🚀 go-pugleaf

              YOUR GUIDE TO "SUPER SEVEN" AND "WORLDS APART"
           Copyright 1994, Greg Fishbone.  All rights reserved.


INDEX:
  "SUPER SEVEN" SERIES INFORMATION
  "WORLDS APART" STORYLINE BACKGROUND
  ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR


                   "SUPER SEVEN" SERIES INFORMATION

   "Super Seven" is a Superguy series about a team of normal college
students dealing with supernormal powers.  They have their doubts and
insecurities, and sometimes they make mistakes, but they definitely seem
to be learning and improving as they go.  The series takes place in
Dillweed City, a medium-sized metropolis whose main exports are pickles
and oatmeal.

   Writing this series has been a rewarding experience, but also very
frustrating because of the annoying tendency of the characters to say and
do things that are clearly not in the script.  They also seem pretty
insistent on developing actual personalities, no matter what their Author
has to say about it.  As a result, my carefully drawn plans for the series
have been thrown out and replaced by something...  --better?  --worse?
--different, anyway.  Let's take a look at some examples:

THE PLAN:                            | THE REALITY:
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------
The series would chronicle the       | One of the team members dies in
adventures of a seven-member         | Episode #3.  The rest of the team
superhero team.                      | disbands in Episode #4.  Episodes
                                     | #5 and #6 take place primarily in
                                     | the form of a flashback.
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------
Sunbeam returns in Episode #4.       | Sunbeam returns in Episode #7????
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------
Spoonman would become a powerful     | Spoonman has become a rather
villain.                             | pathetic hero.
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------
Nobody Important and his serially    | Nobody Important and his serially
numbered Underlings would only appear| numbered Underlings have become the
in one scene, leave town forever, and| major recurring villains of the
never be heard from again.           | series so far.
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------
The "Worlds Apart" miniseries would  | All six surviving team members have
spotlight only three of the main     | substantial parts in "Worlds
characters.                          | Apart".
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------
I had absolutely no idea what would  | Damn!  It worked out pretty well,
happen from one episode of "Worlds   | as if I had actually planned it
Apart" to the next.                  | that way!
-------------------------------------|------------------------------------

   The series will continue after the miniseries with Episode #7, and I
for one am looking forward to finding out what is going to happen.


                   "WORLDS APART" STORYLINE BACKGROUND

   The "Worlds Apart" miniseries was originally posted as episodes #6A
through #6F of the "Super Seven", as a "summer replacement series" between
Episodes #6 and #7 of the main series.  At this point in the series, the
team has pretty much broken up for the summer, and individual members are
too busy mourning for their lost team member to concentrate on doing much
of anything else.  It was rather depressing, as you can see from this
little segment:

**************************************************************************

 ****  *   *  ****   *****  ****      *****   *  *    ***    ***    ***
*      *   *  *   *  *      *   *        *   ******  *      *   *  *   *
 ***   *   *  ****   ***    ****  ***   *     *  *   ****   *****  *****
    *  *   *  *      *      *   *      *     ******  *   *  *   *  *   *
****    ***   *      *****  *   *      * TM   *  *    ***   *   *  *   *

                 SUPER SEVEN #6AA: "The Mourning After"
  (Taking place between #6 and #6A, a bit before Pliable Lad Annual #1)
           Copyright 1994, Greg Fishbone, all rights reserved.

   Kyle lay in bed on top of his covers, eyes closed, listening intently
to the radio.  It was a shame, he thought.  He used to really like this
song before they turned it into a commercial.

   Well do you think it'd be all right
   If you invested with Dreyfus tonight?
   Don't you know you can't afford that Beemer
   And anyway you have no place to go!

   You know it need not've been this bad,
   We're the best chance you ever had.
   If you had bought our mutual fund years ago
   You might be rich today!

   So you could give us all your cash
   And hope the market doesn't crash.
   Don't you know the Dreyfus Fund's
   Still legal in 49 states!

   Sorry, Tennessee!
   Sorry, Tennessee!
   Sorr-- Hkkkkkkkkh...

