Marlo has been shooting her new film, Insectoid, for a few weeks now, playing a heroine firewoman during the Mig-Na'cha invasion a few months ago. Her co-stars are Jim Carrey as the baffling scientist, Brad Pitt as Captain Marvel, and Kevin Spacey as the Mig-Na'cha ambassador.

The producers of Miramax were a little weary about making this film so close to the invasion and the September 11th attacks, but they eventually figured that the money was more important.

Marlo remembers her own personal experience during the invasion. Rick's apartment was totalled and they were both abducted. Then there was the virus they infected him with. Marlo remembers being held captive in a slime tank with every other Los Angeles citizen.

Rick was still in the Microverse, getting treatment for his disease. He had no idea he was going to be a father. Marlo had been carrying the child for some time now. Although she suggested some names for the baby, Marlo has come up with some that would be more fitting and respectful. If it's a girl, her name will be Elizabeth - Betty, for short. If it's a boy, the name will be Bruce.

Marlo figures Rick would like both names. Marlo starts to get a little misty. Lorraine, her ghastly companion, who is leaning against the snack table, rolls her eyes.

"Marlo...," Ron Howard, the director, groans. "What is it, sweetie?"

"Hormones...again," Marlo weeps as she throws her fire fighting coat to the floor.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Brad Pitt says, with dark blue body paint on his face. White hair dye has been applied to his shorter hair cut he got for the part of Genis.

Jim Carrey comes out of the makeup room with his hair slicked back to resemble a geeky astrophysicist. He walks up to the snacks, actually passing through Lorraine for a moment. Lorraine gets annoyed at first, but then the star-struck moment sets in. Lorraine hoots, jumping up and down.

"Marlo, have I ever told you you're the best person to be stuck with after dying?" Lorraine shouts with a wide grin. "I mean, the guy who masturbated with a watermelon just walked through me! Awesome!"

Marlo smiles between sobs. Ron Howard gets a confused look on his face. "So you're all better now, hun?"

Marlo's pouty face reluctantly nods. Ron suddenly switches out of nurture-mode and shouts, "ACTION JACKSON!"

Jackson, the cameraman, wakes up with a snort. "Damn it...I was on a picnic with Sarah Michelle Gellar."

"Now Jackson...this motion picture is more important than your fantasies with a vampire slayer," Ron says.

Jackson mouths what Ron commanded in a childish way, putting earphones on his head, adjusting the camera. "Goddamn Freddie Prinze, Jr."

"All right, let's go, ladies and gentlemen," Ron says.

Marlo gets into character, holding an axe in her hand with the full fire fighting get up covering her body. She waits for Mr. Howard to yell action again and starts hacking into an apartment building door, which has fire protruding from it.

"I can't hack into it!" Marlo yells.

On a harness, Brad Pitt swoops in with his Captain Marvel get-up. The camera stops for a moment to get the harness off. The scene resumes and Cap crashes the door down with a simple punch with his right hand.

"There you go, loyal citizen of Earth," Brad says in a commanding tone.

Marlo rolls her eyes, breaking out of character, "He doesn't talk like that."

"CUT!!!" Ron Howard squeals. He waddles up to Marlo, slipping his hat off and throwing it to the ground. "What in Griffith's name was that?!" "I'm sorry, Ron, but the script needs to be reworked for Brad's lines as Gen-- as Captain Marvel," Marlo explains, dropping her axe prop to the floor. "You've got him talking like a Vulcan."

"Well, he's an alien, isn't he?" Ron asks.

"You do realize this isn't the original Captain Marvel Brad's playing, don't you?" Marlo asks.

"What does that got to do with anything?" Ron asks.

"Everything!" Jim Carrey shouts. "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate...leads to suffering!" He starts flickering his eyebrows and whistling the Star Wars theme.

"Shut up, Carrey," Ron grumbles. He turns his attention back to Marlo. He shrugs, "Seriously, what does that have to do with Marvel's dialogue?"

"He's an alien, yeah, but he's spent so much time with Rick, that he...," Marlo suddenly starts to get a little misty again. "I mean, Marv's been on Earth for so long that he's practically human. Sure, he's a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but...I guess he's got that extraterrestrial innocence."

Ron rubs his temples, sighing, "All right, everyone, let's take an hour brake. That okay with you, Marlo?"

Marlo nods as a single tear drips from her eyelid. She immediately wipes the salt water from her cheek. "Oh Rick," she whispers shakily.

Bloph Port 5, Padcros

Rick grits his teeth, yelling swears in his throat as he deals with the excruciating pain of Professor Bloph's treatment. Shackles have him restrained on a flat black marble exam table. A single vein bulges from Rick's reddened forehead.

"Just a few more seconds," Bloph informs as he slowly presses down on the syringe of his special virus-fighting chemicals. Once the formula is spent, he takes the needle out of Rick's shoulder.

Rick breathes hard, eventually calming down as the chemical's burning feeling wears off.

"I'm not going to build up an immunity to this stuff or something, am I?"

Bloph shakes his head, "Human physiology can't become immune to Microverse viral treatments. Actually, my treatments are the only thing that can cure you. There's nothing in your universe that could help you."

