Wait, what? Ah c'mon Ishtar!

[JohnXIII]

Hey Mr Cryptic! I'm a big fan of your work and belong to both MC and HIP.

-Ishtar/AG/Maria Jones is freakin' smokin-hot and is the reason I joined both of these sites. I think it was the lighting in AG #1 that really hooked me..... nah, it was pictures: 1001 - 1004! <need drooling emoticon> holy $#%&!
-The ending of Victory Legion was very well-written and pretty damn satisfying (as a reader!). Awesome work on the visuals and the writing.
-Victory City and Tales are both incredibly enjoyable as well.

Here's the thing though, now that I'm caught up with the material I want more from Ishtar. Ishtar is a great character with an awesome mythical potential but at this point I view Ishtar as border-line retarded. She gets taken so easily taken that I wonder if just a normal shiney coin wouldn't be enough to enslave her.

I think the root cause of my dissatisfaction with the Ishtar character is the non-exsistance of her war aspect. She can wreck the gateway to Hell but can't evade when a guy grabs her from behind. Break out of a chamber when she is as strong and fast as she is supposed to be. Or when she runs right up the barrel of a ray gun and just stands there and listens to sass from a villaniness whose plot-armor is so thick she can't achieve orgasm?

BTW, Having a tough time with Isle of Zombots. IMO, Ishtar is getting absolutely clowned in every frame. Hopefully after the obligatory Metrobay facial cumming her way she'll find a way to redeem herself.

It's all gravy I suppose, Ishtar is hot (I'm digging McTek's version) in every picture, but I would like to see more ass-kicking in the lead up to her inevitable erotic encounter.

**IMPORTANT - IMPORTANT**
I'm fairly new around here (first post ) and know next to nothing about how you create this wonderful art. I am learning a little. Please don't view this post as critizism. Just a new fan trying to look behind the curtain.

Looking foward to more of Maria Jones in the black cat-suit and Indeks vs. Ishtar this summer!

[jrhcl2]

I agree with JohnxIII , i've said this before!! Not in the way you stated it!! I've said this over and over again, how does a powerful Goddess like Ishtar, not just any Goddess, the queen of the gods. She has magical garments that increase her physical abilities, she is as strong as Brickhouse!! She has vast magical powers she can use!! She can lift a large jet, but a street thug can hold her an drug her with no superstrength, she has vast magical powers, she know many spells, but get beaten by a guy who knew very little magic, if you put Ishtar knowledge of magic side by side with his knowledge, it's like a kid who knew a few magic tricks he can perform for his family, like pulling a rabbit out of his hat!! Her inability to think fast on feet and react quickly to escape a trap or regroup to turn defeat into victory has been very surprising!!

I hate to say it, but the villains have shown that their a whole lot smarter than she is, she a war Goddess you would think she'd be able to adjust to any attack made against her!! She have been beaten very easy in the past and has come out not looking very God like!! I also agree with you that the story Ishtar is appearing in from another artist, she's really getting punked in that story!! While Ishtar is my favorite adult superheronies, she's really hot! But She spent most of her time being a slave to Villains, not being a powerful Queen of the Gods or a hero to fear!! I hope that doesn't upset you, i'm not trying too!! But why doesn't she put up more of a fight? She always falls victim to the villain. I know you said the stories main focus is on heroines in Perils and mind control, but does she always have to look so bad!! All the villains have out classed her, no matter if they have superpowers or don't have superpowers. You show her defeating the main villain henchman, very quickly !! But the main villain always defeat Ishtar!! C.L.

[dumbtime]

(disclaimer)
Ummm...ok...I just gotta do this.

I'm sorry but i tried to resist...

Please forgive me...
(end disclaimer)

Excuse me? What site did you log into???

MythologicalWarriors&Goddess-are-us.com?

No, wait...It appears, yes, it appears that it's mccomix.com.

That's the site you logged into, now I get it...

M=mythological
C=characters
right?

It's the site where you put warriors and god/goddess in battle and match attributes, mana and spell casting to see which one comes out still standing? right?
I got be right, right? It's nothing like that site that's all about mind controlled superheroine/superhuman stories, right?

