While Sovereign seduces and enslaves the heroines Brickhouse and Ishtar, the rest of Victory City’s heroes struggle against the might of Ultra Maxima and her hypnotic powers!
Has Sovereign betrayed his fellow heroes, or is there a method to his madness? Find out in VICTORY CITY#20, in the member's section now!
http://memberslogin.hipcomix.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=127010

Ultra battle with the heroes of Victory City went like i thought it would , without three of their most powerful heroes Ishtar, Brickhouse and Sovereign!! With Ishtar and Brickhouse's physical strength and Sovereign mental powers, working together, i'm sure the heroes would have defeated Ultra Maxima!! But i will say, i would think that the new American Goddess, would have strength on Ultra Maxima strength level. Even those she's not as skilled as Ultra and these other heroes in combat.

It seems Sovereign plan is to use the sexual energy of himself, Brickhouse and Ishtar on Ultra Maxima, kind of like what they did the first time they met in battle. As least that what it look like?? Using the sexual energy of the three of them to try an defeat Ultra Maxima, while having a lot of fun with Brickhouse( sexually). It seems that Ishtar is getting most of her pleasure from her rod of Domination and thru her link with him and Brickhouse. I will say, i would have like to have seen him have a little fun with Ishtar too(sexually). But i know why he didn't, using her power to create a link between the three of them. Now i know what you mean when you say, Ishtar prana give her the power to do almost anything!! I didn't know she could do that!!

Ishtar has been under the spell of the ring of domination, enslaved by Dr. Pretorius hypnotic chips. I like these effect of Sovereign mutant charismatic has on her the best!! I like the things she's thinking to herself, " he's irresistable", " the sound of his voice, the tilt of his head as he looks at me, all arouses me so much" , " his presense is potent, all i want to do is please him"!!. She was even thinking i'm helpless to do anything!! Sovereign sexual magnetism really has a strong effect on her, it like she in love!! The only thing missing that these other enslavement had, is the sex! But his charismatic is not as overwhelming as Ishtar being overheated with her own prana!! she only wants sex, when overheated by prana. So that still the best...

I really enjoyed this installment!! Especially these effect Sovereign mutant charismatic had on Ishtar!!

Ishtar is a sorceress, and she knows thousands of spells, so she can do almost anything she wants. In the future I think I will more clearly define how her magic works and what she can do, but she's basically like Dr. Strange (who favors certain spells/powers, but basically seems able to do almost anything).

I recently became more aware of the TV show The Secrets of Isis, and it's funny how similar Isis and Ishtar are, since I didn't have Isis in mind when i created the character. Isis seems to be able to do anything she chooses to do.

You actually had a significant influence on this storyline, lotchj. I had originally planned on Ishtar going off to fight Ultra Maxima with Sovereign and Brickhouse hanging back, but I decided instead to do it the way I did, with more interaction between Sovereign and Ishtar.

I have to admit that the idea of Ultra acquiring Brickhouse's powers was inspired by Sylar's seeking to claim Clare Bennet's powers on heroes. Ultra isn't so much interested in Brickhouse's strength, she already has telekinesis and can blast enemies with a range of energy types, or just control their minds. What Ultra really needed was Brickhouse's invulnerablity. Pitbull's mutant power is being an absolutely unsurpassed wrestler. She's superstrong and can intuitively find her opponent's weak spots. If Pitbull had been able to put Ultra in a pin the way that Brickhouse did earlier, she wouldn't have been able to concentrate to use her powers and the other heroes probably could have won the fight.

The same idea applies in Dungeons and Dragons. Wizard's are usually restricted from wearing armor and casting spells, because the defensive advantage of wearing armor greatly complements the offensive power of casting spells. In contrast it's not such a big advantage for a wizard to wield a sword, since he can't cast spells and swing the sword at the same time. Ultra's now like a very powerful wizard wearing a very tough suit of armor.

Regarding American Goddess' strength, I figure Ishtar is stronger than she was when she was American Goddess. I figure Brickhouse is definitely stronger than the original American Goddess, except that the Ring of Life can boost her strength so that perhaps she could be stronger then Brickhouse if she absorbed a lot of prana.

