Pretty much, yeah. I mean, replace the Monkees? Never!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Hmm, tough one. I mean, some of what I would do can be inferred from my position on the character, which I presented in some detail in another thread, but it's not as if I have script outlines lying around labeled "In Case of Joe Quesada Psychotic Episode, Break Glass".

If I had to make a comparison to some past period in Iron Man's history, I would say I'd probably be shooting for something closest to the vibe that Kurt Busiek gave the book when he helmed the start-over following "Heroes Reborn". I thought he had a pretty good handle on what Iron Man ought to represent - and that in turn hearkened back to the Michelinie/Layton era, come to that. My Invincible Iron Man (I'd insist on the title tag, which some creative crews seem willing to omit) would be a brightly-lit book that happened mostly during the day. There'd be techie gee-whizzery - it's a book about a brilliant inventor who fights crime wearing powered armor, after all - but I would endeavor to keep it below the Roddenberry Line.

Honestly, I'd have to spend at least the first year just cleaning up messes left behind by previous writers - and at least a week or two before even getting started catching up on what those messes are, since there are significant gaps in my knowledge of recent developments other than Extremis. Aside from the fallout from Civil War, which is likely to be considerable (possibly untenable), there are smaller questions. Who hates Tony's guts right now? Which members of his long-time supporting cast aren't on speaking terms with him? How do I fix that without being too obvious about the fact that I'm really just discarding a previous writer's mistakes? Where is his company headquartered and what's it called this week? How fast can I put the Stark International arch back up? Whatever happened to Vic Martinelli? Which of his old-timey villains are still alive? All critical questions.

I'd also have to decide whether I was going to deal with Extremis, come up with some elaborate way of backing it out, or just blithely pretend it never happened, like John Byrne did with, uh, the Doom Patrol's entire history before he started writing their book. I hesitate to emulate John Byrne in anything, but I would at least have to fix the stupid changes Warren made to Iron Man's origin story.

Once I was done sorting all that out, assuming Marvel still existed and I still had the job, I could get down to the serious business of making Iron Man fun. That shouldn't be too difficult once the underbrush is cleared. I mean, the guy's basically a heavily armed Tom Swift. It's like a ready-made recipe for fun. He can go anywhere - outer space, ocean depths, deep underground, parallel dimensions, anywhere. From busting international arms smugglers to investigating the mysterious disappearances of prominent Internet hackers; from battling corporate espionage to handling the real thing - the sky's the limit, as long as it's fun, as long as Tony needs to use his wits as much as his fists to prevail. Whether he's preventing a rigged supertanker from taking out the Port of New York or wooing a dangerous female double agent, he's gotta be thinking, weighing the angles, trying to stay one jump ahead all the time.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Uh, yeah, that was a joke. Not that Hal Jordan may not appear at some point? But he probably won't be Green Lantern when he does.

Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, is in FI-era UF, though. He's the president of Avalon Communications, which owns, among other things, the New Avalon Cornet-Scientifer and Avalon 17 (WNAC), one of the local television stations.

Also, you left out Hawkgirl, who has been mentioned a few times as the Thanagarian policel liaison to the IPO, though she has yet to appear on screen.

>Well I guess the question here is, are you going anywhere with them or
>are you just writing them in as guest starring positions for flavor?

The latter; though a number of modern DC heroes appear in UF in various places, I have no plans to actually make a Justice League-type supergroup out of them.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Not having got round to watching anything past "The Age of Steel", I couldn't really answer that yet.

>And speaking of the second season, is there a UF counterpart of
>Torchwood?

Not that I know of. The BPRD serves many of the same functions.

>Since the WDF runs the older Trek designs (Connie refit, Excelsior),
>Starfleet the TNG era designs (Galaxy, Nebula), and the IPSF the
>DS9/Voyager era designs (Sovereign, Defiant), do other "modern" Trek
>designs (Intrepid, Nova, etc) fit in anywhere?

The only place the Intrepid class fits is the dustbin as far as I'm concerned. As for the other, the UF universe already has a Nova class; it's an ex-Earthforce battlecruiser class.

>And since the Enterprise-A meets her maker in A Day of Infamy,
>does this mean the next Sovereign class ship will be Enterprise-B
>(which won't be commissioned til Tuesday)?

This is possible, but unlikely, since the IPSF (unlike the Clark-era Starfleet) feels no great need to antagonize the WDF and cause confusion by duplicating starship names.