I'm still not sure. Maybe I should check around the other sites just to see if I'm right.

(Not flaming here. All done in sarcasm but, it is a pet peeve of mine.)

DT

[JohnXIII]

Haha, well said!

[jrhcl2]

Huh!! I'm not sure but were those comments a reply to my lately post ( jrhcl2)?? If my comments have upset you, I'm sorry! But i'm only being honest and stating how i feel!! I really enjoy Mr. Cryptic comics and the heroine Ishtar. I know she will face challenges as a heroine, but does things always have to go bad for her all time!! I just want to see her win sometime and be with someone she wants to be with of her own free will, every once in a while!! Is that wrong!! C.L.

[JohnXIII]

We're all having a good time here jrhcl2!

Bottom line.... Ishtar is hot and gets naked. Everyone wins!

[Trishbot]

Like many here, I love Ishtar, and I do still love her stories.

But these guys do have a point. As a fellow writer, I'm going to try not to be too critical (and I can slip into that mode quite easily), so I should throw on the *disclaimer* here and say this is all my personal opinions on erotic hypno storytelling.

The main goal of the stories here has been, and should be, mind controlling these sexy women. When a story starts to meander from that, and we get issues that try and be something other than erotic mind control stories, I think that's a problem. Thankfully, Mr. Cryptic delivers on the goods quite frequently.

And that leads into part 2... doing it TOO MUCH. Whoa, whoa, wait up, I hear you all saying. Too much of a good thing?!

What I mean is that doing the same thing over and over blunts the impact of doing it. It can work once or twice, but after awhile the spark in your erotic mind control love life starts to fade and you need to freshen things up.

And that can be by having the heroine WIN. Have her obtain her highest highest... because that means that what follows up has to be her lowest lows. I write my stories fully thinking about contrasts, how much the heroine changes, how much the relationship between villain and master changes, and how much the relationships involve change. The greater the contrast, the greater the fall, and the more rewarding the naughty hypno shenanigans.

When a heroine, no matter how powerful, falls under hypnosis and mind control at the drop of a hat, the challenge is lost. There is something to be said for an inevitable struggle; it's exciting, it's tension, it's build-up. It's raising the climax and waiting for the payoff. Sometimes, a good story has a fulfilling payoff after a long struggle and that powerful heroine that was annoying the villain the whole time finally ends up as his or her docile hypno slave pet... sometimes there isn't any payoff.

This is rambling now, but I think Ishtar's got the most important parts of "MC" Comix down... and I love it. Now all she needs in future stories is a little... finesse. Give the poor gal some wiggle room to have some successes and pitfalls and she'll become more than just hypno fodder. Once she grows as a character, that makes her falls into hypnotic bliss even MORE rewarding.

*disclaimer off*

[dumbtime]

Hey what's this one my desk? A memo from Dr. Dan Digitalus, ha.

(Dear Mr. Dumbtime,
I'm sorry to have to write this to complain about your lame writing skills and your perverted sense of humor but, wtf?
American Amazon isn't suppose to be able to break my hold on her mind. She my thrall to play with, whenever
I want. Heck, she doesn't even know she's been put under mind control. So again, wtf? why is she getting close to
breaking my hold over her? I just enslaved 2 goddesses, a priestess and the host body to all of them. I am the greatest
of mad scientist, no one can claim that title.
Oh Wait, wtf!?!? someone else just did it to another goddess, some hottie named Ishtar. WTF? Get up off your lazy ass and get
writing again amd make sure you put American Amazon back under my control, 100%. Do it, or else...

Sincerely,
Dr. Dan Digitalus)

Wow, I wonder what 'else' means in that situation.

[Ghosthand]

I have to agree with Doctor Dan it's about time we find out what happends to Irish Justice and Amrican Amazon. Break is over, get back to work!

As far as the 'else', do you really want to know...?

[Mr. Cryptic]

I'm glad you're enjoying the stories and art, JohnXIII!

In regards to Ishtar getting defeated too easily, yes, you're correct. It is a logical, but perhaps unavoidable, problem of this genre. I always say that what you see of Ishtar in the stories is not a representative sample of a typical day in her life. I figure that on most days, she goes around Victory City and beyond vanquishing evil without breaking a sweat. The stories I show are the 1 in 500 encounters where things go against her.

