Stargate: Insurrection #2

The cover of the second issue of the toy comic series ‘Stargate: Insurrection.’ In the foreground, the protagonists (from left to right, Lt. Matt Wright, Major Ellen Cooper, Colonel William Stryker, and Dr. Randall Stryker) run from a trio of shadowy, silhouetted figures. Wright fires his rifle at them, but does not appear to hit his target. The text, “A toy comic by Phil Wrede,” is visible along the left side of the image.

A page devoted to summarizing the events of the previous issue. To summarize the summation: the Stargate program (SGC) is officially being shut down. The final mission will be undertaken by Colonel William Stryker, his son, Dr. Randall Stryker, Major Ellen Cooper, and Lt. Matt Wright. General Jack O’Neal and Richard Woolsey have come to see them off, but before they depart, the federal government’s shutdown team comes to… shut things down. The team activates the Stargate just as SGC’s mainframe is getting hacked, and they arrive in a world that was not the one they planned to visit. Woolsey, O’Neal, and Sgt. Louis Jones are taken prisoner.

The title of this comic, “Step Into Liquid (Part II),” is visible at the top of the image. A wooded landscape in front of mountains are what Cooper and Wright are observing as they discuss their present predicament.

The team has been wandering around, searching for the DHD (Dial Home Device - the interface that enables the Stargate’s operation), and Randall finally spots it. As they close in on the DHD, though, they notice something strange about it…

The symbols that define a Stargate’s address in space, which are “dialed” to create a connection from one gate to another, are nowhere to be found. This is a new problem for every member of the team, and nobody really knows what to do about it.

Some more focused looking about reveals a nearby walking path, which certainly has to be a sign of life!

The team sets off on foot, to follow the path to whatever destination lies before them.

Back on Earth, in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs, General Jack O’Neal (“played” here by an action figure of Pedro Pascal), Richard Woolsey (“played” by an action figure of Robert Picardo), and Sgt. Louis Jones wait under guard, as a mysterious figure approaches them down a corridor.

The captives are met by a man declaring himself to be Alexander Weir (“played” by an action figure of Walton Goggins), who speaks like he’s in charge. Woolsey’s attention is grabbed by the last name “Weir” (Dr. Elisabeth Weir was a principal character on Stargate: Atlantis for most of the show’s run).

Sgt. Jones explains to Woolsey that Weir’s last name is not actually Weir, that he changed his name to Weir to hide his inherited wealth. Alexander is aghast at this version of history; he claims to have taken his last name to honor Elisabeth Weir’s story, and goes on to obliquely threaten all three men, if they refuse to show him the proper respect.

We return to the action on the mystery planet, as the sky has grown dark. The team walks up over a hill and spots a village at the end of the path.

Deciding to walk into town, they see one building with light shining through a window, and head for it.

The inside of the room looks kind of like a bar, with a number of people milling about, drinks in their hands, deep in conversation. The team is totally ignored as they walk inside, and hypothesize about what kind of trap they might be walking into.

As each member of the team tries to engage somebody in conversation, they’re silently rebuffed.

Wright notices a dog walking through the space, and when he tries to greet it, its face turns dark and green, and its eyes flash red as it growls. Wright recoils, and the team regroups to assess their options, until a man in a long coat, his chest and arms covered with tattoos, emerges from a shadowy corner to speak to them.

He asks them if they came through the gate, and remarks that it’s a shame they can’t go back the way they came. When he’s asked why, he says that the Eldritch locked the gates a generation ago. He says his name is Anthony Cage.

Cage looks through the window of the building, and sees a police officer and some other uniformed individual approaching with guns. Again, he says that the team shouldn’t have come to this world.

As the conversation progresses, Cage points out that the other patrons in the bar, who’d been ignoring the team when they came in, have all turned to stare at them. Colonel Stryker doesn’t like the look of this, and orders his team outside.

The two cops stop the SG team outside of the bar, and accuse them of causing a disturbance. Cage tries to deescalate the situation, but the cops transform, with no warning, into demonic-seeming wolf- and snake-men (their Eldritch forms, presumably), and the world around explodes in mystic green flame.

The SG team draws their weapons and tries to back up into the bar, but its patrons all emerge in a state similar to the cops. Cage, reluctantly, draws a talisman from a pouch on his jacket, and begins to summon his own competing mystical forces.

Cage drops his talisman, and loses control of his mystical powers. The snake-cop charges at Major Cooper; Lt. Wright knocks her out of the way, and the snake-cop tears into Wright’s chest through his padded vest.

As the SG team helps the injured Wright to his feet, Cage reclaims his token and casts a spell that staggers the approaching Eldritch forces. Turning to face the SG team, Cage reveals that he’s transformed, too, with a face crawling with tentacles, and a third red eye open on his forehead. He loudly orders the team to run.

The credits for the comic, citing the Unsplash users whose photographs were the background art (as well as the U.S. National Archives), the use of fonts by Blambot, the creators of the Stargate film, and the SG-1/Atlantis TV series, the ownership of the Stargate IP by Amazon Studios, the use of stock visual effects by Action VFX, and that the figure (and certain background) photography/script/lettering were by me, Phil Wrede.

Welcome back to Pizzarat.net for the second issue of my Stargate toy comic (and, if you haven’t read the first issue, now’s the perfect time)! I’m glad you’re here, and positively thrilled that you’ve read all the way down to my blog post about this comic. It’s a proud tradition in two of the great “Star” franchises (Trek and Gate) to stumble across a mysterious, human-adjacent civilization that’s keeping a terrible secret, so I hope you’re enjoying my version of it, so far! Both SG-1 and Atlantis kicked their series off with the introduction of horrifying enemies, and I’m trying to meet the bar they set.

I hadn’t originally planned to make the events at Stargate Command an ongoing part of the story, but the longer I’ve sat with this idea, the more ideas I have for what could be happening back on Earth. I’m certainly not the only Stargate fan who’s wondered what a world more explicitly and openly affected by Stargate technology would be like; one would imagine that, after Atlantis’ series finale, it would have been almost impossible to keep it hidden. Another thing I’ve hoped a post-Atlantis Stargate show might be able to touch on, even briefly, is the legacies of the people who were lost in the Pegasus galaxy (specifically, Dr. Elizabeth Weir). Retelling the stories of people you never met to serve your ideological ends is a proud human tradition, but I think this practice has achieved terrible new heights in the last 10 or so years, and seems like it will only get worse, so it’s often on my mind.

In the earlier days of the Phil Wrede Marvel Action Figure Comic Universe, I didn’t have a very deep “cast” from which to pull supporting characters (or even extras), but now, it’s a lot easier to fill out scenes with un/familiar faces. Sometimes, frantic collecting pays off, even if it’s years down the road!

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