Steely Steve and Goldie Versus Doctor Blotto

Before I get back to commissions, trades, prizes and my webcomic, allow me to show this piece I started working a week ago and was only able to finish today.

It's not a recent thing that I feel my gallery could use more action pics in particular, so here's one to be on that count. We've got a couple of recently created characters, the "one-man-army" soldier Steely Steve and his undercover agent sidekick Goldie, facing an old but not too seen face (so far), the gadgety villainous spy Dr. Blotto. The background is some *lazy* abstract pattern with colors and effects trying to give any bit of "action-adventure" tone to what really matters - the actual scene.

Rather than just giving Steely that "trigger happy action man" role, it also came to me to add to him a well-known concept, not only seen in several action fictions but, for quite a time now, in newspapers, magazines, TV shows, etc. regarding ongoing plans of many military "powerhouses": the whole "supersoldier" concept, or when state-of-the-art technology combines with military needs to create an above-average soldier. Captain America might be among your first thoughts after interpreting such description, right? Right. Only in this case here, more like the first concepts of the Marvel superhero, when it was more common to see him wielding firearms rather than just throwing his shield. In fact, no shield to attack and protect here (at least not like "Cap's"; read below), only shiny tech armor and all the gun wielding you can have, resembling more of the likings of RoboCop, Judge Dredd, Star Wars's Stormtroopers or anything in the same line.

So, in the Homeheoresuniverse, that concept has been properly applied in all of its sci-fi essence as well, which is incarnated by our Steely here. He is considered the "prototype soldier of the future" by his superiors and involved scientists: he is currently assigned to test a whole bunch of experimental (and rather costly to face mass production yet) hi-tech gear in all of his missions, such as that chest armor with communicator, retractile mini compartments, parachute and jet pack (curiously dubbed as a "Buzz Lightyear" by some of its creators) and those bracelets also containing communicators along with retractile small shields, razors, flashlights, computers and plenty of other data storage devices (radars, trackers, instant scanners and detectors capable of recognizing and analyzing many different kinds of substances, for instance). Force fields are currently in development, but with not any estimation of conclusion.

The biggest part of that "supersoldier" project hasn't been undisclosed to public knowledge yet; what people know is what the involved military and scientists allowed to be revealed to mass media, stuff that made a few articles in newspapers, magazines, science or variety TV shows or anything like it as a "promise for a near future". That's not exactly what we see there with Steely Steve, for instance. And concerns about such secret research and development is what led CIA to designate agent Goldie there to work as an undercover vigilante sidekick for Steely. Playing a role of "big sister" there (in both caring and strictness means), it's essential that she never raise the slightest suspicions in order to keep the eagle guy under her watch while gathering all possible information about him and specially about both "OMA" and "supersoldier" projects, and find out the reasons behind such secrecy or even take precaution in case such project "crosses the line".



Well... that's all for Homeheroes plots for now.

Maybe I said too much already... and maybe you know too much now, no?