“The Heirs”

Part Two

By Gary Halpin 

Previously: a young super hero known as Captain Wings was murdered while the Knights of Avalon got to know each other, some better than others. Kelsey Leigh is trying to adjust to her new life as Captain Avalon in the absence of her children, while Luke Cage and Elektra had a moment of emotional intimacy after weeks of a purely physical affair. Siryn, who is in denial about her growing alcoholism, almost attacked Magma when she realised the former New Mutant had seduced Banshee. She was stopped when Dane Whitman, the Lord of the Lake and the power behind the Knights, informed the team that Captain Wings' murder was just one in a series of apparently unconnected murders. Some one or something was hunting the illegitimate children of Jamie Braddock, a man who had once almost destroyed the planet, because his children are “The Heirs of Avalon”…

When Dane Whitman has been involuntarily transformed into the Lord of the Lake, the guardian of the mystical Avalon, he had instantly become aware of secrets and mysteries that had remained hidden since time had began. The knowledge was too much for a mortal brain to handle without going insane, so his still human brain had no choice but to limit the information available to him while he became accustomed to his new role. But Whitman had quickly realised that information held power, and some part of him saw the chance to redeem his past failures alongside Sersi, the Pendragons and the Ultraforce by doing what he had always tried to do as the Black Knight - make the world a safer place, whatever the cost. He had empowered the young Pendragon known as Toro, and assembled the Knights of Avalon to be his agents in strategies he hoped they would never need to be fully aware of.

He had never expected to once again face what he deemed to be one of the saddest days of his life - The day he tried to murder Jamie Braddock, and been manipulated by Roma into causing his death even if he had not struck the killing blow himself. Whitman still believed he had done what was necessary that day with the facts that were at his disposal at the time, but he had paid a very high price - the loss of his membership in the Pendragons, and the love and respect of his friends. With the knowledge he now had of Roma's deceptions, he could not help but wonder about the validity of the actions she had convinced him were necessary, despite his personal feelings about how Brian was using his throne as King of Otherworld.

“The Braddocks are the results of a breeding program designed by the goddess Roma and her father Merlin to create a being capable of ruling Otherword, the other dimensional realm linked to all the worlds of creation, including Avalon,” Whitman explained to his Knights of Avalon, observing Kelsey Leigh visibly tense at the mention of the scheme which she herself had been deemed a failure of. The newly renamed Captain Avalon had once briefly served as Roma's own Captain Britain before joining the Knights and swearing vengeance against Roma for the deaths of her children. “You are all at least familiar with the Braddock twins - Brian and Elisabeth Braddock. Brian was a member of Excalibur as Captain Britain before ascending to the throne of Otherworld. Betsy was a member of the X-Men before leading the Pendragons as Captain Britain in her own right before her recent injuries. However most of you are probably unaware that there was another Braddock sibling - their older brother, Jamie, who was the greatest failure and the greatest success of Roma's breeding program.”

With a thought, an image of Jamie Braddock appeared in front of the Knights. They saw a handsome but arrogant looking dark haired man wearing a formula one racing uniform, before the image changed to show him insane and almost naked, warping the physical forms of his siblings and the members of Excalibur. “Jamie was born with the potential to warp reality to suit his will. His natural power, once awoken, dwarfed that of his siblings. But Jamie was a mad man. He sought fame and fortune through slavery and cruelty before his powers to change reality were awakened, and then he sought to use those powers to subjugate the will of all others to suit his whims. The damage he could have inflicted would have been unimaginable if he had not been too insane to realise all he was capable of. Despite that, he eventually renamed himself Infinitus and almost destroyed the timestream before being stopped. He… was eventually killed a year ago*.”

(*See Pendragons 18 and 25)

Whitman did not go into the full details of what had happened on the day that Jamie had finally died. Roma had convinced Whitman that Brian Braddock was about to release Jamie on the universe again, and had sent him to murder him. Jamie had died that day without Whitman having to deliver the killing blow, but Whitman still had blood on his hands as far as the Pendragons were concerned. It was as a result of that day that the Pendragons no longer trusted him, and while they reluctantly worked alongside him when strictly necessary following his transmogrification to the Lord of the Lake, their distaste for any dealings with him had left him with no choice but to found his own team of Pendragons… the Knights of Avalon. Whitman could see no reason why the Knights would ever need to know that though, providing his plan to keep the Knights separate from the Pendragons was successful.

