Number of the Beast #2 is an issue of the series Number of the Beast (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 2008.
Synopsis for "Verse Two: Gone Baby Gone"
At the Empty Arms Motel, in the City, Aeronaut and Honeybee are in bed together. However, her stinger activates, and he goes away, refusing her advances. Hurt, she does the job they were went there to do originally: collecting a Gideon Bible from the motel. She observed doing this by the two airmen, but they are called away by an alarm - the High is registering a spike in brain activity. However, as he is still little more than a large mass of flesh in a small pool of blood and fluids, they deactivate his alarm and go back to their duty.
In Palatine Hill's cells, Doctor Sin is complaining that he is being held without trial. Redeemer and Neandra accuses him of orchestrating the mass disappearance, but he denies it, quoting from the Greek translations of Saint Paul's Letters to the Thessalonians, referring to an event called the "Harpazo" - in English, the Rapture, which is supposed to herald Judgment Day. The Paladins are called away, as fire begins raining down over the City. It strikes Engine Joe's garage hideout, but Mago teleports over, getting him out of harm's way just in time.
The Crime Corps claims sanctuary in a church, but is attacked by Thrush, Falconette and Johnny Ray-Gun. Meanwhile, the Eidolon staggers into the Paladins headquarters and frees Doctor Sin, trying to make him realize the falseness in his surroundings. In desperation, the two airmen shoot the Eidolon's tube in their headquarters, causing him to disappear from the City in a cloud of polygons in front of Doctor Sin. Suddenly, fire strikes Palatine Hill. Doctor Sin is crippled by the explosion. He then sees in the wreckage is the High, and uttering, "You... you're back."
Appearing in "Verse Two: Gone Baby Gone"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- The Crime Corps
- Hotfoot
- Stinkbug
- Taipan (First appearance)
- Tinderbox (First appearance)
- The Skeleton Crew (First appearance)
- Doctor Sin
Other Characters
- Captain Rosado
- Sergeant Timothy Stringer
Locations:
- Wildstorm Universe
- Number of the Beast Bunker #1
- The City
- Palatine Hill
- The City
- Number of the Beast Bunker #1
Items:
- Sintrino-Cannon
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue shipped on late April 23, 2008.
- This comic included some ancillary notes on Engine Joe, Johnny Ray-Gun and Mago the Magician.
Trivia
- This comic also contains a preview for Casey Blue: Beyond Tomorrow.
- Honeybee's "thank God for the Gideons" comment is a reference to the Gideons International, an Evangelical Christian organization known for distributing copies of scripture free of charge.
- Doctor Sin derisively refers to the Bible as a "bestselling potboiler." A potboiler is a book, painting, or recording produced merely to make the writer or artist a living by catering to popular taste.
- The rain of fire and Black Anvil's "Sounds like another trumpet is playing our song" are a reference to Revelation 8:6-7 from the Book of Revelation: And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. And the first blew the trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
- Doctor Sin's "Black hats, white hats...we're all in this drama together now, aren't we?" line is a reference to American Western films in which white hats were often worn by heroes and black hats by villains to symbolize the contrast in good versus evil.
- Falconette's "And I'll chase this serpent (Taipan) out of Eden" line is a reference to the serpent who triggered the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden in Eden depicted in the Book of Genesis.
- Johnny Ray-Gun says "Y'all know 'Turkey in the Straw'?" "Turkey in the Straw" is a real American folk song that first gained popularity in the 19th century and has been frequently adapted and used in popular media.
- While examining his Neutrino-Cannon, Doctor Sin remarks that "I would have called it a Sintrino-Cannon if Fermi hadn't coined the term first." In reality, Enrico Fermi first popularized the term "neutrino" during a conference in Paris in July 1932 and at the Solvay Conference in October 1933. The term "neutrino" (which is the Italian equivalent of "little neutral one") was jokingly coined by Edoardo Amaldi during a conversation with Fermi, in order to distinguish this light neutral particle from James Chadwick's heavy neutron.
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
| World's End Trilogy Crossover The events from this issue or series are related to the "World's End Trilogy". This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the World's End Trilogy Crossover category. Wildstorm: Armageddon
Wildstorm: Revelations
Number of the Beast
Number of the Beast #1 • Number of the Beast #2 • Number of the Beast #3 • Number of the Beast #4 • Number of the Beast #5 • Number of the Beast #6 • Number of the Beast #7 • Number of the Beast #8 |