TBT #77: Foreverman and the Two Earths

Face front, True Believer! It’s time for another astounding adventure starring that venerable Titan of Tremendous Toughness: Foreverman! Celebrating sixty years of terrific tales jam packed with astonishment, Foreverman is now set to go on his greatest adventure yet! And if you think your favourite Leviathan of Light, the Herculean Hope for all Mankind, the Dashing Do-Gooder for our planet has left his toughest threats behind him, this new epic storyline will turn you on your ear! Because this adventure has it all, noble reader: from the spectacular in space to the enormous on earth, from ferocious fights to titanic tussles, from rugged romance to enticing explosions! All this in addition to the worst villains earth — and, indeed, the universe — have to offer! Read on, True Believer, because this just might be our hero’s last adventure, as Foreverman encounters THE SECOND EARTH.

Excelsior!

Foreverman and the Great Discovery in Space

THWAK! Foreverman struck the bloaty blue beast from Bletremon (A Planet Beyond the Stars!) sending him careening towards a street side fruit-stand. “Carbagota!” cried the alien as Foreverman, the golden guardian and protector of this fair city, pounced on the beast with an heroic flourish. “Yerguti! PLMTEMB!” yelled the alien, squealing in pain, as Foreverman, the miraculous master of many things, measured him for his seismic smash, reeling back his left-hand of justice and staring the beast right in its alien eyes. “Communist!” declared the hero, drawing cheers from the crowd. “Leave this, my land of liberty!”

But wait! Suddenly the air grew stale and Foreverman, the spectacular statesman of power and strength, gasped in horror as he stared down at his blue and red nemesis. The alien had slowed down time. “You slowed down time!” declared the hero, speaking very slowly. “Yes,” said the alien, who was unaffected because of his alien technology. And speaking English also because of alien technology that he had forgotten to activate previously. “I think you’ve made a mistake in hitting me and calling me things. I did not come here to harm you. I did not mean to come here at all.”

“Where…” started Foreverman, the resilient rogue on the side of right.

But the alien knew that the question would take too long to come out. He interrupted Foreverman, the unforgettable umpire calling for strikes on injustice, and spoke the answer to a question not yet asked: “I was trying to get to the other earth. The one behind the sun.”

Foreverman and the Journey to the Other Side of the Sun

Foreverman, the exciting explorer of the esoteric, streaked through space, able to move past stars with astonishing powers thanks to his fantastic super powers. Though he is a man of unparalleled power, our hero must be careful not to fly too close to the mysterious monolith that lights our lives: the sun! For centuries scientists have tried to discover its true nature. Too hot to be a planet and yet too large to be star, what could possibly account for the intense heat that radiated from its golden surface? The sun truly is a mystery for our time!

“I hope the sun’s not evil!” thought Foreverman, the quintessential questioner of all things quizzical, arcing widely around the burning body. He was unsure of whether to trust the alien he had defeated on earth, as the alien was a proven communist and also ugly, but still the hero knew that he owed it to his planet and his people to investigate all possibilities of evil or destruction lurking in this universe! And, of course, for Foreverman, the effervescent elemental force striving ever for equality, such a journey was as easy as a walk to the store!

He saw it then, hanging amidst the stars, like a blue-green smudge on an otherwise consistent slide. It was a planet, just like ours.

Foreverman and the First Contact with the Second Earth

The People of the Second Earth — the Earth From Behind the Sun! — welcomed Foreverman, the god-like gladiator guaranteeing greatness to and for humanity, and he found that the Second Earth was not an evil earth but rather one almost entirely like his own.

“I am so happy to have found another earth that I can save!” declared Foreverman, the dynamic declarerer of all things decisive and worth declaring, standing atop the steps of the nation’s capitol. “I would like to be your hero, too! You may be people from behind the sun, but you are still people who need a protector!”

And a mighty cheer went up from the crowd, all for Foreverman, the mighty messiah of the new millennium. The hero stood and accepted the cheers and bowed. Later he tackled a purse snatcher, stopped five assaults, thwarted two attempted murders and wrangled a rapist.

Foreverman, that intelligent iconoclast of impressive indemnity, devoted to a new earth? Can our hero shoulder such an awesome challenge? Will the people of Second Earth (The Earth From Behind the Sun!) truly welcome a hero with so many other commitments? These answers and more, true believer, in the next chapter!

