PLAYING GOD TPB Story Discussion! - SPOILER ALERT!!!!

[dellamorte]

The reason you don't see X-O or Bloodshot is that we were asked to stay away from them by VEI. It would have been great to include them, I think we could have done some really cool stuff. Oh well.

-slym

It would have been nice to see someone use the characters.

How long ago were you given VEI's blessing?

If my memory is right it was late 2007 when Dinesh called me and asked us to do an online story for them. He had really liked the Zombies story and wanted to see something that would keep people coming back to the site.

Stu and I threw ideas around for a bit and finally settled on the concept of Playing God. For the first 5 chapters I ran everything we did past Dinesh. An early version of the plot had the "heroes" breaking Erica free to fight of the mystery green man, Dinesh shot that down saying she was off limits along with X-O and Bloodshot. I think we got everyone else in, at least a bit. Even X-O and Bloodshot show up in a couple panels. Maybe there will be a Playing God: The Lost Chapter dealing with the guys not in the story.

[X-O HoboJoe]

Speaking of Sniper, did the reason the bullets hurt him come through?

Oh yeah! Totally got that it was from the thirty pieces of silver.

Cool, we wanted that to bridge into why Trent could hurt him too: Anything that had a direct analog in the "real world" can damage big bad.

That was nice touch, I really enjoyed that part.

My favorite part of the process was him taking on big-bad and whipping his butt. If Trent hadn't held him back long enough for Sting to wake up, Clay's trick would have worked and the heroes would have never existed.

Trent saved the Valiant Universe and did it as an Armorine.

[magnusr]

Trent saved the Valiant Universe and did it as an Armorine.

This is by far the best moment of an already great story.

/Magnus

[Daniel Jackson]

Trent saved the Valiant Universe and did it as an Armorine.

This is by far the best moment of an already great story.

/Magnus

And a very touching tribute.

[dave]

Speaking of Sniper, did the reason the bullets hurt him come through?

Oh yeah! Totally got that it was from the thirty pieces of silver.

Cool, we wanted that to bridge into why Trent could hurt him too: Anything that had a direct analog in the "real world" can damage big bad.

That was nice touch, I really enjoyed that part.

My favorite part of the process was him taking on big-bad and whipping his butt. If Trent hadn't held him back long enough for Sting to wake up, Clay's trick would have worked and the heroes would have never existed.

Trent saved the Valiant Universe and did it as an Armorine.

You know, I'm a pretty smart guy (if you doubt it-ask my mom) but I miss stuff like that all the time in comics.

Any chance of you guys doing a tell-all podcast for OTV?

[X-O HoboJoe]

Speaking of Sniper, did the reason the bullets hurt him come through?

Oh yeah! Totally got that it was from the thirty pieces of silver.

Cool, we wanted that to bridge into why Trent could hurt him too: Anything that had a direct analog in the "real world" can damage big bad.

That was nice touch, I really enjoyed that part.

My favorite part of the process was him taking on big-bad and whipping his butt. If Trent hadn't held him back long enough for Sting to wake up, Clay's trick would have worked and the heroes would have never existed.

Trent saved the Valiant Universe and did it as an Armorine.

You know, I'm a pretty smart guy (if you doubt it-ask my mom) but I miss stuff like that all the time in comics.

Any chance of you guys doing a tell-all podcast for OTV?

Dunno . . . I suppose? It would seem a bit weird to do it without the entire team of Geomancers, et. al.

[Brother J]

just finished reading the story again in TPB form.

Questions:

1. How did the "energy conscious" gain consciousness? Any explanation for that, or is that just the way it's always been, since the beginning of time?

2. Why does the "EC" feel it needs to fix things? There must be some motivation behind it's desire to bring things back to the way things were before they were altered by the "silly man in the red suit".

3. In what manner does the "EC" use Benjamin Blake as a vessel/channel? Did he have some type of Harbinger power that caused the "bursting into fire" thing or was this just as a result of his possession by the EC?

4. What relevance did the bum in the story have? I assume he became the next vessel for the EC, which wasn't necessarily destroyed just because Benjamin Blake was killed. Was there something about the bum that the EC saw that made him a good choice for the new vessel?

[dave]

Any chance of you guys doing a tell-all podcast for OTV?

Dunno . . . I suppose? It would seem a bit weird to do it without the entire team of Geomancers, et. al.

Then make it happen! What? I gotta think of everything around here?

[dellamorte]

just finished reading the story again in TPB form.

