#This Beachhead Earth

[vertigoartgore]

Comic Art Process (from the original pencils to the published page) : 1971's Avengers Vol.1 #93 pages 1-2. Pencils by Neal Adams, inks by Tom Palmer, lettering by Sam Rosen and a script by Roy Thomas (and also an uncredited colorist).

[nfcomics]

BIRDS OF PREY no.3 • cover art • Otto Schmidt [Nov 2023]

The covert first mission of the re-formed Birds of Prey has established their beachhead…in Themyscira! What could be so important to Black Canary that she'd risk the wrath of the greatest warriors on Earth?!

(W) Kelly Thompson (A) Leonardo Romero (CA) Otto Schmidt

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Birds of Prey #3 by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero. Variant cover by W. Scott Forbes. Out in November.

"The covert first mission of the re-formed Birds of Prey has established their beachhead… in Themyscira! What could be so important to Black Canary that she’d risk the wrath of the greatest warriors on Earth?!"

[stickyhunter]

Gue'vesa and the T'au Empire—rules for Imperium Maledictum

Want to play a human under the T'au or have a T'au Patron for that matter? Well hey I've got you covered!

Plain text version under the cut

T’au Faction

Gue’vesa

“Once got an ork square in his head with this pulse rifle, that’s how I became Gue’vesa’ui. Technology. It saves us all in the end.” —Shas’gue’vesa’ui Edyth Yorscht

The Gue’vesa are found in regions of the galaxy where words of the Emperor ring the most hollow, and where swathes of guardsmen were sent yet never brought home. To those souls, the T’au Empire, their leaders, and their technology, ensure safety and reliability. Gue’vesa are often descended from lost regiments of the Imperial Guard; deployed far too quickly, to establish beachheads that could never hold, left stranded in hostile territories, saved by the T’au. They may not feel much difference between governance of the Imperium and that of the T’au, yet the heavy thumb of anxiety lingers should the Imperium see their treachery in full.

For the most part, Gue’vesa are absorbed into the Fire Caste of the T’au, human helpers serving as yet more bodies that can be thrown at a problem - for some Gue’vesa it is a continuation of the Imperial Guard duty they once left behind. However, humans may receive a place amongst other castes, should their T’au masters recognise their skill in other fields: those born on forge worlds or trained to repair their vehicles in the Astra Militarum may be given a place in the Earth Caste, Administratum officers and regimental quartermasters find places among the Water Caste, and Imperial Naval crew may serve the Air Caste as envoys and ground crews, as the Kor rarely set foot on any planet.

Few, if any, are granted a duty serving the Aun—Celestial Caste—for such a role carries its own heavy burden of responsibility within the T’au Empire. Gue’vesa serving the Ethereals may have been zealots of a faith that long since failed them, now tasked with preaching the Greater Good that saved them, on orders of the Ethereal Supreme and the Ethereal High Council to all other Gue’vesa.

Despite millenia of holding xenocidal doctrine, the Imperium has its uses even for those who have strayed, for their lives are no less expendable than those of the loyal. Within the Imperium, the Gue’vesa may not interact with the Imperium’s authorities in the same way as others, being distrusted at minimum, though most often outright viewed as traitors, for any influence of or loyalty to Xenos is heretical. By contrast, some few souls may see the Gue’vesa in a more positive light, an indicator that the technology of the T’au can prove useful, or at the very least that uniting forces can thwart a worse threat.

How did you become a Gue’vesa? Were you born from those guardsmen, isolated and running out of supplies, found by the T’au? Did you seek your own freedom from the brutality of the Imperium? Maybe it started with the sight of a swift death held off by a fire warrior rather than an Imperial guardsman. How do you see the Imperium — do you hold it in any particular regard, based on your time with the T’au? What of those who are more removed from the Imperium than you, do you regard them with any more empathy than those under the Emperor's light do? Maybe you see camaraderie among humans and Xenos as a path forward, together as a united force, or it could be that even the thought of it hits you with the same unease that is usually sent your way. Regardless of your origin or thoughts on the Imperium, you trust that despite its galactic dominance, you have a duty to further the Greater Good, a duty that their antiquated faith in a dead god cannot dull.

Gue’vesa Benefits

You gain +5 Fellowship, +5 to either Toughness, Ballistic Skill, or Intelligence

You have 5 Advances to spend on Tech, Ranged, Intuition, Dexterity, Lore, and Discipline.

