Broken Frontier

Armed with her new black-leather-and-metal costume, and the same take-no-prisoners attitude, Flare's electric little sister Olga Gottmann, aka SPARKPLUG is set to make her move into the pages of Heroic Publishing's flagship CHAMPIONS title. After two years of appearing as the regular backup feature in her sister's popular comic book magazine, SPARKPLUG leaps from the pages of FLARE into her own featured series, currently scheduled to begin in CHAMPIONS #39 and continue at least four more issues, through CHAMPIONS #43.

SPARKPLUG's adventures in CHAMPIONS will revolve around her quarrel with the villainous PROFESSOR MUERTE, who made the mistake of kidnapping her during the course of a story that appeared in the first two issues of Heroic Publishing's newest FLARE series. In an effort to put an end to Muerte's international terror-for-hire organization, TERROR INC., Sparkplug will travel to exotic locales and meet a wide variety of new and dangerous foes.

This new series of featured SPARKPLUG adventures will be written by the near-legendary STEVE PERRIN, the creator of Professor Muerte and Terror Inc. On tap to handle most of the artwork is the extraordinarily talent TERRY PALLOT. This is the same creative team that has been working on many of the Sparkplug adventures that have recently appeared in FLARE.

Also featured in the pages of CHAMPIONS will be new and classic adventures of CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT, the classic father-and-son superhero team created by Roy & Dann Thomas. Beginning with issue #39 and continuing through issue #43, full-color adventures of SPARKPLUG and CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT will be featured in each issue of CHAMPIONS, making that title an all-electric magazine.

CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT are also scheduled to appear in new stories in CHAMPIONS #38 and CHAMPIONS #44, with issue #44 being the long-awaited double-sized 44-page conclusion to CT&BB's "Merchants of Menace" storyline.

SPARKPLUG™ is a trademark and CHAMPIONS® is a registered trademark of Heroic Publishing, Inc. CAPTAIN THUNDER™ and BLUE BOLT™ are trademarks of Roy & Dann Thomas.

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Heroic Publishing's flagship CHAMPIONS title goes electric with issue #38, when Roy Thomas's CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT return at last with an all-new full-color adventure written by Roy and drawn by the talented Benito Gallego. CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT are currently scheduled for seven-issue run in CHAMPIONS, concluding with an all-new full-color adventure in CHAMPIONS #43, and a double-sized 44-page finale in CHAMPIONS #44.

Beginning with issue #39, CHAMPIONS will be an all-electric title. Stepping over from the pages of FLARE, and sharing the spotlight with CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT in CHAMPIONS, will be Flare's electric little sister, Olga Gottmann, aka SPARKPLUG. A showdown between Sparkplug and the villainous PROFESSOR MUERTE has been brewing since he made the mistake of kidnapping her in the second issue of Flare's new series. In CHAMPIONS #40-43, you'll see that grudge match play itself out.

The CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT adventures that will appear in CHAMPIONS comprise the long-awaited conclusion to the highly acclaimed "Merchants of Menace" storyline that began in the pages of Heroic Publishing's original CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT series. Through twelve issues of CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT published between 1987 and 1992, writers Roy & Dann Thomas, and artists E. R. Cruz and Dell Barras (with occasional assistance from other able and talented artists) tracked the adventures of Mike Fremont (aka Captain Thunder) and his son Paul (aka Blue Bolt) on their quest to expose the truth behind the Merchants of Menace, a secret band of international arms dealers who had a decade earlier framed Captain Thunder for a crime he'd never committed. The stories from the eleventh and twelfth issues of that series, which were originally printed in black-and-white, will appear for the first time in color in CHAMPIONS #39-42.

Although the Merchant of Menace storyline will conclude with the double-sized finale currently scheduled to appear in CHAMPIONS #44, Roy and Benito, who have previously worked together on Heroic's ANTHEM title, have expressed in interest in continuing the adventures of CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT, perhaps even with a revival of CT&BB's own magazine.

SPARKPLUG is a trademark and CHAMPIONS is a registered trademark of Heroic Publishing, Inc. CAPTAIN THUNDER and BLUE BOLT are trademarks of Roy Thomas.

More information about Heroic Publishing can be found on the Heroic Publishing website at http://www.heroicpub.com