Chapter 3: "A Separate Reality" (continued)

Again, from left to right we can see

The Steel Claw, wearing his short lived superhero costume. He has his back to us in the above picture, but you can see him more clearly on the right. During Phase Three he has his arm ripped off by one of the Lloigor while on Alternate 666, and dies from shock and blood loss.

And by the way, does anyone recognise the guy standing over his shoulder in the picture on the left?  I think it might be Captain Miracle, who turns up later in the story as a host body. I'm not certain of this as the costumes are close, but not identical.

Next we have another anonymous entry. If you know who this is, can you tell me. She is visible again in the crowd scene at the end of Chapter 5, and it looks like she is one the group who goes to Alternative 666 at the end of Chapter 7, but after that point I haven't been able to spot her.

Immediately next to her are one unidentified hero from the previous page and Streamline, both covered earlier.

Standing with his arms folded is the Black Archer. from Tiger and Hurricane He is only ever called by name once, in the final Chapter of this Phase, and then only as "Archer". But Steve Yeowell's introduction to the graphic novel mentions using Black Archer, and his costume is a perfect match. He whines his way through the entire story, constantly complaining, so his being one of the survivors is doubly ironic.

Then it's Tanya of the Amazing Three. That group have a sizable role in this Phase, but Tanya is killed by the possessed Captain Miracle in Chapter 21, "Eve of Destruction", hit so hard in the face that her head comes away from her shoulders.

Lastly in this panel is Masterman. He doesn't really turn up in the rest of the story, perhaps because of the confusion his sharing a name with a Lloigor host from Phase 1 would cause. His involvement with the story is limited to being an extra standing in a couple of crowd scenes; since he isn't visible among the survivors at the end of the story, presumably he is killed off panel.

On the next page of this chapter we get the first proper view of the Steel Claw (picture used above). Then at the bottom of the page we meet a few more people.

Standing at the drinks counter, being pointed at by Zenith is The Leopard from Lime Street. He is eventually killed by Mr.Why on Earth 666.

The person at the right hand edge of the picture is Cat Girl again, but  standing chatting to her is...Zenith. Patrick Brown identified this figure as "one of Grant Morrison's own early designs for the character, as shown in the introduction to Zenith Book 1." Many thanks to him for bringing this to my intention. (I'm pretty sure someone did mention this to me before as well, but if so, I've lost the e-mail. Remind me who you were and I'll properly credit you too). Patrick also kindly sent me a scan of the image from Zenith Book 1, which can be seen on the right.

The next group shot is a lengthy panel going from top to bottom. I've split it into two and missed out the centre section, which showed Mantra and Zenith. On the left, going clockwise and easily identifiable are Archie (rightmost), then Mandala, Voltage, Spook, Lux, and Thunderbolt Jaxon. There's one other person who has some discernible features, and I'll come to them further down the page. On the right, it's a bundle of new characters, and I need help identifying them.

I haven't got a clue as to who the following are:

This one is uncertain, but Adrian Kermode suggests he might be Jason Hyde. By my own description, he "Emits blue rays from his eyes at all times, allowing him to see through solid objects and read minds. He hides his unusual eyes behind opaque glasses", and this guy certainly has the glasses. I'm not 100% convinced of this one, but it looks like a good option to me, so unless someone else can say different, then I'll plump for it being him.

However, two of the people introduced definitely are taken from elsewhere.

This is Typhoon Tracy. Appearing in the crowd scenes at the start of the story, he is seen lying dead on Alternative 257 at the beginning of Chapter 14.

This hero is seen throughout the story, goes to Alternate 666 and is one of the survivors of the campaign. He makes the mistake of sleeping with Metamaid, and thus is able to warn Zenith that she is a he. He's now been identified as Miracle Man (not the hero formerly known as Marvelman, but the original article).

The last person we are introduced to is the alternative Maximan, in the final panel. Which takes us to the end of the Chapter.

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