You gain the Greater Good Talent.

You gain +1 Influence with T’au Empire

You gain +1 Advance in Forbidden Knowledge - Linguistics (T’au) 

You gain a Knife, Survival Gear, an EMP Grenade, and a Pulse Pistol

You gain your choice of a Pulse Rifle, Pulse Blaster, or a Markerlight

Duty

You can choose one of the following duties to quickly create your character. Additionally, you have +1 Influence with the T’au, the Greater Good Talent, a Knife, Survival Gear, an EMP Grenade, and a Pulse Pistol.

Shas’gue’vesa (Fire Caste)

Your duty is to engage in ranged combat wielding T’au arms, a responsibility placed upon those trusted with weaponry akin to the Shas’saal—the T’au equivalent of cadets.

Characteristics: +5 Perception, +5 Ballistic Skill

Skill advances: Intuition (2), Reflexes (1), Ranged (2)

Equipment: A Markerlight and a Pulse Rifle

Fio’gue’vesa (Earth Caste)

Your duty is to ensure the running of machines, infrastructure, and the cultivation of food. Rough hands come with a pragmatic view on tasks and years spent maintaining technology.

Characteristics: +5 Intelligence, +5 Toughness

Skill advances: Logic (2), Tech (1), Fortitude (2)

Equipment: A Drone, a Drone Controller, and a Fusion Torch

Kor’gue’vesa (Air Caste)

Your duty is to deploy where the Kor T’au do not, being sent down onto planet surfaces as an envoy or ground crew for the T’au Navy.  

Characteristics: +5 Willpower, +5 Intelligence

Skill advances: Linguistics (2), Tech (1), Ranged (2)

Equipment: Dataslate and a Micro-Bead

Por’gue’vesa (Water Caste)

Your Duty is to flow and bind all living things via diplomacy, establishing trade routes, and accompanying others from the T’au Empire to secure a functioning society.

Characteristics: +5 Fellowship, +5 Willpower

Skill advances: Rapport (1), Linguistics (2), Discipline (2)

Equipment: Dataslate and a Writing Kit

Aun’gue’vesa (Celestial Caste)

Your Duty is to guide the others under the T’au Empire, a sovereignty among the ranks. T’au born Aun produce pheromones, giving them latent control over the other castes—while a Gue’vesa doesn’t have this, your true belief for the T’au Empire and all it stands for carries the same authority.

Characteristics: +5 Fellowship, +5 Intelligence

Skill advances: Linguistics (1), Lore (1), Logic (1), Rapport (2)

Equipment: Laud Hailer and a Micro-Bead

Talent — The Greater Good

Requirement: Can only be taken during character creation. You cannot have the Ignorance Is My Shield Talent.

The T’au Empire welcomes all species who don’t resist their expansion, for it serves the Greater Good. You gain +2 SL to any Test made to influence a member of the T’au Empire or +1 SL on Tests to influence Xenos.

T’au Technology

Gue’vesa are allowed a privilege few others are—access to pulse weapons created by the T’au. These weapons are not only deadly and reliable weapons, but a status of trust from the T’au Empire. Gue’vesa are to use what is given to them wisely and with care, for questions of their discipline and worthiness of service will be raised if they fail to do so.

Pulse Weapons

Examples: Pulse Pistol, Pulse Carbine

These weapons, while similar in some ways to the plasma weapons of the Imperium, are refined to the point of optimal functionality by the T’au. While usually seen in the hands of frontline Fire Warriors, they are often also entrusted to non-T’au auxiliaries, from Kroot to Gue’vesa.

Pulse weapons deal high damage and have the Penetrating Trait.

Grenades, Missiles, and Explosives

Weapon Trait—Haywire

When you use a weapon with the Haywire Trait to target a Zone within range and make a single Ballistics Skill (Ordnance or Thrown) Test, depending on whether the weapon is a Launcher or a thrown Grenade. There is a major disruption to all technology within the target Zone for the next Round, any Tech Tests suffer a -20 penalty.

All characters in the target Zone must make an opposed Reflexes (Dodge) Test versus the result of your Test. If you win the Opposed Test, the characters that fail become Deafened, any Augments they have Haywire for a number of Rounds equal to the difference in SL. This means that some characters in the target Zone may be affected more than others.

EMP Grenade

EMP Grenades are specifically designed to send out an electromagnetic pulse, disrupting or outright frying circuitry to a point of disuse.