I figure Ashley basically has the same powers as the original American Goddess, but of coursse she has much less experience. I figure her strength is about the same as the original American Goddess pound for pound (the Ring of Transformation buffed up her skinny body). However, Ashley is a petite 5'0" tall, and probably is about 2/3 as strong as the original American Goddess for that reason.

Since Ultra Maxima has Brickhouse's strength, she would easily be stronger than the new American Goddess. Even if Ashley could get her hands on her, Ultra's new invulnerablity would allow to focus her mental powers while grappled and control Ashley's innocent mind pretty easily.

I really enjoyed these effect that Sovereign mutant charisma had on Ishtar, but to learn that i kind of influenced that part of the storyline, is great!! It lets me know that you do keep your fans in mind, when writing your stories. Thats just another reason why i'm into your story writing!!! Thank for clearing up the strength level of the new American Goddess.

I thought i understood Ishtar powers, i didn't know she was a sorceress!! I thought her prana allowed her to create magical garments that only boosted her physical abilities and enable her to control others emotons & minds. How does her magic work and what can she do with her magic? It seems Ishtar has so many other powers, we have not seen, besides physical strength and controlling desires, Now i can understand why she is thought to be the most powerful hero on the planet.

I'm glad you liked they way Sovereign's power works. He has not psychic or magical powers, he just has superhuman intelligence and charisma. He can percieve and communicate via body language, expressions, and tone of voice better than anyone alive. He is so smooth at it that he can mesmerize someone just by talking to them.

When I say Ishtar is a sorceress, I mainly just mean that she can create magical effects from the energy she generates. Ishtar is like other heroes whose powers are vast with limits that are only vaguely defined (e.g. Dr. Strange, Green Lantern, the Spectre, Isis).

It's just that Ishtar keeps surprising me with the things she can do!! I know you don't like to give anything away!! i was wondering, if you had any plans to team-up Ishtar and the new American Goddess in their own adventure together in the future??

I definitely expect American Goddess and Ishtar to team up in the future, even though American Goddess isn't Ishtar's sidekick. I have a lot of plans so I don't know when that will actually happen, however.

I was going to wait until the next installment of Victory City# 21, to talk about Ishtar and all the stuff that happened in that installment. But i saw the new cover for the new Adventures Of Ishtar!! I noticed that she's not wearing one of her magical garments, her cape. It looked like she's wearing a new necklace. What does the necklace do?? I do like the new look!! HOT!! I hope you don't get mad with me, i like her without the cape. You can see her great backside better!!

Yes, I wanted to try a different look. I was originally wavering between the cape and the necklace. I decided to just have her switch to the necklace and then see which costume variation people prefer. Her Ring of Transformation can easily alter her costume's appearance, which is nice because it's easy to explain costume changes that way. In the middle of Victory City #9, Ishtar's cape gets shorter, and her high heels get higher. I didn't mention it in the story, I just figured she decided she wanted a slight change to her costume and Ringed up a slight transformation on the way to the warehouse.

I wouldn't have put her in a long cape like that except that it is sheer and you can see through it. The cape looks kind of like negligee, which I think is cool, but I also like the sleek look of having no cape. For whatever reason, I feel like I want some kind of tassel of something dangly on her costume. I kind of have in mind an assymmetrical over the shoulder cape like Captain Marvel wears. In this case it would be very short, almost like a scarf. It would be sheer like the cape Ishtar has now. If anyone sees a V4 clothing model that is something like that, feel free to send me the link and I'll check it out.

I probably will tweak/clarify a bit how Ishtar's powers and her garments work. I'm thinking that her magic garments each perform a specific function (e.g. the Girdle of Strength boosts her strength). So, she'll have a list of specific powers she has as long as she wears the particular garment. In addition to that, she'll have her magical knowledge that will allow her to cast a wide variety of spells. However, spellcasting requires speaking an incantation, gesturing, and concentrating, which is less convenient than the parsu garments.