Crossover Chapter 13 - Commentary

Heroines in danger!  Natasha on the prowl!  Please read the chapter before continuing.

One of the fun bits I added to Crossover was having Canada be the nastiest nation on the mirror Earth.  Everyone there is afraid of the mirror version of Canadians.  I didn't get into details.  Half the fun is letting the readers try to work out just how dangerous a Canadian would be.  Mirror Meredith is one of the nastier mirror Canadians.

Names got interesting.  Everyone involved needed two, a proper name and a nickname, just so I could identify which side of the dimensional divide a character was from.  Most of the characters have names that can have diminutives.  A few, like Nasty and Micki, already use nicknames, allowing me to use their proper names with their mirror counterparts.  With Meredith's counterpart, I went for the ironic nickname, Merry.  Keith was the only character to not get a nickname for his counterpart.  Fortunately, the counterpart went by Omega most of the time.  Hopefully it made sense and was easy to follow.

I dropped an element while writing Crossover.  Tori's fear about her father came up, but I never had the chance to explore why she was worried about being seen by him.  Part of the problem was that I kept Vicki's father out of the way at the baseball game.  Without the two ever meeting, the issues just disappeared into a crack.

Keith recognizing Omega's power armour was a point I needed.  Since Omega is Keith's counterpart, not Meredith's, having Keith recognize the armour was a way to set up elements I'd need later.  The recognition also means that the heroes have information that they can use, while the opposition doesn't.  Keith's reasoning is also important.  First, for the narrative, it gives the heroes a way to outsmart his counterpart, if they think of it.  The second is a condemnation of the militarization of the police.  Too often, police go into a situation with their faces covered.  The result is a disconnect from society.

The escape starts with using Merry's cruelty against her.  Vicki took advantage of the situation, reacting and bluffing.  Merry wasn't ready for the Pixie Dust.  Meredith is using the classic prisoner ruse, helped along by being Merry's duplicate.  Nasty, though, hasn't seen enough movies where the trick is used.  Eric will have to show her Star Wars.

The trip to Natasha's room came about when I realized that two of the heroes needed clothes.  Natasha had taken Nasty's costume to pretend to be her and took the Powered BIKINI to neutralize Meredith.  Once I knew I needed to go there, I decided to have fun at Nasty's expense.  Last issue, Natasha complained about Nasty's wardrobe.  This time, it's Nasty's turn.  The wardrobe was another way to show how different Nasty and Natasha were.  In the later issues of Subject 13, Nasty demonstrated her feelings about short skirts.

One of the handy parts of setting the story in Cleveland was having landmarks that the cast would care about.  In this case, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which turned out to be close to the hotel I chose.  Sometimes, things can fall right into place when writing.  Micheline never really says what the Hall of Fame is on her side of the barrier.


Tomorrow, Crossover Chapter 14.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, Jem and the short run.
Saturday, over at Seventh Sanctum, what challenges facing The Six Billion Dollar Man.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.