The moment we've all been waiting for has come!
American Goddess and Cobra-Woman team up against the Gangster of Love!
These two superheroines can take on an army of Crime Central hoodlums, but the Gangster of Love always has a trick up his sleeve!
Will our two heroines evade the trap he has planned for them?
Find out in Tales of the Crypticverse #3, in the member's section now!
http://memberslogin.hipcomix.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=127010

Hello Mr. Cryptic!! I see you posted early this month!! First let me say, i love the artwork!! Cobra Woman looks really hot, but i will agree with the Goddess, she did look freaky the way she was fighting!! I would guess the Goddess has been in a lot of battles being a war Goddess and has seen a lot of different fighting styles, i would think it would take a lot to freak her out, like Cobra Woman did.

The Goddess alway looks very sexy!! I have to comment on her great backside!! Love the rear view!! That being said, she still seems as strong as she was in the ring of domination, she was throwing and kicking the gang members around like they were nothing and her sex appeal would have worked on them if it wasn't for the the gangster of love.

What powers does he have? Her sex appeal didn't work on him!! Still don't have any idea what the gangster of loves plans are!! What is that drug going to do them from those bolts?? I'll be looking forward to the next installment!! You can call me cl on the forums!!

Hi cl! Glad you liked it.

I've actually been doing more scenes where Ishtar/American Goddess' backside shows, in response to your comments. You made me realize that that was another good angle to see her from .

American Goddess can get weak willed enemies (most criminal henchmen) to do what she says just by talking to them, but a stronger willed enemy (most criminal bosses) won't give in that easily. She can still use her Ring of Domination to magically dominate them, but usually she needs to neutralize other threats before she will do that. In this recent case, she basically persuaded the thugs that they had no hope to escape, but the Gangster reassured them that they were still going to pull it off if they trusted him (and in fact his crossbow was the trump card they needed). American Goddess can very often talk crooks into giving up without a fight, but many times that doesn't work and she has to use force.

I wasn't entirely sure how people would react to Cobra-Woman. I spent a lot of time thinking about how her powers would work. When I create a character or a story, I usually am inspired by and imitate something I've seen before, but also try to put my own original spin on it. In this case, I really wanted to make a character like Spider-Man, but that was not Spider-Man. I feel like when Stan Lee created Spider-Man, he was taking a risk in making a hero based on a creepy crawly creature, which I think was kind of original. I thought that snakes have some unique abilities (especially if you consider all snakes together). I can't really think of any other snake based superheroes (villains, yes). I almost gave up on the idea because I couldn't think of how to make her move like a snake without it looking awful or ridiculous. I ended up just deciding that being like a snake makes her really good at crawling. She crawls in a slithery kind of way, and she can crawl faster than she can run (helps explain why she can fight in high heels). I was pretty pleased with the cover image I did of her for Crypticverse #1, and then also the scene where she first appears in #3, since I thought she looked snake-like but also sexy. I was worried the fangs would just make her look like a vampire, but I feel like I've managed to pull off making her seem like a snake. Vampires don't usually crawl around and bite people on the leg, so I guess that's the key .

Anyway, I wanted to show American Goddess' reaction to Cobra-Woman because I wanted to reassure the reader that if they think Cobra-Woman is a little freaky, I think that's normal reaction .

Maybe I shouldn't give this away yet, but the Gangster of Love's powers are all training and science based. In Crypticverse #1, he was carrying some kind of drug dispenser in his mouth which he used to pass the drug to Cobra-Woman while he kissed her. I've heard of real life criminals doing this to rob people on one night stands. The reason he's raiding Langstrom Labs is to get more ingredients for synthesizing his drugs.

Hi there!

When I read this tale, I immediately think of Spider – man. After all he has freaky powers too (and if we see The Movie, Peter Parker uses a body fluid to fight crime… is unsettling, to say the least!

Good work!

Hector

Yes, I really wanted to capture the spirit of the Spider-Man concept: graceful in a creepy crawly kind of way. I knew what I wanted in this character before I actually decided to make her cobra themed. I wanted an animal that was creepy and threatening, but also beautiful and graceful. I narrowed my list down to the various arthropods (e.g. spiders, scorpions; they've already been done), felines (already been done a lot), and then snakes (not done at all with heroes, as far as I know, but maybe to weird to make work).
Once I had this general concept, I really struggled trying to figure out how to make it work. I eventually figured she just is able to crawl really fast, and that's her signature mode of travel. For awhile I was thinking she would literally slither like a snake, just hold her arms to her body and hold her legs together and undulate across the ground, but that would have looked pretty silly I think. It makes much more sense to have her crawl like a human being, but in a slinky, slithery fashion.

I kind of went through the same process when I was figuring out how Pitbull would work. It first I was imagining her as a kind of Wolverine or Sabretooth ripoff, but that instead of claws she had a bite attack, literally like a pit bull. Then I decided it was better to not be so literal and just make her really good at grabbing on to an opponent and hanging on like a human wrestler with the tenacity of a pit bull, but not literally hanging on with her jaws like a dog.