Posted in: Comics | Tagged: champagne supernova, Comics, keith champagne

Champagne Supernova – The Fill In

Published Sat, 19 Oct 2013 15:00:54 -0500

Last updated Sun, 20 Oct 2013 10:12:17 -0500

Keith Champagne writes;

Welcome to the second episode of Champagne Supernova. Unfortunately, I've been downed with Pneumonia and I don't have the gumption to think of something interesting to write so, in classic comic industry fashion, two episodes in we've got our first fill-in issue.

I was digging through some files and came across this pitch I threw at DC a few years ago. I remember the editor I gave it to liked it but, a year later, had never actually submitted it. Them's the breaks, maybe it was easier than just saying no to me. I am a delicate little flower, after all.

I sliced out the second half of this pitch, the story section, in case I ever decide to retrofit it and use it for something else. Why spoil all the twists and turns? Hope you enjoy it, I think it's a little rough but with a coat of polish could make a heckuva good something or other.

THE ENGINE
An ongoing series

By
KEITH CHAMPAGNE

And

TBD

It came from the stars during the last interglacial period. Badly damaged, bleeding fire and smoke, it crashed into the rapidly freezing tundra of the Arctic Ocean, seemingly lost for eternity in a freshly-formed universe of ice.

Lost. Or biding its time.
130,000 years later, global temperatures slowly begin to climb, leading to the subtle deterioration of the arctic ice shelves. One drop of water at a time, glaciers the size of cities start to melt, weakening until, inevitably, a mile long splinter of ice fragments away, crashing into the ocean.

Revealing, for the briefest of instants, THE ENGINE: two hundred feet of giant, bipedal robot sleeping in a protective fetal position in a cocoon of ice.

Sleeping? Or playing possum.

The frigid arctic ocean instantly claims The Engine, effortlessly swallowing the massive machine whole, hiding it once more in waters dark and cold.

But not before, for the tiniest of nanoseconds, its systems power up, then just as quickly shut back down.

Just long enough to send a signal.

A warning.

A challenge.

WHAT IS THE ENGINE?

There is one universal truth in this crazy world we live in and that truth is simply this: Giant Robots Are Cool–and commercially viable, thanks to THE TRANSFORMERS. On a slightly less universal note (but still true), giant robots are also, in large part, missing from the DCU.

Enter THE ENGINE.

Two hundred feet of giant robot, The Engine is constructed from equal parts SHOGUN WARRIORS and THE IRON GIANT and detailed by a score of Japanese kaiju films and mecha anime.

Once upon a time, The Engine was the greatest hero of the EUCLIDEAN GALAXY, an entire star system filled with robotic life. To make an analogy, The Engine wasn't just a giant robotic hero, it was the Superman of giant robots.

Unfortunately, for every Superman there's a Lex Luthor and for The Engine, there's FACTOR 9. Constructed (and discarded as useless) by the COMPUTER TYRANTS OF COLU as a prototype of the original BRAINIAC, Factor 9 wanders the universe and discovers the Euclidian galaxy. "Nice place," he thinks. "Maybe I'll keep it."

After a fierce battle in which The Engine is almost completely destroyed, Factor 9 seizes total control of the star system in its (literal) iron grip.

In a comatose state for the last hundred and thirty thousand years while its diagnostic routines slowly bring it back online, The Engine is still far from peak operating capacity. Lacking the power to travel back to the Euclidean galaxy, The Engine is instead planning to lure Factor 9 to Earth.

What The Engine hasn't counted on is evolution.

Think about how fast computers and electronics improve their performance, literally doubling in speed and capacity each year. Now try to imagine how much not only Factor 9 but also the entire Euclidean galaxy has evolved over the past one hundred and thirty THOUSAND years. Compared to the current level of technology in its home galaxy, The Engine is simply archaic; nothing more than a slingshot trying to kill an Atomic Bomb.

And it doesn't even know it.

MEET SAMUEL GRAHAM BELL

Middle aged and homeless, SAMUEL GRAHAM BELL has hit rock bottom and has no intention of trying to climb back up. Same ekes out an existence collecting bottles and cans on the streets of New York. Every night, he sleeps where he can, eats whatever he can scrounge up, mumbled to himself and owns precisely one thing: a tattered Barry The Builder doll that never leaves his grasp.

Once upon a time, in a different life, Sam had a wife and son and was a brilliant engineer possessed of an innate talent for machines, an intuitive skill operating on what could well have been a meta-human level.

Until his family was tragically killed and, one destroyed life later, Samuel now walks the streets, a shell of a man, clutching his son's favorite toy.

When Samuel and The Engine cross paths, the two form an instant, symbiotic relationship. The Engine is badly damaged, in need of help, providing the man with a chance to do what he couldn't for his family: protect and save. In turn, Sam provides the giant robot with something it desperately needs to level the playing field against Factor 9.

Processing power.

There's not a computer in existence that can operate faster than a human brain working at one hundred percent of its full capacity. The Engine finds that, because of Sam's meta-human gift for machines, it can route its systems through his brain, unlocking his full mental capacity while drastically boosting its own capabilities to a level that can match Factor 9's.

Together, the shattered homeless man and the giant robot hero unexpectedly become an entire galaxy's best hope for salvation.

(The rest of the pitch was the story section which I cut out, as mentioned above. Hope you enjoyed it, catch you next week!)

keithchampagne@gmail.com and @keithchampagne

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