   The song was interrupted by a loud hissing and crackling of static as
the reception was suddenly lost to interference.  "Hi, Mark," said Kyle,
without even bothering to open his eyes.
   "The one drawback to my magnetic powers," said Mark, flicking off the
hissing radio.  "I haven't been able to watch television for almost a week
now!"  Kyle opened his eyes and sat up.  "We missed you at dinner,
roomie," Mark told him.
   "I wasn't hungry."
   "It was taco night at the dining commons.  Not much excitement, except
for the demonstration..."
   "Demonstration?"
   "A big protest of Clinton's foreign policy.  Martin Stetson was leading
a group dressed up like the Beach Boys singing 'Help Rwanda' and 'Little
Deuce Troops'."
   "Amazing," said Kyle.  "When does that guy ever find the time to teach
his classes?"
   There was an uneasy quiet for a few minutes, while Mark shuffled papers
around on his desk and Kyle lay down and closed his eyes again.  "Still
thinking about Laurel?" asked Mark.
   "Nope," said Kyle.  "She got what was coming to her, trying to take on
that oatmeal monster all by herself.  It's not even such a great loss when
you really think about it..."
   "Kyle!  How can you say that?"
   "It's the truth and you know it!  She was a selfish, manipulative,
egotistical bitch.  The only person who really cared about Laurel was
Laurel.  Except maybe Tom..."
   "Kyle, the girl gave her life trying to save the entire city!  She's a
hero -- a martyr!"
   "Whoopie, let's get her nominated for sainthood.  Could you pop in a CD
or something?  I need *some* kind of music in here."
   "What are you up for?"
   "Johnny Hates Jazz," said Kyle.  "You know that song, 'I Don't Want to
Be a Hero'?  That's what I want to listen to, over and over for the next
couple of weeks."
   "Kyle, you can't let Laurel's death--"
   "Mark, you've always been a good friend to me, but a really good friend
*knows when to shut up*!"
   Mark put a CD into the player and stalked out of the room, locking the
door behind him.  Walking down the hall, he passed the room where Tracy
and Stacy lived, and heard the sound of crying coming from inside, in
stereo.
   The next room was Laurel's, now unoccupied.  The school had assigned
three roommates for Laurel in the first three months of the year, and each
had quickly moved away to another dorm, complaining that Laurel was
impossible to live with.  Somebody, most likely Tom, had placed a small
wreath in front of the door.
   Mark walked on to the next room, home to Tom and Nick.  The door was
open, so Mark walked in to find himself in the middle of a demolition
zone.  Furniture had been smashed, small objects crushed and strewn across
the room, papers shredded and scattered all over, and in the middle of it
all Nick sat calmly reading a Madeleine L'Engle paperback.  "What
happened?" asked Mark.
   "Hurricane Tom," Nick replied.  "This whole thing with Laurel is really
getting to him."
   "Where is he now?"
   "Don't know," Nick shrugged.  "I just hope it's some place that's
sparsely populated."
   "Maybe we should try to find him..."
   "I wouldn't worry -- he took his costume, so he's probably just going
to do some vigilante stuff in the Rat-Trap.  I'd hate to be a criminal in
Dillweed City tonight, eh?"
   "Yeah, right," said Mark, sitting down on what was left of Tom's bed.
"What are you reading?"
   "_Many Waters_.  It's the best retelling of the Noah's Ark story that's
ever been written!"  Nick put the book down and began describing it to
Mark in excited tones.  "Now, just picture it; Noah walks into his tent
and sits down to dinner with his family.  'I just had a talk with God,' he
says.  'That's nice, dear,' says his wife.  'God is going to bring down a
flood to destroy the world,' says Noah.  'Really?' asks his wife.  'Yeah.
He wants me to build a huge ark and fill it with all kinds of animals.
Then the only people who are allowed to come on board and survive the
flood are me, my wife, our three sons, and their wives,' says Noah.  'And
what about our daughter?' asks Noah's wife.  '*DOH!*'"  Nick did an
impression of Homer Simpson hitting himself in the forehead and fell back,
laughing.
   "You seem to be in a pretty good mood," Mark noted.
   "Sure, why not?"
   "Well, everyone else is kind of upset about Laurel..."
   "Oh, *that*," said Nick.  "Life goes on, you know?  Besides--"  He
leaned forward and spoke in a conspiratory whisper.  "--she's coming back."
   "What?!"
   "She's coming back," Nick repeated.  "You know how Laurel is; she'd do
anything to get us all worked up.  Personally, I'm not falling for it this
time."
   "But Nick, how could she possibly come back?  She was--"
   "Reduced to subatomic particles and scattered all over the city?" Nick
asked.  "Do you really think a small thing like that is going to stop
Laurel from coming back to gloat?"
   "Honestly, yes."
   "Well then, what's your story?" asked Nick.  "Why aren't you moping
around, crying your eyes out, or smashing furniture like everybody else?"
   "I don't know," said Mike.  "I was sad at first, but now I'm just numb.
I should be really depressed by now, like everybody else, but the more I
try the less I feel -- is that wrong?"
   "Of course not.  Why should you feel guilty about not grieving for
somebody who's still alive?"
   "Why indeed?" asked Mark, slowly shaking his head.
   Nick returned to his book, laughing out loud as Mark left the room.

