Redistribution (comic story)
Redistribution was the first main story comic to “Issue 3” of the Tales To Behold subseries of the webcomic The Cosmic Beholder. Written and drawn by Paul Hoppe, it was released both in webcomic form and in a limited print run.
It continued to feature “Jenny Everywhere” (really Jenny Nowhere posing as her) as part of Captain Evening's team of superheroes, named in-story for the first time as the Odds.
Contents
Plot
New York police forces are baffled by a series of “reverse robberies” which have seen masked, armed men bursting into banks with sacks of money and demanding that the cashier put the cash in their registers. The Odds (Captain Evening, Armstrong Fatbuckle, Merv the Griffin and “Jenny Nowhere”) are enlisted by the authorities to investigate. The group head to the latest bank to be “reverse-robbed”, where Jenny is able to use “the Device” to detect “cosmic energy”. She is able to use the particles residue to shift the team to the current location of the one who left them there.
She does so and the Odds find themselves in the sewers, where Armagedda, sitting on a throne, is being asked by her henchmen about the precise aims of her plan. They overhear her explaining that, due to the vow she made to Mysto the Space-Wizard not to destroy the Earth using her cosmic powers, she has resorted to trying to leave society to destroy itself; with an incomplete understanding of economic sciences, she has determined that flooding the market with money created out of thin air seems like the best way to achieve this, and believes that it will in time cause the planet actually to blow up.
Just as she's finished her explanation, Armagedda senses the presence of “other Earthlings”. Captain Evening leads a charge — but although Jenny easily dispatches Armagedda's henchmen, Armagedda herself easily incapacitates the Captain, the Griffin, and Armstrong. While Jenny sneaks to safety, Armagedda interrogates Armstrong, the only Odd left standing, asking him what he and the other Odds hope to achieve by delaying the destruction of the Earth, which she insists is inevitable, having been decreed by the Cosmic Order. Armstrong improvises, in answer, a claim that they simply want for humanity's “greatest cultural achievement” to be remembered after their passing — and as that achievement, he names the American date.
Although annoyed at the delay, Armagedda agrees to partake in such a date with Armstrong. As part of the preparations for her, Armstrong convinces her to turn herself human and head to a movie theatre, leaving Jenny to wake the Captain and Merv. The Captain tells Jenny that Armagedda is vulnerable to magic, which inspires Jenny to shift back to H.Q. for the Magic Sword of the Legion of Light. After waiting for some time in the sewer for Armstrong and Armagedda to return (as Armstrong successfully convinced Armagedda to go through the whole experience, from movie to dinner to returning to his apartment — though she did not think much of it all). As soon as Armagedda does return, still in human form, Jenny combines her shifting powers with the Sword magic to forcibly send Armagedda to another reality, without access to her powers.
While Armagedda is realising that she is not only stuck as a human in another world, but that in this world, cows are the dominant intelligent species and all other humans than herself are non-sapient creatures, other trouble is befalling Jesse Brain back in Reality Z-25 31-H. Put in jail because she was drinking alcohol without ID to prove she was of age, it is in vain that she threatens the police officers arresting her with her father's bloody reprisals — but after the guard locks the door of her cell and leaves, she realises that there is somehow someone else in the cell, who, speaking in a creepy whisper, promises that they shall soon be good friends…
Worldbuilding
Jenny Nowhere
- Jenny Nowhere continues posing as Jenny Everywhere, with her treatment of Armagedda possibly constituting an early hint of her true, dark nature. This story's epilogue also features Evil Cloak, a mysterious individual with teleportation abilities, later revealed as another guise of Nowhere.
Universes
- This story principally takes place in Reality Z-25 31-H. At the end, Armagedda is transported to a parallel universe where humanoid cows herd unintelligent, mooing, quadrupedal “humans” as cattle.
Other
- Captain Evening briefly wonders if Doctor Brain might be behind the scheme. He also uses his Skycicle
Continuity
- This story picks up the narrative thread of Armagedda, including a flashback to her previous appearance in COMIC: Tales To Behold.
- Narration establishes that the previous Captain Evening stories concerning the formation of the Odds (including COMIC: Tales To Behold, For Whom The Toll Bells and Enter–the Legion of Light!) happened “in the past few weeks”.
- Professor Madison's device, previously seen in COMIC: Enter–the Legion of Light! and In Dr. Brain's Kitchen, is used once again, this time worn by Jenny. It is referred to as “the Device” by Captain Evening.
Behind the scenes
Read online
Redistribution is available online on the Cosmic Beholder blog.
