Ashkan Honarvar’s Heroes - Jim Steinman Was Here - P. A. Nolte

1/ Fire and metal.  An extreme close-up of an ongoing battle.  Exactly what's happening is unclear.

Caption: Evel Knievel once said he'd crawl to Cape Kennedy to go to the moon.

2/ Pulling back, the Human Torch is ferociously attacking Colossus, whose organic steel is somehow holding its shape under the intense heat.

Caption: But not if he was gonna be the second man there.

3/ Colossus grabs hold of the Human Torch's foot.  He is about to swing his upwardly-mobile opponent into the ground when, ...

Ghost Rider (OP): Enough!

4/ Both of them recoil in pain, hands immediately going to their heads like they're experiencing the worst migraine imaginable.

5/ Ghost Rider.  He is standing over the crumpled form of The Orb.  Piotr and Johnny are both looking dazed.  Not surprising for two superheroes coming to the sudden realization that their thoughts and actions have been completely fabricated for the past... who knows how long.  They are in a castle in Latveria.  More precisely, in the mysteriously unoccupied throne room of one Doctor Doom.

Ghost Rider: What the Hell are you two doing here?

Ashkan Honarvar’s Heroes - OUROBOROS – Derek Adnams

Page 1 – (Splash Page)

Caption:  INTERVIEW WITH DOOM, CONDUCTED BY V. RICHARDS.

Caption:  “Please state your name.”

Caption:  “You know my name.”

Caption:  “Yes, I do, but for the record: what is your name?”

Caption:  “Doom.”

Caption:  “And how did you come to possess the Cosmic Control Rod?”

Caption:  “I followed the Devil through the mirror.  Doom rules All, and All begs to be ruled.

Doom:  Oh - - I have such wonderful friends.

 

 

 

Caption:  “Once inside the mirror, the Devil became pieces, multiplying, insects emerging from a seventeen year sleep, breathing fire and breaking the armor of Doom. 

 

Caption:  “Sprouting new limbs, I vanquished the Devil and gazed upon the Hell that was now mine.” 

 

Caption:  “Why did you leave?”

 

Caption:  “I was exiled, pulled away from yet another kingdom.

 

Caption:  “We’re linked, you know - - your father and I. 

 

Caption:  “Ouroboros into infinite eternities.”

 



Ashkan Honarvar’s Heroes - ...coming soon two... - Ray Wonsowski

Layout:
1112
1113
1113
1113

Panel 1- outside the Best Western Hospitality House on E 49th St, a 50 ft tall, street-wide amalgamation of heroes groans and shambles on its motley of limbs. The core of it seems to be Henry Pym in his GIANT-MAN persona, but we can also see ICEMAN, ARCHANGEL, BEAST, VALKYRIE, NIGHTHAWK, Daimon "SON OF SATAN" Hellstrom, GARGOYLE, HELLCAT, NAMOR, HULK, LUKE CAGE, HERCULES, GHOST RIDER, IRON FIST, DAREDEVIL, BLACK WIDOW, and the SILVER SURFER, his board sticking out of Pym's neck. All the faces are absent of expression, mouths agape  in hypno-catatonia.

CAPTION: The magicks are powerful, but unfocused. The hands that wielded the spellrites, untrained.

CAPTION: A heroic cancer of champions and defenders, threatening to spread through the city.

Panel 2- on the roof top ledge, a purple booted foot is perched.

CAPTION: Oh, Stephen. If you could only see what has been wrought against you. By the Flames of the Faltine...

Panel 3- Full reveal, CLEA, in a purple version of Dr. Strange's tunic, standing on the hotel roof ledge, the cloak of levitation swirling about her, her white hair blowing in the breeze, the Eye of Agamotto at her throat, her head proudly back, in magical rapture, yellow tongues of flame in the palms of her hands...

CAPTION: I will heal this city and set it free...

A new multi-part story coming soon, stay tuned!

Ashkan Honarvar’s Heroes – Power Overwhelming – MK Stangeland Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: A SUPER ADAPTOID is out in space. It bears the visual hallmarks of some of Earth’s most powerful superhumans.

Panel 2: SUPER ADAPTOID is looking ‘up’ at someone – a shadow cast over it matches the form of GALACTUS.

Panel 3: SUPER ADAPTOID looks to be trying to copy the ‘power’ of GALACTUS – its body is taking on some of the physical features of GALACTUS.

Panel 4: Something has gone wrong – SUPER ADAPTOID is recoiling over as signs of overpowering energy seep out its joints and other appropriate point.

