The Power Company's first mission is to keep a group of high-tech mercs called the Strike Force from stealing a mysterious stone ring with a big pretty gem from a museum. The gem got hit by an energy blast and out popped a green guy with a staff, riding a dragon.
He calls himself the Imperial Dragoneer and asks what world that the "Dread Master" can add to his dominions. When no one has any clue what he's talking about, he decides they're thieves in the temple and it's time to get to killing.
The team is completely disorganized and getting their butts kicked until Skyrocket - who hadn't even accepted the offer to join - takes command and gets them sort of working together. At which point the mercs re-enter the fray, the brief moment of cohesion is over, and the Power Company get the humiliated.
At least the mercs didn't make off with the "stone doughnut," as their boss puts it. That's sort of a success! Except they stuck a tracker on the dragon, so they'll find it sooner or later, even if their employer - a Dr. Cyber - is kind of a dick. It seems like a time to cut your losses, but you stiff one mad scientist type and so you're blackballed. It's a rough job market for merc teams.
In the aftermath, Witchfire - a musician who uses real magic in her shows - is already looking into music videos and movie deals in case this falls through. Bork's worried he's going to lose his job because he stopped keeping the dragon in a choke hold and got smacked halfway across the city, and Manhunter vanished as soon as the fight ended. As for Skyrocket, she figures they ought to be more worried about the Dragoneer's claims his master would take over the world.
On the plus side, Striker Z's buddy, who used to work for S.T.A.R. Labs before turning to movie special effects, upgraded Skyrocket's flight and power harness. Her parents built it, but they're dead and she doesn't really know how to fix it.
Manhunter checks in. Turns out he didn't bail, he was just busy tracking the Dragoneer his own way: following a big dragon flying around in the daytime. He tracked it to Alcatraz, where the Dragoneer's got the ring set up on a pile of trash. I picture the dragon thinking like a Flinstones' appliance: 'Sigh, it's a living.' Again, rough economy.
The Dragoneer waves his wand and makes a magic sign and says what this world needs is - well, he says a lot of stuff about sin and darkness and a doubled moon, a piece of ice-blue shadow. Doesn't really lend itself to a parody of "Love Potion No. 9." The Power Company's hiding in a fog bank Witchfire conjured up, ready to attack, but Strike Force is on the ground, ready to swoop in once the heroes do all the hard work.
Bold of them to assume the heroes will actually succeed.
In other developments, a woman in a hotel sees Manhunter on TV and is very distressed by it, putting in a call to Japan. And a cop hassles a teen sleeping on a bench in a train station, but the teen's intrigued by a for-hire super-team. She'll end up being the last member of the team, whose introduction we covered 4 years ago.
{8th longbox, 80th comic. Power Company #2, by Kurt Busiek (writer), Tom Grummett (penciler), Christian Alamy (inker), Alex Sinclair (colorist), Comicraft (letterer)}
No comments:
Post a Comment