As to what Jean-Luc Picard's next ship will be named, that depends in part on what he winds up doing after A Day of Infamy. If he becomes the next IPSF commander - which seems likely - then his (and Captain Riker's) next ship will probably be Invincible, which will need a new command crew when Challenger comes out of repairs anyway.

If, on the other hand, he takes a role that lends itself to a new-construction vessel - say, sector operations chief for the Centaurus Sector - then, as I've noted, the IPSF will probably not name that vessel Enterprise. I think I have a note kicking around someplace identifying his next ship, in that case, as IPS La Pérouse, a Surprise-class frigate.

The next Sovereign-class starship, should there be one, would be named IPS Columbia, for obvious reasons.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Is the BPRD an IPO organization, or are their operations mostly confined to New Avalon / Zeta-Cygni territory?

If they're a RZC national entity, then I could see something Torchwood-esque existing, say, on Earth, which might make for an interesting problem... except that the role's already filled by IPX, so never mind. :)

>As to what Jean-Luc Picard's next ship will be named, that
>depends in part on what he winds up doing after A Day of
>Infamy. If he becomes the next IPSF commander - which seems
>likely - then his (and Captain Riker's) next ship will probably be
>Invincible, which will need a new command crew when
>Challenger comes out of repairs anyway.
>
>If, on the other hand, he takes a role that lends itself to a
>new-construction vessel - say, sector operations chief for the
>Centaurus Sector - then, as I've noted, the IPSF will probably not
>name that vessel Enterprise. I think I have a note kicking
>around someplace identifying his next ship, in that case, as IPS La
>Pérouse, a Surprise-class frigate.
>
>The next Sovereign-class starship, should there be one, would be named
>IPS Columbia, for obvious reasons.
>

To be followed, I presume, by Atlantis and Discovery?

It's part of the IPO, and BPRD agents are often called in by members of other IPO divisions (most often CID) when things get weird in the field.

>If they're a RZC national entity, then I could see something
>Torchwood-esque existing, say, on Earth, which might make for an
>interesting problem.

It's possible that there was such an organization on Earth at some point - remnants may even exist "today" - but I haven't given it a lot of thought. If the Torchwood Institute existed (as a highly secret function of the British government) prior to the Clark administration, it would either have gone even deeper underground or been consumed - probably with much violence - by Earthforce Special Projects after the Battle of Titan.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

One hopes not.

	Chad Collier Smirking Kilrathi The Captain of the Gravy Train

Well, I'd have to agree, with certain interpretations of 'followed'.

Personally, I think they deserve an honorable retirement, with the implementation of a new-generation vehicle... but I doubt it's gonna happen any time soon.

No, see, there is no other interpretation. That's why those names are used in UF.

>Personally, I think they deserve an honorable retirement, with the
>implementation of a new-generation vehicle... but I doubt it's gonna
>happen any time soon.

If you meant the Shuttles, they are, in 2010 (they've got work left to do). And if you mean the Ares I and V, they also are, with first flight scheduled for 2014.

	Chad Collier Smirking Kilrathi The Captain of the Gravy Train

Nope, it's just a random running gag.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Cool. Can't have too many of those.

Thanks.

-- Bob
-------------------
For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...

Studio album, probably Surfing, maybe Flying in a Blue Dream. If I had to pick just a single item from his catalog to have, though, it'd be Live in San Francisco.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Yeah, that was my first and only album of his for a couple of years. I'm making my way through the studio albums now as I get spare change. And on a related note, I now know why he really wears those shades-- he's just freaky looking without them.

Dan Brandon,
disturbed by the eyes.

It's never been explored in text, but many people in-story suspect there's a connection. There are no other clinical examples of Detian mothers-to-be getting dosed with that particular neurotoxin (or, well, any neurotoxin, I imagine).

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

-Joe-

No, she's stuttered since childhood. Before she went to WPI, she mostly covered it by not attempting to talk much.

>If NeuroKill was the agent, then one may assume that Li Kohran had
>something to do with putting Kate right again during the latter's stay
>on Ishiyama in the fall of 2409, no?

No.