“Jamie had used women all of his life,” Whitman continued. “He was fourteen when he conceived his first child. He was forty three when he died. In his life time, eight women bore a child of his to term. All of those I showed you that have been murdered have but one thing in common - they were his children. Someone is hunting them, which means one thing. Some one has realised that they are the Heirs to Avalon.”

“The Heirs to Avalon…” Luke Cage repeated, scratching his head. “Sorry, Whitman. This stuff is way out of my league - I'm still lost. More information required. What does that mean - the Heirs to Avalon?”

“My predecessor, the Lady of the Lake, visited Jamie before his death… The moment before Jamie died, he made his peace with the universe and received a blessing from the Lady She also used her magics to ensure that Jamie's children would be shielded from any enemies that might look for revenge once Jamie was dead. That spell was disrupted when her power transferred to me, exposing them. Now someone is hunting them, and the Knights must protect them for their sakes and for the sake of Avalon. I recently discovered that a child of the current generation of Braddocks is destined to eventually become the Lord or the Lady of the Lake in a time of great stress, and therefore the ruler and defender of Avalon. The survival of Avalon will be dependent on his or her survival to assume the role.”

“You mean, they're going to do your job? What happens to you?” Magma asked, provocatively playing with Sean Cassidy's hair and enjoying the older mutant and his daughter's reactions.

Whitman shrugged, and it was obvious to the Knights that he had no more idea than they had. “I've learned the hard way that prophecies are generally only clear in hindsight, but its' meaning is unmistakable. The future of Avalon is dependent on the survival of one of Jamie's children. Three of them are already dead. One is masked even from my power, so I can only assume that he or she is masked from whatever is hunting the next generation of Braddocks or else capable of protecting himself or herself. I've located a general location for the surviving three - you will need to split up and bring them back here for their safety before whatever is hunting them kills them too.”

“You said Jamie Braddock had eight children,” Teresa asked, paying attention despite her hangover and her anger at her father for spending the night with Magma. “I'm not a mathematician, but three and one and three equals seven. What about the eight?”

“The eight… has already been located.”

“But what about Betsy and Brian? This prophecy could be about their children just as much as it could be Jamie's. It sounds like they would be more logical choices” Sean Cassidy pointed out.

“The Braddock twins are prophesised to die with no living heirs regardless of whether any children are born,” Whitman told the Knights, taking no pleasure from what he had learned about two people he still considered friends, despite the different paths their lives had taken them down. Brian had once been like a brother to him and he knew how much he and his wife Meggan wanted children, and as for Betsy... His conflicted feelings for her were something he had long ago decided not to analyze, but he would do anything to spare her pain if he had a choice. Unfortunately, even his vast power as Lord of the Lake had limits... 

A few hours later, Magma stood outside an old Catholic convent in Nottingham and struggled to suppress her uneasiness. Even though her entire past had been a lie, she had been raised to believe in the pantheon of ancient Rome. When she had travelled to America to study with the New Mutants, she had been shocked to find that her entire belief system was regarded as nothing more than an antiquated curiosity long discarded by every one with any intelligence or education. She had been deeply suspicious of the very idea of the one central, all-knowing but mysterious deity that was shared by most of her class-mates. Even though her true identity of Alison Crestmere and the deceptions of her past had been revealed to her, Magma still did not relish having to enter the temple of some of that deity's female worshippers. She hated the realisation that her childhood indoctrination into a forgotten religion still remained slightly in place, although she was mildly curious to learn about the Heir who would seek refuge in such a place.

“So…” she asked her companion. “Do you want to sneak in, or should I just burn the door down?”

Although Elektra's face remained a constant blank canvass that perfectly masked her emotions and thoughts, Magma was sure that she saw a glimpse of mild contempt in the former assassin's face. “This is a house of worship. We request entry.”