Questions:

1. How did the "energy conscious" gain consciousness? Any explanation for that, or is that just the way it's always been, since the beginning of time?

2. Why does the "EC" feel it needs to fix things? There must be some motivation behind it's desire to bring things back to the way things were before they were altered by the "silly man in the red suit".

3. In what manner does the "EC" use Benjamin Blake as a vessel/channel? Did he have some type of Harbinger power that caused the "bursting into fire" thing or was this just as a result of his possession by the EC?

4. What relevance did the bum in the story have? I assume he became the next vessel for the EC, which wasn't necessarily destroyed just because Benjamin Blake was killed. Was there something about the bum that the EC saw that made him a good choice for the new vessel?

I promise to answer all of these questions but I'd like to give everyone time to get their copy of the book and form their own ideas about the story before I spill the details.

[Brother J]

just finished reading the story again in TPB form.

Questions:

1. How did the "energy conscious" gain consciousness? Any explanation for that, or is that just the way it's always been, since the beginning of time?

2. Why does the "EC" feel it needs to fix things? There must be some motivation behind it's desire to bring things back to the way things were before they were altered by the "silly man in the red suit".

3. In what manner does the "EC" use Benjamin Blake as a vessel/channel? Did he have some type of Harbinger power that caused the "bursting into fire" thing or was this just as a result of his possession by the EC?

4. What relevance did the bum in the story have? I assume he became the next vessel for the EC, which wasn't necessarily destroyed just because Benjamin Blake was killed. Was there something about the bum that the EC saw that made him a good choice for the new vessel?

I promise to answer all of these questions but I'd like to give everyone time to get their copy of the book and form their own ideas about the story before I spill the details.

Not a problem, wanted to add to the discussion, but definitely don't want to spoil it for others.

[MoonChild]

Amusing that they would ask you to do the story but then tell you that you can't even use 3 of the best characters of the VU. [Looks for thumbs down emoticon..] None the less, you guys made it work anyway so

The reason you don't see X-O or Bloodshot is that we were asked to stay away from them by VEI. It would have been great to include them, I think we could have done some really cool stuff. Oh well.

-slym

It would have been nice to see someone use the characters.

How long ago were you given VEI's blessing?

If my memory is right it was late 2007 when Dinesh called me and asked us to do an online story for them. He had really liked the Zombies story and wanted to see something that would keep people coming back to the site.

Stu and I threw ideas around for a bit and finally settled on the concept of Playing God. For the first 5 chapters I ran everything we did past Dinesh. An early version of the plot had the "heroes" breaking Erica free to fight of the mystery green man, Dinesh shot that down saying she was off limits along with X-O and Bloodshot. I think we got everyone else in, at least a bit. Even X-O and Bloodshot show up in a couple panels. Maybe there will be a Playing God: The Lost Chapter dealing with the guys not in the story.

[X-O HoboJoe]

Amusing that they would ask you to do the story but then tell you that you can't even use 3 of the best characters of the VU. [Looks for thumbs down emoticon..] None the less, you guys made it work anyway so

The reason you don't see X-O or Bloodshot is that we were asked to stay away from them by VEI. It would have been great to include them, I think we could have done some really cool stuff. Oh well.

-slym

It would have been nice to see someone use the characters.

How long ago were you given VEI's blessing?

If my memory is right it was late 2007 when Dinesh called me and asked us to do an online story for them. He had really liked the Zombies story and wanted to see something that would keep people coming back to the site.

Stu and I threw ideas around for a bit and finally settled on the concept of Playing God. For the first 5 chapters I ran everything we did past Dinesh. An early version of the plot had the "heroes" breaking Erica free to fight of the mystery green man, Dinesh shot that down saying she was off limits along with X-O and Bloodshot. I think we got everyone else in, at least a bit. Even X-O and Bloodshot show up in a couple panels. Maybe there will be a Playing God: The Lost Chapter dealing with the guys not in the story.

It does sound like an odd request now but at the time (with the TPB's being planned to have new material, etc..) it seemed to make sense (at least to us). Given the original plan was to use the story to build interest, the easiest way to maintain continuity was to just leave the big-guns out -- Obviously a lot of stuff changed as the story evolved and the team got more comfortable with what we were trying to do. Only thing that really matters is that you guys enjoyed the story. As long as that's the case, you'll hear no complaints from this idiot.

[Lightning Strike]

Loved it! I got my BPRD tpb the same day and flipped through the "Playing God" tpb decided to read PG instead of BPRD, so that should tell you how much I enjoyed it!