Kohran's neither a doctor nor a bioengineer. She works mostly with machines. She wouldn't know where to begin attempting to treat a neurological injury.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>>She's not quite free of it, but she's much better at controlling it, to the point where it now only tends to emerge in times of unusual stress. This has to do with certain meditative/chi-focus techniques learned from Sumire Kanzaki during Kate's stay on Ishiyama - techniques peculiar to the Kanzaki family's martial form. (There was also quite a lot of red wine involved, as per Starfire's musings in Blood Ties #2, but that was probably not directly involved in Kate's progress.)<<

Duh on me. (Though I'd think the red wine would make the stutter worse, not better. :) )

-Joe-

Depends on what caused the sutter in the first place J.

I have... basically no idea. I'm fond of some Golden Age characters (Alan Scott, for example), but lack the kind of comprehensive knowledge of that area needed to make that judgment. I know practically nothing about Liberty Belle and am much more familiar with the modern Black Canary than her predecessor(s).

I guess I'd have to go with Liberty Belle on 3, anyway, if only because I believe she, unlike Black Canary I, has actual super-powers. Am I thinking of the right character? Jesse Quick's mother? Was married to Jon Law in Robinson's The Golden Age?

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

While he's sympathetic regarding the case itself - everybody's had moments like that, out there on the front lines - he's disenchanted with the way the city handled it, and the fact that Blue Steel himself appears not to have any problem with same. The whole thing was, if not covered up, at least swept under the rug. It's not the first time that kind of thing has happened and it probably won't be the last, but still.

>Did the Silver Spectre ever meet the Neutron Knight?

Oh, probably. Everybody knew everybody back in those days. Mind you, Spectre had been active for nearly 20 years by the time the Neutron Knight came on the scene. Still, it's very likely that they were at least acquainted.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

I've been mostly avoiding the hype for that, but the one shot of Bumblebee's robot mode that slipped through my barrier elements looked like ass. Apparently they went to Takara and got the Ugly Robot Mode Design Team last seen working on the designs for Car Robot Cybertron.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Constantly. It doesn't help, though.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Oddly enough, there was just a thread about this on the UF Source Material board.

The short version is that there was a British electronic band in the '80s called The Art of Noise, and I always thought it was a terrific name for a band. Given the time differential involved, Kate's band being named after them is roughly equivalent to a modern band being named after, say, Shakespeare.

You'll occasionally see Kate's band referred to in playlists and whatnot as "The Art of Noise NA" for this reason. It's a tongue-in-cheek reference to a couple of British shoegazer bands from the '80s that Truss liked, both of which discovered to their chagrin that there were already American bands with their names, so that their US releases all gave the name of the band as "The So-and-Sos UK". (If you ever happen to notice an album by The Chameleons UK in the C bin at your local record store, assuming you're old enough to know what record stores are and where to find them, that's why.)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Hell, I don't remember exactly. Whenever Truss bought the PlayStation version. That would've been sometime in the late '90s or 2000, when we were living at Shamrock House in Waltham.

>Second, is there a significant difference between ion cannon (such as
>the Y-wing) and PPC ('Mech/Dropship weapon type) technology in the UF
>universe? Both of them strike me as similar weaponry.

Quite significant. An ion cannon functions more like an electromagnetic pulse weapon - it does only minor structural damage, its primary effect is to screw up electronics. A PPC is not only a structural weapon but a devastating one, one of the most powerful energy weapons in its size/weight class. Its energy consumption and cooling demands are much higher than an ion cannon's as well.

A single direct hit from an ion cannon of the size/power class suitable for mounting on a starfighter or Destroid will mess up the avionics of, say, a TIE fighter, making the vehicle harder to control and probably disabling the advanced sensors. A single direct hit from a Destroid-class PPC will destroy the fighter and most likely vaporize the pilot.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Interesting. I was thinking the difference in power levels was more a matter of beam focus rather than sheer power, since PPC bolts are generally ion (or proton) based in 'Mech technical terms. Figured an ion cannon's power requirements to generate a shot capable of disrupting shielded electronics were nearly the same as a similar-grade PPC. Thanks!

(Assuming you mean "since Crossroads"... )

In 2392, she bought a 1955 Vincent Series D Black Shadow and set off on a motoring tour of the American southwest. She was last heard from in 2403, when witnesses reported seeing a woman answering her description riding west out of Kingman, Arizona at midnight, bound for Sitgreaves Pass, in company with an unknown man described as "a spectral biker mounted on a bobtail Harley with wheels of fire." Neither she nor her mysterious riding companion have been seen since... at least by anyone who will admit it.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Yes.