“You don't like me much, do you?” Magma asked, smiling. She did not care how ruthless or intimidating the Greek woman was. After all, she reasoned, what could a normal woman with silver sai do to someone with her power? A good old-fashioned argument was just what she needed to distract her from her apprehension. Siryn was the most fun to antagonise, but Magma was a versatile young woman - she would make do with what was available.

“You play games with others to make them as unhappy as you are,” Elektra responded, knocking on the large wooden doors. “It is childish, and I have no time for games. We are on a sacred mission.”

“Childish?” Magma repeated, feeling her cheeks redden with a mixture of anger and embarrassment that the team mate she had spoken to least since being recruited into the Knights appeared to have assessed her so accurately. “Who the hell -“

She stopped when the doors to the convent were opened to reveal an elderly looking nun in full black and white habit that did not appear in the least bit surprised to see a blonde woman dressed from head to toe in black leather and a Greek woman wearing a skimpy red costume under a dark overcoat.

“My name is Mother Superior Gabriel,” she instructed them. “We've been expecting you.” 

In Manchester, Kelsey Leigh felt completely out of her depth in one of England's biggest gay nightclubs. While the majority of the club's male clientele and the occasional female guest danced in various stages of undress to noise that was apparently called Deep House, she found herself feeling like a lost tourist exploring a world she had never expected to visit and would never have voluntarily chosen to do explore. She had no problem with homosexuality, but she had never before been in a situation where it was so… in her face. She remembered watching a documentary once and a making the mistake of wondering out loud in the company of her husband what they would do if one of their children grew up to be gay. He had predictably got angry at her for even suggesting it was a possibility, just like he had got angry with her about everything she did or did not do before he died. She had privately hoped that she would have been fine with it if one of her kids had come to her It had never occurred to her how happy she would be to accept it if it meant that they had lived long enough for it to be an issue.

Her companion and friend, Teresa Rourke, did not seem to be sharing her discomfort in the slightest.

“I love this place!” Terry told Kelsey, as she danced towards her carrying two shot glasses of something pink, having thrown back two of them already when they had supposed to have been looking for one of the mysterious 'Heirs'. “Gay clubs are always the best place to party. The men are pretty, the music is great, every one can dance and there's never any hassle!”

“What is this?” Kelsey asked, smelling the contents of the glass suspiciously.

“Pink Aftershock! Great for clearing away the cobwebs and getting you ready for action!”

“Teresa, are you insane?” Kelsey snapped. “A boy's life could be at risk! We need to be at our best, and you're drinking?”

“God, don't be so uptight, Kelsey!” Teresa told her, irritated. “It's just a little drink to take the edge off. I'm hardly drunk, so relax the moral superiority thing for a minute. As it turns out, while you were standing here feeling uncomfortable, I've found who we were looking for. He's a bar man here.”

Kelsey looked around at the buff thirty year old topless man behind the bar. “That's him? But… he'd be too old to be Jamie Braddock's son, surely?”

“Not him, silly,” Teresa told her, and pointed her towards the dance floor. “Him. That's Ryan O'Connor. It's his night off.”

Kelsey followed Teresa's gaze and saw a beautiful lean twenty year old with dyed blonde hair and a pierced eyebrow dancing in the middle of the dance floor, oblivious to their attention.

“He's stunning looking,” Kelsey observed, despite herself, thinking of the posters of boy bands that her daughter had been beginning to appreciate.

“Told you all the men are pretty here. Come on Let's go get him before the DJ changes the track.”

Teresa started humming to the music and waving her arms in the air as she began moving over to O'Connor. Kelsey followed, walking rather than dancing as she had no idea how to move to music like that. She saw Teresa move up to Ryan and put her arms around him. The illegitimate son of Jamie Braddock laughed as he thought Teresa was just another dancer enjoying the club, and moved her closer to dance alongside him, completely oblivious to her real identity. Kelsey's unhappy marriage and subsequent widowhood had not given her much opportunity to dance, and she was conscious of the scars on her face. She kept pulling her long blonde hair over her face to cover them as best she could, even though she knew that very few of the nightclub patronage were even giving her a second glance.