The shackles release themselves as Rick sits up. He rubs his wrists, remembering his nega-bands that he used to wear. "How did you separate Genis and I? It doesn't make any sense, especially since my nega-bands just disappeared into nothing."

Bloph sighs, sitting in a chair. "You really want to know?"

Rick nods.

"Well, the only real way to explain it is to explain how you and Genis were bonded in the first place," Bloph begins. "You were flung into the future and used your psionic potential to contact and bring Avengers from different time periods to assist you. One of these Avengers included Captain Marvel - Genis.

"It just so happened that this Captain Marvel was bonded with you, a future you. When you were injured, Captain Marvel merged with you. Only, when you returned to the present, you found that you had nega-bands on your wrists. When you banged them together, you and the Captain Marvel of the present merged together. Genis also assumed the appearance of his future self.

"The bottom line is, your nega-bands and link to Genis-Vell was nothing more than a temporal flux. Your link had no beginning or end, it just was."

Rick runs a hand through his hair, "Whoa...never thought it was that confusing." *

(* Check out Avengers Forever, where it all happened -- Brad)

Bloph looks at the floor, "I...I was the one who brought you here to the Microverse. You used to switch places with both Mar-Vell and Genis using the Negative Zone...I found Genis sitting in the Negative Zone and brought him here. I also erased his memories of ever using the Negative Zone. When he switched places, I erased your memories of the Negative Zone as well.

"I needed your temporal energies to repair the Microverse. As you know the current Microverse is made up of tiny bits and pieces of other subatomic universes. My calculations proved that the pieces would again separate and eventually die out. But I also found that the unique energies that bonded you and Genis would create the energy necessary to keep the Microverse intact."

Rick nods, feeling a rush of enlightenment, "That still doesn't explain how you were able to separate me from Genis. Does this mean the Microverse is fixed? The energy bonding Marv and I is gone? Used up to fix this place?"

"The circuit between you and Genis isn't gone, just turned off...for now. And yes, the Microverse has been repaired. The bonding energy has bonded the different pieces together," Bloph explains. "There is a problem, however."

"Hey, my life's starting to get back to normal," Rick says with an exhausted raise of an eyebrow. "Well, spill it, Doc."

"I can't return your bond with Captain Marvel. You're stuck here."

Rick tries to yell something, but stops himself. He's livid, but he can't be. He was alive because of Bloph, but being away from Marlo and Genis for so long was worse.

"Aaaaand, acti--GAH!" Ron Howard yelps as three Mig-Na'cha drones tackle him to the ground. At least fifty more drones appear with a flash of green energy, startling the rest of the Insectoid cast. Kevin Spacey is in his Mig-Na'cha looking costume, only his human anatomy has made a mockery of the insect-like aliens.

Marlo hurls her axe into a drone, which sticks in it. The drone wrenches the axe out of its hide, bending it into a circular shape. The drone cackles, spurting out ticks and humming noises.

"Oh God," Marlo breathes.

The drones begin coming towards Marlo, but she soon realizes they are going for Brad Pitt, who currently looks just like Captain Marvel.

"Run!" Marlo yells, but it's too late. The drones begin clobbering Brad, swarming around him. The aliens claw into Brad's skin and costume. He's bleeding profusely.

"Get 'em off me!!" he yells.

Jim Carrey swoops in for the rescue, spraying fire extinguisher fluid on the drones, but to no avail. He throws the canister at the drones. "It works in the movies, damnit!" he curses. He starts sprinting after some drones begin chasing him.

Ron Howard is still subdued by three drones. Kevin Spacey tackles them to the ground, using his costume as makeshift armor against the seemingly more powerful drones. One drone reels its clawed appendage back, slicing into Kevin's shoulder.

"Ah! Is this for K-Pax? If so, I'm sorry!" he yells.

Ron Howard gets up and punches the drone that slashed Kevin. Ron cringes, shaking his hand in the air. "Ah! Feels like they're made of metal."

Marlo has jumped onto the back of a drone, which is swinging wildly to get the actress off of it. The drone backs itself into a concrete wall, causing Marlo to hit the back of her head...hard. Marlo slumps to the floor as she blacks out. The last thing she hears is the clicks and humming.

Genis is seen walking on the Santa Monica beach. He squints as the setting sun produces a beautiful reddish-orange array of color against the sky and clouds. Seagulls fly overhead, casually calling to each other. Genis sits down in the sand as the cool Pacific air wraps around him.

Genis closes his eyes, smiling. It was like the solar wind pushing against him in space. The feeling is indescribable in human terms. The best way to say it is that it's like being carried by the hands of the Maker through his cosmic sea.

Suddenly, something stirs in Captain Marvel's mind. His hair pales as his skin becomes as black as space. Tiny stars form in this blackness and in the blue of his costume. His cosmic awareness has just kicked itself on. That must mean something terrible was happening to someone Genis knew.

Genis opens his eyes and the sun explodes, which a Mig-Na'cha drone laughing in the background. The sun wasn't really gone, it was just a vision. A vision of what? The future? Or the present?