EMP grenades make the target Zone go Haywire. If deployed successfully, any vulnerable electronics—dataslates, machinery, even augments—are momentarily disabled. This duration can be extended or shortened depending on the individual electronics, an eye augment may return to use before that of a console for example.

Weapon Modifications

Markerlight

A Markerlight is a laser used to pinpoint targets, giving its user an exact distance between the Markerlight and the target. Others (including the target) may notice an incredibly small blue dot, revealing the shooter’s presence should they know what this is.

While attached, a Markerlights user can make a Routine Ranged (+20) Test to mark the target for 1 round, any character making a ranged attack against the marked target gets +1 SL to the Ranged Attack Test. Targets can make an Opposed Dodge (Reflexes) Test to try and avoid the Markerlight.

Exotic*—All these items are Exotic within the Imperium. To obtain new versions of these items you must make contact with T’au Envoys.

Tools

T’au Drone

Much like the Servo-Skulls of the Imperium, T’au Drones (Kor’vesa in the T’au language) fill a similar role with one key difference: unlike Servo-Skulls, made with the minds of loyal adepts forever in service to the Emperor, T’au Drones exclusively make use of artificial intelligence rather than to pick apart the remains of those who’ve passed; a trait that inspires revulsion by Imperial doctrine that deems an use of so-called “abominable intelligence” as a grave heresy.

These disk-shaped drones carry equipment or technologies such as sensors. Drones can even wield T’au weaponry, though Gue’vesa are rarely equipped with weapon drones.

Additional Rules: A Drone hovers at roughly a foot above eye level and unless instructed otherwise keeps near its operator. Each Drone has a specific ability as described below:

Illuminator: The Drone has a plasma-fueled capacitor within itself that it can reveal and diffuse through thick glass. This acts as a glow globe or stablight (see Imperium Maledictum page 148).

Surveillance: The Drone is equipped with a singular video recorder, being used to subtlety record the movements of anyone or anything within the area, transmitting recordings to its operator’s Drone Controller.

Utility: The Drone has a mix of tools to aid in mechanical tasks, which acts as a combi-tool (see Imperium Maledictum page 146) for a character at Immediate range.

The quality of drones can vary the abilities of any implanted devices,or can have other effects such as it hovering erratically or drifting away from the character at times. Greater designs might anticipate their user’s needs, or be able to carry out more complex commands.

Drone Controller

A Drone Controller is an electronic device used to control the T’au Drone. These controllers are usually attached to the pauldrons or helms of T’au armour and battlesuits, but may be modified for handheld use.

Fusion Torch

A Fusion Torch is a T’au tool used with an intense beam created via nuclear fusion, making a short-ranged, high-powered cutting tool that not even the thickest metals can hold out on.

A Fusion Torch can be used in combination with Tech (Engineering) Tests to cut through solid objects such as bulkheads, vault doors, or walkways.

T’au and the Gue’vesa

“There’s much out there the T’au have faced. Many here would fear to face those threats. The Imperium still has much to learn.” —Hans Al'Scoth, Aun’gue’vesa’vres

The T’au Empire sits comfortably within the Ultima Segmentum, yet after a T’au Fortress Station bestowed the name T’olku El'Myam'thun—the Skystrider of the T’olku Sept—fell into a warp storm it was left dazed by stars it hadn’t glimpsed before. Clueless to the true workings of the warp, the station now lies in the Macharian Sector of Segmentum Pacificus far to the West of where it originally set off.

In the Macharian Sector

Having scanned the skies finding the pulsar stars that point thousands of light years to the east toward T’au—home—the T’au on the fortress station understood they were stranded. Bewildered by how they travelled such an extensive distance finding themselves within the Macharian Sector, their task now is to connect with the T’au Empire in some capacity, while also seeing this as a prime opportunity to invite more races into the Greater Good, and establish a T’au force within the western sections of the galaxy.

The Flow of Power

Within the T’au Empire the flow of power is simple: lower ranks answer to higher ones, answer to the highest rank, answer to the Ethereal Court, answer to the Ethereal Supreme. While the Ethereal council, who oversee all castes and aspects of expansion, is the governing body of the T’au; here in the Macharian sector the link to the highest part of the hierarchy, the elevated members of the council and the Aun’o, is severed. The Aun that were aboard the T’au Fortress Station maintain their leadership, unwavered by the uncertainty thrown upon all those onboard after such a leap through the warp.