She looked around as Teresa tried to persuade O'Connor to have a drink with her, and it was then she noticed him. He wasn't wearing a uniform, just a plain black t-shirt and jeans. She guessed he was about twenty five or twenty six, with a broad build and tightly cut dark brown hair. There was nothing particularly unusual about him, but he was staring at O'Connor intensely and suddenly she knew that whoever this man was, he was who they had been sent to protect O'Connor from.

“Teresa!” she shouted, as she materialised the Sword of Might through strength of will and her Captain Avalon uniform magically replaced her clothes.

The newcomer ignored her, and unleashed the same electricity that had been used to murder Captain Wings at O'Connor. O'Connor would have been killed as instantly as the fallen Crusader if it had made contact, but to the surprise of everyone he grabbed Teresa and they both disappeared, only to reappear beside Kelsey an instant later.

“What the hell is going on?” O'Connor yelled, as the crowd on the dance floor started to panic and flee the club.

“We're the Knights of Avalon,” Kelsey shouted, as she swung her sword in the path of a second attack which she deflected away. “We're here to protect you!”

“You can teleport?” Teresa demanded of their charge.

“Yeah… kind of!” O'Connor replied, in shock.

“Kelsey, go with him and teleport to safety! I'll take care of this murderer!”

“I'm not leaving you!”

“Keep him safe! Go!” the former X-Force team leader ordered, taking to the air and directing her sonic scream at their attacker.

Kelsey reluctantly did as she was told, and instructed O'Connor to teleport them as far away as he could.

“Now,” Teresa told her opponent. “Let's see what you're made of!”

Teresa flew around her foe, feeling completely alive as she narrowly avoided bursts of electricity. She could feel the alcohol from the shots in her system, but she felt so confident and alive. Kelsey was sweet to worry, but Teresa knew that life and battle was so much easier to cope with when you heightened the risk and dulled the pain. Her father tried to convince her to quit like she had some sort of problem, but who the hell was he to tell her anything given his behaviour with Magma? Her team-mates in X-Force had disapproved of her drinking, and they were mostly all dead now. She was the one still alive and fighting the good fight. Where had following the rules got them? She was not the one with the problem.

“That the best you can do?” she taunted him, as she began swooping closer. He was fast. She would give him that. But she was faster. She was the best there was. She was -

“This is the best I can do,” the man who had once been the Crusader known as Tommy Lightning told her, as his electricity hit her straight down her throat.

Teresa immediately fell to the ground, as Lightning kept attacking her. She tried to move away but she was too slow and hurt too much and he seemed to be everywhere. His electricity was suffocating her and burning her from the inside. The mutant known as Siryn had spent most of her adult life screaming, but never before had she done so as a result of so much pain... 

“You alright, man?” Luke Cage asked Sean Cassidy, seeing the older man shudder.

“Yeah, I guess,” Cassidy told his teammate as they walked the grounds of a university in Birmingham. “I just felt like something… bad… had happened. It's probably nothing though.”

“Maybe,” Cage commented, not committing himself to an opinion either way before the two men lapsed back into a comfortable silence. Cage and Cassidy had quickly established an easy working relationship after Whitman had recruited them for the Knights of Avalon. With their histories as a superhuman-for-hire and a secret agent respectively, they were both used to quickly learning how to work with strangers for a common mission. Out of all the Knights, Cage was probably the one that Cassidy worked with best. That being said, the Irish mutant still wished that how they had ended up together on this particular night could have been avoided.

Whitman had tried to allocate the Knights into three squads of two, but it had gone disastrously wrong. He had initially wanted to send Teresa and Magma to Manchester, but Teresa had refused to go any where alongside the 'little whore'. Magma had gone ballistic, so Whitman told Magma to go with the elder Cassidy, which caused Teresa to create even more of a scene to Magma's obvious satisfaction. Whitman had made it clear that he was not impressed, so Kelsey had volunteered to go with Teresa while Cage had volunteered to work with Cassidy, leaving Magma and Elektra to form an unlikely pairing.

