The Battles at Fort Destruction was a mini-series I wrote as a follow-up to Stephen’s Wacky Maze, to explore where the character of Stephen was in his life after those events. Even though I intended it to be more of a comic series, I told each story through the lens of a diary, beginning and ending each story with an excerpt. It was a novel concept and one that I still believe in.
The first diary entry briefly recaps Stephen’s Wacky Maze, giving the previous series some context as what was actually going on. It seems Stephen had a very active imagination, which was a reasonable enough explanation for a 12-year-old. Even more surprising is that Stephen kept making these damn mazes even though he should have noticed a pattern. Furthermore… you know, I’m going off on a tangent. Anyway, Stephen creates a fort for some reason that is better guarded than Fort Knox, which is a stretch. He mentions that criminals were all about getting the fort because protection and gold. Gold that he’s unaware of. And it seems he’s responsible for getting the word out.
After building Fort Destruction, Stephen decides he’ll get famous telling people about it. I’m not necessarily following the logic here. Soon after, a man comes looking for Stephen wanting to make a movie about the fort, because that’s what happens . After Stephen tells them “no,” he shows his hand by saying, “you’ll regret this.” I’m not sure how this plan was suppose to work. In any case, the guy returns “as a criminal” and just opens fire on Stephen. Luckily, Stephen has this fort to fight back with fireworks or whatever. After some lame jokes and Looney Tunes-esque hijinks, the guy is caught and handed over to the authorities, never to be seen again. The story concluded with what I can only assume was meant to be a poignant ending, as I tried to lay down some sage advice for anyone ever caught up in a situation like this. Because they happen often. The advice is ludicrous, but I get what I was trying to do here.
The first two stories were meant to establish the motives listed in the original entry. First, we see a common criminal trying to overtake the fort. In entry two, we see a man and his son trying to acquire the riches that lie hidden within the borders of the fort.
The story opens with some recaps of other criminals who apparently tried and failed to secure the fort. This is clearly a regular issue but we don’t have time for every story. The real story here follows a father pushing his son to make friends with Stephen, so they can infiltrate the fort and steal the gold that no one but this guy Frank knows about. This father is a real piece of work and his son is no better, who calls Stephen “Stevie”. What an ass. Anyway, the kid randomly asks Stephen to see the fort and he obliges. But only after he demands he not say a word. DUDE! You just told everyone about last time! That’s why you’re in this mess. In any case, Stephen was wise to him.
As soon as the father/son combo appears, Stephen immediately opens fire and ropes up the kid. In the next panel, as the father goes to help his kid, we see he sets off a particularly dangerous trap. Stephen rushes to push him to safety but only manages to keep him from death. He’s still injured. Now looking at that trap, if you weren’t planning on killing someone with that, what were your intentions? It’s weird as is the ending with the duo locked in a cage, ready for the police. Despite not being explicitly told why they were there, Stephen seemingly found the gold and hid it, but still had many battles. And even his cousin John came to help. But the moral here is not to trust anyone. Who knew I was that cynical at twelve?
Episode three introduces two characters with names I cannot explain. I may have had some reason at the time, but it’s lost on me now. “Rags” Watterson and “Soap” Dial were the Vein Voodoo Team. They were named this because I wanted them to sound evil. I realize now that I could have done better, but here we are. Their goal was to take over the fort using their magic. Despite being easily dispatched, the duo would continue to be a thorn in Stephen’s side for years to come.
You’ll notice the opening diary entry is full of grammatical errors. I always did well in English class, so I’m not sure what the excuse here is. I’m not sure what, “there magic did alot to me in effects,” actually means. Anyway, you just can’t trust magicians even though I’m not sure the Vein Voodoo Team would be classified as such. In any case, the duo is comprised of two guys, down on their luck with a clunker of a car. Later on we see they have the ability to conjure monsters out of thin air using a wand and some powder. I guess they can’t do cars. Their goal seems to be to destroy the fort THEN take over which seems contradictory. They arrive at the fort in their special getups which I suppose were meant to look voodoo-ish? To be quite honest, I think they’re being racist. Cultural appropriation and all that.
The Vein Voodoo Team unleash several creatures to attack Stephen and his cousin John, who did exist and was one of my best friends as a kid. This would be his first appearance in the Diamond Universe but not the last. Both heroes do their best to defend themselves, with Stephen bringing out his sword from Stephen’s Wacky Maze for the first time here. Stephen knocks Rags’ wand from his hand, leaving John to grab it and turn their magic against them, sending them straight to jail. No passing GO or collecting that sweet $200. Stephen destroys the wand but Rags is already working on a new wand in jail. Clever bastard. Little does anyone know… pirates are on their way.
In episode four, I attempted to explain why a treasure trove of gold was initially hidden at the fort and introduced the Phantom Pirates led by Captain Iron Leg. It seems they had buried their treasure long ago in the area in which the fort stands and some folks got wise to it.
The diary entry notes how weird this encounter was. It’s about as accurate as you can get. The Phantom Pirates come a knockin’, looking for that chest full of gold. Stephen immediately lies to them about its whereabouts, but I couldn’t tell you a good reason why. The gold has been a burden since day one. If you could rid yourself of this problem, why not just do that? Stephen does do that by the end, but not before fighting ghosts. Not only that but Stephen is somehow able to pierce the ethereal plane with his sword and cuts off Captain Iron Leg’s… well, iron leg. Obviously such a feat put the Captain in fear of his afterlife. But Stephen’s a good guy so he gives them the gold and sends them on their way. When all seems well, we see that Rags has finished crafting a new wand. The Vein Voodoo Team are ready to escape and exact their revenge on Stephen bringing with them a secret weapon.
