Troubleshooters

[Spectrum]

Troubleshooters Introduction:

In the old stuff, Troubleshooters was an umbrella title for several mini-series. Muskateer wrote four mini-series featuring various members of X-Factor. Two involved Spectrum and became the early issues of his series. The other two featured Photon and Spinnerette and became Troubleshooters.

Photon was the first of the mini’s. He was originally called Lunar and this mini-series was titled “Under a Silvery Moon”.


Troubleshooters #1 - Starring: Photon - "Horror"


The story opens with Neal Washington pouring over his grandfather’s old books in his mother’s attic. There’s a brief conversation with his mother. Neal opens a chest containing his armor and stars at the helmet.

Elsewhere, George Arch is taking the subway home late at night. He doesn’t make it home.

Out on the streets, Neal is trying to get information on the strange killings going on. He contacts his old friend Clutch, who promises to find out what he can. Later, Neal is out trying to find clues. On an impulse, Neal directions his car into a deserted parking lot. Exiting his car, he moves towards the nearby subways station and hears a woman scream.

Neal is too late. He finds a woman’s mangled body and spots some thing shambling off in the distance. Before he can give pursuit, the police surround Neal and arrest him.

Later in his jail cell, moonlight filters in through the window and Neal transforms into Photon. He then walks through the wall of his cell and out into the night.


Troubleshooters #2 - Starring: Photon - "Origins"


After making his escape from jail, Photon finds himself in a deserted alley. He stops to rest for a while. As he rests, his mind carries him back…

Year’s earlier, Neal rushes into his parents’ room after hearing a crash. TO his surprise, he finds his mother laying unconscious on the floor with his father standing over her. Before Neal’s eyes, his father transforms into a werewolf.

The werewolf leaps at Neal, biting him in the shoulder. In retaliation, Neal strikes the creature in the head with a baseball bat, splintering it. Neal runs and is chased by his father. Out on the street, Neal continues to run until he falls through an open manhole cover. Falling into a river of sewage, Neal is swept along and towards a wall.

The next thing Neal knew, he was in a huge, musty chamber. There is an old man here tending to his wounds. He calls himself the Guardian of Astegor. The man claims he is attempting to stop the spread of the werewolves bit in Neal’s blood. He also claims that he participated in the French Revolution and that was where he was given his armor, armor that he intends to give to Neal.

The next thing Neal knew, he was cured of the disease and he was now wearing the armor the old man was talking about. Looking around Neal finds the old man now dead, slain by the very same werewolf that had been chasing Neal. Using the power of his armor, Neal fires off blasts of silvery light killing the werewolf. The beast changes back into Kyle Washington upon death.

Elsewhere, James Johnson is killed in the subway by a hideous monster.

Back in the present, Photon contacts a minor mystic by the name of Randall Steer, saying that he needs his help.


Troubleshooters #3 - Starring: Photon - "Deductions"


Four police officers have a fatal encounter of a monster. Their bullets cannot stop the creature.

Next morning, Neal his having breakfast at his mothers. He reads about the four dead policemen and how their bones were discovered on the 86th floor on the Henderson Building.

His visit to the mystic last night was of little help. In his mind, Neal keeps thinking back to the strange portal he saw when he first became Photon. Just what did it mean? Photon decided to go find out for himself.

Down in the sewers, Photon searches for the entrance to the strange chamber where he had been given his armor. While searching, the mystic he visited from the night before. Photon startles the man

While the two men talk, the monster comes upon them. The mystic teleported away, leaving Photon and the monster. The creature grabbed Photon and Photon fired his silvery light back. Wounded, the creature retreated. Shaken from the experience, Photon returns to his mother’s home.

Up in the attic once more, Neal sat at his desk, staring at the amulet he had received him he had been transformed. The figure on the amulet matched that the strange underground portal.


Troubleshooters #4 - Starring: Photon - "The Final Conflict"


Upon finding the concealed chamber, Photon is horrified to find that the gems surrounding the strange portal had been removed. Their removal had allowed the monster to gain access to our world. Photon worked feverishly to match the gem configuration shown on his amulet.

The monster enters the chamber and attacks Photon. The two fight until interrupted by the mystic. The creature goes for the mystic, allowing Photon to return to the task of replacing all the gems. Blocking out the mystics screams, photon replaces the gems.

Turning back, the monster is advancing on Photon. The mystic is now just a pile of smoking bones. Realizing that the portal was the key, Photon fired his silvery light at the large ruby in the center of the gem configuration. The monster shrieked in pain. Several more blasts followed until the monster was destroyed.

Exhausted, Photon leaves the chamber knowing that his task of hunting monsters is just beginning.


Comments:

This mini is virtually identical to the Photon mini that made up Troubleshooters #1-3. The issues were rather small, although they were not in the usual modified script form. Muskateer just fleshed them out better from their original form. Although the mini was condensed from four issues to three, nothing was left out. In fact I added the scenes with Hunter in Troubleshooters #3 to help fill out that particular issue.

[Muskateer]

The new version of Photon's mini-series was a pretty decent improvement over the original writing. Which as MAD mentioned had already been upgraded once due to the change of name from Lunar to Photon. In addition, Photon got new armor when the new site went up.

We never resolved the fact that he was jailed and just walked away from it, but it was assumed he used an illegal ID when he was booked. Fixed that in the new series.

[Spectrum]

The incident with the police is also what probably pushed Photon out west in the old game. In futures issues of X-Factor Photon did got back home. We got to see his mom and his old girlfriend.

I haven't mentioned it anywhere yet, but as of late I've been doing this Old Stuff Recaps in chronological order, or basically the order in which they occured. This mini was chronologically the earliest files in the Old Stuff. Look for more XF recaps it the future and the start of the Domino Effect mini-series before we jump back into the Avengers.

The new version also gave me a chance to show Hunter in action. Since he croaked right away, there was very little showing him doing heroics. This helped change that.