Number of the Beast

Number of the Beast
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Publication information
Publisher	Wildstorm
Schedule	Bi-weekly
Format	Limited series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	June - September, 2008
Number of issues	8
Creative team
Writer(s)	Scott Beatty
Penciller(s)	Chris Sprouse
Collected editions
Number of the Beast	ISBN 1401219993

Number of the Beast is a comic book limited series, written by Scott Beatty, with art by Chris Sprouse.

Number of the Beast was the second of a number bi-weekly series, it was preceded by Wildstorm: Revelations, which resulted in the relaunch of a number of Wildstorm titles.^[1]

Characters

As well as regular Wildstorm characters the series introduced a new team, The Paladins, comprising:

• Aeronaut ^[2], a jetpack hero.
• Black Anvil ^[3], a street-level hero, apparently made of stone. Considered indestructible.
• Engine Joe ^[4], real name Joseph Rotkowski, is a cyborg made from car parts. He is a friend of Mago and Tumbleweed.
• Thrush ^[5]
• Falconette ^[6]
• Mago ^[7], a magician. Gained magical knowledge by 'renting his soul' to various occult powers.
• Midnight Rider ^[8], a female motorcycle-riding urban vigilante. She is a lesbian, and is supposed to be an inspiration for the Midnighter.
• Redeemer, the leader of the Paladins.
• Tumbleweed, a former US Army lieutenant, turned into a being made of desert flora by radiation testing from the Trinity Site.
• The High, the main anti-villain from Warren Ellis' "Change or Die" arc of Stormwatch, was revived for the series.

Synopsis

The story chronologically happened that in 1945, General Zebulon McCandless, a very pious and dogmatic person, oversaw the American recovery of a crashed Daemonite flying saucer in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The recovery of the saucer was deliberately buried where it was and turned into a bunker facility. McCandless looked upon the saucer's teleportation, virtual reality and suspended animation technology, and an impossible idea occurred to him. He began drafting a plan to capture this era's heroes and villains, in which some contributed their services in World War II, and train them to fight off the End of Days under the "Number of the Beast" program. McCandless have America's hero team, the Paladins who also known the general very well, sent to observe the Hiroshima bombing, but were teleported into the facility built around the saucer, known as Number of the Beast Bunker #1 (NOTB #1). Eventually the Paladin's allies and enemies were similarly captured and placed in suspended animation, without ever aging, for more than sixty years, in which the Paladins protected "the City" (the name of the simulation) from the portents of Christian eschatology.

By 2008, this all changed when the remains of The High, in which the hero was actually alive due to his self-generating cells, was transported into the NOTB bunker and placed into the simulation. It is during this simulation that the Paladins and their enemies, the Crime Corps, endure the End of Times and have encountered the High's former ally, the Eidolon, a former member of the High's Changers was also placed into the simulation, had tried to tell the simulation's prisoners of their unbeknown imprisonment, but was repeatedly treated as insane and was frequently quell by the bunker's wardens. After entering into the simulation, The High encountered a wounded Doctor Sin, the Paladins' archenemy. After helping Dr. Sin and remembering his death during the events of "Change or Die" and his past encounter with Sin, the High 'kills' Dr. Sin and knew that there is something wrong in which he tried to leave The City and realized his situation from the Eidolon. After being 'kill' by the Eidolon, the High wakes up from the simulation with his body fully healed and formed.

The High forced his way out and confronted the bunker's wardens. However, Dr. Sin, who was also awake from suspension and fully armed, blast the High into unconsciousness. At the same time, in Washington D.C., the joint chiefs headed by General William Somerset, were previously alerted to the happening in the NOTB bunker and had sent a special strike team to sort the situation. When the strike team arrived at bunker, Dr. Sin had the High placed back into the simulation along with a single warden, Sergeant Stringer. Alerted of the strike team's arrival, Dr. Sin killed the team with the bunker's defense system, leaving only the team's leader Lieutenant Welles to survive and enter the bunker. In the NOTB simulation, the High confronts and tells two heroes, Johnny Ray-Gun and speedster Hotfoot of their imprisonment with support from Sgt. Stringer, who then reveals to the High that the only way to be free from the simulation was for the prisoners to be 'kill' or 'die'. In the real world, Dr. Sin plans on escaping from the bunker and have fake his death by bringing one of the Paladins, Aeronaut who bears a strong facial resemblance to the villain, in his place and killed by Lt. Welles. In the simulation, the High brought Hotfoot and Johnny Ray-Gun to the Paladins' headquarters and encountered the Eidolon. After learning from the Eidolon he had told to the Paladins that the events of Armageddon are the result of the High's faults and being the "Antichrist", the High is attacked by the Paladins. Fortunately, the High overpowers them and 'kills' them allowing them to be free from the simulation. After killing the Paladins and leaving only Hotfoot the only one alive, the High is contacted by Welles who states to him that she will end the lives of everyone inside the simulation as per order from the American government. Before 'killing' Hotfoot, the High tells him to find Welles as fast as he can once he is awake, while he tries to reason with her. Hotfoot immediately searches through the bunker and finally stops Welles from initializing the 'kill button' by vibro-phasing his hand through her head, inducing brain damage. After this the High is informed by the Eidolon that there are some prisoners still remaining in The City, in which the High begins to destroy the simulation and everyone in it by speeding down into the city from the sky, causing a nuclear explosion.