Cassidy had no idea what the hell he had been thinking in sleeping with Magma. He had never even thought of her in that way before. She was barely in her early twenties after all, not much older than his surrogate daughter, Rahne Sinclair. He had genuinely been trying to reach out to her as he was the only Knight other than Siryn to know what the girl was like before she had tried to recreate herself as an untouchable ice queen who would never be hurt or let down again. He had never expected the conversation to turn to him having to confront his daughter's alcoholism, and to Magma seducing him. Had she taken advantage of the moment in order to engineer the events of that morning which had led to Teresa being even more upset and angry with him for her own perverse amusement? The evidence would suggest so, given her outrageous behaviour at the meeting, but part of him found it difficult to accept. She had been so… gentle, and vulnerable when they had made love. Which was the real Magma? Amara or Alison? The sweet girl he had spent the night with, or the bitch that had effectively detonated a nuclear device in his own fragile relationship with the daughter who needed him more than she would ever admit? Both? Neither?

“Women are trouble,” Cage told him, as if reading his thoughts. “All of them. We're here.”

They had traced a child of Jamie Braddock to a student union's bar, and quickly identified him. He was practically identical to his father in hair colour, build and looks. Jake Cunningham had also inherited his father's way with the ladies, as he had his arms around two women while four or five hung on every word he said.

To their obviously pleasure, he pointed a finger at a glass of Bacardi and coke that one of them was holding. To their amazement, he made ice appear in the glass and then leaned in for a kiss with its' owner. In the post-Barrier Europe, Charles Xavier's dream of mutant acceptance had been far surpassed in some quarters where having powers was considering absolutely desirable as long as you were already good-looking.

“Ice powers. Looks like our man is cool in every way,” Cage said, “let's see how he gets on with the women we have to deal with on a daily basis…” 

“Her name is Rebecca Wood,” Mother Superior Gabriel explained to Elektra and an increasingly uncomfortable Magma as she led them down a long corridor to a room in the back of the convent in Nottingham. “However, she instructed us recently that she was to be referred to as Sister Sunday, and has refused since then to answer to anything else. I wasn't thrilled about her new name, but eventually we became used to it. We are a closed order, but even we have had to change to accommodate the strange times we now live in.”

“How long has she been staying with you?” Magma asked, her curiosity raised despite herself, smiling as some of the passing nuns looked at her leather Dolce & Gabana outfit as though she were Mary Magdelene.

“Sunday was a novice nun here before the Barrier appeared on that terrible day. She was an orphan with no family to speak of, and I think she thought she would find a new family here while dedicating her life to reflection and doing God's holy work. We were happy to have her. Our numbers have dwindled in recent years. She was our first novice in five years. But at the moment the Barrier appeared, all of the hair on her body fell out, and she retreated into her own little world.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, she walks among us, but is alone. She rarely speaks except for her… predictions.”

“She sees the future,” Elektra observed.

“It's hard to know what Sunday sees,” the Mother Superior told them, stopping outside a humble door at the end of the corridor. “It became apparent that almost every time she talks it is to share… a vision of some sort, of events to come. She knows things, even if she does not always understand what she knows, or can not communicate it clearly to those who exist only in the present. Her messages are often cryptic, and it took some getting used to, but she was one of us. We continued to take care of her as our own, and expected her to be among us forever until she told us this morning that you were coming for her, and that it was her destiny to go with you. Her words, not mine. I'm not happy about leaving her to fend for herself without our care, but I've learned there is no point in arguing with her.”

She opened the door and revealed a young woman with light brown skin and not a trace of a single follicle of hair on her head, wearing a nun's habit. She was sitting calmly on her bed, with a bible open on her lap and a small suitcase with her meagre belongings packed and waiting on the floor.

“You think you're here to save my life,” Sister Sunday told Magma and Elektra as if they already knew each other, “but it's not my life that will be lost. A Knight of Avalon will not live to see another morning.” 

