Why are we doing this? I mean, I'm an ordinary cop. You're Stormwatch. Big shot post-human crisis response team. You deal with alien invasions and tsunamis. I deal with guys peeing on the sidewalks. So why are you even talking to me?
: John Doran
- Because, Officer Doran...you survived.
: Jackson King
Stormwatch: Post Human Division #1 is an issue of the series Stormwatch: Post Human Division (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 2007. It was published on November 8, 2006.
Synopsis for "In a New York Minutes"
With his list of new Stormwatch prospects compiled, Jackson King hits the streets to begin the interview and recruiting process. One by one, each candidate is approached and questioned regarding their involvement in deadly post-human battles. The interview is simple. King wants to know how each candidate survived. After assessing the skills each prospect used to survive their ordeal, King figures out how best to motivate them to join his new Post Human Division.
His first candidate is police officer John Moran of the NYPD's 18th Precinct. He is asked to recall the massacre that resulted from a battle with post-humans a month ago: the battle erupted from a routine police check on an abandoned adult movie theater in which the owner suspected homeless people had been sleeping there. But the officers discovered the theater used as a gathering for various villainous post-humans organized by the Daemonite Lord Defile. The villains attacked and led to a raging battle with Stormwatch in the streets of New York that claimed more than 400 people, including 43 police officers, and a member of Stormwatch.
Officer Moran was called to the scene in less than a minute only to witness the deaths of many of his fellow officers. Despite lacking post-human abilities, Moran used his quick thinking and creativity to survive his encounter with Cooler, who had earlier defeated Fahrenheit, by directing her ice powers to an exposed lamppost and shocking her in the process. Moran later brought Fahrenheit to EMTs at a triage center where he encountered Pagliacci, a sword and knife wielding psycho with a reputation for killings hundreds of men. Despite Pagliacci's enhanced reflexes and agility, Moran used a shotgun to bring down a chandelier onto Pagliacci.
King next visits Fahrenheit to see how much of the battle she remembers. Fahrenheit has just awoken from a three-week coma suffered from a long fall caused by her battle with Cooler. She recalled that Stormwatch was teleported to the scene two minutes after they got the first report. To her shock, Fahrenheit learns her powers are not working due to her injuries.
Next up is Dino Manolis, whom Jackson remembers as the Machinist and having fought him during his first Stormwatch mission as Battalion twenty years ago. Now age 40, the Machinist is a consultant for the post-human criminal element. Manolis was at the massacre in which he was invited by Slaughterhouse Smith to Defile's meeting. According to Manolis, Defile, Smith and the Walking Ghost were proposing an alliance to take advantage of Stormwatch's weakened state. Although Manolis fled the scene of the battle, King points out that he is guilty by associating with the criminals, which also violates his parole. Understanding how deep the situation he is in, Manolis is willing to strike a deal with Jackson to avoid jail time.
King paid a visit to Wanda Durst, aka Gorgeous. She was in a car parked not far from the scene, waiting for her boyfriend The Walking Ghost. King reveals to Gorgeous that he understands her role as the moll of the criminal underworld and he acknowledges that she is more smarter than the men to whom she plays a subservient role, and is willing to pay her for her knowledge that could be valuable for him.
King visit Hudson University to interview Professor Elizabeth Rowan, aka Black Betty. Jackson wants to know a bit more about her involvement in the battle. As assistant to the mage Jeremiah Cain, who was traveling across dimensions at the time, Betty helped Winter to defeat the Ferryman by risking to take him near a maternity ward, where being close to newborn, innocent lives repulsed the death eater (whose mystical powers thrives on the deceased) and forced him to retreat to another plane. Jackson is left intrigued by Betty's knowledge of the supernatural.
At the FBI Laboratory at Quantico, King meets Dr. Mordecai Shaw and gets him to talk about the time he was experimented upon by Lord Defile and Lady Decadence. Shaw is a Daemonite hybrid in which they activated his repressed alter-ego, the Monstrosity; a green, six-armed monster whose rage causes mass destruction. After they transformed him, the Monstrosity was left to fight Fuji and Diva to cover Defile's escape. Shaw was horrified by what he did and the deaths caused by him, in which King offers him a chance to get back at Lord Defile and his associates for violating him.
At the Stormforce Training Facility, King meets Stormforce agent Liam Mendoza, aka Paris named after the warrior from the Iliad. Jackson offers him condolences for the loss of his unit that faced Defile and his allies. But Paris brushes it aside, as he did not know them well on a personal level. Paris recalls that he and his unit were dispatched to assist Stormwatch Prime during the battle. The post-human known as Deathtrap fatally impaled Stormwatch operative Blademaster through the heart. When Paris's unit intervened, they were cut down by Deathtrap, whose powers of materializing new weapons and mental control surprised the team. Only Paris survived after he observed the mental connection between Deathtrap and his weapons, in which he destroyed the weapons and thereby causing a painful psychic feedback to Deathtrap. But at this point Defile unleashed the Monstrosity and his battle with Fuji separated Paris from Deathtrap, who then made his escape with Defile and their associates. King is impressed with Paris's instinctive sense of knowing his opponents' weaknesses and proposes a new job to him since Stormforce is being replaced by the Halo Corporation's Spartan model robots.
At a news conference, Jackson King announces to the world his new Stormwatch Post Human Division. In response to Stormwatch's budget cuts, the P.H.D. is an innovative approach to post-human threats in which it consists of normal human operatives trained to combat said threats. His New York City team will serve as a pilot program in which it will provide the creation of future Post Human Divisions in every major U.S. city. Jackson then introduces each member to the media and explains their area of expertise:
- Fahrenheit and Paris – combat and tactics.
- Dr. Mordecai Shaw – post-human forensics.
- Gorgeous – profiling.
- Black Betty – the supernatural.
- The Machinist – technology.
- Officer John Moran will lead the team from the NYPD 18th Precinct station house, where they will function as an autonomous branch of local law enforcement.
Unbeknownst to King, his new endeavor already starts off at a disadvantage. Lord Defile and Lady Decadence watch the news in which former reveals that he has planted a mole in the P.H.D.
Appearing in "In a New York Minutes"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Amadeus (First appearance)
- Cooler (First appearance)
- Deathtrap
- Ferryman (First appearance)
- Pagliacci (First appearance)
- Walking Ghost (First appearance)
- Daemonites
- Lady Decadence (First appearance)
- Lord Defile
- Slaughterhouse Smith
Other Characters:
Locations:
- Earth-50
- New York City, New York
- NYPD 18th Precinct
- Hudson University
- Quantico, Virginia
- New York City, New York
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue is the first appearance of Diva II, The Cooler, The Ferryman, Lady Decadence, Pagliacci, and the Walking Ghost.
- Dino Manolis mentions "that mess on [Stormwatch's] satellite" is a reference to the events of WildC.A.T.s/Aliens #1.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Stormwatch: Post Human Division series
- Images from Stormwatch: Post Human Division Vol 1 1