Foreverman and the Journey Home

Foreverman, the charming champion of the chattering masses, landed in his home base, a mysterious underground base located somewhere that’s certainly not the Antarctic! Deftly deactivating and quickly reactivating the hidden security features, the hero is able to make his way inside without arousing suspicion from any of his enemies that could always be targeting the honest hero!

Inside the fortress that happened to offer solitude, the hero greeted his robot companion, a small but advanced domestic robot named “Bolts” that he had brought back from a secret adventure in the FUTURE. Bolts, a tantalizing taste of the technology that time will make true, took the hero’s musty costume and dressed him anew. “The Master is Content With His New Discoveries?” asked the machine.

“Yes!” declared Foreverman, the inspiring icon for those who also hate injustice, “I want to be a hero, Bolts. There is nothing I want more than to save people.”

The robot saw his master to his command chair that sat in front of dozens of space-age computers and monitors. From here Foreverman, the supernova superman whose adventures surpass the stars, could watch the whole world for signs of danger.

“Master,” the robot added, unsure of how to broach the subject but knowing what he wanted to say MUST be said. “The trip from this Earth to the One Behind the Sun takes 46 minutes. My computer indicates that you could make it in 40, given ideal conditions. Unfortunately any faster would require you to fly too close to the sun.”

Foreverman, the vigilant vigilante against violence but not when it’s virtuous, kept his steel blue eyes steely on the screen. “I will save both planets,” he said quietly, under his super-breath. “I will save both no matter what.”

Foreverman and His Worst Defeat

The headline on that day: “HERO TO UNLOCK MYSTERY OF THE SUN.” The subheadline on that day: “Foreverman vows to find way to save our planet and his.”

Foreverman, the unstoppable Ulysses living in unusual times, ran late for his meeting with the reporter. This was to be his first interview with anyone from the Earth Behind the Sun. It was with the top reporter at the Daily Standard newspaper, a young woman whose voice instantly reminded him of another woman reporter, one for whom he wore a ring on his finger.

Foreverman, the walloping warrior with no weakness, had burns up and down his back. He had been trying to harness the secrets of the sun. Trying to fly closer than he knew he should. Trying to make the journey to the Second Earth in less time than he knew was possible. He had been having dreams of late where something catastrophic happens to both planets, and he is stuck in between, unable to decide, staring only at a burning fireball that separates him from being a hero everywhere.

The reporter sat already in her chair, leaving his empty across from her. She did not look happy but Foreverman, the dazzling diplomat who did not get down over things like this, just grinned. They started the interview immediately.

She asked him about his trials with the sun, and he told her how he was determined to figure out its mysteries. What mysteries, she asked, and the hero responded by letting her know what everyone on earth already knew: That Foreverman was invulnerable and therefore the sun should not be able to burn his skin. Hence, there was a mystery.

“Maybe you’re only invulnerable on earth,” the reporter said, and Foreverman, the pugnacious powerhouse punctured only by nothing, just laughed.

They talked some more about his intentions and his methods, but then she surprised the hero by asking him a very different kind of question.

“Why are you so convinced this world needs saving?”

“I think all worlds need saving.”

“By you?”

He sputtered and paused and looked wide-eyed at this pretty young reporter, wound tightly like the ring on his finger. “Yes, by me. I’m Foreverman!” The awe-inspiring avenger of auspicious wrongs.

“But what makes you a great hero?”

“I have power!”

“Didn’t you die a decade ago?”

“I came back.”

“Will you die again?”

The mood in the room was tense, gentle reader, so much so that the titan’s mighty face barely moved as he spoke the words. Who was this woman, who didn’t understand his heroic visage? His commitment to life and liberty? His unstoppable and unparalleled desire to see the world kept safe?

“I just want to do what I can with the abilities I have,” he said finally.

“Who are you to assume so quickly that this planet needs saving? And worse, that it needs to be saved by YOU?”

Foreverman, the ferocious force so flawless he must be fictitious, had nothing else to say.

The hero flew back to his home, taking care to stay away from the sun, so mysterious because it hurt him so. Foreverman, the eternal entity emitting endless energy, having glimpsed his greatest enemy yet, went home to where he knew she would not be.