Episode five is important for many reasons. First, it brought back the Vein Voodoo Team who were out for revenge. To help them achieve that goal, they conjured forth Stephen’s second evil doppelganger: Mirror. Since Shadow was meant to be dead, the concept of Mirror came about to as a way to replace him. My goal for the character was to be even more vicious than his predecessor. A true threat to our hero. But over time, even those goals changed. Finally, this entry opened the door for another groundbreaking idea.
I always considered this entry to be the penultimate episode, even though by the end of it all, it technically wasn’t. Rags and Soap escape prison only to find themselves lost through dimensions, which is some nice foreshadowing if you think about it. In this space between dimensions, they find a magic mirror as one would expect to. They take this mirror back to Earth and chant some Snow White shit at it, which summons Mirror. Not a great name, but here we are. Meanwhile, Stephen is crafting a new sword so Mirror can have one too. Only he doesn’t know that’s why he’s doing that. Mirror asserts his dominance over the Vein Voodoo Team and makes some jokes. I think I was aiming for a Freddy vibe with him.
Mirror finds Stephen’s old sword and immediately attacks Stephen, with both getting some good licks in. Rags uses his wand on Stephen to assist, but all that does is anger Mirror. Meanwhile, Stephen finds the magic mirror in the space between dimensions, which is confusing because it was near the fort when they used it to summon Mirror… so how did it… you know what? Doesn’t matter. Stephen somehow escapes the space between dimensions then attempts to use the magic mirror on Mirror but to no avail. But then, Stephen produces a small mirror and points it directly at Mirror which causes him to be sucked back into the magic mirror. “How?” you may be asking. Doesn’t matter. Stephen then uses Rags’ wand against him and Soap, sending them to an alternate dimension. TO BE CONTINUED…
The events of the last story led to the Team-Up of the Century, which was my first crossover event. I was so excited about the prospect that I wanted to make it huge. It would not only be episode six of the Battle of Fort Destruction, but also episode 8 of the Adventures of Robo-Rabbit. Each episode matches almost panel to panel with certain variations to reflect the story more to one side. Looking back on it now, such an event should have been two-parter split between each series. Still, it’s an impressive feat for a twelve-year-old.
I really wanted people to know that THIS was a big event, even though no one ever read my comics. I guess all of these were really blueprints for my ideas. In any case, I was excited about this one. The story picks up with Rags and Soap in Rabbitville, eager to start a crime spree. Mainly because Rags assumes rabbits are weak. But what they didn’t count on is that rabbit money is not like human money. Despite that, Robo-Rabbit arrives to stop them, but Rags turns the tables on him and teleports them all back to Fort Destruction. Upon arriving, introductions between Stephen and Robo-Rabbit are instantaneous, as is the creation of Robo-Rabbit 3 which Robo-Rabbit creates a rhyme about. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Vein Voodoo Team was responsible for two second doppelganger villains. They don’t seem very original…or maybe I don’t.
Stephen immediately jumps into action and knocks down Robo-Rabbit 3, who then attacks Soap for some reason. Robo-Rabbit steps in and knocks out this mystical machine with ease. Good ol’ Officer Barkus showed up to check on things, which gives Robo-Rabbit 3 time to recoup. But original recipe Robo-Rabbit wastes no time in obliterating his body with a bomb, which then comes back, Terminator style. Somehow in that form, he’s more dangerous and even kills Soap… at least that’s how it looks. I honestly have no idea what happened to Rags in this story. It’s like he created Robo-Rabbit 3 then bounced. That said, it looks like he could have destroyed his creation but we never see who used the wand, which is poor story telling on my part. In the end, with no way home, Robo-Rabbit decided to acclimate himself to our world… by walking around in a rabbit mask because it’s normal… (sigh)
After the crossover, I believe I had stopped writing this series for a time for no other reason than the character of Stephen had moved on, which led to the series never having proper closure. Eventually I returned to end it all with episode seven that allowed three worlds to collide. It may not have been the greatest series ending, it was satisfactory enough.
Right from the start, you can tell there wasn’t much of an idea here. I mention King Big Boss which is a reference to a character from Stephen’s Wacky Maze and also an atrocious name. Yet we never see anything he’s supposedly doing and all we do see is the Robo-Devil repairing itself and going after Stephen. There’s so much missing information here. It immediately locates Stephen who happens to be at Fort Destruction and begins its assault. Luckily, Stephen is able to call in his super pals, the Destructors. Seeing the character of Bones on the team does give some context in the timeline. Anyway, the team beats the hell out of the Robo-Devil, but the battle leaves Fort Destruction in ruins. Stephen labels it condemned and walks away. At least it’s some kind of ending.
While it may not have been the longest running series I’ve ever done, it is one of the most important, setting up so many ideas for future stories. I have always seen great potential in this idea and had considered a remake of the series that took it into a more grounded and even more serious approach. The concept would have centered on Stephen disappearing, reeling from grief after failing to save a child’s life. He finds himself in isolation in a remote location, choosing to abandon the hero life he once sought after his Wacky Maze adventures ended. But he soon realizes you can’t run from your destiny.
Perhaps I’ll find the time to tell a version of that story one day. Until then, I’ll look back on this series with fond memories of what it helped me create.
Pencil & Paper Productions 