Dr. Never, Atomiknight, and the Future

[Kurosen]

Not bothering with spoiler tags as this doesn't really "ruin" anything for folks. It's just a convenient one stop spot for people to get the LD on Dr. Never and what implications he has on the future (i.e. Atomik Age).

There seems to be some confusion about the future of the Nuklearverse. This confusion arises from a story Atomik Lad tells Rachel about a trip to the future forced upon Nuklear Man by Dr. Never several years previous. Try graphing that timeline.

Anyway, due to the trip through time, Nuklear Man was effectively taken out of the universe for thirteen years. Without his influence on the world, certain things came to pass (while others did not) and in the end Dr. Never was king of it all.

When Nuklear Man was re-introduced to the time line in the future, he found a grown up Sparky who was calling himself Atomiknight. It is presumed/implied that this Atomiknight had been fighting against Dr. Never's regime but hadn't managed to overthrow his rule. He teams up with Nuke for one last battle with Dr. Never and the outcome is a bit vague. I'll explore entirely what happened during Nuke's trip to that potential future in a short story though. Anyway, we do know that in the tussle Nuklear Man was transported from the future back to just a few moments after he'd been sent there in the first place.

Since Nuklear Man was put "back" into the universe in the past, he was then made to be not absent for thirteen years and the future ruled by Dr. Never with Atomiknight fighting against him never comes to pass.

So speculation to the tune of Atomik Age revolving around defeating Dr. Never is faulty. Ain't gonna happen.

I have no specific plans for Dr. Never at the moment, but he is a time travelling villain who can be anywhen so I'd be a moron to say absolutely that he won't be in Atomik Age.

[houkama]

I think most people were assuming that the future glimpsed by Nuke *MAJOR SPOILERS*could still occur since Nuke left Earth at the end. If Dr. Never were to reappear right after Nuke left, the already devestated planet would have trouble fighting him off. But thanks for clearing that up. No more debate.

[PraetorZorak]

Thanks for clearing that up a bit...I'm still curious as to how Arel appeared at the site of teh Dragon's Strike, though.

[Kurosen]

It's covered by Nuke's flashback when he's rocketing back from the sun after Nihel tosses him into it. Short version: Arel left the other side of the galaxy because it was too noisy (he absorbs all electromagnetic energy and this includes telecommunication broadcasts). He traveled across the galaxy and found a piercing babble of signals coming from one planet -- Earth. He decided to destroy it, zeroed in on Metroville's reactor, and just happened to land right as the Dragon made it go boom. One explosion later, Arel gets amnesia.

[PraetorZorak]

Thanks a lot, that clears things up a lot for me.

[Ponderosa]

That brings up another question I never thought of before. We know from reading the book that Nuklear cannot stand the temperatures found at the center of a sun. So how did he survive the exploding reactor? Also, was it ever written what happened to the Dragon after that?

[Kurosen]

Well, we can assume that the intense temperatures of the nuclear explosion weakened him enough that it screwed with his head. It hurt him to absorb that energy, so much that it knocked him out, and when he woke up he'd forgotten everything that happened.

As for what happened to the Dragon after that, no one goes into much detail, but you can piece together what happens from a few lines that different characters drop through the story. The short version is that Nuklear Man was given custody of young Sparky, they became heroes, they met Mighty Metallic Magno Man, they team up to hunt down the Dragon, find his corporate headquarters, confront him superhero style, have a big fight. During this fight Sparky thinks that Nuke has been killed/very hurt. His reaction is along the lines of what he did to Nihel immediatley after Rachel's death, the Dragon's skyscraper crashes around them, and the heroes walk out but the Dragon does not.

[Skyshot]

Question 1: How does one pronounce Atomiknight? With or without the 'k'? I kinda think without sounds cooler, myself...

Question 2: The Nega bomb that Doctors Menace and Genius worked on to destroy Nuke and Nihel went off-target and super-obliterated a hundred-foot area. Due to the nature of KI fields and planetary movements, will that gap be in that one spot forever relative to the earth, or will Earth move away from it in its, and the galaxy's, rotations and revolutions? And if it stays put relative to the earth, will the superhole be relevant in Atomik Age?

