Rising Stars
Posted by:: HellPope Huey
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 18:15:54 GMT
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This is an excerpt from the last issue of "Rising Stars," a 24-issue
comic book written by Michael J. Straczynski, who is the creator of
"Babylon 5," a rather interesting and classy science-fiction series many
of you have probably seen by now. The whole thing can be had in 4 trade
paperback compilations if you're interested. It has a super-hero-y
element, certainly; its about 113 people born with varying super-powers,
clashing, scaring the pee out of the world and then finding their place
at the 11th hour. It has some unique moments, some very dark twists,
some very poetic wish-fulfillment scenarios and a large helping of the
thing that revitalized comics a few years back: a hard look at the facts
that all the power in the world is useless or even destructive without a
decent rudder and that not everything can be fixed, nor fixed casually
by force.
I decided to transcibe this part before sending the whole stack off to
a friend who is a big "Babylon 5" fan. I sent her plastic Vorlon a
while back. She was SO PLEAZED, EIEIEIEIEIE!!!
I enjoyed this series a lot. Its purportedly being worked on as a film;
I hope they leave it intact, because its fine as it is. Yeah, comic book
dialogue would often make a horse laugh if read out loud, but
Straczynski has a certain added something that raises the bar a notch.
"But the truth was not what they feared. The truth was something no one
expected.
The Pedersen Flash had give us all unique powers... the kind of powers
you'd need to bring together a civilization.
The power to restore life and health. The power to link minds and
creat empathy between them. Perfect health, near invulnerability to
sickness and disease. Bridged male and female. Brought light into dark
places.
That power released at last, went out into the world and touched
everyone in it.
In its wake, every tumor, every cancer, every sickness, every disease
was cured.
For twenty-four hours, no one needed food or water. No one felt
hunger, thirst or cold.
For twenty-four hours, we felt the pain of those we considered our
enemies, understood their minds, their souls, their most secret hearts.
For twenty-four hours, borders were erased and replaced with something
new.
Compassion.
For twenty-four hours, no one killed anyone... anywhere in the known
world.
But it was not just that the lame were straightened and the blind were
made to see and the sick were cured. It was more than that.
For twenty-four hours, we were given a glimpse through the bars of our
existence, at perfection.
Our perfection.
Not as an abstract ideal, but as something real, attainable, as
concrete and substantial as the marrow of our bones.
It was as though the reset button of humanity had been pushed... as
though a fiery hand had written a promise across the sky, had
established a newly-minted covenant with mankind. And the promise was
this.
What you have experienced in these twenty-four hours can become the
daily reality of humanity. This is a preview of what you may be, what
can be, if you choose to make it so.
Mark this day as your new beginning. From this generation, sickness
and informity have eben eliminated and you have peered into the hopes,
fears and dreams of your neighbors.
Build on that understanding in your lives and pass on to your
inheritors the knowledge that this day can come again. That perfection
is attainable.
That as the poet said, one day man may be a friend to his fellow man
and war no more, forever.
Call it the hand of God. Call it the next step in evolution, call it
whatever you want. For twenty-four hours, the world was changed.
Then, at the start of the twenty-fifth hour, the energy rose back into
the sky, gathered force and power.
Ran east along the horizon, like a snowball rolling downhill,
gathering mass and strength.
Until it came, as I knew it would.
Came... to me."
Well, I'll be dipped in manna!
--
HellPope Huey
There are a million stories in the naked city.
Most of them are about @$$holes.
"You may give me
the finest instrument in Europe
but yet I should have no pleasure in playing on it
to an ignorant, stubborn
or unsympathetic audience.
- Mozart, letter to his father, 1778
"We're cartoon characters!
We can do anything we want!"
- Heckle & Jeckle
Posted by:: "just john"
Date: 23 Mar 2005 10:42:40 -0800
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I liked JMS' take on Spider-Man, and I loved B5. "Rising Stars" didn't
do it quite so much for me, but that may be in large part because of
the style of the artwork. And it was certainly no "Watchmen."
Posted by:: "Dick Silk - The Computer Tutor"
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 18:16:35 -0600
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PLEASE REMOVE alt.dreams from any further replies! Thank you!
--
--
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcsilk for rates
http://dicksilk.chatango.com for live chat
--
"just john" wrote in message
news:1111603360.484397.23950@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I liked JMS' take on Spider-Man, and I loved B5. "Rising Stars"
>didn't
> do it quite so much for me, but that may be in large part because of
> the style of the artwork. And it was certainly no "Watchmen."
>
Posted by:: nenslo
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:12:31 -0800
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Dick Silk - The Computer Tutor wrote:
>
> PLEASE REMOVE alt.dreams from any further replies! Thank you!
>
NO!
Posted by:: Unclaimed Mysteries
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:07:05 GMT
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nenslo wrote:
> Dick Silk - The Computer Tutor wrote:
>
>>PLEASE REMOVE alt.dreams from any further replies! Thank you!
>>
>
>
> NO!
But the Dreamers say YES! DO IT NOW! OBEY OR DIE. Ia! Shub Niggurath!
Ia! Ia! Zulu, Sulu, War Damn Cthulhu! Kick 'em in the butt, Big Blue!
--
It Came From C. L. Smith's Unclaimed Mysteries.
http://www.unclaimedmysteries.net
Posted by:: "Dick Silk - The Computer Tutor"
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 20:09:07 -0600
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oh SHIT! you mean this is all MY fault??? fuck ME!!
--
--
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcsilk for rates
http://dicksilk.chatango.com for live chat
--
"nenslo" wrote in message
news:4242766D.4BD557D@yahoox.com...
> Dick Silk - The Computer Tutor wrote:
>>
>> PLEASE REMOVE alt.dreams from any further replies! Thank you!
>>
>
> NO!
Posted by:: "Koko"
Date: 4 Apr 2005 23:58:31 -0700
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_I_ certainly dug the hell out of Rising Stars... and I've only read
that first volume. Superheroes in a much more realistic setting than is
traditional... of COURSE the gov't collected their information right
away!
Thus spake the monkey