Hero of the month:Grifter

Grifter is a character from Wildstorm Universe. He is best known as a member of Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.S.

There are various accounts of Cole's early youth: in Gen 12 his father died while he was still young and Cole and his brother Max were raised by their mother and abusive stepfather, with his mother dying when Cole was already an adult. In Point Blank his mother died while he was still young and he and his brother were raised by their father. It is certain though, that Cole left his family while still a teenager and turned to crime to survive. Despite being a criminal, Cole had his own code of honor and stopped one of his partners in crime from shooting at the police. Cole was arrested and offered a second chance. He was enlisted by International Operations and turned out to be a gifted marksman and an excellent soldier

Cole Cash's natural talent for combat landed him in black ops, taking the dirtiest jobs as part of a squad known as Team 7 (which also included John "Topkick" Lynch, Marc "Backlash" Slayton, Jackson "Arclight" Dane, Philip "Bulleteer" Chang, Stephen "Wraparound" Callahan, Alex "Slaphammer" Fairchild and Michael "Deathblow" Cray).Cash's codename during these operations was Deadeye. The group was deliberately exposed to an experimental chemical called the Gen Factor, which activated a variety of psi powers in them (in Deathblow's case, this did not happen until twenty years later), but which also detrimentally affected their sense of morality and mental health.

When the powers of many of Team 7's members started to wane, Craven became interested in their children, the Gen¹³, who should have inherited their fathers' powers. Most of the team went into hiding again, while others stayed with I.O. The team finally fell apart and Cole came to work as an assassin for International Operations (I.O.), but he soon became disenchanted with them too. He went freelance, and it was during this period of his life he encountered the ancient Kherubim warrior Zealot. They fell in love, and she took the unprecedented measure of teaching him, a male, the ways of the Coda, the warrior order she had once belonged to. Her Coda-teachings stabilized Cole's sanity and locked away what remained of his psionic powers. (Team 7: Objective Hell #1-3, Team 7: Dead Reckoning #1-4 and Gen 12)

Some time later Cole and Zealot broke up; for Zealot it was just another relationship, but Cole had become devoted to her, being eternally grateful to her for restoring his sanity. However they remained on good terms, and both were recruited to become part of Lord Emp's Daemonite hunting team, the WildC.A.T.s. Grifter later quit the team when they had to ally with Hightower, a Daemonite who had killed Grifter's friend Lonely. He rejoined when the team came back from Khera, even being the team's leader for some time. During this time Max Cash, his younger brother, was killed, came back as a zombie and was killed again by Grifter himself. He left the team again after Zealot's apparent death. At this point most of his teammates left as well and the WildC.A.T.s were disbanded. (WildC.A.T.s volume 1 and Grifter)


Alter ego: Cole Cash

Species: Human

Team affiliations: WildC.A.T.S., Team 7, I.O.

Notable aliases: Deadeye

Abilities: Grifter is an incredibly adept fighter, expert in hand-to-hand combat and with most weapons. He is especially good with guns. He also possesses powerful psi powers, though most of the time these are dormant, largely by choice.



Villain of the month:Apocalypse

Apocalypse made his debut in the mid-1980s X-Men spin-off series, X-Factor (vol. 1, 1986-1991), and was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist Jackson Guice. Apocalypse was introduced in X-Factor as a centuries-old mutant obsessed with the Social Darwinist philosophy of survival of the fittest. The character employs highly advanced technology in his schemes, such as transforming Angel into one of his Four Horsemen and infecting Cyclops' son with a "techno-organic virus". Although the character first appeared in X-Factor, the unnamed benefactor of the Living Monolith in Marvel Graphic Novel #17 (1985), has been identified as Apocalypse in disguise.

The writer of the first five issues of X-Factor, Bob Layton, intended to use the Daredevil villain Owl as the "the master" of the Alliance of Evil, mentioned in X-Factor #4 (vol. 1, May 1986). When Layton however was removed from the book and replaced with Louise Simonson, she requested that the last page of X-Factor #5 be changed to a shadowy character named Apocalypse, as Simonson wanted a new character to be the main villain for the book.[4] Apocalypse was the principal adversary of X-Factor, until being apparently killed at the climax of issue #68 (July 1991). The character returns in X-Men #14 (vol. 2, November 1992), part of the X-Cutioner's Song crossover; though, the character is again, apparently killed off at the end of this crossover, in X-Force #18 (vol. 1, January 1992).

During the Onslaught crossover, Apocalypse is resurrected in Uncanny X-Men #335 (vol. 1, August 1996). The origin story of Apocalypse is detailed the following year, in the character's own four-issue miniseries, titled Rise of Apocalypse, written by Terry Kavanagh and penciled by Adam Pollina. The same year, Apocalypse plays a part in the origin of Exodus in Black Knight: Exodus, and Mister Sinister in The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix.

In January 2000, the mysterious storyline of The Twelve finally unfolded, in which Apocalypse plays a major part. The story arc is followed by a series of sub-chapters, Ages of Apocalypse, and a four-issue limited miniseries, The Search for Cyclops. After six years, Apocalypse returned in X-Men vol. 2, #181 (2006), for the Blood of Apocalypse storyline, which was followed by two prologues: Cable & Deadpool #26 & 27 and the X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula miniseries.