Now don't ask me to put anybody on the spot.

Hell, I wish I would write more often. I don't know what's the matter with me this year. It's like sawing off an arm trying to get anything done.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

When I read the original question, I assumed your answer was going to be "Yes. Me." :)

--
-Pasha
"I invented Warp Drive, whatta ya got?"
"I'm the Norse God of Mecha."
"Well, I guess you win then."

Does it feel like the bigger the UF universe gets, the harder it is to "move" through it with writing?

No, I don't think it's that. The increased complexity does make planning long story arcs more challenging, or maybe it's just that my neural structure is ossifying in my old age - I find myself having to jot down tentative timelines and make things vaguely resembling outlines, which is not something I ever had to do much of before. But for me, the actual writing part has always been separate from that. Ordinarily I can focus on whichever corner I'm working on at the time and put the rest of the universe's scale out of the picture until I'm finished with it, widening the focus only as much as I have to at any given point.

This is different. It's more like the bell's been muffled, so however hard I try to ring it, it just makes a sort of dull, pathetic thud.

It happens from time to time. I just have to remain calm and remind myself that it always passes.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
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Hrrrm. And of course you dont have a forwarding address we could use to send bribes to your muse...

Darnit...

Thanks, but I'm fine, just frustrated.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

If so, I don't recall now. I don't think I'd planned that far ahead.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

...Okay, that's not the real answer, but I just needed to use the line. :)

- Lord Ilmartello!
"I sense the pivotal moment of failure quickly approaches."

Because when your magical-girl show ends with the heroines crying, you've obviously done something right which must be rewarded.

S'true what you say. Even if it isn't the "real" answer. :)

Well, the way the question's worded it's kind of a no-op; it's not as if, when I did the initial thinking on Symphony's background, I was specifically looking for something to combine with the events of RGU. It came together a little more organically than that.

I knew early on that Utena had to be from a parallel dimension. The background of her story was too peculiar to have happened in the Known Galaxy, even on some obscure backwater world somewhere - and anyway, that wouldn't have provided the isolation required to make her arc in the first two symphonies work. Being from the Outer Rim or the Coreward Frontier someplace is a little like being from Nepal or the Yukon - sure, it's far away, and it can be kind of a pain in the ass to get to, but it's still only a matter of a couple days' traveling if you have the right resources at hand. If she had come from somewhere in Midgard, getting her home and dealing with her problems there would have been a simple matter of marshaling the right troops and chartering the right bus.

What parallel dimension took some thought. A lot of the design work for that part of S1/S2 got done during and immediately after the road trip Truss and I took to Anime Central in 2001; he and I did a lot of considering of these matters during the trip, then sat down with Juni when we got back and wrangled it some more.

I can't remember now which of us thought of it first, but the idea struck someone that the kinds of things that happened to Utena - the tournament, the ambiguous Powers involved, the ritual and symbolism overlaid on a world that seems normal at first glance but in reality teems with strangeness - were ideally suited to be taking place in a world like Cephiro, where will determines fate. What was Utena doing the whole way through the Grand Tournament but (often unconsciously) bending the world - often against the wishes of those in power - to her will? What was Akio doing but trying to superimpose his will on hers?

The parallels, thematically at least, between Revolutionary Girl Utena and Magic Knight Rayearth are many and make for a ready-made framework on which to build the combined story that appears in UF. Both featured young women striving heroically against impossible odds only to be monumentally shafted at the end. Neither should ever have been allowed to end as it did. The opportunity to address both of these miscarriages of justice at once was irresistibly appealing. Once that spark was struck, the rest followed swiftly.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

Yeah, I was having trouble wording it. You answered the question I was trying to ask, though, and thank you.

I have seen very little of RGU and none of MKR (and thus didn't realize RGU was being combined with anything until somewhere in S2) but the combination works really well in my opinion.

but after that, gang, move on to the Ask G Anything, Part Three thread I'm about to make. Getting lengthy in here.

Ard Sumhenner
that Janice chick
Usual Suspect and general menace

There have been a couple-three Forum posts that touch on this; if you search the old UF General board (which at the time of the posts was the only UF board) for "filmfan", you'll come up with a mock article from an in-story fan mag about Kate's early movie career, for instance. It hasn't gotten a lot of play in the stories themselves, apart from a few mentions of Kate working with Sumire Kanzaki in the later symphonies.

--G.
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