Chapter 14, "Fire and Brimstone" opens to a scene of devastation. The second panel confirms that several of the heroes have already fallen in battle, although only Typhoon Tracy is recognisable among the corpses. On the third page of this chapter we see Hotspur leading his army into battle against the Lloigor, and in their ranks we have two more heroes.

One of them is Red Star Robinson, another Hotspur character. He is one of the first up the stairs in the attack on Mr Lion and Mr Unicorn (see below), and is seen to be killed by the latter's eye beams on the next page.

I think the guy wearing the tie, standing to Red Star's right, might be his robot Butler Syrius Thrice, although the resemblance is minimal.

One e-mailer, Paul (no last name given) notes that "Don't know if this is stating the obvious, but if you consider the time when Zenith was produced and the " indie" bent of Messrs Morrison & Yeowell, but, it's always seemed to me that Red Starr's Zenith depiction was based upon Ian Brown of the Stone Roses." Fair comment, and I reckon he's probably right.

On the other side of Hotspur, standing amongst his men, is a hero Zenith eventually identifies as TNT Tom. However, Bill Scott wrote in to me and made me re-evaluate my opinion. It has to be noted that (1) Zenith is a prat who couldn't be bothered to get to know his fellow heroes; (2) Zenith calls his name as if it is a question - he isn't certain of it; (3) TNT Tom never wore a costume - however Thunderbolt the Avenger (right) did, and is the spitting image of the guy in the strip. So, on second thought I have to agree with Bill - this is Thunderbolt, not TNT Tom.

Up the steps are two Lloigor hosts, Mr Lion and Mr Unicorn. I had believed that they were original creations, not taken from another strip, but Mark Hibbert informs me "Mr Lion and Mr Unicorn are definitely not original Grant Morrison creations, I distinctly remember reading a story about them in one of my Dad's old annuals, I think it would have been a Lion Annual from the late 50's or early 60's. If not that, then it would have been a Tiger Annual I think." Gareth Power offers another possibility: "I remember discussing these characters with a friend about 15 years ago, and he swore that they were characters from a comic strip in a newspaper. I can't remember which paper, and I never saw the strip myself, but he was 100% certain of it."

They escape the heroes at this point, but are killed at the end of Chapter 20.

The last person we are introduced to in this chapter is Electroman. He has been possessed by a Lloigor, so the heroes are forced to kill him. Mantra and Mandala immobilise him with their minds, Streamline and Vertex hit him, and Voltage finishes him off, short circuiting him.

Chapter 15, "Seeing the Light", adds only one new character to the mix.

Wyvern is another Lloigor host. I had believed that he was an original creation by Morrison and Yeowell, but Michael Norwitz feels Wyvern might be from a fantasy strip - though he can't remember which one. Anyone out there able to help, please get in touch. He survives being chomped on by a T-rex (ridden by Robot Archie), and is finally killed when Alternative 257 is destroyed by a bomb he is holding at the time.

There is only one more character left to come. He is mentioned by Black Archer for the first time in Chapter 17, "News from Nowhere", but we don't see him until Chapter 19, "Shaming the Devil".

Two heroes have been sold out to the Lloigor, betrayed by Maximan and Streamline. One is Ace Hart, who we saw earlier. The other is Captain Miracle.

And that's the last of them. We have several more chapters left after #19, but as far as I can make out, no new characters pop up. Steve Yeowell mentions using Powerman in his Introduction to Zenith Book 5 (a.k.a. Phase III, Part One), but I wasn't able to spot him (or more likely pick out who he was). If you can, let me know where. And if you can identify any more of the mystery characters throughout the scorecard, please let me know.

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