What phone guys?

R

Anybody who can provide specific details about the creation of the artificial intelligence called only “R” is dead. What we can tell is that that R wants nothing more than to wipe out all biological life forms on the planet Earth. It seems, simply, to find them gross. Perhaps disgust is an emotion unexpected in a being otherwise operating on pure logic, but it remains. Existing as a computer intelligence, R would seem perfectly capable of avoiding living things. But no. The knowledge that we’re out there, living, it creeps R out. R needs us to be dead.

R has managed to keep its method of creating robotic bodies a secret, but routinely a new one will pop up somewhere, attempting to kill as much as possible before the inevitable arrival of the superheroes who may destroy it, but only temporarily.

When I was young and just ripping off Marvel characters for inspiration, this was my Ultron rip-off. I can only hope that my attempt (created just now) to make the robot’s desire to wipe out all living things an act of revulsion is at least somewhat less played out than ominicidal robots usually are.

Eddie Legit

The gods of old are dead. Gone is the time when a god of war would take a stake in a human conflict or a god of love would select an ideal couple. But a new force stands in the place. Eddie Legit is that new force.

If the gods of myth thought of humanity as slaves or playthings, Eddie Legit is worse. Eddie Legit doesn’t even have a pantheon of other gods to reign him in. Standing alone as, perhaps, the most powerful entity in the world, Eddie Legit has no reason to not be a total dick.

A “god of dickishness” can gain a bit of a following in a world without hope, and that’s what has happened. Eddie Legit has become something of a hero to swarms of oppressed people who admire his self-serving attitude. And this is exactly why Raid Force Zero intends to bring down Eddie Legit and prove that being a dick is not the way to improve the world.

I had no idea where to go when I drew Eddie Legit. I looked at him and I was like “who is this guy?” I detected a bit of a Mxyzptlk vibe, so I thought he could be an all-powerful trickster type. Then I decided, less of a trickster, more of a total ass. And then I made him an opponent of the most “grim” set of heroes I created last year. I admit, I kinda like how it turned out.

Here’s this:

Atmosoldier

In preparation for a desired attack on an alien world, a pseudo-military force needed an ideal soldier for that invasion. Fortunately, with the proper resources, such a soldier can be built. Using cutting edge technology this group converted a unit of hired troops into a genetically modified fighting force suited to an alient atmosphere.

They still lost the invasion, though. The beings on the alien world were more advanced than expected and the modified troops were massacred. The aliens then sent a single representative to Earth and the entire pseudo-military complex was brought to its knees. In the end, through sheer dumb luck, only Wilma Clarke remained.

Left in the smoldering remains of her employer and now modified to exist in an environment other than that of her homeworld, the Atmosoldier had few options. Using what remained of her military resources, Wilma turned to crime to keep herself alive (and, in some way, to work through the trauma she had witnessed). Whether robbing a bank or working as a villain-for-hire, Atmosoldier puts her earnings to use getting access to the chemicals she needs just to breathe.

The Corruptor

In the beginning there was nothing. Then things started to happen. This was a chaotic time, a frothing roil from which all manner of strange wild things came and went in unformed time that made them brief and eternal. But then solidity. Universes established laws of physics that held them together, preventing the chaotic things from maintaining a foothold. Some of the chaotic things liked it better the old way. One of the old dark things wants things to go back as they were. The only way to do that is break down the physics of the solid universes and return them to the fluidic chaos of old.

This evil intelligence from the void beyond time has reached into the universe and possessed a young human host. This host, in constant pain, can only find relief in furthering the plans of the intelligence. Almost apologetically the host enacts schemes, encouraging politicians or other people with power to cause suffering among the larger population. This suffering powers the strange mystic machinery which could destroy the universe. So far, the only thing preventing the Corruptor’s success is the tireless efforts of the Green Camera, whose camera can locate the Corruptor’s plots before it is too late..

Some men on cellular telephones?