Seat of Power

The Ethereal Supreme holds authority over the entirety of the T’au Empire, and fills a similar power role to that of the Emperor for the Imperium. This role, however, is passed down from one ruler to their protégé, for example Aun’Wei passing the role of Aun’o to Aun’Va. However here in the Macharian Sector the T’au answer to the highest ranking member of the Ethereal caste onboard the fortress station—Aun'Ui T'olku Vior'Vah, Prelate Farstone of the T'olku Sept. They do not act as a replacement for the Ethereal Supreme and Master of the Undying Spirit who resides within their home sector, but rather as a leader continuing the roles T’au have followed for millenia.

Whispers

Word from voidships far outside of the Macharian Sector have spoken of seeing more T’au Orbitals appearing within the region, maybe other T’au ships entered that same warp storm, being scattered much like those who found themselves here.

Patrons

As a Gue’vesa, your Patron is likely a servant of the T’au Empire, or, in a rare show of fragile trust between the T’au Empire and Imperium, you serve an Imperial Patron. 

T’au Patron

Your Patron is a member of the T’au Empire, seizing their chance in this new territory to establish a beachhead and secure alliances. Unknown to the everyday citizen of the Imperium, the T’au would appear to be just another Xenos threat, yet your Patron hopes with a helpful hand that Imperial systems will slowly come to see the higher truth of the Greater Good. The looming presence of the Imperium is ever in your Patron’s mind, forcing them into political engagements that are beyond complex.

Influence: Your Patron has +2 Influence with the T’au Empire.

Duty: Your Patron is either a Shas’o—A Fire Commander—or a Aun’saal—an Ethereal Lord.

Shas’o (Fire Commander)

Your Patron holds the highest rank within the T’au army, similar to that of a Commander. While many within the fire caste see this as the only way of leaving the T’au military aside from death, others seize it as an opportunity for control. Your Patron not only understands warfare, but has seen it up-close at a scale like few in the Fire Caste let alone the T'au Empire have been unfortunate enough to witness.

Free Boon: T’au Firepower

Your Patron is able to procure T’au weaponry with little interruption. You have Advantage on Availability Tests for T’au technology, T’au technology becomes 2 steps easier to obtain.

Aun’saal (Ethereal Lord)

Your Patron is a high-ranking T’au, a lord in their own right, and not one to mince words. Their word is law, and those words can prove inspirational. Your Patron is studious, knowing words can cut like a sword; and that negotiation is just as powerful as any gun.

Free Boon: Ethereal Caste

Your Patron’s rank within the T’au Empire allows them certain sway over all who are under them. Should it be needed, a message from your Patron can be shown to others who serve the T’au Empire. When you provide this message, you can choose to force anyone who is aware of the T’au to make a Hard (-20) Discipline (Composure) Test or capitulate to following any commands given to them. You may assume that anyone who shares a Faction with your Patron knows of their rank, while it is up to the GM who else is aware of it.

Anything marked with an * is listed below, all others listed are found within the Imperium Maledictum Core Book.

Boons

Auxilarist

Your Patron can call on a small squad of Kroot Mercenaries that can be found within the Macharian Sector. Once per mission, your Patron can put a number of Kroot Mercenaries (page 349) equal to the number of characters in the party under the party’s command for a day. The Kroot Mercenaries are under the control of the Gamemaster, and have been instructed to aid the party.

T’au Firepower

Your Patron is able to procure T’au weaponry with little interruption. You have Advantage on Availability Tests, T’au technology becomes 2 steps easier to obtain.

Fire Warrior Surplus

Your Patron is willing to equip you with surplus T’au Infantry supplies. You may start play with any one option from the list below. Additionally, you may spend a downtime Endeavour to claim an additional item.

A Pulse Pistol, a Pulse Rifle, or a Longshot Pulse Rifle.

3 EMP Grenades.

Any one piece of Xenos Mesh.

Either a Backpack, A Respirator, a set of Survival Gear, a Slip/Drop Harness, an Entrenching Tool, a Grapnel & Line, a Fusion Torch, or a Markerlight.

Water Caste Archive

Your Patron has collected strange and extensive knowledge of all who have joined the T’au and even those who have not. They are willing to give you access to this archive, potentially giving you information on your targets and enemies, and giving Advantage on Lore Tests.

