We haven’t heard a lot from Sean “Manticore” Fish one of the initial City of Heroes Game and Story designers recently because he was very busy working on a new NCsoft MMO. But although he left the team last year he was still involved in the creation of the Top Cow Comic line.

Now “the man behind the mask” is back and has sent us the following letter…

Positron’s HUD display showed a new kind power source in the Nemesis robots, even as his gauntleted hands wrestled with two of the dread machines. “Looks like the old man just keeps upgrading,” the armored hero muttered quietly “Well that’s nothing a little Overcharge won’t fix.” Drawing upon the unique ability to push his armor past the limits of human possibility, Positron sent waves of deadly energy into the metal monstrosities. The two robots collapsed as Positron, his armor’s reserves depleted, dropped to one knee. With his sensors offline temporarily the hero didn’t notice a third robot descending upon him from behind. His first awareness of the danger was the crackle of electricity as an arrow flew like lightning from a nearby fire escape, burying itself in the robots neck joint and temporarily shorting its systems.

As Positron stood and dropped his metal foe to the ground with a powerful overhead blow he glanced upward, immediately recognizing the scarlet clad figure. “Didn’t expect to see you here, Manticore. I thought you were busy with your plans to take down the Rogue Isles.”

In a flash of light and sound, the archer teleported to Positron’s side. “I’ve always had your back Posi. You know that and I know that, maybe it’s time to remind everyone else. Besides who else can annoy you as well as I can?” A mischievous grin appeared on Manticore’s face as he awaited a response from his long time teammate.

Shaking his head Positron found himself smiling under his helmet in spite of himself. “”We both know that list is long and distinguished but, as usual, you have a point. With everything the future holds Paragon City needs heroes more than ever.”

Greetings from the shadows to all you CoH & CoV fans! Sean Fish here…aka Manticore. I have been part of the City of Heroes family for a long time, wrangling story and design since about a year before launch. I’ve worked with Matt “Positron” Miller for most of that time and have known him even longer than that. (How many of you knew I was the Best Man at his wedding?) A little less than a year ago I got married, moved to Texas, and started working at NCsoft on a new MMO project. I never entirely let go of my ties to City of Heroes though. I kept in touch with the project through my work on the Top Cow comic as well as helping out as a story resource for the stalwart team that has been kicking so much tail and delivering awesome content Issue after Issue to you players.

Now that the City of Heroes universe is fully in the NCsoft fold I get the chance to be more involved in the dev process again, which I am obviously thrilled about. Those of you who have been around know how much I love story and characters. Bringing story and atmosphere to games grooves me more than anything. I think we have always done some pretty cool things in those areas. Like everyone on this project I have always done my best to pay attention to the fans and shift gears whenever possible to deliver the content you want. So keep letting us know what you think, we’re always listening!

I am looking forward to helping do what I love the most (tell stories) on my favorite game with some of my oldest friends (Positron, War Witch, BC, et al).

It’s a time for heroes!

Cheers,
Manticore