ISSUE FIVE: NORTON OF NEW YORK: 2040 A. D.

Colored by Glynis Wein

     The series inexplicably departs from its title year to show us the Big Apple of 2040—it is a vast, enclosed mall complex housing the emotionally disenfranchised human race, many of whom seek escape in Comicsville, where they can live out there superhero fantasies.  One such person is Harvey Norton, who plays in this virtual world as the mystical White Zero.  As this hero, he lives out a fantasy of pure comic book hokum—fighting alien hoards and rescuing a princess from evil Death Master.  During his fantasy, he also comes into contact with a monolith that gives him a sense of wholeness, of feeling as though he were a part of something for the first time in his life.  But the event is short-lived as the fantasy game continues until the moment of rescue comes and the “Princess” turns out to be a last minute 200 pound substitute for the model who was to play the part.

     Harvey stops the program, dons his anti pollution street clothes, goes home to his little apartment to eat a prepackaged meal and inhale a $15 can of rare pure mountain air.  Even a day at the beach is a disappointment as everything, including the sunset, is fake.

     But the monolith reappears to him, inspiring Harvey to join the Space Corps where he meets true adventure in the form of an alien princess encased in a drifting pod.  Just as he and his two crew mates are about to examine the pod and its passenger, their own craft is attacked by a second alien ship, at which point Harvey feels he is about to meet his destiny.