Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Comicbook Heroes

Walk into any store in Eorzea, gas station in Aquila, or drug store in a Sprawl, and you will find three or four pre-adolescent boys, and occasionally girls, scrutinizing the comic book display. In years past, these racks of cheap ink and cheaper paper were filled with tales of masked brawlers, the heroes of pulp fiction made famous by the radio dramas, or featured war-time tales of Guardian Heroes.

These days, they have Superheroes.

Now, men with extraordinary powers have been the subject of cheaply-produced fiction for years, but the economic turmoil of the 30s and 40s in the Federation, combined with growing political strife in Eorzea with the advent of leaders like Oswald Mosley, the idea of a “Super-Man” had fallen out of style.

All that changed during the GVAW. The sight of a burning exhaust trail streaking over the Eorzea sky, followed by a column of Voshkod tanks exploding and a man in a dashing uniform fighting Voshkod infantry with fists powered by rockets engraved itself in the memory of many an Allied soldier.

And so in the latter part of 1958 V.C., an Aquilan Soldier named Jerry Spiegel wrote a story about Captain Rocket that was published in SC's Adventure Comics #1.

Wong's Wonders
In the late 50s and early 60s, a company named Atlas Comics tried to revive their long-dead superhero franchises, only to find those ancient tyrants from under the sea and flaming “artificial men” no longer captured the interests of the youth of the free world. The company drifted in and out of debt until an unlikely alliance was struck: The newly renamed “Wonder” Comics would receive funding to publish a superhero series, and in return, that superhero would be modeled after none other than the new prism weapon. Prismatica was born.

Beaten By Rainbows
"The ability to do great things gives you the obligation to do the right thing."

-Janice Jubilance

The character of young Robin Jubilance, a high school student, was an anomaly from the start. Not only was she a female (the male Captain Rocket being the paradigm of heroes at the time), but she was a teenager, a person with problems and authority issues. Needless to say, the growing unrest among post-GVAW youth caused them to immediately identify.

In the comic book, Robin was observing an AseliaTech demonstration when she was accidentally trapped and struck by a “Prism Projector” machine. The next day, she found herself able to create and control light, which projects into the colors of a rainbow, transforms into and move at the speed of light, and sense other people’s “colours”, and a side effect of permanently dying her brown hair into the seven colors of the rainbow.

Robin initially used her powers for fun, playing pranks, getting revenge on the bullies who had tormented her before, and using her super speed to get rich. All that changed when Robin used her powers to steal a briefcase and laughed in joy when it was filled with money, not knowing that she had actually stolen from an infamous mobster and that the suitcase had a tracker on it. And later that fateful night the mobster came to her home.

Fortunately, she was hanging out with her friends at the time, but in turn, the only occupant at her house was gunned down and the house was razed to send a warning to her: Robins' grandaunt Janice.

When the news came soon after, Robin was distraught, realizing that her childish actions had destroyed her home and killed her grandaunt, who raised her when her parents disappeared when she was a baby. From that day on, she swore to use his powers to help others, becoming the Amazing Prismatica.

Despite the laughable science, the series was a hit, and sales continued to climb through the late 60s V.C., even as public interest turned to the exploits of later conflicts.

Mr. Freeze
"I'll extinguish you with my burning soul!"

-Captain Winters catchphrase

While Captain Rocket had dominated the Market of the Alliance the unveiling of the Andoran cryotechnology caught the interest of Wonder writer Kirby Jacobs: about a superhero who could control cold itself.

Kirby and fellow writer Lee Wong created a character modeled after the heroes of epics and taking a mythological origin for the first time since Captain Rockets' debut.

By day William "Billy" King was an exemplary firefighter, charging into the inferno to save everyone, but when evil comes he would raise his cane, revealing its true form of a spear, and transform into Captain Winter.

The origin of Captain Winter lies from the very beginning. When a freak housefire had engulfed billy's home, trapping him as the firefighters were too far, when a brave man, whichBilly only remembers the blue mohawk he had, rushed in and saved him. And while both of them had escaped the man had lost his left arm in the fire, and soon after disappeared, a mystery Billy is still pursuing today.

Inspired by the man's bravery and sacrifice Billy would model his hair after his hero, and is quick to anger if someone insults it, and trained to become a firefighter, officially joining the Andoran fire brigade at the age of eighteen. But his heroic origin only starts two years later.

A museum was suddenly lit on fire and Billy's team was the first to respond, saving people inside and dousing the flame. When Billy heard that one of the head archeologist was trapped deep within the building he, despite his team's protest, rushed in. And met face-to-face with the firestarter.

It was an elemental of flames seeking out a relic spearhead the archaeologists recently uncovered, and had intended to use it to dominate Gaiaterra. Seeing the danger Billy charged to stop him, armed with nothing but a broomstick, and managed to hold off the being.

But the being was too strong and used all of its powers to severely burn Billy, including reducing his left arm to black bones, but had lost the spear in the process, and in vengeance would burn down the museum and the people around.

Billy, near death yet still determined to stop it, then heard the spear talking to him, telling him to reach out. And, crawling despite the pain, grasp the spearhead in his remaining arm and transformed, ice began growing out of the stump to form a new arm made of ice, yet had the same dexterity and feeling as a flesh and blood arm (and can look like a normal arm when in his civilian mode saved for the blue tattoos, his body was encased in an armor of ice, and his black hair turned blue.

He saw a vision; a great figure who told him that his courage and kindness made him worthy of wielding the frost spear. The spearhead he had grabbed was the Spear of Winter, and as long as he wields it, he would be transformed into Captain Winter. And with his new power Captain Winter blast out and defeated the elemental.

Captain Winter has the ability to shoot ice from his left arm, as well as call it down from the sky. He has a near immunity to cold, heal others with the power of cold, mastery over his spear, and he can create ice only limited by his imagination.

There is also a popular fan theory that the man who saved Billy was in fact his older self, having been thrown back in time by (insert villain). Wonder Publishings had not confirmed nor deny such claims.

And I’m a SP.
Founded in 1934 V.C. as National Alliance Publications, by the 1960s SC, Short for Skye Publishings, Comics became a giant in the entertainment industry. Aside from the million-dollar Captain Rocket franchise, the company has produced numerous other superhero series, all of which “cross over” with Captain Rocket at least once a month.