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This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Blasters (comics). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with DC Database, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
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The Blasters were a team of superhumans who first appear in Invasion! #1 by Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo and Todd McFarlane. Blasters Special #1 from March (1989), was produced by the creative team of Peter David and James Fry.
Fifty humans from around the world were abducted by the Dominators and their allies. These humans were placed in a special Blaster Field arena full of horrifying high tech weapons and land mines in order to test for the possibility of a metahuman potential. Of the fifty test subjects, only six survived the charnel. The six tested positive for superhuman abilities and a unique genetic marker that High Caste Dominator scientists would later dub the "Metagene".
This proved beyond a doubt to the Dominators that humanity was a threat, and that Earth and its people were too dangerous to remain free. Thus, the Dominators joined the Thanagarians, Psions, and others in the Alien Alliance.[1]
The six survivors were locked away on the prison world known as Starlag. In time, they discovered that their fellow prisoners were the legendary Omega Men from the Vega system, and the super genius Vril Dox II of Colu as well as other future members of L.E.G.I.O.N. Working together, they overthrow the Starlag guards and hijack an independent shuttle piloted by Churljenkins, a feline alien female. En route to Earth, their shuttle encounters a superhuman task force headed for the Dominator homeworld in order to find a cure for the Dominators' gene bomb. The two groups combined, and the six humans now nicknamed The Blasters help end the invasion. The Blasters were then returned to Earth by the Omega Men in Churljenkins' ship.[1]
Each human had trouble adjusting to their new powers. Fritz Klein (Slag) had to take tranquilizers to maintain his temper so that he would not spontaneously combust. Children taunted Moishe Levy (Dust Devil) for pretending to have super-powers. Carlotta (Jolt) was slowly going mad trying to control her Unus-like repulsion field. Snapper Carr was placed in a psychiatric ward and considered mad for believing he had powers; it seems that whenever Snapper teleported with his eyes open, the effect was mentally unhinging.
Snapper later escapes from the asylum by teleporting directly to Churljenkin's ship which had broken down on a tiny alien world, which they then "steal" from the Omega Men, leaving them stranded there. The two of them reclaim her ship intending to return Churl' to her home. They discover that her home planet had been destroyed to make a spaceway to Earth for the Alliance. Returning to Earth, Snapper and Churljenkins discover a secret Spider Guild weapons depot. Snapper re-unites the Blasters, after which the team pust an end to the Guild's operation and alerts the Justice League to its existence.[1]
The team decides to stay united and travel the spaceways as goodwill ambassadors in order to repair Earth's reputation among the galactic community. After wandering for a while, the Blasters later begin to question the wisdom of their decision. Just when they are about to disband and return to Earth, they receive a distress call from Babbage, Valor's digital assistant. Valor was wrongly imprisoned in Starlag II by its warden Kanjar Ru, sister of Kanjar Ro. When the team breaks into Starlag II, they unintentionally release the being known as the "Unimaginable." The Unimaginable sets in motion forces that threaten to destroy Starlag II. The Blasters were trapped as the prison began crumbling. Their fate following this incident remains a mystery. As seen in Valor #5-8.[1]
The Unimaginable's next appearance would be on Earth in the pages of Supermen of America #5 by Fabian Nicieza.
At some point after this, Snapper Carr was separated from his teammates. He did not know if they were dead or alive and expressed some guilt over their unknown fate. While searching for them, he was captured by some Khunds, who cut off his hands. He was rescued by operatives of L.E.G.I.O.N. but knew nothing about the fates of his fellow Blasters. Vril Dox gave Snapper new hands but he had now lost the ability to teleport. Snapper was then returned to Earth. As seen in Hourman #20-21.[1]
Equipment: None known.
A blaster (also called a gun) was a ranged weapon that fired bursts of particle beam energy called blaster bolts from a replaceable power cell. The most commonly used weapon in the galaxy, blasters' intense beams consisting of compacted high-energy particles and intense light could kill or paralyze their target, depending on their setting. Blasters ranged from compact pistols, all the way up to large, heavy rifles and starship-mounted blaster cannons. Some have used blasters ever since their youth: Anakin Skywalker owned a small ion blaster in his childhood, Leia Organa was given a sporting blaster when she was just a teenager, and Mandalorian children were given blasters, along with extensive training, prior to becoming thirteen standard years old.
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The term blaster was often used interchangeably with the term laser in everyday conversation, both denoting the same type of particle beam weapon. However, strictly speaking, the laser was a much older weapon design than the blaster. And, unlike those of lasers, blasters' firing cycles had more proficient recharge rates, allowing them to be capable of attaining much higher rate of fire, though at a loss of distance and accuracy.
There is also some dispute as to what size restrictions denote a "blaster". For example, blasters are commonly thought of as handheld weapons only, but starship-mounted blaster cannons may fall in this category as well.
A laser beam was a coherent shaft of light. When referring to light (or any other wave pattern for that matter), coherence refers to the pattern's "sameness" in multiple waves. In other words, each light wave emitted from the laser device had the same wavelength and amplitude as all other waves emitted from the same device, and all "crests" and "troughs" of every wave were aligned with the others.
