Zephyr: Phase Three
It's 2012 on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The place is Atlantic City: a sweeping longitudinal metropolis rebuilt following widespread devastation in 1984. Superhumans are not only real, they're human. All too human, as Nietzsche would say. Zephyr is a "novel" alt.superhero adventure influenced by postliterary writing and Sturgeon's law. The style is cynical, cinematic and systematically against standard expectations of the genre. Imagine if Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho was about costumed vigilantes rather than stockbrokers and you have half an idea. Zephyr tells the story of a major, if somewhat jaded superhero in an alternate universe where New York City has been abandoned and the Beatles were a superhero team. Zephyr is a regular guy, but with powers, and it's easy to wonder if his life might have been better without them as supervillains and other problems that only superhumans can deal with derail his efforts handling life. In Phase Three, Zephyr hunts his mother's killer, Yoko Ono, first to Japan and then to a parallel Earth where he unwittingly learns more about the threat of The Twelve and meets the legendary Titanium Girl, now kicking ass with a new group of heroes. Meanwhile, he faces the threat of the Amari and the consequences of his relationship with Seeker.