[PraetorZorak]

One quick question:

The Dragon is referred to in the book as an international evil gangster. However, at one point, someone(i forget who at this point) says something along the lines of "having fought an interdimensional Dragon" Am I crazy or what's going on here?

[houkama]

Everyone is interdimensional. We all break the second and third plane, some say the fourth is time so we exist in that plane too. Alternate dimensions should be better described as alternate universes. As to what Brian meant, I don't know.

[Kurosen]

Sarda

Question 1: I always assumed with the K. It's actually a reference to one of the "Elsewhere" short stories I wrote where there were Atomik Knights (no details as to what that means, haw haw).

Question 2: While I know technically that the gaping hole in reality should've exited Earth within seconds of its creation due to the rotation and orbit of the Earth, the Sun, our galaxy, and the expansion of the universe, the very same thing should've happened when Nuke was sent to the future. Or, for that matter, the first time Dr. Never did any time traveling. Since it's boring for time travel to work that way in stories, things like this will remain "static" in relation to the Earth. Since the Nega Bomb hole is just a 100ft wide worm hole, it's just big enough to be inconvenient without being big enough to be of any benefit. So it will probably have a monument or statue or some such built around it to commemorate that day and the sacrifices made by the heroes of Metroville and the people of the world during the reconstruction. Whew.

Zork and the Dragon: The person known as The Dragon was, indeed, just an international crime lord. But he got to that position by having superpowers and employing superpowered individuals. One aspect of the Nuklearverse that sets it apart from other superhero settings is that there are relatively few people with powers in the world. I could see how one would assume that the book was about just a few and that there were probably dozens or hundreds of other heroes operating in the world since that's how other superhero settings operate. But the characters you saw in Nuklear Age represent the vast majority of the superpowered individuals in the world. So the Dragon was a much greater threat to the world at large before someone like Nuke showed up and was able to take in Sparky and befriend Norman. Those three people alone constitute a great deal of power and the Dragon wasn't used to having that sort of thing directed against him.

As for the interdimensional part, the Dragon's power was to summon up some kind of spirital-avatar-dragon-form-thing (think along the lines of how Sparky's Field worked when he got pissed off when Dr. Never "destroyed" Nuke. Kinda like that, only in dragon form). And that's probably where he got the name "Dragon."

I left a lot of that era vague because it gives me more freedom to insert things into the pasts of my characters. Any kind of adventure could've happened to Nuklear Man and company before page one because their history has been left mostly open ended. For instance, we don't know how many times they've faced Dr. Menace or what she's done. That alone gives me a ton of freedom for flashbacks and whatnot whenever I think of something neato.

[Jaythe4th]

Just be careful when talking about Captain Liberty. As interesting as that pre-Nuklear Age is, this world is ironic enough that NCSoft could sue you for infringing on the character of Statesman.

[Kairamek]

But both Statesman and Captain Liberty are liberal rip-off...er homages (whew!) of Captain America. Watch out, Marvel is gonna sic their stupid on you!

Someone mentioned elsewhere the idea of Dr. Never showing up and someone using his time machine to stop Nuklear Apokolypse at the end of the first book. I dunno about that, but it would be a clever, non-blatent plot device to save some of those who died.

[gizmodude4]

While I agree that it is a way to bring back some dead characters, I also believe that the time travel idea would be a major cop-out. Those characters are dead and should remain so.

Brian may play with the idea or even use it, but usually when someone is dead, they stay dead.

[Kairamek]

I agree that "once dead, stay dead" is rule that should be used more often. However if someone could save the past at a terrible, terrible cost that's not unreasonable.

[Kurosen]

People die and come back in traditional comics because comics companies aren't in the business of making comics. They are in the business of making licensed characters who generate revenue through merchandising. So they kill characters to drum up sales and enthusiam and then they bring them back to drum up sales and enthusiasm.

If/when Nuklearverse characters die, it is because that's how the story goes. Characters don't come back to life. The closest to "back from the dead" I'll ever get is when people think a character is dead but it turns out he's not. Like when Nuke sees Sparky disappear in Nihel's "ultimate attack" thingie and assumes he's obviously dead. Even that is a bit of a cop out, I feel, but it's a defensible one. I mean, if character A is given evidence to think character B is dead, then it makes sense for A to behave as though B is gone forever.

