complain,
"Aw common, I didn't even get to gut the little bandersnatch!"
\end{flashback}
=(And so it ended,)= said Humanity. =(Another cosmos shattering crisis
resolved in favour of the status quo. Moreover, since the events of the
Bifurcation didn't fit properly into the reconstituted continuity, they
were deleted and the memory of them was forgotten by all but a handful
of the most comically aware entities. This, however, should not come
as a surprise.)=
"No, I suppose not," observed Kid Not Appearing In Any Retcon Hour
Story, remembering how the events of the Crisis On Infinite Earths, Zero
Hour, Worlds Collide, and Infinity Gauntlet had all be made to Unhappen
as well. "What, however, is the point of this reminiscence?"
=(The point is that all these crises have a direct impact on the fate
of the Looniverse. The Looniverse _was_ a 'closed' universe, with a
sufficient matter/energy quotient to cause it collapse back on itself
under its own gravitational weight in a Big Crunch, then be reborn
anew as the cycle continued. That is no longer the case.
=(Each time that the universe is divided or reunited or rewritten,
the total energy of the universe available for work is reduced. It takes
a lot of power to rearrange a universe, even once. And these Events
happened almost all the time during your epoch; hardly one of your
years goes by without at least one of them taking place, although the
number of that are remembered is but a fraction of the total that occur.
They are, perhaps, the ultimate entropic waste. And because of them,
the Looniverse you see about you,)= Humanity gestured, =(is about to
fail at the last.)=
KidNAIARHS felt chilled. Perhaps irrationally, he glanced about,
half expecting the last lights of distant galaxies to be suddenly
extinguished. Yes, he was vaguely aware of the theory, and how it
applied to the Looniverse.
Fritz Leiber had once wrote a novel, _The Big Time_, which had included
The Law Of Conservation Of Reality. This Law (not to be confused with
Terry Pratchett's use of a law of the same name in _Colour Of Magic_)
dictated that whenever history was altered the universe would grudgingly
give only as much energy to affect the change as was absolutely
necessary. In practice this meant that 'temporal reluctance' tried to
conserve energy by making history very hard to change and allowing only
minimal variations when it did.
The point was that in the Looniverse, in the unlikely event the Law
Of Conservation Of Reality applied at all, it did so in a weak second
place to the Law Of Drama. Awesome stories and spectacular special
effects where the Looniverse's modus operandi and raison detre. If a
story demanded it, the universe would happily waste any amount of energy
to follow it through. Combine that with the principles of wReamEntropy,
and you had a recipe for thermodynamic disaster.
And now look where these extravagant policies had brought it to.
Humanity gazed out across space. =(At this point in time we are more
than mere trillions of years into your future. The galaxies you see
about you no longer exist; their stars are dead, and all that remains
is the light emitted long ago. Matter itself decayed at around 10^31
years, since even protons are unstable over such lengths of time. Denied
the use of the chemical elements so common in your time, the sapients
had to resort to constructing bodies of energy and exotic particles. And
once the stars had given out, the remaining civilisations of my
constituent species were forced to huddle around black holes, warming
themselves by the warmth that leaked first because of Hawking radiation
and later from thermal equilibrium. This latter state of affairs can
probably be dragged out until around 10^100 years, but by then even the
largest of the black holes will have evaporated, leaving this continuum
cold and empty and dead.)=
Defiance stirred in Kid's heart. "I cannot believe that there is no
hope, even in such a situation," he exclaimed angrily.
Humanity looked at him as one would a child. =(I never said there was
no hope. Indeed, for time out of mind I have been formulating a plan
to revive this continuum. That is the task that I will soon be carrying
out.)=
Feeling more than a bit foolish at his outburst, but pleased at the
affirmation of hope, Kid asked, "What is it?"
=(I shall reach forth into de Sitter space and pull in sufficient mass
to replace the diffuse and inert substance within the Looniverse. This
will, of course, have to be carefully distributed, but once done it will
rejuvenate the Looniverse sufficiently to make both life tolerable, and
ultimately bring it back to being a closed continuum. Stellar and
planetary formation will commence again, and with it the development
of new life. And then, in time, the Looniverse will collapse back in
on itself, to form the seed of future universes.)=
KidNAIARHS was amazed by the audacity of the scheme. The notion of
steady state creation had not occurred to him, though perhaps it should
have. After all, Constellation had drawn in the matter that became
TheyMightBeVillains Mountain from the Astral Realm. [_Constellation_ #12
- Footnote Girl] And while de Sitter Space and the Astral Realm may or
may not be the same thing, they certainly had similar functions and
properties. Both were extra-universal areas within which universes were
formed, and which contained an unlimited amount of mass which could be
used to create more. Or supplement existing continuums.
