On High

So, here we have an alternate High Evolutionary in the process of building his Counter-Earth, his robust assistant Redbull has found something drifting outside the command vehicle and has brought it in for study. His other assistant, Naja, is off to do devious snakey stuff. (yes, I swapped the wolf-in-the-fold for the serpent-in-the-garden, sue me)

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So, I did this Halloween piece for the Nova 619 group and it gave me some ideas. Not long ago, I went back and re-read the Adam Warlock stories. I try, desperately, not to cringe too much at the bad science (as opposed to Bad Science, or Mad Science) in comics, but when the High Evolutionary gets a bee in his bonnet to create another Earth, from a single lump of earth-rock, my disbelief-suspension severely sagged. When he does all this in a span of mere days...well, it went through utter collapse. I know, I know, it's a comic and he had magical super-alien assistance (at least one soul gem, which he gave to Adam Warlock), and it's a comic...but it bugged me, even on my first reading, when I was in my teens it bugged me. Then, his "evolved" New-Man, the Man-Beast (haven't we learned not to give kids unfortunate names, yet? Don't name your kid Adolph, or Seymour, or Agatha, or frickin' Man-Beast...give the kid a chance!), who is an "evolved" red wolf (Wolf in the Fold, anyone? Way to perpetuate negative stereotypes about wolves, Roy!) tinkers with H.E.'s creation while he's sleeping off that tough week of world-building and instills in the nascent human race, a killer instinct. Thence, wackiness ensues.

Okay, here my whole disbelief suspension system failed and collapsed into the WTF? sub-basements. I know there are people who believe that humans are naturally good and all that, and it makes a great story for the kiddies, but when you grow up a bit, you need to realize that all animals, even homo sapiens sapiens, are neither good, nor evil, they're as amoral as a newborn baby. Even sharks, spiders and scorpions. Human beings didn't invent the "killer instinct". In fact, it comes to us through the time-tested process for bequeathing survival traits known as EVOLUTION. Sorry, you'd the think the HIGH -freaking- EVOLUTIONARY would know this. The so-called "killer instinct" is a survival trait. It keeps you alive when things want to kill and eat you (not always in that order), it helps you to protect your progeny, your tribe, etc., so that your genes survive you. 

(/rant)
So, anyway, the idea here, and anyone who wants to pick it up and run with it is free so to do, is that in this universe, the High Evolutionary found, among all the alien and other tech he seemed to have in abundance, a broken time machine. Probably something Kang dropped when he was drunk and staggered out of a topless bar (he comes down-time to ogle strippers, 40th century strippers just don't have what it takes). Anyway, he uses the technology to build his own Earth, and skips through time, guiding its evolution. Counter-Earth is somewhat different from the world of his birth, try as he might, land masses just don't erode or drift precisely the same way, twice. North America twisted away from the EurAsian landmass, in such a way that North and South America are not joined, Atlantis never sank, and the Hawaiian islands are the easternmost outpost of the remnant continent of Mu. 

Protected from outside interference, the Kree and the Celestials never tampered with the human genome (H.E. is a VERY jealous god), thus there are no Inhumans, nor Eternals/Deviants. There are mutants, and a few other super-normal types, unlike the mainstream Marvel U. version of Counter-Earth. The supernatural beings of this universe are aware of Counter-Earth and maintain ties to it, as they do the natural Earth. 

But, like the mainstream universe, things eventually go horribly wrong on Counter-Earth, when the High Evolutionary's trusted aide Naja, an evolved humanoid cobra, rebels and assists the Red Skull to overthrow Josef Stalin in 1948 (Counter-Earth's calendar parallels natural Earth's) to become the Supreme Leader of the soviet super-state. The Cold War turns hot twice, in the decades to follow, leading to the destruction of Brussels in a limited nuclear exchange in 1968, and the destruction of Miami in 1982. 

The High Evolutionary, after initially failing to thwart the plants of Naja and his followers, retreated from actively influencing world events. Occasionally, tampering with events enough to aid the rise of superheroes on his world. He often found himself baffled by the turns events would take and eventually, gave up attempting to guide them, entirely.

Enter, Warlock. Product of a genetic engineering experiment that succeeded brilliantly. But, it  failed to provide the experimenters with the ultimate weapon they had intended, and Warlock, known only as Subject Alpha, or Him, at the time, escaped his creators and flew into space. Through some misadventure, he was injured badly, and built a cocoon to heal himself. This cocoon drifted through a spatio-temporal discontinuity, and wound up a few hundred million years in the past. During the construction of Counter-Earth, the cocoon was discovered and brought aboard the High Evolutionary's command vehicle. There it remained, all but forgotten, until one day it cracked open and the golden, man-god emerged.

As in the mainstream universe, the High Evolutionary asked Him, now calling himself Warlock, to attempt to set his world right. Again, wackiness ensues. Warlock fights the bad guys, leading the elderly and demented Red Skull and Naja, to release a virus on the world that causes a zombie apocalypse. Warlock leaves Counter-Earth, the High Evolutionary goes back to the lab and gives up on world-building, forever and Counter-Earth becomes a world devoid of animal life. 

Just some ideas in my head. Thought I'd inflict them on others, for a change.