As for Captain Liberty, the patriotic superhero is a long standing tradition. NCSoft wouldn't sue over any alleged similarity between Statesman and Captain Liberty because NCSoft makes their money from monthly subscriptions for a video game and not from the sale of images of Statesman. Marvel is allegedly (and ill-advisedly) suing NCSoft because CoH makes it possible to reproduce likenesses of Marvel's properties without their permission and somehow this is supposed to steal millions of dollars from the sale of Marvel products. Marvel may as well sue anyone who sketches any of their characters in a notebook, the effect on all sides is about the same.

Since Captain Liberty is a purely text-based entity, Marvel would have a very hard time making a case based on his appearance.

[Kairamek]

I know they aren't comming back, I've read your essays on what's wrong with comics today a while back. Based on three year old knowledge I know that people who were killed aren't going to be comming back. Death is part of life, and changing to adapt to death is an even bigger part of life, and you said one of the biggest problems is a lack of change. But that doesn't mean I would be opposed to, or call you a "hypocritical cop-out mofo" if you had some of the people come back. Part of the joy of fiction is that it is just that, fiction. It's not real. If my friend dies I have to learn to deal with it. I don't mind seeing fictional poeple not have to deal with because of convienant plot devices saving their friends, because I don't have that luxury. If there's a price attached it makes it more interesting, and sets up a delema for the person. Example: Nihel's destruction cannot be prevented, but Atomiknight can save Rachel by making sure she's not with Sparky at the mall. The only way to do that is for them to not date. Atomiknight jumps to the past, prevents their meeting, returns home. He finds her alive and well in the present, with her husband and children. So she's alive, but he's still alone, and she never knew him beyond his reputation. But that's just me tossing ideas around.

[Flarecobra]

But Rachel was with Atomik Lad at the end, so how would that affect the timeline? Or is this one of these things that we'll have to wait for, becasue either a: We'll find out in the next book, b: Brian's too lazy to talk about it right now, or c: Both a and b.

[Kurosen]

But Rachel was with Atomik Lad at the end

Read more closely. It was a dream :P

[Flarecobra]

Ah. Thanks. I missed that.

[barnaby36]

Is Rachel really dead though? Nobody even bothered checking a pulse or anything. Everyone who saw her effectively said "Whoops! She's dead." Now, from the fact that a year later, nobody would recognize that, I have to sadly assume she is dead. Blasted.

That was my first post here! Yay.

Barnaby36

[Kairamek]

Oh yeah, she's dead. Nihel suffocated her. Lungs - Oxygen = Dead.

[Kahkau]

What my question is, is Atomik Lad going to be called Atomiknight in the 2nd book? I mean, the timeline won't have happened, but Atomik Lad won't be a lad so much 7 years after the first book. So will he have a name change at all?

[Napoleon98]

Actually I'm pretty sure Angus did check her pulse, they were all around her and what not... but even if not, yea a year later I'm fairly sure she's dead. Unless Ima has her in a stasis field like MMMM and isn't telling Atomik so that he won't be distracted from helping rebuild the world and what not, but yea...

[KitaeK27]

So is that why Nuclear Man renames Sparky to Atomik Lad?

[RedScar]

Actually Nuklear man renames him because he does not want him to become older and be the AtomicKnight and have the memory happen. However if you look at it in th the end it sota does happen. Anyways said by Atomic Lad(Sparky, Jhon) that Nuke called him Sparky because of the field and kept calling him that because of not wanting him to grow up.

I hope that I made it clear.

PS: Some of you are useing black, use the 111111. Use it!

[Skyshot]

You correct someone on one spelling and then spell the names AtomicKnight, Atomic Lad, and Jhon? Wow.

Anyways, Nuke changed Sparky's name to Atomik Lad because "My little Sparky was a hero that day. I gave him the name Atomik Lad for it." He kept calling him Sparky because "A boy named Sparky would never have to die."

Regarding an earlier topic in this thread, how did Shiro escape the Skyjumper's thirty meter radius? Genius said "once inside, nothing can get out" but Shiro landed on a rooftop outside the field, free from the superhole.