In Washington, a upset and distressed Somerset questions one of the founders of the program, a Daemonite scientist of the crashed saucer named Sylxx, as to why the NOTB simulation never kept the prisoners from acknowledging their imprisonment. The Daemonite explained to Somerset that the simulation was never meant to be built specifically as a "prison" and that the simulation's overcrowded inhabitants caused it to ruin the program.

In the NOTB bunker, many of the heroes and villains waked up from their stasis and are confused of what has happened. At first few of the Paladins believed that it is still the High's fault until he is awakened and clearly informed them, with coercion from a awakened Sgt. Stringer, of their imprisonment, much to everyone's shock. After the prisoners recovered their belongings and costumes and regroup with Engine Joe, who reports that he saw Dr. Sin having already escape from the bunker, the High questioned Stringer as to why they, the government, kept their belongings. Stringer state that the military have been expecting on using the heroes and villains as "military assets" if a major threat ever happens. The prisoners then leave the bunker. The High decides to find more answers and flies away. On the way he destroys a bomber airplane that was sent to destroy the NOTB bunker and its inhabitants, and stole its nuclear payload. The High travels into space and attacks the satellite base Stormwatch III. The High's conflict is stopped when Jackson King calls a truce between them.

On Earth, The Authority had scanned the superhumans' presence at the NOTB bunker and investigate. At first they hadn't found any visible traces of the Paladins or the Crime Corps, until they are attacked by the said heroes and villains who mistaken the Authority as government assassins.

As the Paladins and their allies fight the Authority, the High and Jackson King explore the High's mind of what has happened to him after he was supposedly killed from crashing into Skywatch I and why he was placed in the NOTB program. It is revealed that the High's remains were gathered by the American government and used his cells to clone super soldiers. Initially the early clones of the High were "unsuccessful", and eventually the American military succeed in mass-creating imperfect High clones, and weaponized them as superpowered payloads known as the "Reaper Ballistic Missile Arsenal", shorten as Reapers. And after this, the High's remain were purposely contained in the NOTB program as nuclear waste. At this moment the High sensed the Reapers being launched by the Pentagon to kill the NOTB's prisoners and along with the Authority. The High immediately speeds towards the airborne clones in an attempt to destroy the Reapers, but realized from a telepathic communication with Jackson King that the only way to stop all of his clones is by finding the "shooter". As the fight between the Authority and the NOTB's prisoners continues, Authority members, Jenny Quarx and the Doctor learned of the Reapers and have everyone teleported back to the Authority's Carrier that was in The Bleed just before they arrive. However, the Reapers managed to reach to the Carrier by having one of the Reapers turn into a dimensional gateway.

With this both the Authority, the Paladins and their allies teamed up and battle the Reapers. In this battle, one of the Reapers breached the Carrier's engine core and causing its miniature universe on the brink of destroying the universe. This forces Jenny Quarx to shunt the miniature into her body in saving the universe right before kissing the Doctor goodbye. As a result the Carrier "dies", and crashes into London, England. Despite the efforts of the Doctor from preventing the Carrier's crash landing, he teleports away the Reapers and the Paladins around the globe from causing any further damages. At the Pentagon, General Somerset is informed by one of the scientist that the Reapers are totally compromised from their control due from entering into the realm of the Bleed and posing a threat to the world. At this realization the High crash into the Pentagon and demands Somerset to stop the Reapers. But once learning albeit from Somerset that he could do nothing to stop the Reapers, Slyxx implicitly informs the High that the Reapers are programmed to kill and destroy all metahumans, and that if they couldn't kill them all then they will "take them all with [them]".

From around the world, the Paladins and other heroes battles the Reapers, but suffering casualties including Hotfoot's self-sacrifice in disintegrating a Reaper.

The High, having heard enough of the Daemonite's information and swearing to Somerset that he and the others involved in the Number of the Beast program will pay for their crimes, leaves to fight his clones as they are prepared to destroy the world. Somerset tries to rally his people of the situation but find them murdered by Slyxx, who then informs the general that he had just contact his (Daemonite) high-command with the words, "mission accomplished."

In space Stormwatch witnessed the Reapers encircling the Earth and one of the clones is attacked by The High (in the process shattering Earth's moon). Despite this The High is too late in saving the Earth as the Reapers explodes tilting Earth's axis and turning the planet into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Following this great catastrophe, the superhero teams Stormwatch and the Wildcats have to deal with their devastated world. In Iowa, Paladin members Engine Joe, Mago, and Tumbleweed traces the retired Zebulon McCandless informing him that he and those involved with the Number of the Beast will be held accountable for the world's devastation. Meanwhile, the High watches a burning New York City engulf by the sea from on top of the Statue of Liberty. He is then met by the Eidolon which the two talk. High ponders if his actions with the Changers actually brought the world's end from the beginning. The Eidolon then inform him that even though the world is all it seem to be the end, the planet's heroes and villains will still continue to impact the world, in which he doesn't mind as he will enjoy the countless people that are and going to be kill in this new world. Disgusted, the High picks up the Eidolon and through him miles away over the Atlantic Ocean, ending the miniseries.

Collected editions

The series was brought together into a trade paperback:

• Number of the Beast (192 pages, September 2008, ISBN 1401219993)

Notes

References

External links

• Ben Abernathy on Wildstorm's: Number of the Beast , Newsarama, January 22, 2008
• Scott Beatty: Exploring The Wildstorm Universe, Newsarama, February 13, 2008

Reviews

• Number of the Beast #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 Comics Bulletin

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