Could someone explain to me the incapacitated side of Nightmist? I don't understand the image D: It looks like she's lying back under a glowing white star...? I don't get it D:
I would actually also appreciate a discussion/explanation of all the other character's incap sides as well :))
I think she's becoming trapped in an Elder Sign-style sigil.
Well, I know the star is a pentagram which is a sealing symbol. I can't look at the card itself, my cards are at home, but I also think she is trapped in something similiar to the realms of discord. I also heard from somewhere that she uses the power of her soul to power her magic.
Combining these I think it represents her soul being sealed by an interdimensional force for pushing herself to far.
Of course, pentagrams are also symbols of protection, so it could also be she's being dragged into an alternate dimension for pushing herself too far and she's cocooning up trying to save herself.
The way I have always seen NightMist's incap side is that she has been sealed away in some realm, possibly the one GloomWeaver is sealed away in.
I can totally list off the ways I have seen each Incap side of every hero, i'll do them in order by the alphabet.
Absolute Zero: Inside his Cyro Chamber there is a system failure and he is trying to reach his suit. That one is fairly obvious though. Possibly Miss Information work?
Absolute Zero Elemental Wrath: I see this one as he surrounded himself in complete ice as he may be near death and it was the only chance he had to try and keep himself alive until someone can get him out of the later. Maybe even trapping a enemy inside it with him?
Argent Adept: Something religious possibly? I'm not up to date with my crosses, so I can't say much about this one.
Bunker: Getting really shot up be someone, not sure for Expat attacks him for whatever reason or there is a mysterious villian at work. Also the amount of dents put into probably means he was fighting someone really strong, so maybe Fright Train?
Bunker Engine of War: Fright Train still seeing himself as a villian in his reflection. Maybe the reflection even talks to him and tries to sway him back to the path of evil?
Chrono-Ranger: Simply stuck in time and can't find a way out. Looks pretty boring there as well.
Expatriette: It looks to be the first confrontation against her mother Citizen Dawn. As she doesn't have an eye patch yet and it looks fairly fresh. Dawn even paints the Rise in Expat's blood above her.
Fanatic: Staked to a wall and looks to have flames infront of her. Most likely Apostate has her trapped and is revealing about how he created her or whatever it was he likes telling her.
Redeemer Fanatic: The outcome of another battle, possibly one with Apostate? Looking at her mask it doesn't look like her face is going to be in good shape afterwards, that's if she survives.
Haka: Stuck inbetween a rock and a hard place. Not really sure what else to pull from it.
Eternal Haka: Library was destroyed and now he is alone without shelter in the Final Wasteland.
Legacy: Legacy post death, Young Legacy hugging him as he dies.
Young Legacy: Legacy holding his dead daughter, realizing that the Legacy line is at its end.
Mr. Fixer: I forgot what the line traslates to, but i think it refers to his death.
NightMist: As above.
Omnitron-X: Omnitron has removed the empathy chip from Omni-X and has now joined Omnitron. As if one crazed machine wasn't enough.
Ra: His staff is broken in his hand and doesn't look to be the happiest. Fighting a losing battle against the Ennead.
Ra Horus: All his training was useless. Still lost to his foes and this time they aren't letting him live.
The Scholar: I know very little about alchemy, but i'm guessing something isn't right here. Maybe over use of the stone has done something to him?
Tachyon: Two villians have her on the run and trapped. Making her speed useless against them. It's an interesting set of villians though, one ice and one wind. It's almost as if it's villian versions of Absolute Zero and Tempest. The both also look to be female, the wind one for sure is female.
Team Leader Tachyon: She used to be a hero, then she took a bulley to the knee (yeah I went there) from Ambuscade it looks like.What good is Iron Legacy if Ambuscade is still running around?
Tempest: After arriving on planet Namek he battles it out against Voss, while Young Legacy and Unity makes it off with the Sentinels Balls to wish all their friends back to like. Will Legacy make it in time to save everyone and achieve the legendary Super Parsons? Tempest loses his arm in the process, but at least he can grow it back... Oh... nevermind, getting two different thins mixed up here.
Tempest Sacrifice: This is what happens when you take your enemy far away from civilization. Especially when you need to be around water near constantly to even survive.
Unity: Captured, maybe by F.I.L.T.E.R. to conduct experiments to probably learn more about how super powers are gained? I really don't like those guys if that's the case.
Unity Golem: It's either before Unity becomes a golem and who ever is behind this is trying to make a Unity, possibly bring her back? Or afterwards where someone is taking her apart because they are sick and twisted...