The story and artwork was very, very good. I really liked the narration. It felt like I was reading a bronze age book again (that's a compliment btw--that's my favorite comic book era).

I only wish we had a bigger fight scene with Harada and where is Bloodshot??

[Lightning Strike]

I read through my copy and enjoyed it!!


Stu... you gots talent, my man!!! Great Bloodshot sketch!!!! Amazing!!

Dude, I got one too! I'll post a pic of mine later

[Lightning Strike]

Speaking of Sniper, did the reason the bullets hurt him come through?

Yep, nicely done guys!

[Lightning Strike]

The reason you don't see X-O or Bloodshot is that we were asked to stay away from them by VEI. It would have been great to include them, I think we could have done some really cool stuff. Oh well.

-slym

+1

[dave]

just finished reading the story again in TPB form.

Questions:

1. How did the "energy conscious" gain consciousness? Any explanation for that, or is that just the way it's always been, since the beginning of time?

2. Why does the "EC" feel it needs to fix things? There must be some motivation behind it's desire to bring things back to the way things were before they were altered by the "silly man in the red suit".

3. In what manner does the "EC" use Benjamin Blake as a vessel/channel? Did he have some type of Harbinger power that caused the "bursting into fire" thing or was this just as a result of his possession by the EC?

4. What relevance did the bum in the story have? I assume he became the next vessel for the EC, which wasn't necessarily destroyed just because Benjamin Blake was killed. Was there something about the bum that the EC saw that made him a good choice for the new vessel?

I promise to answer all of these questions but I'd like to give everyone time to get their copy of the book and form their own ideas about the story before I spill the details.

Taps foot.

Whistles.

[dellamorte]

just finished reading the story again in TPB form.

Questions:

1. How did the "energy conscious" gain consciousness? Any explanation for that, or is that just the way it's always been, since the beginning of time?

2. Why does the "EC" feel it needs to fix things? There must be some motivation behind it's desire to bring things back to the way things were before they were altered by the "silly man in the red suit".

3. In what manner does the "EC" use Benjamin Blake as a vessel/channel? Did he have some type of Harbinger power that caused the "bursting into fire" thing or was this just as a result of his possession by the EC?

4. What relevance did the bum in the story have? I assume he became the next vessel for the EC, which wasn't necessarily destroyed just because Benjamin Blake was killed. Was there something about the bum that the EC saw that made him a good choice for the new vessel?

I promise to answer all of these questions but I'd like to give everyone time to get their copy of the book and form their own ideas about the story before I spill the details.

Taps foot.

Whistles.

Sorry. As soon as I get the hc's in hand I will turn them around a.s.a.p. so that everyone has a chance to read or reread the story. Then I will go into these questions and any others that are posted.

[X-O HoboJoe]

just finished reading the story again in TPB form.

Questions:

1. How did the "energy conscious" gain consciousness? Any explanation for that, or is that just the way it's always been, since the beginning of time?

2. Why does the "EC" feel it needs to fix things? There must be some motivation behind it's desire to bring things back to the way things were before they were altered by the "silly man in the red suit".

3. In what manner does the "EC" use Benjamin Blake as a vessel/channel? Did he have some type of Harbinger power that caused the "bursting into fire" thing or was this just as a result of his possession by the EC?

4. What relevance did the bum in the story have? I assume he became the next vessel for the EC, which wasn't necessarily destroyed just because Benjamin Blake was killed. Was there something about the bum that the EC saw that made him a good choice for the new vessel?

I promise to answer all of these questions but I'd like to give everyone time to get their copy of the book and form their own ideas about the story before I spill the details.

Taps foot.

Whistles.

Sorry. As soon as I get the hc's in hand I will turn them around a.s.a.p. so that everyone has a chance to read or reread the story. Then I will go into these questions and any others that are posted.

I'm the hold-up here, got lung-sick and really want these to look nice. Will update when they ship to Della at the Bate's Motel.

[IanAlexavier]

Hey, did the HC come colored?

[dave]

If you supply the crayons Hobo will color it for you.

[X-O HoboJoe]

Color-free HC's moving to Della's house as of today.

[slym2none]

So, is one book coloured and one is not? I missed something somewhere, methinks...



-slym

[dave]

There are no colored books. We are Valiant fans. We don't see color here.

[Daniel Jackson]

There are no colored books. We are Valiant fans. We don't see color here.

Because Valiant Vision ruined our eyes.....