[RedScar]

Ya, I shouldn't correct other's spelling.

As for that. He let go right before it happened. But I think it said he got killed from the fall.

Not sure though.

[Skyshot]

He survived the fall. Kurosen has said he will be a major character in Atomik Age.

[RedScar]

Okay. I thought that he died. Never said it, but I thought he did.

[Gary Thunder]

I too am surprised as to how he escaped the tiny pocket-universe the Skyjumper was encapsulated in.

[Kurosen]

He never technically escaped. He just happened to be a few inches outside of the blast radius when the Negabomb went off and was therefore completely spared its horrible fate.

[Gary Thunder]

But by attaching himself to the Skyjumper, he inserted himself into the pocket of Intrinsity that Dr. Genius had engineered. Inside there, nothing else existed...how did Shiro exit himself from such a place?

[Napoleon98]

Well Shiro got onto it and altered its course before it exploded... its not until it explodes that nothing exists within the radius...
Though I too thought that it had some sorta fiel that kept things within it until it did explode.. may have just misread that part though, and if I didn't...

Well Shiro's power is that he can unleash the true potential in a machine, so maybe he somehow inadvertantly altered the field so he could leave it.

[Kurosen]

But by attaching himself to the Skyjumper, he inserted himself into the pocket of Intrinsity that Dr. Genius had engineered.
A pocket that wouldn't exist until a precise moment in its decent (i.e. a fraction of a second before it hit the ground). When Shiro changed its trajectory, the timer went off at the "right" time but it had no way of knowing it wasn't near its intended target. When it went off, Shiro was just baaaaarely out of the Negabomb's effective radius.

[Kairamek]

Now that makes more sence. Aparently most of us read it as Genius had turned on the... whatever that tricked the universe into thinking another universe was around the Skyjumper when she set it on its course for the mall. But if she had what would happen to all that air the ship passed? That's probably not small chunk of atmosphere.

[Gary Thunder]

Oh. I thought it was a constant field that effected ever since the Nega Bomb attached itself.

So what was propelling the Skyjumper, then?

[Kurosen]

All it had to do was fall, so take a guess what propelled it. When it veered off it was being propelled by Shiro's super boosted rocket.

[Kairamek]

What was propelling it? Gravity. I'm gonna go with Gravity. Does Gravity sound good to you? And I though Shiro's rocket just pushed it off course enough that it's aerodynamic design interacting with the atomsphere sent it way off course.

[RedScar]

So the ship fell with gravity but decause it was aero dynamic it when forward. Then he used his super boosted rocket to push it away. Then he fell down. The Nega bomb explodes and the it goes off. He was out side it when it when off so he wasn't in the feild. He lived.

Did I get that right? Did I make it clearer for anyone? Or is this just look like a waste of room?

[Kairamek]

Close. Shiro's rocket forced the nose of the ship to turn slightly upward, thus changing the angle of the ship as it aproached Earth. That change in angle caused the cross-sectional area of the ship to change such that the force due to air resistance against the aerodynamic design gave the ship enough lift to level out and fly straight instead of slaming into the ground. Play with some paper airplanes, you'll see what I mean.

[RedScar]

O, okay I get it now. Thanks.

Paper airplanes are fun.

[Gary Thunder]

So Genius just pointed the Skyjumper at the Mall and let 'er rip? No guidance? No thrust? No compensation for wind? Nothing? It wouldn't come anywhere close to the Mall...wind currents would have tossed it off course long ago, aerodynamic as it is.

[Kurosen]

At terminal velocity, a breeze won't have much influence. It's not terribly aerodynamic anyway, Shiro's thrusters were simply pumping out a whole heck of a lot of thrust.

[Kairamek]

I'm not sure I want to do this, but I am damned retintive. Under the spoiler is a direct quote from the book, page 607.

Spoiler: The tremendous thrust from such a limited point in on the Skyjumper's hull caused the nose to edge up ever so slightly. Then more. And more. And more until the Skyjumper was positioned horizontally. Which was problematic since it was built to be as aerodynamic as humanly possible to make it appear as though it did not indeed fly by a highly dangerous and largely untested process that was barely understood even by its designer Dr. Genius.