A star died. Mig-Na'cha laughter. What does it mean? Genis thinks to himself.

"Marlo...?"

About 100,000 miles away from Earth

It was a structure nearly as big as the entire Antarctic continent. It was the Mig-Na'cha Queen's royal starship. It can house over 20 million Mig-Na'cha. The only humanoid prisoner of the ship is Drax the Destroyer. He is something other than human, however. It's hard to explain what he is, even who he is.

Drax sits in an energy sphere of sorts, restraining him in midair and dampening his awesome cosmic powers. He has recently been going through some changes as of late, spawned by his multiple resurrections. *

(* See last issue to see where it came to a head -- Brad)

"Why did I do it?" Drax says to himself. He grabs his face, "Oh God, why...? I'm mad at Thanos, not Earth...I just want to die...sick of living...help me to die...anyone...please...?"

"...we need to get the ray in place for it to take effect," a drone says to the head technician.

The Queen slithers into the corridor in an almost seductive way, "Is it estimated how much will be affected?"

"Over 85 percent of all life, your highness," the technician says.

"And the Kree-Titanian?" the Queen asks.

The technician smiles, "He's wounded. It will be a matter of time before he'll wither and die."

All the while, Drax overhears the Mig-Na'cha's plans for Earth. "I have to save them...save Earth...save Heather...save them..."

NEXT ISSUE: The Mig-Na'cha have returned with a vengeance! Stay tuned as the saga continues!

SHARING SPACE
Send your interstellar frequencies to Bradmon84@aol.com

Our first letter comes from the writer of M2K's Scarlet Spider and Fallen Angels, Russ Anderson. Russ also plots New Warriors for M2K...and he does some other work for other sites as well, but they're not M2K, so screw them! ^_^

First scene, we get a look into the mind of Drax the Destroyer. To put it lightly, Drax is a fruit loop. This explains why he made that unprovoked attack on Cap in the Fanfare issue that preceded Brad's run on this title, but... the only way he can calm himself is to blow up planets? That's kind of goofy, isn't it? Might have worked if Brad had played it for laughs, but he didn't seem to be.

It was goofy, suffice to say. Drax has it in for Earth for ever giving life to Arthur Douglas. Immortality sucks for him, ironically.

Nice to see Moondragon again (though a footnote pointing potential readers to the Avengers adventures Moony had been having would have been nice). Brad has a clever rationale for getting around Moony's inability to use her telepathy across planetary distances. Suffice it to say, she manages to get ahold of Captain Marvel.

Alas, I'm getting forgetful with the footnotes. Don't worry, there will be a time when I won't forget. *

(* I probably will...on accident -- Brad)

The next scene is a bit of a lark, as Rick breaks up a mugging and meets up with Padcros's superhero team. This was a funny interlude but, aside from reminding us where Rick was, it seemed kind of purposeless.

The Microverse interludes will serve more purpose in the Return of the Mig-Na'cha arc, trust me.

Finally, Cap arrives on Titan and engages Drax. The only thing that bothers me about this scene is the utter disregard for the Titanians. I mean, that's a bunch of Eternals living up on that moon, why would they need to call Captain Marvel in to help with one insane powerhouse?

To be honest, I'm not too familiar on Eternals' powers...are they psionic based? Anywho, there were Eternals on Titan, but I'd imagine they'd get kind of lazy...or at least some of them. If all of America had superpowers, would *everyone* go fight the war on terrorism? Maybe...but some might not see the point in it with thousands going in.

Otherwise, Brad gives us another clever moment when Cap disposes of Drax. I have no idea whether the science actually stands up or not (Cap claimed to have seen it on the Discovery Channel), but at least it's better than the 'hit-'em-till-they-fall-down' method.

I got the idea from that one time all those comets hit Jupiter's surface. Pretty cool. I saw a video on it in astronomy class.

The Marlo/Conan interlude served its purpose in that it was funny. ("STAMOS!") Not much else going on there.

Yeah, well...if being funny was all it was...I guess that's all right...right?

Ooh, the Mig-Na'cha jack Drax up in the final scene, making way for that race's return to these pages next issue. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, you'll like it...unless you don't. But you will, so...why am I doubting myself?

The Verdict:

By his own admission, Brad is slowing down a little on this book, reining in the humor just a tad and upping the ante on action and suspense. It's reached a nice mix at this point -- if you want madcap and plotless, go read Deadpool, I say. Brad should put a little more thought into the motivations of his bad guys, but there's really nothing else to complain about here (damnit). CM is an entertaining read.

Thanks for the review, Russ. Hey, now I have more than one letter to post for my CM issues! YES!

Our next letter comes from my partner on X-Men Omega, as well as the Excalibur scripter, the Bishop, Gambit, Ultimate X-Men writter, Ultimate Avengers scripter, and Crow writer...Generation-X scripter...I think...let's just say he writes a lot of stuff for M2K. It's Dino Pollard! Stop your boo-ing. And please, clean your computer screen of tomato pulp...it's not good for the computer. Anyway...

"I would like to have intercourse with you."

'Nuff said.

Wait...that was it?! Crap. Oh well, see you next month.