Here’s your early access to next week’s Evil Inc comic. I’ve been excited to share this with you for a while now! I know many of you wanted an update on Thea and her mission to reclaim her home planet. I also realize that this may open some questions about the physics (metaphysics?) of how Thea’s superpower works. So, let me share some of the worldbuilding behind this scene.
Moon Maiden
Moon Maiden presents the biggest potential confusion. After all, when she was manifested recently, the image was that of a younger woman.
However, when we were first introduced to Moon Maiden, she looked like this…
Here’s the backstory. Moon Maiden was “acquired” by Thea when she was young. When she first appeared to hand Captain Heroic his keister, Thea was accessing Moon Maiden’s power along with her own — resulting in a physical appearance that combined Moon Maiden, Thea, and any other super-powered beings whose powers she chose to exhibit as well.
Fun Fact: Thea was originally going to have a secret identity as a supervillain whose powers played off the concept of corporate takeovers. I was toying with The Acquisitioner and Miss Merger for names, but I scrapped that for the story of Princess Thea.
Theaverse
When Thea absorbs a person, they cease to exist in their original reality and are transported to a nonmaterial universe that exists inside Thea. While they’re there, they do not age. And, as Mister Howell discovered, their reality is formed around their subconscious desires.
Thea has the power to access their powers — sometimes manifesting the powers of several of her acquisitions simultaneously. (Doing so is exceptionally taxing; she can’t do it for long.) She also has the power to release them entirely, as she did when she reached her homeworld. Once they’re released, they start aging again naturally.
Once released, her “acquisitions” have their own free will — unlike before, when she could access their powers freely. If she wants any control over them, she would have to “acquire” them once more by direct contact through her hands. That means she had to convince them to join her battle when they arrived on the home planet. As you can see in the scene above, some of them may have refused!
Krakenos
Let’s face it, Krakenos was too good to simply discard after appearing in a grand total of nine panels. (And one scorching commission.) He’s still a part of the Evil Inc universe, and there’s still a chance he returns to the main story — if Thea, the Commander, and the rest are able to find a way back. (If they survive, that is.) The bigger question is this: Was this a random coincidence or was the “Randomizer” gun actually designed to do exactly what it did? Only one person knows for sure, and his mandibles are sealed.