Captain Avalon ran back into the deserted nightclub, having made Ryan O'Connor teleport to the safety of Muir Island. The young mutants' powers were far more impressive than he had led her to believe.

She just hoped that she was not too late. She should have made Siryn leave the moment she saw her drinking. She should have said or done something sooner. God, Kelsey hoped she was okay.

“I'm over here, Kelsey” a familiar voice told her. She turned quickly to see Siryn standing over the comatose body of the assassin, dusting rubble off her clothes. “I hate it when dust gets every where.”

“You're… okay?”

“You don't think an amateur like this would be any problem for me? What did you do with the boy?”

“He's at Muir Island.”

Siryn smiled at her friend to reassure her. “Well, let's go then.”

“What about him?” Kelsey asked, pointing her sword at the unconscious Lightning.

“Who cares?” Siryn shrugged. “He'll be out for hours.”

“We can't just leave him here - we still don't know how he was hunting his victims, why he was doing it, if he's working alone… And the police won't be able to deal with him. Should we take him back to Muir Island with us? Whitman can decide what to do with him, and your father told me that there are power dampeners there.”

“Do what you like,” Teresa told her, walking away. “I'm going home.” 

“No way is this fag my brother!” Jake Cunningham shouted, pointing at Ryan O'Connor within the safety of Muir Island a few hours later.

“Not exactly thrilled about being related to you myself, mate!” O'Connor shouted back.

Cunningham ignored him. “And she's supposed to be my sister? Sister Sunday? Sister Forgot To Take Her Meds more like!”

“Can every one just calm the hell down!” Cassidy yelled, surprising the brothers into silence while their sister simply sat patiently with a sad _expression on her face. “I know this is confusing for every one, but this is in all of your best interests. We can keep you safe here while we figure out what is going on!”

“Where's Whitman any way?” Magma asked Kelsey while enjoying the drama. “Shouldn't he be here by now?”

“We've tried contacting him, but it's not working. I guess even the Lord of the Lake can't be in two places at the same time.*”

(*See Pendragons #70 to find out where Dane is at this precise moment in time)

“How can we be safe here?” Cunningham continued shouting. “You brought the guy who tried to attack the queen here to this very island!”

“Look, you shut your mouth or I will shut it for you,” O'Connor answered, forming a fist but releasing it when Luke Cage walked into the room with Elektra. “Hello…”

“That Lightning guy is on a deep freeze until Whitman gets here,” Cage told Cassidy.

“I'll show you deep freeze,” Cunningham told him as he covered his own body in a coat of ice. “Screw you losers. I'm out of here.”

He went to storm out of the room, but began to shake violently as a high pitched noise barely audible to the human ear was directed at him. Before any one could react, his body exploded into fragments of ices tinted with human blood.

“Oh my god…” O'Connor whispered, while Sister Sunday shook her head as if she had known it was going to happen.

“What the hell was that?” Magma demanded, as she engulfed her body in molten flames.

She stopped as she saw a horrified _expression cross Banshee's face.

“Teresa?” he said to no one in particular, his voice shivering.

Magma followed his gaze and looked up to see Siryn floating above them. What she saw horrified her. Siryn's neck was clearly broken and her head hung loosely at the side of her body as if her skin was the only thing keeping the two connected. But she still somehow had a sick smile on her face, and when she spoke it was with a man's voice.

The voice of Jamie Braddock.

“Little Siryn doesn't live here any more,” Jamie Braddock laughed, using Siryn's body. “But don't worry, kiddies. Daddy's home…” 

Next Issue: Jamie Braddock is back! 'Nuff said. 

Author's Notes: Hey there. Thanks to every one who commented on issue two. I really appreciate it. This title is as much fun for me as it is hell for the characters in it. Next issue will be the conclusion of our first storyline, and will feature an ending that should hopefully confuse the hell out of every one as the Knights take part in the upcoming Pendragons site event I won't go into too much details about yet. 

And I got some reviews! Life is good! 