**************************************************************************

   My original idea for "Worlds Apart" was to concentrate on a manageable
number (three) of the characters to develop them further and hopefully
bring them closer together.  As noted in the section above, the other
three team members also decided to write themselves into the story.

   A slightly edited version of "Worlds Apart" is being posted to
rec.arts.comics.creative, and will soon be available in the Superguy
Archive as a Trade-Etherback file.


                        ABOUT THE CHARACTERS

THE SUPER SEVEN:

   The members of the Super Seven are a group of college students who
gained super powers from a mutagenic substance mixed into their slush-
cones at a festival celebrating Dillweed City's first superhero, Spoonman.
The series began as a flat-out superhero spoof, but soon developed beyond
my control as the characters became more three-dimensional.  By now, they
have almost reached co-author status.  There are currently six members of
the Super Seven -- a seventh member, Laurel "Sunbeam" Hill, died during
the team's first battle in Episode #3.

Nick (Taximan): Nick can teleport by transforming his physical form into a
carrier wave and travelling at the speed of light to any destination.  He
can also bring other people and objects with him.

Tracy (Anode) and Stacy (Cathode), collectively the "Tesla Girls":
Together, they are able to create and control physical coils of
electricity.  Separated, their powers are considerably weakened.  The
Tesla Girls are twins, connected by a special psychic link.

Kyle (The Human Microwave): Kyle can generate intense heat from his hands,
and apparently cold as well.  He is a gifted artist, and sometimes has
visions of people, places, or things that will be important in the future.

Tom (Mr. Plasma): Tom can transform his body into a form of plasma energy
and control its intensity.  In plasma form, he can leap great distances,
and his touch may be deadly if he is in a particularly bad mood.

Mark (Magnoboy): Mark can create and control electromagnetic fields to
make metal objects move according to his will.  As an unfortunate side
effect, Mark's power interferes with radio and television reception, and
he is unable to ride in a motor vehicle without draining its battery.

OTHER MAJOR CHARACTERS:

   These characters do not appear in the "Worlds Apart" miniseries, but
they have been very busy over the summer and will return in future
episodes to complicate the plot as much as they can!

Spoonman: Dillweed City's first superhero.  He has no actual powers other
than an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time to
exploit the heroic actions of others -- usually members of the Super
Seven.

Nobody Important: A criminal mastermind dedicated to destroying his arch-
rival, Spoonman.  His talent is for creating overly complex plans for his
Underlings to carry out.

Number One, Number Two, Number Three, and Number Six: The Underlings of
Nobody Important, completely loyal and dedicated to following his plans.
Number Six, the most recent addition, is actually a clone of Laurel
(Sunbeam).


                           ABOUT THE AUTHOR

   Greg is an expatriate Bostonian living in Philadelphia.  He began his
career as an editor by shredding documents for the United States
Government.  From there, he moved on to working with the likes of Isaac
Asimov and Buzz Aldrin, although he never got to meet either of them face
to face.  As a writer, he has been fairly prolific, with many stories that
have never been published, most of which he hopes nobody ever sees.  He
has been published in "13' by 9' Literary Journal," "Omni Literary
Journal," and "Event Horizon Magazine."  He was a contributor and
assistant editor on Volume One of the "Starship Alethea" shared-world
anthology series, published in 1991.  He has two comics stories optioned
to Blue Comet Press, which will eventually be published, and he hopes that
some day soon he will be writing a comic book series of his own (more
details as they become available).  He plans to graduate law school, find
the right girl, become a millionaire, and conquer the universe -- not
necessarily in that order.

   Greg also writes a series called "Pariah", taking place in the
Metaworld, a more "realistic" world in the Superguy multiverse.  He is
happy to report that the characters in "Pariah" know their place, unlike
the ones in "Super Seven", and that series is proceeding pretty much
according to Plan.

---
Greg Fishbone                                  fishbone@astro.ocis.temple.edu

   "As you can see, Your Honor, I have no eyebrows."
           --Defendant on "The People's Court" responding to Judge Wopner's
             question: "What seems to be the problem, ma'am?"