Zenith #1

Prologue

During World War II the Germans created the first superhuman, Masterman. In response, after the British obtained the secrets of the process, the British created Maxi-Man. Towards the end of the war the two battled in Berlin, with the Nazi proving triumphant, only to be slain moments later when the world's first nuclear bomb was used to wipe out the German capital.

Main

Decades later the only known superhuman is Zenith, a self-absorbed pop star, and the world's only second generation superhuman, the son of superheroes created by the British government in the 1960s. Zenith's parents, and most of the superhumans created during the same government experiments, are dead, with the three survivors, Peter St. John (formerly Mandala), Ruby Fox (formerly Voltage) and Siadwel Rhys (formerly Red Dragon), all depowered after falling prey to a mysterious illness. Not that Zenith cares - all he's really interested in is fame and fortune, and the fate of the world's other superhumans doesn't occupy a moment's thought.

Unfortunately for Zenith, ignorance is not bliss. Because the Germans were taught how to create superhumans after German mystics contacted the Lloigor, monstrous and malevolent entities trapped in another dimension who constantly seek ways to escape into humanity's reality, but who need host bodies to anchor themselves. Regular human hosts cannot contain the Lloigor energies, and explode within seconds, so the Lloigor need superhuman hosts. Masterman was one such host, until the atomic bomb destroyed him, sending the Lloigor within back to its own dimension. However, another detail Zenith and the wider world don't know is that the German superhuman experiments used twins...

Iok Sotot, the Lloigor who once resided within Masterman, is summoned back to Earth by human worshippers after they find the cryogenically stored body of the second Masterman. Intending to take over the world and pave the way for the rest of his kin, he started by going after any who might potentially be strong enough to pose a threat to him, and attacked Ruby Fox, but, revealing she and the others had lied about losing their powers, she catches him off guard and escapes. When her former lover, St. John, proved unwilling to help, she turned to Zenith, and though he disbelieved her tale of Nazi superhumans, she won his reluctant agreement to assist by promising to tell him the truth about how his parents died. Meanwhile Masterman confronted St. John, but let him live after an apparently cowed St. John agreed not to oppose Masterman's plans.

Together they tracked down Siadwel to Wales. He had always been the fighter of Ruby's group, but they found he had taken refuge in alcohol, apparently driven to drink by the mere thought of some plan the other superhumans had proposed prior to Zenith's birth. They sobered him up, got him back to fighting trim, and he agreed to help. Ruby returned to London slightly ahead of the others, only to be attacked by Masterman, fighting a brutal battle with him in the centre of the British capital. He defeated her, but Red Dragon and Zenith arrived in time to stop him slaying her. Still viewing himself as just a pop star, Zenith hoped to leave the fighting to Red Dragon, but Masterman put paid to that, incinerating Red Dragon within seconds. With no other choice but to fight or be killed, Zenith took on Masterman, but the villain beat him as easily as he had his two prior foes...until Mandala intervened, distracting Masterman just long enough for Zenith to punch a hole through the villain, slaying him. Unfortunately, only the host body died, and Iok Sotot emerged, intent on destroying his two enemies before being drawn back to his own dimension. However, Mandala activated a boobytrap he had telepathically placed in Iok Sotot's mind during their original meeting, apparently destroying the Lloigor.

Epilogue

Several days later Zenith and the others attended Siadwel's funeral. After Siadwel was interred, Ruby noticed a pair of figures standing on a nearby hilltop, watching, but they literally vanished before she could get a better look...

Collected material

Reprints Zenith Phase one: Tygers from 2000AD progs 535-550.