Panel 5: An explosion erupts from SUPER ADAPTOID as it is unable to handle the power it has been trying to copy.

Panel 6: SUPER ADAPTOID lies out in space, deactivated and heavily damaged from the power overload. GALACTUS passes on by, paying the fallen robot no mind.

(END PAGE)

Ashkan Honarvar’s Heroes - Expectations - Grant McLaughlin

1 - Captain America walks cautiously through an enormous room in an A.I.M. facility.  The room is filled with computer consoles and all the things you would expect, but everything is completely covered by flora and fauna that is wrong, potentially not of this world.  It's like a Lovecraftian jungle has invaded their HQ.

CAPTION (CAPTAIN AMERICA) (1): There should be A.I.M. scientists and soldiers everywhere.

CAPTION (CAPTAIN AMERICA) (2): Not... whatever this is.

2 - Inset panel.  A small bug / reptilian creature is climbing up Cap's boot / leg.

LETTER NOTE: If you can, have Cap's second caption be near this part of the image.

3 - The creature is now on Cap's leg.  It stabs him with a terrible stinger-thing.  Background could be red to emphasize the pain.

NO COPY

4 - Cap is on the ground, one hand nursing his leg (which is already swelling up) and the other to his head.  A shadow approaches from off-panel, its source unclear.

CAPTION (CAPTAIN AMERICA): Too late, I realize my mistake.

5 - On Cap's eyes.  They stare out at the reader, red and without pupils (maybe bleeding?).  A shape is reflected in his eyes, but it's vague and indistinct.

CAPTION (CAPTAIN AMERICA): So focused on seeing one problem...

6 - Back on Cap nursing his (even more swollen) leg.  A huge, monstrous creature is right in front of him.  It's made up of bodies of A.I.M agents, stacked and shambling one into another in a way that's impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.  It's not a pretty sight.

CAPTION (CAPTAIN AMERICA): I missed the one staring me in the face.

Ashkan Honarvar’s Heroes - The Artist - Charlotte Joyce Kidd

1 – Faceless, roughly drawn man lies naked at the bottom of some kind of pit, surrounded by dark foliage.

MAN: Oh God, what am I doing here?

2 – Sits up, looks around.

MAN: I’m in some kind of undergrowth. A jungle, maybe? Why am I all messed up?

3 – Close up of man in the dark.

MAN: Where’s the light? How did I get here? Was I drunk last night?

4 – Man looks up.

MAN: Or was it you? Yeah, you! What, you didn’t think I knew you were up there?

5 – A giant pencil appears above the man’s head.

MAN: Get your shit together, buddy.

As an added bonus, Charlotte graced us with her personal rendition of the script:

Why Ashkan Honarvar’s Heroes? - Charlotte Joyce Kidd

Because the world of comics is still a foreign one to me. I’m less than a tourist, I’m someone looking in a window onto a world that intrigues me, that I want to keep watching, but that I don’t necessarily know how to step into.

The first time I read a comic book was at a Best Western motel on a road trip with my parents. I must have been eight or nine. The Best Western had some kind of cross-promotional thing going on where kids who stayed at the hotel got a comic book and a disposable camera. I can’t remember what I took pictures of – in fact, I can’t even remember where we were going on that road trip – but I still remember the comic book. It stuck with me. I think there must have been some oversight or else poor decision making on the part of Best Western marketing management, because the comic book was one where Batman and Superman fought over Lois Lane, and it was sexy and dangerous in a way that clearly indicated that I was not its target audience. I felt the same way, reading it, as I did when I accidentally stumbled upon (and read cover to cover) a paperback teen drama in my elementary school library: that I was getting away with something, that unbeknownst to the adults, I was educating myself in the ways of a world that I didn’t yet understand.

And I guess I’ve felt that way about comics ever since. They exist in a sort of parallel universe, and though they’re all unique, they share a common language of fantasy without the loss of logic. People who read comics don’t just read them, they’re knowledgeable about them. They trace evolutions in characters, art and themes. They know who the masters are. As evidenced by Marvel’s current push toward diversity, they care about their world and even self-police it – make sure it’s a place with a conscience. I admire these citizens, but I’m not one of them.

So when I saw this series of collagesby Ashkan Honarvar, I was intrigued by them. They’re full of superheroes as confused by themselves as I sometimes am by them, wandering through dark foliage, fighting many-limbed faceless creatures and wandering what it’s all about. I get these heroes. I want to know their stories.