Ethereal Caste

Your Patron’s rank within the T’au Empire allows them certain sway over all who are under them. Should it be needed, a message from your Patron can be shown to others who serve the T’au Empire. When you provide this message, you can choose to force anyone who is aware of the T’au to make a Hard (-20) Discipline (Composure) Test or capitulate to following any commands given to them. You may assume that anyone who shares a Faction with your Patron knows of their rank, while it is up to the GM who else is aware of it.

Rogue Travel

Rogue Traders: +1 Patron Influence

Your Patron has forged alliances with a Rogue Trader dynasty, and is able to arrange passage for you aboard one of their vessels. During each mission, you can undertake up to two voyages on the Rogue Traders’ vessel, including Interplanetary (Warp) travel, as well as hiding you from Imperial Authorities whilst aboard. Your accommodation and meals are of Standard Quality for a week, after which your Patron’s agreements do not cover the expense of further accommodation and rations.

Water Caste Envoy

Any one Faction: +1 Patron Influence

Once per adventure, your Patron gives you a direct line to a Por’el—a Water Caste Diplomat—granting you the right to an audience with a member of the Imperial nobility or high-ranking military on any world, with the Por’el joining you on mission, under orders of your patron to facilitate negotiation.

T’au Air Support

Your Patron can always secure you Good Quality Planetary travel on atmospheric craft. Additionally, once during a mission you can call in a focused air strike or close air support of either Imperium or T’au make, which can be resolved as three attacks of either Frag or Krak Missiles with a Ranged skill of 60. At the Gamemaster’s discretion at the exact nature of the air strike may change, for example a flyover from a Barracuda Class Fighter may consist of two attacks by Pulse Blasters and a single drop of an EMP Grenade and a Ranged skill of 60.

Liabilities

Redundant Observer

Your Patron wants to know exactly how you operate, and has entrusted a Drone to acquire that information. Your Patron deploys a Drone equipped with only a Video Recorder to document your exploits. These obsolete observers will occasionally hinder progress in missions by getting in the way, making noise, or otherwise bumbling around.

Background and Influence—T’au

If your Patron has positive Influence with the T’au they have likely worked alongside the T’au towards a common goal. They may have joined forces, organising a pushback on a Tyranid swarm, or perhaps some Gue’vesa aided the escape of your Patron from an oncoming Waaagh! of Orks, maybe the Patron themselves worked closely with the T’au.

If your Patron has negative Influence with the T’au they will likely have interfered with T’au plans, most likely through serving the imperium directly in conflict with the T’au, though may have had a more indirect effect such as preventing T’au technology being spread to the Gue’vesa within the sector, or maybe your Patron had some hand in warning a settlement the T’au originally targeted for the Greater Good.

Questions your players may inquire: Having a Gue’vesa character—or a T’au Patron for that matter—within a group raises more than a few questions. For example: “Why, in the Emperor’s name, would we ally with Xenos?” To which a number of reasons could be given or hidden from the players. Perhaps those further up the chain of command have allied with T’au within the sector to take out a common threat of Tyranids, Orks, or Drukhari. Maybe you are setting up a conflict with the T’au themselves later down the line; knowing your enemy always hits harder. Access to T’au technology may be another tempting reason to ally with them.

[goldenboyreturns]

THIS BEACHHEAD EARTH!

[minayuki]

a species of aliens is attempting to set up a beachhead in [yourcity] to harvest humanity for its flesh and turn the entire earth into a cattle ranch for their needs. rumor has it that their ships run on tormented brains kept in a state of constant euphoria to navigate the cosmos...

Shaking my head because I hate when people feel euphoria

[balu8]

Ant-Man (Henry Pym)

The Avengers #93: This Beachhead Earth

by Roy Thomas; Neal Adams; Tom Palmer and Sam Rosen

Marvel

[scienceninjaturtle]

BIRDS OF PREY #3

Written by KELLY THOMPSON

Art and cover by LEONARDO ROMERO

Variant covers by CHRIS BACHALO and W. SCOTT FORBES

1:25 variant cover by OTTO SCHMIDT

1:50 variant cover by LEONARDO ROMERO

$3.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 11/7/23

The covert first mission of the re-formed Birds of Prey has established their beachhead…in Themyscira! What could be so important to Black Canary that she’d risk the wrath of the greatest warriors on Earth?!