[Kurosen]

Well shoot. Darn thing must've had happy little mini-thrusters to keep it on course. Or something.

The point of the scene isn't the Skyjumper, it's what poor little Shiro's doing. Y'ain't suppose to care about the Skyjumper :)

[Kairamek]

All I need to know is Shiro messed up their plans. I don't care what's supposed to keep it on course initially, only what throws it off course. And the aerodynamics works works great for me.

Remember your core reader group Kurosen. Comic book/sci-fi/fantasy/gamer geeks. You had to know there would be massive debates over largey inconsequentional details. I mean, I've heard the theory that Luke Skywalker is an insestuous freak because he didn't seem weirded out about the kiss at the start of Empire Strikes Back.

[Napoleon98]

Theres also the long standing debate that Star Wars is just a long movie about racism, yea, people like us tend to argue over the most minute of details :p

[Kairamek]

A good point Napoleon. I recall the theory that the clone army is a representation of Lucas's fear of the illegel imigrants migrating from Mexico because Jango looks Mexican. However, the actor is from Indonisia (or was it the Philipeans? some islands in the equatorial Pacific region) and Lucas has lived in England for a long time now. Though the Emperor himself was prejudice against non-humans.

[AtomiKnight]

I am a dirty name thief...

Yay! A post!

Also, it'd be great if someone could direct me to an Atomik Lad logo/insignia avatar or picture or something along those lines...

[xj700t]

i don't recall any sing of life coming from him since he found himself in some generic jungle with generic cannibals..
you would think he could survive, being all iron covered and conviniently camo'ed green.

[BlackMageFF1]

Just wanted to say that I bought the book. I haven't read it yet, but I'm going to read it after I finish with "Mostly Harmless". I didn't know anywhere else to put this comment so here it is.

Just so I don't waste an entire post, 'm also going to say that I'm leaving for a few days (everybody celebrates) to go to pennsylvania.

[Meister]

Erm, you did up a thread from four months ago to say something that belongs in the stickied Public Announcements Thread in General? I really don't want to seem like we're out to get you, but dude. :brow:

EDIT: Blargh, sorry. Nevermind the "Digging up" part. I forgot about this thread being stickied 'n all.

[BlackMageFF1]

Sorry, I don't quite understand a lot of this forum customs...

[Herr Spaz]

I just finished reading the book today and I've been really curious about this...

Will we get to find out what's up with Sparky's KI field in Atomik Age? Because not finding out left me really frustrated. I had a theory which was, obviously, incorrect as it involved Rachel. Oh well.

Speaking of whom, I hope she isn't replaced in AA. Just a comment.

[Althane]

Yes, we'll learn more about it. At least, I'm pretty sure Brain/Brian said so.

What I'M really interested is in Alex Halo.

[Baalirock]

What I'M really interested is in Alex Halo.

Seconded! I loved his "Pulp Hero" costume description in the first book, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him, and finding out just what it is that he can do.

[BlackMageFF1]

I'm confused, I have two questions.

1. Who exactly is the dragon?
2. Wouldn't Dr. Menace prevent Dr. Never from taking over the world?

It's obvious that in Atomik Age, something will cause Atomik to warp KI so much it will revive Rachel. How can anything else happen?

[Benpc91]

1. An villian that tryed to destroy Metroville. Captain Liberty's group died (unless I misunderstood) from his nuclear meltdown, and Nuklear Man landed in the reactor stopping the meltdown..
2. Not really. Knowing her, she'd wait until Nuke and Sparky take care of him. Then she'd carry out her plans

[Kurosen]

How can anything else happen?

Easily.

[BlackMageFF1]

Ah, it's also a possibility that Atomik will end up with Dr. Menace. He showed a mild attraction to her in the first one.

[doodle]

AL's a young man with hormones swarming through his brains. That may cause his mild attraction to Dr. Menace.

[Dr Menace]

I too am all about Alex Halo. "Atomik Age" won't be published fast enough for me.

Nya.

-v

[Althane]

I've been reading NA again, and I noticed something. Look up Alex's name in a dictionary (or wikipedia, that works too), and then think about his powers.

And then think about why he might be acting a bit odd when his powers fully develop (or maybe they already are?)