I was worried that in making a superheroine that is so powerful, she would be seen as being too invincible. I have may have overcompensated some in trying to avoid that.

I always refer CL to Adventures of Ishtar #1, where there is a montage of Ishtar solving one crisis after another, with ease. This was to establish how awesome and powerful she is. I guess I need to do another one of those . It is also true that she tends to win by "default," the villain lets her go, or dies and she is freed, etc. There is some design in that, actually. In Ring of Domination, my concept of that relationship was that even when she was enslaved by the crook, she was subtly influencing him to be a better man. That was kind of a theme with Wonder Woman, she could break villains in half if she wanted, but she preferred to turn them around and make them better. That's part of why Fausta was the perfect episode of the Wonder Woman TV show. I've tried to emulate that theme with Ishtar. She has the power to drop a mountain on you, but she tends to be more subtle, and even in defeat she can be very powerful.

The other thing is, I really like mind control/seduction/domination where the dominant one is in the weaker position, which by it's nature should be a rare event. If Ishtar were defeated in combat by a really powerful superhuman, that wouldn't be very sexy to me. But, if she gets defeated by a normal but bold crook, that's very exciting. I thought that the scene in the 1978 Superman movie, where Superman is helpless from Kryptonite and he's begging Miss Tessmacher to help him was very sexy, because he's Superman and she's a simple gangster moll, but she has all the power in that moment.

It's a little bit bad timing that Ishtar got sort of "neutered" by Prospero, preventing me from showing her doing heroic stuff as Ishtar for awhile. She will get her powers back of course, so stay tuned for that.

Also, dumetime's point is valid. Heroines in Mind Control (or sometimes generic Peril) is the focus of the site. Maybe if I have the time, I'll do more straightforward superhero adventures with Ishtar in some other venue. Not sure when that would be happening though.

[Mr. Cryptic]

One other thing, when Trishbot mentioned giving Ishtar some "wiggle room," I guess my thinking has been that Ishtar is so powerful, that unless you defeat her very quickly, she will defeat you first (either by mesmerizing you with her charm, incapacitating you with telekinetic diddling, or if those things fail just giving you a left hook with her Superman level strength). I'll have to work on this some more.

[jrhcl2]

Hi Mr. Cryptic ! Thank for taking the time to address the comments made in this forums! You addressed each comments with grace not with anger!! You showed a lot of class!! Thanks again!! I'm looking forward to the return of Ishtar on this site!! I think it was August 2011 that Lord Prospero made Maria Jones forget she was Ishtar. Oh saying that Ishtar has to be defeated quickly, because she's so powerful ,makes sense!! C.l.

[JohnXIII]

Thanks for the response Mr Cryptic, that explains everything! 3 things:
1) You guys are really pumping out the content! Is it always like this?
2) http://www.mccomix.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=37149 I will learn this medium of art! Awesome
3) As a Mass Effect 3 player I learned all about 'Artistic Vision' recently.....so I'll finish my thread with Snozberries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R15AS5LIJWI

Keep up the great work!

p.s. Yo dumbtime! Just finished reading your stuff. I figure there is a 50/50 chance Dr Digitalis wrote you that letter in the nude. "Or else"

[dumbtime]

I have to agree with Doctor Dan it's about time we find out what happends to Irish Justice and Amrican Amazon. Break is over, get back to work!

As far as the 'else', do you really want to know...?

I'm hoping August to start it back up again. I'm currently working, sparingly, on some freebie 'Origins' update along with that August Brainwashed episode. I hope to reveal the freebies in July some time.

[dumbtime]

p.s. Yo dumbtime! Just finished reading your stuff. I figure there is a 50/50 chance Dr Digitalis wrote you that letter in the nude. "Or else"

If you were a mastermind with a unknown laboratory, deep underground, and you just enslaved 3 super hotties to go along with your already enslaved super slut, I think you would be walking around in the nude as well.

I just hope he washed his hands before writing and sending the memo to me.