From Brent Lambert: 

 Knights of Avalon #1 by Gary Halpin

THE GOOD: Man I love the cast of this title. They're all great, full characters with plenty of history to make this an interesting title.

I see tons of story potential for this series. I really feel like this is the start of something interesting. Roma's manipulations and Whitman's role as Lord of the Lake is very well done. I can see

Gary knows his history and I like that.  

Thanks Brent. I love the cast as well. I'm trying to walk a fine line

between using the character's histories while maintaining an

accessible title for those unfamiliar with it. Hopefully it will work! 

 THE BAD: I kinda don't like the way Cage was shoe horned into the series. It just felt forced more than natural to me. It's not like

I don't like him as part of the cast because I do I just wish there would have been a more clever way for him to join the series.  

Cage seems to be the most unpopular member of the team. Hopefully the information revealed about him in issue #2 took care of some of those issues for you. It would have been out of place in #1, which was mainly Kelsey's story and an introduction to the team through her eyes. As should be clear from the story, she is far from the most screwed up member of the team. Whitman has deliberately assembled a team of

characters with not a whole lot to lose... 

 

 OVERALL: This is a great start for what looks to be an interesting series. I hope Gary continues to produce issues of this series.  

Thanks Brent! Hopefully you'll enjoy this issue and let me know what you think. 

From Bob Gansler: 

Knights of Avalon # 2 by Gary Halpin 

Another great read from Gary.  There's a lot going on inside of the  

heroes minds, and I'm afraid Lord Dane knows it and will exploit it.  

 

Oh yeah. If he get's the chance… 

And I got a great review from my mate, Steve Seinberg (every one's reading his titles, right?), over on the Heroes list. 

 Thought I'd post a quick blurb of support for this new series that's now appearing over at AV2K (Pendragons branch). 

This is a series about a fairly eclectic group of heroes brought together by a somewhat evolved Dane Whitman. It's being written by Gary Halpin, and if you've ever read any of his AWC series at AV2K, you know Gary specializes in somewhat complex but very solid plots, and a big focus on dynamics among his cast members. I sometimes get the impression that Gary writes the fight scenes and violent interludes because the genre demands it, but that it's the interrelationships within his rosters that keep him coming back to writing fanfic, and this series is not yet an exception to that idea. There are only two issues posted so far -- still early enough to jump on board! -- but as of yet, we haven't seen much in tthe way of typical superhero "action." So far, it's been more set-up and introduction...but it should be noted that this in no way means the story has been slow or tedious. In fact, Gary is clearly laying the groundwork for a very intriguing book, one that'll be defined not only by how the heroes face various threats, but also how they interact with each other while they face them. Not all the heroes love each other, and there's already a dangerous sense of foreboding that they might lack some crucial spirit of fellowship when things get seriously hairball down the line. 

Gary has a good cast going. I never warmed up to Marvel's UK line back when they were pushing it ten or fifteen years ago, but this book isn't about any of those characters, really -- instead, it's an odd but appealing mix of several Marvel mutants more known for their appearances in various X-books, and several other heroes probably best termed "Marvel Knights" properties. Gary has the mix working, though, and you can tell he has affection for his cast. He's also referenced a group of heirs to the Crusaders, a group of heroes who appeared back in real Marvel's 1970's INVADERS book (and who I always had a soft spot for) -- I'm hoping they end up playing a larger role in the goings-on here. 

I should also say that you don't need to know anything about Marvel UK or about the shared history of the Pendragons branch to enjoy this, as Gary has made it very reader-friendly for the uninitiated.

There's an intro paragraph hipping newcomers to the essential facts of the Pendragons branch, and along the way, Gary also drops in info about continuity matters to bring everyone up to speed as much as they need to be. 

I was originally bummed when I heard Gary was starting up a new book, as this meant in all likelihood he wouldn't have as much time for his AWC series, one of my top fanfic picks...but this looks to have the makings of a fine alternative. Check out KNIGHTS OF AVALON, and enjoy watching a team book unfold with genuine drama and tension...  

Cheers Steve! Really appreciate it.  

-Gary (gary1@eircom.net)

Feb 4^th, 2005.