[ultramaga]

Iran has vowed to kill former U.S. government officials, "including President Trump."

https://archive.md/seblO

Islamists to declare war on the United States? Was the mass migration of men of fighting age done to secure a beachhead? Or, as Styxhexenhammer666 discusses, the Elites are going to use Iran to eliminate the dissident?

Trump is surrounded by armed guards. Will he just be found Epsteined, or would that be too obvious? The WEF said they would drastically reduce the human population, by any means necessary. Leftists have been pushing for this for decades now. e.g. https://archive.is/AJWLb

So how can the Leftists eliminate half the human population? Well, a nuclear war would do the trick. How could Leftists start a nuclear war? Kill Trump, and blame the Iranians. So there's two scenarios - the Islamists are genuinely going to attack the West, in which case we can expect massacres in London and Paris and a few other cities they have control of in the near future, and then invasions of the other cities of those countries. Or - Trump is killed before he can win an election, and evidence is presented ̶o̶f̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶p̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶t̶r̶u̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶I̶r̶a̶q̶ ̶ that Iran assassinated him.

A reminder - this is what Paris looks like now. It would be trivial for them to slaughter the remaining French and claim it for the Caliphate.

[skylarstabat]

Sieri Lycar's predecessor, known now as the Forgotten Nation, had an ally to the west that traded slave labor for access to their peers and ships. When the slave rebellion took place out on the seas and Abraham Brir became Slave King, the slaves' first objective in their campaign to remake their home as Sieri Lycar was to return to land and take over their neighbor on the shore, establishing a beachhead. The small fishing nation fell first, and the liberated slaves cut their way from the shore to the Forgotten Nation, supplanting the government after months of fighting.

After Sieri Lycar was born, their hunger for battle grew, and their conquest spread outward on all sides, encompassing the peninsula and marching north. The nation grew exponentially over generations until Skylar Stabat, the current queen, used god-gifted power to move the bulk of Sieri Lycar to the primary variation of Earth. The move was made in concert with Ond, the Serpent that weaves through all creation.

However, while most of the nation was transported to Earth, Ond refused to precisely obey the borders the Lycari had drawn through their conquest. Much of their northern land was severed and an island to the east was lost completely. In the void left in Sieri Lycar's sudden absence, these lands in Ond's Eye were retaken by neighboring nations in the ongoing War for the Eye, and the Lycari citizens left behind were either killed or captured as prisoners of war. In summary, the Sieri Lycar campaign was violently reduced from a rapidly expanding peninsular nation in Ond's Eye, to a much smaller island kingdom on Earth.

The nation's relocation from one plane to another, and the land and people lost in the process, sparked hatred in the Lycari for their queen, but also fear of the queen's power and favor with celestial beings.

[donnatroyprincessofthemyscira]

ComicList: Marvel Comics New Releases for Wednesday,

August 23, 2023

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CHARLES LEPAGE

[tanadrin]

Chuck Sonnenburg (sfdebris) complains that Cheyenne Mountain is the primary location for the SGC, rather than the Alpha Site. Even though it makes a lot more sense to have all the hazardous stuff move through a quarantine planet first. Even lets you do more dramatic stuff with beachheads and stuff if Earth isn't *immediately* on the line.

yeah, i think i mentioned this in another post--ain't no way in hell i'd have my front line teams coming and going from Earth, especially once the first alien plague/foothold situation/bomb that threatened to blow up colorado issue was dealt with

[marvelousmrm]

Invincible Iron Man #112 (Mantlo/Pollard, July 1978). Tony falls back to Earth but manages to successfully stop the colonizer’s lunar beachhead.

[nfcomics]

BIRDS OF PREY no.3 • cover art • Scott Forbes [Nov 2023]

The covert first mission of the re-formed Birds of Prey has established their beachhead…in Themyscira! What could be so important to Black Canary that she'd risk the wrath of the greatest warriors on Earth?!

(W) Kelly Thompson (A) Leonardo Romero (CA) Scott Forbes

[dispatchdcu]

Birds of Prey #3 Preview

Birds of Prey #3 Preview #birdsofprey #gotham #batman #DCEU #dccomics #comics #comicbooks #news #dcuuniverse #art #info #NCBD #comicbooknews #previews #reviews #amazon

Birds of Prey #3 Preview: The covert first mission of the re-formed Birds of Prey has established their beachhead…in Themyscira! What could be so important to Black Canary that she’d risk the wrath of the greatest warriors on Earth?! Written by KELLY THOMPSON Art and cover by LEONARDO ROMERO Variant covers by CHRIS BACHALO and W. SCOTT FORBES 1:25 variant cover by OTTO SCHMIDT 1:50 variant cover…

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

1st August >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 13:36-43 for Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time: ‘The virtuous will shine like the sun’.

Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA) Matthew 13:36-43 As the darnel is gathered up and burnt, so it will be at the end of time.

Leaving the crowds, Jesus went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to us.’ He said in reply, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that provoke offences and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Listen, anyone who has ears!’

Gospel (USA) Matthew 13:36-43 Just as the weeds are collected now and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

Reflections (7)

(i) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

There is a very striking statement in today’s first reading, ‘The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend’. It anticipates the words of Jesus, God in human form, to his disciples in the gospel of John, ‘I no longer call you servants. I call you friends’. Jesus was the clearest possible revelation of God’s desire to befriend all of humanity. According to the first reading, God has the qualities we long for in a good friend, tenderness, compassion, slowness to anger, kindness, faithfulness and a readiness to forgive. Jesus revealed these qualities of God fully and clearly. God, through Jesus, has befriended us and he waits for us to befriend him in return. When we open our lives to God’s love present in Jesus, when we remain in that love and then love others as we have been loved, we become what the gospel reading calls ‘good seed’ in the world. A community of beloved and loving disciples is a beachhead of the kingdom of heaven. It is the beginning of the answer to our prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven’. Yet, the gospel reading also acknowledges that, alongside the good seed, there is ‘darnel’ in the world, sown by the evil one. We don’t need to be reminded of this reality. It easily becomes news, to such an extent that we can end up being quite discouraged. Yet, if we open our eyes we can also see the presence of all the good seed, those expressions in human form of the God of tenderness and compassion who has sent his Son to befriend us. The gospel reading assures that it is this reality that will win out in the end; evil will not ultimately prevail.

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s gospel reading is an explanation of the parable of the wheat and the weeds. The focus of the explanation is the final separation of the good and the evil at the end of time. The parable itself had suggested that before that final separation at the end of time, good and evil will co-exist in the world and in the church, and within each one of us. The weeds and the wheat grow together. There will be a final separation but that will be done by God. It is not our place to make that separation in the here and now. We will invariably get it wrong, both in regard to ourselves and in regard to others. We will inevitably pull up wheat as well as weeds. We need to be slow to judge. It can be all too easy to see ourselves as wheat and identity various groups of other people as weeds. Saint Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians says to those who were judging him, ‘With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court... It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes’. This morning’s first reading reminds us that the Lord who will judge is a ‘God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness’.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

One of the most striking descriptions about God in the Jewish Scriptures is to be found in today’s first reading, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness’. This is the God whom Jesus revealed in all he said and did. Jesus’ life was good news for all who knew their need of God’s compassion, kindness and faithfulness. In the language of today’s gospel reading, this gospel of a gracious God was the ‘good seed’ that Jesus came to sow in the hearts of all. Yet, the parable of the wheat and the darnel recognizes that there were others whose mission in life was to sow a very different kind of seed, a weed that sought to engulf all the good seed that Jesus was sowing. The explanation of the parable in today’s gospel reading declares that those responsible for sowing such weeds will encounter the reverse side of God’s compassion and kindness. The good God who sent Jesus to sow good seed is affronted by the death dealing response to Jesus’ good, life-giving work, on the part of some. There will be a day of reckoning. In the meantime, our role is to align ourselves with the Lord’s good work, opening our hearts and lives to the good seed he is always offering us.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel reading speaks of Jesus as the ‘sower of good seed’ who sows that good seed throughout the world. Those who allow that good seed to take root in their hearts are ‘the subjects of the kingdom’; they already belong to God’s kingdom on earth. Whenever people respond to the Lord’s call, they form a ‘beach head’ of the kingdom of God on earth. This is what the Lord desires for us all. The community of his disciples, the church, is to be that beach head of the kingdom of God on earth; it is to be the earthly expression of the goodness of the kingdom of heaven. Yet, the gospel reading also acknowledges another reality that is to be found in our world, what it terms ‘darnel’ or ‘weeds’, which is sown by the devil. The Lord’s good work in the world is opposed by evil forces. The gospels suggest that Jesus took the reality of evil in the world very seriously. He was also aware that it could infect his followers, the community of those who believed in him, which is why he taught us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’. We shouldn’t need much convincing about the reality and power of evil in our world and, indeed, in the church and in our own lives. However, the gospel reading declares that evil will not ultimately have the last word. God will eradicate evil fully, but only at the end of time, when God’s kingdom fully comes. In the meantime, the Lord wishes to work in and through each of us to confront evil in all its forms, so that something of that final triumph of good over evil can become a reality in the here and now. In the words of Paul’s letter to the Romans, ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