Huh... interesting question. Does a person with superpowers (granted, there's very few of them in the world, even Angus and Shiro's were more technological (and some magic)) have their superpowers get better under control or more powerful as they get older, or do they have good power and control from the start?

After all, look how well Sparky did the first time he used his powers. -_-;;

[Death by Stabbing]

Well you'd have to develop control over time probably...look at kid's hand writing when they're in kindergarden. It's not very good. Over time however as they learn to control their motor skills their handwriting improves....unless they have a writing disablity like me and it is much harder to write neatly...Maybe that's what Alex has...a super power disability that makes it hard for him to be able to be as precise with his powers as other Heros might be...
Just a thought...
DBS

[Roy_D_Mylote]

So, the only humans there ever were on Earth that had powers were Atomik, Alex, MMMM, and The Dragon?

[Althane]

No, others had powers, but not many. In NA's world, apparently, there are VERY VERY VERY few people with overpowers. At least, I think that's what Brian said..

[Kurosen]

Yeah, this isn't your "typical" comic book setting with hundreds or thousands of people with superpowers. A very few people have "powers". A few more utilitize science in very powers-like ways for heroism or villainy.

The total number of these people across the globe is well under a hundred. Most of them are in the States and Europe because that's where the majority of research in this direction has come from in the last fifty years.

[Roy_D_Mylote]

So, recounted, there's Atomik, MMMM, Alex, The Dragon, the Malajusted et cetra et cetra, and the Minium Wage Warriors. Maybe more. I'm not counting Nuke, because he ain't human. So that's about twenty covered in the story? Are there going to be more overhumans in Atomik Age?

[Chipper173]

You forgot Psiko, and I think a reference was made to an alliance of dwarven warriors. Angus and Shiro didn't have powers, but some of those others might.

[White_Knight]

Imagine, if you will, Shiro calling upon the rest of the Dwarven Warriors to help rebuild the city. So cool.
Thinking on that, though, they'd probably end up drinking every alcoholic beverage in the town and then proceeding to beat civilians.
So, not a good idea.

Speaking of Dwarves, though, what ever happened to Angus's good buddy Shamus? The creator of Kismet Crunchies? Last I read, he was in a spot of trouble with some pygmies. Cannibal pygmies.

[BlackMageFF1]

Oh yeah, Whisakey FTW

[GOD OF IRONY]

if thay go back in time to stop the killing of cool firends then that would be a paradox thus thay will die anyway for he went back in time to save them

[Arkeband]

Before you die, Brian, Nuklear Age must be made into a movie.

Or at least, we need confirmation that in another universe, it was done. And that it was awesome.

One last thing: In the movie, the music from Ys VI: Ark of Napishtim, "RELEASE OF THE FAR WEST OCEAN" (found on bluelaguna.net), would be the soundtrack to Nuke unleashing hell on Superion, when he rips his cape.

[Cornwallace]

Ok I know how much you hate lists and I am truly sorry, but I have a couple questions it has been a while since I read the book.
1. who is Alex Halo? Someone said he was on the Wikipedia article but I couldn't find him
2. How come no one mentioned Hierumphant or Kat Kat and didn't the grammar guy have super powers the other one had a suit but I think he had super powers. If alex is Hierumphant please tell me like I said I read the book a while ago.

also yes a movie would be good if done right

[Axl]

Ok I know how much you hate lists and I am truly sorry, but I have a couple questions it has been a while since I read the book.
1. who is Alex Halo? Someone said he was on the Wikipedia article but I couldn't find him
2. How come no one mentioned Hierumphant or Kat Kat and didn't the grammar guy have super powers the other one had a suit but I think he had super powers. If alex is Hierumphant please tell me like I said I read the book a while ago.

also yes a movie would be good if done right

Yeah AH is the Hierophant.

[Cornwallace]

ok, thank you now things make a lot more sense, and I think I am going to wait until I get my book back and at least have time to go over it again before I ask my next question.

[ArcaSpiff]

I am still a little upset Atomik Age will probably never be written... I do enjoy the Robo, but still i loved the Nuklearverse...


Nuklear man will always be there!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/arcaspiff/screenshot_2009-09-11-23-20-09.jpg