After several hours of applied mad sciences, Dr. Muskiday finally has a plan.
The macronanos have been feeding on Fairmount City’s emotions, growing stronger with every burst of anger, embarrassment, infatuation, and fear. Muskiday’s new device is designed to reverse the process — converting a macronano back into harmless micronanos while safely discharging all that stolen emotional energy.
There’s just one problem.
To test the thing, they need a macronano.
Fortunately, HoloClone Miss Match knows exactly how to bait the hook. A little romance. A little melodrama. And perhaps just a touch more enthusiasm than Dr. Muskiday was expecting.
Science demands sacrifice. Apparently, dignity is first on the list.
One Hot August
On Friday, I posted a wrap-up of all of the August exclusives — complete with previews of all the spicy selections. You can download all of them without becoming a Patreon backer here.
Transcript
Panel 1
Dr. Muskiday finishes tinkering on his device in front of a whiteboard that shows how the device works.
Macronano —> containment unit —> compression field emitter —> emotion output emitter
Muskiday: OK… I think we’re ready to test it out. Can you attract one of the macronanos?
Panel 2
HoloClone Miss Match: Musky, darling, this may be our last chance to consummate our love before the macronanos take over!
Panel 3
A macronano reacts as Holoclone Miss Match (continues off-panel): Take me, my love. I’m yours, body and soul!
Panel 4
The macronano enters the lab, and HoloClone Miss Match slams the door behind it.
HoloClone Miss Match: Ha-HA! You sure are gullible! I can’t believe you fell for that. GET ’IM MUSKY!
Panel 5
Dr. Muskiday is in the act of taking off his pants: …Huh??
Secret Invasion #8 hit the stands like a grenade (huge explosion that comes about a little later than you’d like).
And it will send huge ripples across the Marvel Universe.
It looks like a pretty brilliant ret-con for a good dozen-or-so of Marvel’s A- and B-List heroes. You really have to hand it to them… this is the Mother of all Iron-Clad Ret-Cons. Any dead characters can be brought back question free. Anything they did before they died can be explained as the actions of a Skrull who was genetically programmed to act exactly like the huma they were replacing.
So Mockingbird and Spider-Woman are back. Jarvis, too.
But perhaps the greatest moment happened exactly as Your Favorite Blogger predicted. Norman Osborne played a key role in the defeat of the Skrulls — even pulling the trigger on the Skrull Queen herself.
And most importantly, Norman closes the chapter by wresting control of the Initiative from Tony Stark (using politics rather than pumpkins, mind you). Then he stalks to a secret room in Avengers Tower(!) and convenes a meeting among some serious A-list Marvel baddies: the Sub-Mariner, White Queen, Dr. Doom, the newly-feminized Loki and the Hood. It’s a nicely finessed lead-in to Dark Reign, which hits comic shops Christmas Eve.
Mwa-ha-ho-ho-ho.