Alter ego: En Sabah Nur

Species: Human Mutant

Team affiliations: Four Horsemen, Dark Riders, Clan Akkaba, Alliance of Evil

Notable aliases: The First One, High Lord, Set, Sarau, Kali-ma, Huitzilopochtli, Eternal One

Abilities: Self-manipulation, Immortality, Superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, and durability, Teleportation, Flight, Energy manipulation, Technopathy, Healing factor, Psionic powers, Genius-level intelligence, Access to Celestial technology




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May 28, 2008


More On Terrible Tokyopop Contract

If you haven't yet, I'd encourage you to read Bryan Lee O'Malley's pulping of a new Tokyopop publishing initiative contract. Unlike other awful contracts that exist in comics, including some from Tokyopop, this one manages to combine the worst aspects of all those contracts with a rhetorical style that sounds like a guy in a van trying to talk some poor soul into taking nudie pictures. Among other folks pointing out the awfulness of this contract are Chris Butcher and Lea Hernandez, who has been criticizing Tokyopop contractual malfeasance for a few years now.

Contracts like this one that secure all rights to a property* in exchange for some modest amount of cash do so by pushing two lines of argumentation that should be dragged behind a truck and then set on fire at every opportunity.

The first argument that such publishers make or that is made on their behalf is that this is a standard deal for first-time authors. This is almost always a huge lie. While the argument against it need go no further than that, it's worth pointing out that "it happens all the time" doesn't really speak to the fairness of the contract. Further, this argument is finessed by various corporate rip-off artists in that many contracts with some language advantageous to the publisher -- although never this bad that I've seen -- tend to be the first step in a back and forth negotiation, not a take-it-or-leave-it option dangled in front of first-time authors.

The second argument that such publishers make or that is made on their behalf is that you should sign a shitty contract in order to get your foot in the door. Again, this doesn't speak to the issue of whether or not the contract is fair, and is sort of an admission that it's not. But mostly there's no evidence of which I'm aware to show that signing a terrible contract gives anyone a leg up when it comes to their publishing career. Let's be honest, because otherwise this gets used as an argument with a "let's be real" appeal: there certainly is evidence to show that signing contracts that aren't 100 percent optimal in terms of creators rights has been advantageous for some creators. This is true in comics and outside of comics. The key thing to remember is that such agreements tend to involve two things: 1) the company bringing something of value to the table, like access to a valuable property such as James Bond or Spider-Man, or a team of sales agents that are experienced in the newspaper strip market, and 2) non-shitty financial compensation. This contract has neither. Tokyopop brings nothing but a brand that has dubious merit, especially on books like these. They're poor stewards of content. And they're not paying well: about $20 a page.

All contracts bring with them a warning; bad contracts like this one brings you being warned away.

Additionally, the notion that you can give a company a sub-standard creation and save your real stuff for when you're in a better position to protect it is exactly what a company that offers such contracts hopes you'll believe. To repeat the caveat a third time: an end-around strategy doesn't justify an unfair circumstance, either. More importantly, and much more to the point, the truth is no one controls what creation will hit with audiences or even work best to facilitate a creator's career. No one does. The late Steve Gerber created a number of characters in his long career, many of which were owned by him. I think we all know that the one that worked best as a voice for his particular talents, the one that hit with the most people, he didn't own. Besides, the difference between creating a walk-on character in an issue of New Mutants and doing a full graphic novel with a bunch of characters seems enormous to me. Even if you were to decide to support an awful system by faking it, thinking you could take advantage, it seems to me there's an important difference between taking someone out to dinner versus marrying them for two years.

Just because creators occasionally sign contracts with which they're not 100 percent happy doesn't mean that the worst contract out there, and this sounds like just about the worst contract out there, is justified in any way, shape or form. Always remember that the most successful and admirable creators have become so almost uniformly by not signing contracts like this one. There are so many options today for a lot of what they're promising you, there are a ton of great publishers and many viable self-publishing options. If your work doesn't click so that it can find purchase with a company that's not ripping you off, or it fails to make a name for itself on its own, that's a strong sign that the company's interest in you is dependent not on the awesomeness of your talent and ideas but on their ability to screw you over. Please, don't let them do it.

*****

Update: John Jakala believes that "all rights" as used here is a misstatement because future projects involving that property will be subject to separate negotiations. Leaving aside the issue of what I'm actually talking about there, I disagree; I think that acknowledging you won't retain rights to certain supplementary projects (well, in certain ways, after a certain point) isn't really the same as as affording them to people on the original one. I also think there are plenty of complications to a truly unfettered walking-away, both short and long-term, and there are all sorts of reason I'm not willing to afford the publisher the benefit of the doubt given how easily that could have been made explicit in a contract they're presenting as a major initiative.

posted 8:26 am PST | Permalink



















死神bleach




除了可以看见灵以外，只是普通高中生的黑崎一护，15岁。遇见一个少女以后，命运发生巨大变化。自称是死神的少女朽木露琪亚，追逐着被称为“虚”的恶灵突然出现，对向灵力高强的一护攻击的“虚”毫不留情援手攻击的关系，因为负重伤而无法镇压恶灵的露琪亚最后的办法就是决定把死神的能力给一护。成为死神的一护和失去死神之力的露其亚开始了新的战斗....




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