Welcome back! David Michelinie here again, with more tidbits on what would have happened in the Future Comics Universe had fate allowed us to continue publishing. This time we’re going to explore the unrealized exploits of Team Metallix, and the three key elements that we had planned to examine in upcoming stories: death, science and human relationships.

But first, a bit of essential background. Last month, I revealed that the linchpin of the entire Future Universe was the deathmask. So how did this apparently mystic relic influence Metallix? Well, if you’ll check out DEATHMASK #3, you’ll see that we showed the deathmask being discovered in a flashback sequence. When first seen, the mask is damaged, with three shards of metal lying on the ground next to it. Hmm, three shards...three other Future Comics titles. Coincidence?

I think not.

Throughout the Metallix series we tried to emphasize that the Metal X formula was unique. When Max Krome tried to recreate Metal X the results were disastrous, and in issue #2 he said “...I tried to duplicate the formula. But without the CATALYST, results didn’t match.” And just what was that mysterious catalyst? You got it: Max had mixed in one of the missing deathmask shards, an unearthly metal with properties Max didn’t understand but was still able to use. Once.

Okay, so how was this going to play out in the series? Obviously, the most significant event in the six issues we published was the death of Gil Sanderson, Team Metallix’s military-trained leader. But was death always final in the Future Universe? Well, yes...and no. In unpublished issue #7 (which I believe Bob once posted on this very website), Seth Wong is trapped in a virtual reality training facility gone mad, surviving only because he’s in the Metal X armor. Suddenly, the simulated background changes from jungle to desert and a voice tries to warn him of danger, calling him “Sethy.” Afterwards, he’s told that the VR facility has no desert program, and that no one had tried to warn him over his radio transceiver. Smart readers would likely have remembered at this point that Gil Sanderson was a veteran of Operation DESERT Storm, and that he frequently called Seth “Sethy.”

Then, in issue #9, the team was to have fought a rogue government cell in an underground bunker. Blue Hill, while wearing the armor, was going to see an officer escaping, and call out, “Somebody stop Colonel Canon! He’s getting away!” After the battle, she would have been asked how she knew who Colonel Canon was, at which point she would announce that she never met the man, and had no idea how she knew his name.

All of which was leading up to the startling revelation that while Gil Sanderson’s body had been vaporized by the phase bomb in issue #5, his essence--because he had been mentally and emotionally connected to the Metal X nanites at the time--had been absorbed and preserved by the armor’s substance. All of which had been facilitated by the presence of the metal from the deathmask shard.

Gil’s influence was to have surfaced slowly, over several issues. Teammates would have initially been delighted that their friend had survived. But then reality would have set in: when in the Metallix armor, Gil would literally be a part of them, with access to every thought, memory, secret and emotion.

Not a very comfortable feeling for anyone. The team would have become less and less eager to suit up, more cautious with their thoughts and actions during battle, and this would have begun to effect their efficiency.  For Gil’s part, it would have been no picnic, either. Imagine existing only as part of a cube of smart metal, being “worn” by your friends, having no life, no existence really, outside of missions and combat. Ultimately, Gil would have asked to be removed from the nanites, and Owen Parrish would have called in Flint Technologies for the operation. Gil’s essence would have been transferred to a liquid memory chip, where he would have stayed in limbo, the equivalent of a patient being put into a chemically-induced coma to save them from the pain and suffering of inoperable trauma.

But all was not to be tears and tragedy in Team Metallix’s future. We had action and romance in the wings as well. An upcoming story arc dealt with finding a replacement for Gil Sanderson as the fourth member of the team. An East Indian woman was to have been chosen, only to have it revealed that she was a plant, a mercenary employed by Arthur Rathrock. She was going to attempt to make off with the Metallix armor, which would have led to a battle with the three unarmored team members against a rogue in the Metal X suit. Once the suit had been recovered, weird things were going to happen. In a dramatic cliffhanger, one member transfers the armor to a second, only to have the armor split in two, covering both of them! At first they’d be thrilled, and immediately transfer the armor again so that all three members would be in Metal X armor at the same time. However, it was then to be discovered that each suit was only a third as powerful as the original, and that the split had been the result of a virus the rogue Rathrock agent had planted in the nanites before she’d been defeated. Eventually, we would have had the team figure out a way to restore the armor to its singular, and much more powerful, form. (And incidentally, it was the splitting of Gil’s personality into three factions during this arc that was to be the key to his choosing to have his essence removed from the Metal X substance.)
  

Oh, and did I mention romance? In issue #8, Blue Hill and Stu Konig were to have gone to an abandoned oil rig in the Gulf Of Mexico to run some tests on a sonic defense mechanism. They were going to encounter some rather unusual drug runners, and Stu was going to end up in the Metallix armor, not as a warrior but in a ploy to get the armor to the captive Blue so that she could save herself. This act of heroism was to be the start of a warm relationship between Stu (who’s been nursing a crush from day one) and Blue, who’s intelligent and sensitive enough to see the Good Man behind Stu’s geek/nerd facade. Ah, young love...

Of course, we had many other things planned: the revelation that Owen Parrish wasn’t an employee but actually owned Redstone Research, the true and startling nature of the smooth metallic “meteor” recovered in issue #4, the secret behind Gil’s enigmatic statement “I won’t lose any MORE men!” and...well...let’s just say it would have been a helluva fun ride!

Next month: FREEMIND!