Welcome to the second part of Balladeer’s Blog’s alternate way of handling the Marvel Comics character the Foolkiller. Marvel has changed and rebooted the character many times since his first appearance in 1974, but never in a way that has made Foolkiller click with the public the way other Marvel characters have.
FOR PART ONE OF THIS ARTICLE CLICK HERE
DEFENDERS Vol 1: Number 76 – LITTLE TRIGGERS (Oct 1979)
A. Synopsis of the “real” story – The Defenders (Valkyrie, Hellcat, Moondragon and the Wasp) get involved with Richard Rory, Amber Grant and the various unresolved plot threads left over from the premature cancellation of the comic book series Omega the Unknown. The Defenders search for precocious 13 year old James Michael Starling, who always had a link to Omega that not even he understood, and locate him at his old family home in Pennsylvania.
Foolkiller (Greg Salinger), with his Purification Gun.
The alien race of Protarians, who have been pursuing both Starling and Omega for months, arrive in spacecraft and try to nab the boy. The Defenders battle the aliens to protect Starling and his female friend Dian. Meanwhile in Las Vegas, the Defenders’ old foe Ruby (the orb-headed woman on the cover) and her monstrous creation she calls the Dibbuk steal the dead body of the superhero Omega. Ruby plans to dissect the corpse to see what she can learn for her various inhuman experiments on the living.
In unrelated subplots Nighthawk, in his civilian identity of millionaire Kyle Richmond, is served a restraining order forbidding him to go into action in costume until his legal problems are resolved, and the Hulk battles a shapeless creature who serves the Unnameable, a really boring villain the Defenders will fight in the near future.
Back in Pennsylvania the besieged Defenders drive off the Protarians only to see a blinding light, after which they see that Starling’s body has somehow been replaced by the late Omega’s. This odd development is the cliffhanger ending for this issue. +++
B. Balladeer’s Blog’s Alternate Treatment –
In the Balladeer’s Blog Universe the Foolkiller (Greg Salinger, the second Foolkiller) joined the Defenders last issue instead of things ending with him an enemy. He would therefore be with Valkyrie, Hellcat and their civilian associates (Rory and company) in Pennsylvania. In my treatment they discover Moondragon has arrived at the Starling household at the same time they have. She sensed Starling’s distress and its vague connection to a world-threatening danger.
When the Protarians and their spaceships show up, Foolkiller proves very useful in the fight as the energy blasts from his Purification Gun wreak havoc on the metallic bodies of the Protarians. His agility also helps him dodge their own deadly rays. (Think of Cyclops agilely rolling and jumping around while firing his optic blasts at the same time.) I’m not trying to make Salinger a male Mary Sue, it’s just that as a brand-new Defender it would make sense story-wise for him to prove his worth as the battle rages and for the others to notice how useful he is as an ally.
In Las Vegas, Ruby and Dibbuk steal Omega’s body from the morgue like in the real story, plus Nighthawk gets his court order and Hulk fights the shapeless thing.
Back in Pennsylvania the Defenders have turned the tide and are beginning to drive off the Protarians. Moondragon’s mind powers have, by this point, detected that the Protarians are not robots but are an alternate life-form that is mechanically based instead of chemically based like humans. She tries to get her fellow Defenders to hold back and stop thinking that they’re just trashing robots.
Hellcat, still a bit intimidated by Moondragon from the days when she was under the Titaness’ wing, complies immediately. Valkyrie’s battle fury and Foolkiller’s crazed love of violence (Think of Emilio Estevez as Billy the Kid in Young Guns) mean they are so lost in the fight they don’t relent.
When cornered by a Protarian, James Michael Starling, acting purely on instinct, shoots fire from the omega-shaped scars on his palms like in the first issue of Omega the Unknown. The Protarians are driven off. Foolkiller recognizes the omega scars and the fire Starling shot from his own encounter with Omega. He and James Michael describe Omega to the others. They realize that enigmatic superhero could answer some of their questions about what’s going on.
Hellcat telephones Avengers’ Mansion and talks to the Wasp. For a bit of verisimilitude my version would casually mention that all reported “sightings” or encounters with superbeings, no matter how brief or inconclusive, get forwarded up the line to the Avengers. They then compile a database of all info, including descriptions. The Wasp searches the database and finds the Las Vegas Police’s reported encounter with the huge, unnaturally strong Omega, whom they shot to death.
His body – or so they think – is still in the Las Vegas Morgue. The Wasp offers to fly to Pennsylvania in an Avengers Quinjet to pick up the Defenders, James Michael and the others and head for Las Vegas. The Wasp being the Wasp, she would probably make some playful/ bubbly remark about how her husband Yellowjacket has had multiple adventures as a Defender and she wants to see what it’s like on their team.
When they are all aboard the Quinjet and flying toward Vegas THEN comes the bright flash of light and the body switch in my version. It’s still the cliffhanger for this issue, though.
C. Character Arc: Enroute to Pennsylvania, Hellcat would have ridden in the van with Richard and Amber, while, far overhead, Foolkiler would have sat behind Valkyrie on her flying horse Aragorn. (I am NOT trying to insert a romance between the two, just character development)
Of necessity they would have been conversing throughout the flight and Salinger – with his poetic airs – would be fascinated by the fact that she is indeed an actual Valkyrie. Since Valkyries were sometimes referred to as “choosers of the slain” his delusions would prompt him to tell her it was a quasi-similarity between the two of them -he views his “mission” of selecting fools to kill as being as poetic as the mission of Valkyries to choose slain warriors fit for Valhalla.
Later, when Moondragon would try chewing them out for their relentless assault on the Protarians, Valkyrie and Foolkiller would have shared a certain cameraderie about it. This was a time when Valkyrie was still impatient with the need for restraint that the “civilized world” imposed on her, so the shared attitude between her and Greg Salinger during the argument with Moondragon would be similar to her good fellowship with Sub-Mariner when he was a member. +++
I’LL PICK UP FROM HERE WITH THE NEXT INSTALLMENT IN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO AS TIME ALLOWS.
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