The explanation of the parable of the wheat and darnel in today’s gospel reading suggests that, within our world, good will always sit alongside evil until the end of time. It is only beyond this present age that, in the words of the gospel reading, ‘the virtuous will shine like the sun’, with no darkness to obscure the light of their goodness. We are only too well aware of the presence of evil in our world, and, indeed, within the church and in our own hearts. Various religious movements have attempted to create a perfect society, an oasis of goodness in an evil world. Such movements can end up doing more harm than good to the people who get involved; they can easily project the darkness that is within themselves onto the world outside the movement. However, matters are never that black and white. The church is not a cult. In the language of the Second Vatican Council, we are a pilgrim people. We are on a journey towards that glorious virtuous state spoken of in the gospel reading. In this earthly life, we never reach the end of that journey. At every step of the journey we can make our own the confession of the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, ‘Lord, we do confess our wickedness and our father’s guilt: we have indeed sinned against you’. Such a recognition of the lack of goodness in our lives does not discourage us because we are confident that in the words of today’s responsorial psalm, the Lord’s compassion hastens to meet us. Indeed, our realization and recognition that we are still on the way creates a space in our lives for the Lord to bring to completion the good work that he has begun in us. The gospels suggest that Jesus found it much easier to engage with those who were aware of their need of God’s mercy than with those who thought of themselves as morally superior to others.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

The question ‘Who is God?’ has intrigued curious people down through the centuries. Many different answers have been given to that question. Perhaps one of the most attractive answers from the Jewish Scriptures is to be found in today’s first reading. It declares God to be a ‘God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness’. This is the God revealed by Jesus in his teaching, his whole way of life, his death and his resurrection. The words used to speak of God there are thought provoking and reassuring, ‘tenderness, compassion, kindness, faithfulness’. When we encounter these qualities in someone we meet, we consider ourselves blest to be in their company. These are the people who are spoken of in the gospel reading as ‘the subjects of the kingdom’. They bring something of the kingdom of God to earth. The gospel reading realistically identifies a different kind of presence in our world, namely, ‘the subjects of the evil one’. We are only too well aware of the evil that is being constantly perpetuated by some people, and the painful consequences of such evil for others. We recognize clearly that the kingdom of God has not yet fully come into our world. Indeed, we know that it has not yet fully come into our own lives either. We often fall short of revealing in our lives those divine qualities of tenderness, compassion, kindness and faithfulness. Yet, because these are the qualities of the Lord and he has poured his Spirit into our hearts, we can confidently reach towards these wonderful life-giving qualities, knowing that they are attainable because of the help the Lord gives us.

And/Or

(vii) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah reflects the darker side of human existence. There is death in the countryside and hunger in the city. The religious leaders, prophets and priests, are at their wit’s end. Anguished questions rise up to God, ‘Why have you struck us down with no hope of cure?’ People’s legitimate hopes have been dashed, ‘We were hoping for peace, no good came of it! For the moment of cure, nothing but terror!’ Yet in the midst of such devastation and darkness of spirit, people have not lost hope in God, ‘O our God, you are our hope’. It can be difficult to keep hopeful faith in God when there seems no human reason for hope. Yet, so often the Scriptures inspire us to keep hoping and trusting in God even when, especially when, ‘we are in the depths of distress’, in the words of today’s responsorial psalm. In the gospel reading, Jesus acknowledges that all will not always be right with the world. What Jesus calls ‘the enemy’, those opposed to God’s good purposes, will sow darnel, seeking to kill off the good seed. Yet, Jesus assures us that in the end God’s good purposes will win out, ‘the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’. God is working and will continue to work through the glorious Son of Man to overcome the forces of evil and ensure the coming of God’s kingdom. Saint Paul expressed this conviction very succinctly, ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more’. This is the basis of our hope. Hope is rooted not in anything human but in God’s life giving power, which, in the words of Paul, ‘is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.