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| Awesome art by Derrick Fleece. More on this later. |
So in
case you missed it (for some reason Facebook only let about 40 of you see the
link), I posted a brand-spanking-new story over on Pocket Coyote yesterday. I
was originally going to call it “Ghost Dance,” but it went in a different
direction and ended up with the title “Brothers in Arms.” Same story, different
title. Sorry for the confusion. Anyway, it’s over 5,000 words long and
introduces three(!) new heroes in the Masks-verse.
No,
they’re not taking over the series in Volume 2. But each of those three guys
will be important in Rae’s and Trevor’s next adventure.
The
first new guy we meet is Clayton Ross, a.k.a. the Black Mask. He’s the guy we
get the word mask from, sort of like
how modern English speakers got superhero
from Superman. And for someone who basically defined what it means to be a
mask, he’s rather … well … human. And grumpy. And sarcastic, but by now you
guys know to expect that. He’s a trenchcoat-and-fedora hero, not a
cape-and-tights hero, and he apparently spends most of his time punching
mobsters in the face and taking their stuff. (In this story, he’s somehow
acquired a rather luxurious private plane—and in 1947, having a private plane
of any description was pretty
impressive.) He’s spent the last few years creeping around Europe, punching
Nazis in the face, and he’s fresh off using his skullduggery skills to gather
evidence for the Doctors’ Trial in Nuremberg. Now he’s back in the United
States, and he’s uncovered something that gives even him the creeps. Someone
has been keeping a mask—or “mysteryman,” as they’re called in Ross’s time—prisoner,
trying to figure out how his powers work. Ross wants to break the guy out, and
to that end, he’s recruited the kid.
“The
kid” is actually almost 30 years old now—Ben Wise, a.k.a. Eagle Eye. He got
into the masked-hero game when an eccentric inventor paid him a hundred bucks
to strap on an experimental flying harness and jump off a roof. (It was the
Depression. Don’t judge.) Ben got hooked on the rush of flying, and the next
thing you know, he’s gliding over rooftops looking for muggers to beat up.
Sometime in the 1930s, he ran into the Black Mask and teamed up with him
several times. Later, Eagle Eye volunteered for service in World War II, and
some bad things happened to him overseas. When Ross finds the young man he’ll
always think of as “the kid”, he’s trying to drink himself into a stupor. But Ross
needs the kid sober if they’re going to pull off a superhero-style heist …
The
third side of this triangle is a bit more mysterious, and he’s important to “Brothers
in Arms” mostly because of his absence. First identified as the Big Guy, he’s a
well-known mysteryman who teamed up with the Black Mask and Eagle Eye and was
the major reason they got along before the war. The Big Guy had a great sense
of humor, he was bulletproof, and he was the sort of fellow who’s friends with
everyone within a few seconds of meeting them. Ross and Ben miss having someone
around who can laugh at the bad guys, and they’re not sure how to do this
team-up thing now that the Big Guy has gone missing in the bombing of Dresden.
But the Big Guy still has a few secrets in sore …
So
what does this have to do with Masks volume
2, you ask?
Well,
each of these three men—the Black Mask, Eagle Eye, and the Big Guy—has a role
to play in the story. That’s not to say any or all of them actually appear; the
Black Mask, of course, was famously blown up ten years ago, and Eagle Eye’s a
very old man if he’s still alive, and the Big Guy, well, was in Dresden. But
they cast long shadows, and those shadows begin to gather in the first chapter
of Volume 2, which goes live tonight at midnight Pacific time.
Yes,
you read that right. Volume 2 starts
tomorrow. Only on Pocket Coyote. The first chapter is called “Transformations,”
and it throws Rae and Trevor into a new and dangerous situation. A major
supervillain has died, and the executor of his estate is selling off some of
his most treasured and esoteric possessions—including one object that Trevor
desperately needs. He and Rae must go undercover at an auction full of villains
in order to get that precious object. If they’re recognized, they’ll be dead
before they can reach the door. And there’s someone there with an agenda of his
own, someone who’s nothing but trouble for our young heroes. Oh, and somebody
wears leather pants. I’m all about the value for click.
And
now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an illustration to finish …
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