KidNAIARHS brought himself back to the here and now. "Very well," he
said. "I will leave you to work this. I wish you well with your project."
=(Thank you. Do you require assistance in returning to your own time?)=
He shook his head. "No. Your aid in stopping me was invaluable. But
returning is simply a matter of detouring by the Rock of Net.ernity.
Farewell, Starmaker." And with that, Kid flew off in a random direction,
disappearing after a second as he leapt out of real space towards the
Rock.
Humanity watched him go. Then, it turned its attention back to sight
of the dim red galactic clusters. It stretched out its arm, and slowly
opened its hand.
Within was a slowly rotating whirlpool of what looked like stars and
gas. Long-time comic readers will recognise it - it bore a disturbing
resemblance to the sight unearthed by Krona and which for so long was
alleged to have precipitated the entire DC multiverse and the Crisis On
Infinite Earths.
Humanity held up its hand, as if to show its sparkling treasure to
the lingering afterimages of the decrepit galaxies. Then it said,
=(Let there be... more light.)=
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Issue:
Leftovers continues in Part 6 back in _Limp-Asparagus Lad_ #21.
The next issue of _Kid Not Appearing In Any Retcon Hour Story_ will
be part of Leftovers as well. Dunno what will happen in it though.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Character Credits:
Kid Not Appearing In Any Retcon Hour Story created by Badger (Matt
Rossi). Reserved by Saxon Brenton.
The Drizzt created by Drizzt (Jeff Barnes).
The Atomic Shagpile, Elastic Sock, Humanity, Net.Access, Ny!Lon!,
and the Siblings created by Saxon Brenton.
Fearless Leader and Maui are Public Domain.
Lobotomy (Lobo) created by Scav (Todd Kogutt).
Macroman and Mr. Thingy created by Dvandom (Dave Van Domelen).
Makkaroni created by Kyle Lucke.
Size Of The Entire Universe Man created by Jameel al Khafiz.
Squidman created by David Goldfarb. Reserved by Dvandom.
Wolfenblitz created by Abhay Khosla.
All characters copyright 1997 their owners or creators.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Add Notes Not Appearing In Any Retcon Hour Story:
Before people start correcting me, yes, I remember that Mr. Thingy said
in _Dvandom Force_ #47 that he has no powers of his own. But this is an
Elsewhirl-type story and so I took liberties to bring him in line with
his counterpart at Marvel.
By now many of you may be wondering what, exactly, the three issues
of this sub-arc have to do with the rest of Leftovers. Well, believe it
or not, apart from the thematic links there are story links that tie this
into everything else. It's just that they are subtle and won't become
apparent until later. But they're there. Really! Would I lie to you?
Inspiration for Humanity came from Olaf Stapledon's _Starmaker_ and
Isaac Asimov's 'The Last Question". Both are recommended reading.
Here is the promised breakdown of the characters, mainly for the more
obscure ones:
Lobotomy originally turned up in _501 Blues: Long Road To Nowhere_
as a member of L.E.G.I.O.N. (Literary Excess Growing Idiotically On
News.net). However, Scav's original treatment of him called him Lobo,
the same as the original, so I modified the name for copyright
considerations.
Mr. Thingy appeared in _Dvandom Force_ #s 43, 47 and 48.
The Somnambulist required Decibel Dude and Vigilante Guy's help back
in _DD&VG_ #21 and 22.
Size Of The Entire Universe Man is the origin of the TheyMightBePowers,
and was seen working behind the scenes in _Particle Man_ #2, with further
discussion of him in _Particle Man_ #15.
The Stupid Thing was created by Comics Snob Boy II to menace the LNH
back in _Tales of the LNH_ #292-3.
The Net.Thing is an NTB character created by Glenn Carnagey for _Wrath
of the Administrator_.
Wolfenblitz has been appearing occasionally in _Refugees of
Net.ropolis_ since #2.
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