Lasers were generated by introducing energy to a medium, the substance used to generate the beams. Tibanna gas was a frequently favored medium. When an atom of the medium was excited by energy, one or more of its electrons would "jump" to a higher energy level. When the atom stabilized (the point at which the electrons return to their original energy levels), a photon was released. A photon was a "packet" of energy that traveled in both a wave-like and a particulate manner, giving it a high energy level, as well as a high damage rating. Some types of sniper rifles fired invisible bolts of energy by using a special type of blaster gas. This weapon was very useful for acting from concealment, especially if the user were wearing a portable stealth field generator or sound dampener.
Blasters were a considerable improvement over the archaic laser design. Instead of a coherent beam of light and heat like a simple laser, the blaster fired a highly compressed, focused high-energy particle beam that was very deadly to most creatures. The energy that made up the blaster bolt depended on the type of blaster being used.
The less common blaster was a plasma based design, like those used by the Grand Army of the Republic. Plasma-based blasters were effective against all targets, but even more so against droids because of the nature of plasma as a superheated, ionized gas. Droids were weak against ion energy, so they were a natural choice against a droid army. This explains the use of the BlasTech DC-series in the Clone wars.
In plasma-based blasters, a high-energy gas (tibanna gas, for example, used in the BlasTech DC-series) would move from the gas chamber into another chamber where it was altered into a plasma state. It was then released from a magnetic "bottle" effect through the collimating components. This turned the mass of plasma gas and energy into a coherent energy beam as a coherent energy bolt of light and plasma. This combination of light and plasma formed the deadly bolt fired from a blaster.
The more common type was the blaster that fired a high energy particle beam that was more deadly to humanoids and other biological targets than superheated plasma (which was quite deadly anyway), but it was still effective enough against droids to put a B1 battle droid down and keep it down. Particle-beam types were also more efficient because they used less blaster gas to produce the beam than is necessary to form a plasma bolt, as plasma, as a state of matter, requires a far greater amount of energy to produce.
In particle-beam based blasters, like the E-11 used by stormtroopers, a small amount of high-energy gas moved from the heter valve to the chamber commonly called the XCiter. In the XCiter chamber, the gas was energized by the power pack, then passed into the actuating blaster module, which, when assisted by the components in the barrel, processed the now extremely high-energy gas into a compressed beam of intense energy particles, coupled with intense light, which generated the deadly high-energy particle beam fired from most blasters. In these blasters, the combination of superhot laser-light and a compressed bolt of intense energy particles formed the deadly bolt.
Most personal blasters had two kinds of ammunition: a gas cartridge and a power cell. Less powerful weapons, like the Drearian Defense Conglomerate Defender sporting blaster, relied largely on the power cell and used only a small quantity of gas, while very powerful weapons, like the illegal Tenloss DX-2 disruptor pistol, used much larger amounts of gas. Still other weapons, namely those dating from earlier times, employed a kind of removable power cell/cartridge which supplied enough energy (though at weaker levels) to make total expenditure seldom.
Blaster bolts usually dissipated in a small, but violent explosion of extreme heat and force upon contact with an unshielded surface, sometimes leaving blast points. Weapons such as Han Solo's DL-44 blaster pistol and the E-11 blaster rifle could cause incredible destruction, and had the power to blow huge chunks from stone walls and smaller holes and pockmarks out of durasteel bulkheads, as seen in Han Solo and Luke Skywalker's raid on Detention Block AA 23. An ion accelerator uses an electrical charge to stun or kill enemies.
Many blasters had side attachments and accessories to aid in targeting, accuracy, rate of fire, and grip. Some known attachments included targeting lasers, electronic scopes, and larger power packs. Delta Squad's DC-17m interchangeable blasters had sniper and anti-armor attachments for adaptability in unpredictable situations. Boba Fett's EE-3 carbine rifle had a small scope which could interface with Fett's helmet for increased accuracy. Jango Fett's two WESTAR-34 blaster pistols had dallorian alloy plating, which kept the weapon from overheating.
The oldest known type of blaster was used by an ancient droid of an unknown model employed by the Rakatan Infinite Empire. This weapon was considered to be extremely up-to-date compared to the blasters of the year 3,956 BBY. Besides that, the oldest and most venerable example of blaster technology was the triple blaster, which dated back to the Galactic Republic. It worked by using three separate blasters connected to the same targeting system, often coordinated in sets of two or four and fired simultaneously at a target. By the rise of the Empire, triple blasters had become exceedingly rare. Prior to the innovation of the triple blaster, beam tubes were used. They consisted of backpacks with a hose coming out of the side that connected to a focusing tube. All of the equipment that created the blaster beam was contained in the backpack and was fired out of the hose. These lost popularity quickly once triple blasters were invented.
Triple blaster technology began to wane as what was traditionally thought of as "the blaster" was created, as it was a self-contained unit that could produce bolts by itself with no additional equipment.
An updated version of blaster technology was the autoblaster. Designed for the B-wing starfighter, it had an even higher rate of fire than other blasters but was not available to other models until after the Battle of Endor.
The most common personal weapon in the galaxy by the rise of the Empire, blasters were often used not only by military personnel, but by civilians as protection. They were more commonly seen in the Outer Rim worlds, though small, concealable Hold-out blasters were frequently used by social elite, such as Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian. Many establishments, such as the Cantina in Mos Eisley had restrictions against use of blasters, though these were often overlooked if the conflict remained small.
The most common manufacturer of blasters during the Galactic Civil War was BlasTech, which had contracts with both the Imperial Military and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. It also manufactured the Protector civilian fighter-grade blaster line.
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