Executive F.O.R.C.E. debuts in 2017!

This year's election divided people into three camps: those happy with the winner, those vehemently opposed to the winner and those pretty much depressed no matter who the winner ended up being.

But in 2017, fans will get a chance to see a better world with a new kind of President of the United States. The second volume of F.O.R.C.E. launches in spring with a new name and a new focus: the first term of President Samuel Tanner, a.k.a. Legend. The former leader of the team is now truly the most powerful man in the free world.

How will this change the future of the Quadrant Universe? Stay tuned as more details will come in the days and weeks ahead!

F.O.R.C.E. Files 6: Pointblank

The new chapter of F.O.R.C.E. which is now available focuses on the past of Legend. But it isn't like the previous chapters of the book. This time Legend sits at death's door, put there by the metahuman assassin known as Pointblank.

Pointblank makes his first full appearance in this chapter as the team goes after the would-be assassin of their leader. But with his meta-enhanced strength and speed, along with a preternatural aim, he may be more than a match for an entire unit of F.O.R.C.E. members. Though I briefly mentioned him in yesterday's Best Character Ever, Pointblank is an important villain in the Quadrant Universe. While he isn't the most powerful nor the most manipulative, he is one of the most successful assassins and agents in the criminal set. His exploits are legendary over a thirty year career, which make him a threat the team take very seriously.

"Death Watch" also looks at the origins of Legend, including the dark secrets of his creation. As Inch and Cyber fight to keep him alive, the past portions of the story reveal the continued legacy of the infamous King family, already on full display in the first two volumes of Lightweight.

Chapter six of F.O.R.C.E. is now available on Amazon.

F.O.R.C.E. Files 5: Ferret

The Ferret was a Golden Age character without a lot going for him. A hodge-podge of other heroic concepts, he had any powers the writer decided a ferret might have. Then he also had super strength, was bulletproof and strangely could fly. He wore a mess of a costume: blue shirt and leggings, black trunks, red belt, yellow cape and a brown ferret mask.

He isn't exactly the caliber of the Living Legends.

In the early 90s, he was updated by the folks at Malibu Comics along with a bunch of other Centaur characters for their superteam called The Protectors. They kept his name, his secret identity and literally threw out everything else. He was a rockstar figure with the attitude of Wolverine and powers along the same lines.

I came at my version of The Ferret with the same noble savage concept in mind. But I didn't want to throw away his history as the police commissioner turned terribly costumed vigilante. As the former Cal Denton takes the lead, hints drop of a mental break somewhere in his past.

Even as he faces those problems, he's summoned by Legend to work on a team tracking savage killers across the Southwest United States. His ferret abilities serve him well in the battle when the enemies stand revealed, but even they might not be enough to prevent certain tragedy.

To learn more about The Ferret, check out F.O.R.C.E. 5: Ferret, available today at Amazon! You'll be glad you did, as this book sends repercussions throughout the entire F.O.R.C.E. saga.

F.O.R.C.E. Files: On Legend

Legend has elements of both halves of this
amalgam, but he's forging his own path.
Image credit: DC/Marvel.

The F.O.R.C.E. Files is a new irregular series of columns discussing the F.O.R.C.E. series.

When I first developed Legend about twenty years ago, he was designed to be the answer to a formula. Comic book universes have their big conquering hero, their A list player that leads the other heroes into the future. With a name like Legend, he pretty much has to be that guy.

Those characters in Marvel and DC are—at least in this writer’s opinion—Captain America and Superman. So when I first started to develop Legend I looked at what made those characters different. Legend’s sense of justice certainly resembles the pair. The skintight bodysuit and cape originates with Superman, while I suppose Legend’s history as a military man links him at some level to Cap.

But from there, I wanted to develop Legend into something new. He’s a hero with a more modern bent, built by a modern businessman under a defense contract. He’s supposed to be a kind of super-soldier, but the experiment’s darker elements caused him to go out on his own and gain the enmity of his creator (a member of a family that also plays a part in the pages of Lightweight, where Legend recently appeared.)

I also wanted to start Legend in a place a bit darker than those heroes usually tread. Legend is a man still recovering from both his greatest success and his greatest tragedy. He stopped a man that was supposed to be America’s top hero, but was also its top criminal. In doing so, he lost his closest friend and confidant. He’s a broken man as his backstory begins and still has that darkness deep inside him. It will continue to haunt him throughout the series.

Legend is a character I hope to develop over the next few years of writing. He’s got an interesting future ahead of him if I can accomplish even half the plans I’ve had in place for him over the years.

And hey, he’s only the first of many great new heroes that will rear their head as F.O.R.C.E.moves towards its conclusion.

Legend takes the spotlight in F.O.R.C.E. 1: Legend, a 99 cent short story at Amazon and Smashwords. Learn more about him in that tale and the entire F.O.R.C.E. series.

Legend leads F.O.R.C.E. into action!

After experimenting with serializing Lightweight, I have since tried my hands at two irregularly published serial tales: Quadrant and F.O.R.C.E. I have talked about Quadrant a couple times, but I have overlooked F.O.R.C.E. of late. Until now.

Please meet F.O.R.C.E., the Federally Organized Response for Critical Engagements, the super powered frontline of United States defense. Following multiple catastrophic events that rocked the United States, F.O.R.C.E. exists as a peacekeeping force to diffuse the dangers that threaten mankind. And their leader is a man called Legend.

While many metahumans use their power for fame and fortune, Legend used his powers to fight the good fight, even in the face of terrible odds. And it cost him dearly as he lost his closest ally in the process. Months after that fateful incident, he has taken the reigns of a new government agency meant to replace much of the United States Armed Forces and save billions of tax payer dollars on an annual basis.

Legend has to rebuild his life as he builds a government super-team. But can his newly gathered unit hope to stand against its first threat, a mega-scale monstrous threat known as the Living Hurricane?

The first adventure of F.O.R.C.E. is now available at Amazon and Smashwords.