Bulleteer 2
From Barbelith
"Who Killed Seven Soldiers?"
Barbelith thread: What milkshake? (http://www.barbelith.com/topic/22290/from/105#post527896)
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Background and General Commentary
Synopsis:
Alix Harrower is taking her first tentative steps into her new life as a superhero/bodyguard, but she quickly learns that, in the world of do-it-yourself superheroics, once you are in, you are in over your head. FBI Metahuman Specialist Helen Helligan wants answers to the burning question of the moment, "Who killed the Seven Soldiers?", and she'll need the Bulleteer's hired muscle to get to the truth. Having unknowingly dodged death once, how will Alix react to a world of time-traveling monster assassins, super-villain grudges, country-singing werewolves, vengeful ghosts, and vampire queens? It's all part of one Big Picture, and even the smallest connections may draw the Bulleteer into a web of danger.
Annotations
| Featured Characters | Featured Locations |
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Page 3
PANEL 5: "Harris D. Ledbetter, a.k.a. Dyno-Mite Dan. He bought two hero rings off e-bay. 'Working fakes,' whatever that means."
The rings Dyno-Mite Dan wore in Seven Soldiers 0 never belonged to the orignal Dan the Dyna-Mite and T.N.T. We know from Zatanna #2 that Cassandra Craft has been selling counterfeit Dyna-Mite rings out of her magic shop. Since Dan was able to become a human bomb even though his rings were fakes, there must be something extraordinary about Cassandra Craft's abilities as a forger, or something extraordinary about Dan himself. "Learn to fool the experts," indeed!
Page 4
PANEL 1: "Agent Helligan is an FBI Metahuman Specialist."
Agent Helen "Sky High" Helligan last appeared in Shining Knight 3.
Page 5
PANEL 4: "I was all set to go to Arizona that day; I even bought a plane ticket then lost my nerve."
Alix Harrower was supposed to be the seventh member of the Vigilante's team in Seven Soldiers #0. She was the one who got cold feet at the last moment and didn't show up.
PANEL 5: "Run the bike footage please."
In Seven Soldiers #0, Greg Saunders provided each member of his team with a flying air scooter and bragged that "They even have digital video cameras built in. State of the art." As a result, video evidence of the Massacre at Miracle Mesa has been preserved for posterity.
Page 7
PANEL 4: "Guess I'm reacting to the antibiotics and tetanus shots the gave me last night after I got bitten by a @%*# vampire."
Agent Helligan got bitten by Gloriana Tenebrae, the vampire queen of Summer's End, in Shining Knight 3. She ought to be dead, but to a hardened Metahuman Specialist, apparently this is only a minor setback.
PANEL 5: "...See, in less than two hours my sister gets married to a scary guy who beats her up. My mom made me promise I'd find a good reason to stop her."
In Shining Knight 3, Agent Helligan mentioned that she had to fly to New York for her sister's wedding.
Page 8
PANEL 4: "Ramon Solomano. The Hand, right? A.K.A. The Iron Hand, a.k.a. The Napoleon of Crime."
Oh man! Ramon's last name is a terrible pun. Solo = one, Mano = hand. Ramon Solomano = Ramon The One-Handed. Get it?
Page 10
PANEL 3: "Last night a bunch of kids stole a World War Two subterran machine from the Manhattan Museum of Superhumanity."
The kid's gang known as the Deviants raided the museum in Klarion #3. The Sapper Drill is currently in the possession of Klarion the Witch-Boy.
Page 11
PANEL 3: "My Hand! My Iron Hand!"
... and the Iron Hand is clearly visible in one of the displays at the Manhattan Museum of Superhumanity in Klarion #3 as well.
Page 12
PANEL 1: "He was searching for a treasure, for a Lost Citadel in the Himalayas. For a forgotten tribe of winged horses, from before The Flood.
Neh-Buh-Loh is searching for the Seven Treasures of Camelot. The Lost Citadel in the Himalayas is Gorias, where Zatanna sent Misty in Zatanna #4. The winged horses are the descendents of Pega-Zeus, of whom the Shining Knight's mount, Vanguard, is one.
PANEL 3: "Many, many years later, my young nephew drew my attention to a personal column in 'Powerhouse' magazine and I knew the time had come to strike. So the boy infiltrated Saunders' 'Seven Soldiers.'"
The Boy Blue who joined Vigilante and his Six Soldiers at Miracle Mesa was Ramon's nephew and a traitor to the team. He used his horn to summon Neh-Buh-Loh and the Sheeda.
Page 13
If I'm not mistaken, The Vigilante's back-up man in PANEL 2, the fellow with the whip who has confiscated Ramon's iron hand, is Rodney Gaynor a.k.a. The 'Golden Age' Whip mentioned by his granddaughter Shelly Gaynor in Seven Soldiers 0.
Page 14
PANELS 3-4: "Wolfsbane and silver treatments kept the disease in remission for years but this was a Doctor's report; the condition was coming back. Any idea why Greg Saunders always kept at least one silver bullet in his pistol? It was for himself."
In Seven Soldiers 0, Vigilante used a silver bullet to shoot the ghost spider of Miracle Mesa. He also confessed to The Whip that he couldn't tackle the spider alone anymore because of arthritis, high blood pressure, and... other undisclosed health problems. I guess now we know why he trailed off.
Page 15
PANEL 1: "And he said they'd all be waiting, see? Waiting for me... The Black Baron... Big Caesar... Little Joe Goss..."
The Black Baron and Big Caesar are both old villains from the Vigilante's rogues gallery. It's likely Goss was one too.
Page 16
PANEL 2: "...I'm sorry about the milkshake."
In Shining Knight #3, Agent Helligan confessed that she once put fish oil in her brother's milkshake. Aside from that one sin, which she still regrets, she is completely pure of heart.
PANEL 4: "Tell 'em 'Sky High' said the starry guy and the fairy folk are from the future.
Agent Helligan confirms the origin of the Sheeda. The Sheeda are humans from the far future. Their spider-mounts and 'magical' weapons are the products of advanced technology. Because their society has become stagnant and decadent and because they have exhausted the resources of their era, they raid the resources and cultural achievements of the past.
Page 19
PANEL 1: "Don't do it, Sis! The guy's a werewolf!"
Agent Helligan's "Big Picture" approach to investigation pays off unexpected dividends in the end. By investigating the murder of the Seven Soldiers, she turns up just the evidence she needs to solve her other problem: how to break up her sister's wedding.
Page 20
PANEL 1: "With that in mind, I'll be back from Zenith City when I get through with this insame body-guard job I accepted."
Zenith City is an extremely obscure locale within the DC Universe. The only known reference to Zenith City is in a "Dial H for Hero" story from 1967. Zenith City was once plagued by the criminal exploits of Dr. Cyclops until he was defeated by Robby Reed, long time possessor of the H-Dial, as told in House of Mystery #164 (http://www.dcindexes.com/database/story-details.php?storyid=21757).
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