Marvel“s Thor: Metal Gods
Season 1, Episode 1, Part 2
Aaron Stewart-Ahn & Yoon Ha Lee
“Gents, it“s time to start this show,”“ a stagehand with a walkie-talkie intoned from their doorway. Sylvain started flexing his muscles and his once-beautiful smile became a rictus. Loki grabbed his axe and started for the stage. He couldn“t put up with more of this travesty of a band. There must be some way out, some way to express his dissatisfaction.
The bassist, keyboardist, and drummer for Heavy Whispers were already laying down a thick blast of synth goth atmosphere and rhythm. The crowd“s loud cheers washed out the music as Loki took the stage.
Loki joined in on lead guitar. But he was just going through the motions. He could barely summon the interest to contribute and yet the crowd“s roar crescendoed. Did they realize what a sham the performance was? Despite the audience“s genuine worship, his mood got in the way. Instead of the thrill that should have overtaken him, he felt numb.
As Loki put his boot down on a pedal and shot some howling reverb out of the guitar through a wall of amplifiers, Sylvain took the stage. He resembled a dark princeling, with leather pants he“d been sewn into, a shirtless chest already gleaming with sweat, and that incredible gossamer hair framed by the crown.
The audience became frenzied beyond all sense and reason.
Loki couldn“t stand this. It wasn“t Sylvain“s charisma or talent. He knew it was the effect of the crown. Worse, the purity of the audience“s fervor struck him as equally unreal, and Loki had no one but himself to blame for the illusion.
Sylvain ripped his mic from its stand and tossed the metal pole at a stagehand. He came over to Loki and had to scream in his ear to be heard: “Try and keep up tonight. Things are changing around here.”“
Then Sylvain turned to the crowd and intoned, “Tonight Heavy Whispers will have you screaming. Tonight we are a new band, serving a new master, and you will know us by a new name. You are witness to the coming of . . .”“
The crowd screamed eagerly, roused by Sylvain“s mania.
“NIHILATOR!”“
An enormous blacklight sign dropped from the ceiling and lit up with the name.
Loki scoffed and shouted back at Sylvain, “What, you couldn“t afford the extra vowel?”“
Sylvain“s eyes narrowed. “How dare you speak of Nihilator this way!”“
But their interaction jolted the crowd. Sylvain turned to them, soaking up their love. The rest of the band exploded into a new sound, heavy. And metal.
Loki didn“t care. He scanned the faces in the crowd.
Passive, mindless hordes. Their ecstatic faces left him numb. It was almost a pathology on Earth, which made it simple to manipulate people. One little spell here, a corrupt artifact there. Midgardians had a propensity for worship, and it was so easily exploited.
A pair in the audience caught his eye”“”“two beautiful people, laughing together with an earnest warmth. Loki started to noodle out a repeating melody on the guitar. There was something about these two, their humorous gaze and sense of connection surrounded by slavering fans stood out like a flickering candle in a snowstorm. He recognized Lila Cheney, a musician herself. He“d run into her in the small nocturnal circles of London“s music scene at countless afterparties.
And then he caught the other person“s eyes. Zia.
To Be Continued…
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Marvel“s Thor: Metal Gods
A space adventure on an epic scale, Metal Gods propels Thor and Loki on a cosmic odyssey to recover a dangerous alien artifact and stop the return of an ancient evil. Together with a Korean tiger-goddess, a charismatic, gender-fluid space pirate, and Frost Giant mercenaries, the sons of Odin must each confront their pasts and face the truth behind the destruction of a planet that Thor once tried to help. Tinged with humor, celestial horror, complex relationships, space battles, barroom brawls, and blasts of sheer fun.
*Thor: Metal Gods is the first Marvel original serialized fiction audiobook series to launch on Serial Box. Additional original stories are set to launch in early 2020 and are focused on fan-favorite super hero characters including Black Panther, Black Widow, and Jessica Jones.
Author team: led by screenwriter Aaron Stewart-Ahn (Mandy) and includes Brian Keene (The Horror Show with Brian Keene), Jay Edidin (Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men), and Yoon Ha Lee (Ninefox Gambit),
Narrator: Daniel Gillies (The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Saving Hope)
# of episodes: 15 (launch date is 12/12/19 with a new episode scheduled to release every Thursday until the grand finale)
About Serial Box: Serial Box delivers premium audio and reading entertainment for an on-the-go audience that loves immersive storytelling. Designed to fit today“s fast paced lifestyle, Serial Box is available on all mobile devices, and users can read or listen to each weekly installment, switching modes with just a click. Serial Box uses a collaborative writing process, bringing together award-winning and best-selling authors to create completely original stories as well as new content around some of fandom“s most popular characters.
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- I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!
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