Visionary: Dark Visionary is slowly sapping away at Visionary's mind, trying to make it's way in to take complete control over her.
Dark Visionary: Visionary is being completely lost inside Dark Visionary, she now has complete control and will never be the same again.
Wraith: Probably a Batman reference, but seeing as I don't read comics to often and don't know. I've always thought it was Wraith dieing inside and she was going to start doing things not so legally to get villians. Not nearly as bad as Legacy though...
Rook City Wraith: Beaten by her four Batman inspired villians. How scary!
Wraith Price of Freedom: Spite breaks the Wraith! The one comic book reference I did get.
That's about it, most were more descriptions then what I take out of them, but most were obvious and others not so much.
I think the Haka one is of him ending up in Iron Legacy's prison. There's a picture on one of Iron Legacy's cards that has a figure that looks very much like Haka carrying a big rock.
Even though I have all of the answers, I won't share them here - that's no fun. However, I will comment on Absolute Zero: Elemental Wrath, as it's one of my favorites for both its simplicity and sadness.
And, if you've been following along, Absolute Zero's tale is one of nigh-constant sadness.
Anyway, in the Iron Legacy future, Absolute Zero's cold powers have begun to manifest physical ice-shields to protect himself, both augmenting and replacing the suit as the ice-shields grow. You can see on the front of his card that his helmet and chestplate mostly remain, as well as other small armor bits, but he's encased in ice and uses this new ice-armor to protect himself from heat and from attacks. However, his powers are fundamentally attempting to protect him from any heat whatsoever, and he is using all of his strength and will to maintain control.
On his card back, Absolute Zero is incapacitated due to combat - he has lost control of his powers, and they have run amok! Ryan Frost is entirely encased in meters of ice. He cannot move, but he is safe from heat. And his powers are doing everything they can to keep him safe forever.
I always thought that to be Ra. As the figure isn't really that abnormally big.
Haka just couldn't keep his steroid regimen while in prison.
I had figured he succumbed to one of those "buried alive but remaining alive" scenarios since the suit lights are still on. Which is horrifying.
I know we've said it before, but this expansion and these promo cards are super-sad. TL Tachyon's incap makes me the saddest of the hero incaps. The image of her screaming and crying in pain is just really depressing.
I know this probably makes me a terrible human being... but I kinda chuckled when I saw the back of the card because of the Skyrim reference already mentioned in the OP.
Plus I could imagine Tachyon running around doing her lightspeed stuff and Ambuscade rolling his eyes and taking careful aim...
How dare you both sully such an emotional image with such a joke. 
<< >>
Abzero Elemental Wrath info Wikied!
I really, really need to see images of these promo backs. Each one sounds amazing
Go download them from my site. You'll have to pull down the entire Shattered Timelines .zip file, but you'll get the promo heroes in there.
Those are amazing. Thanks for telling me those were there.
Changing topic:
Everytime I look at Tachyon's incapacitated side I get the feeling she is moving slower than her opponents, or is frozen altogether, like her powers somehow got inversed.
Thanks to Ronway! Maybe I can help for AA? Its a reference to Marvel comics: Wolverine/Logan was suspended in a similar fashion, just can't remember which issue. Also, I have a question about TL Tachyon: why is it Ambuscade who finally takes her down, when Ambuscade's nemesis is supposed to be Haka? :O Hmmm...
Also, I never actually got the whole "inspired by Batman villains thing" until now :O Spite is Bane! :O WOO. Why does Spite have differently colored hair and a different costume on though? :O
And Christopher, than sounds awesome! Any chance we can hear more about the other ones as well? Though actually I have a question: I was always under the assumption that AZ's powers come from his suit, which also helps keep him alive. Kind of like Mr. Freeze: he himself doesnt really have any powers, but his suit and his ice tech GIVE him "powers". Am I to understand that this is, after all, not the case with AZ, and that he has innate powers, and the suit really IS just for his survival, not the source of his powers? :O
Thanks for the AZ info, it was delicious (and sad).
yeah, Tachyon's is terrible 
really super, super sad.
Some awesome super secret information leaked there by Christopher, such a tragic end but so appropriate.
I have to say that when I look at Nightmist's card I see similar tragedy, there is no way in hell (or appropriate dimension) that whatever is behind Nightmist there would use an Elder sign, that's the sign that the good guys use to stop (temporaily halt) the horrors from beyond time and space from getting out, so what I see there is Nightmist casting/fueling the sign herself from the wrong side of the portal, trapping herself in that dimension but saving everyone else by preventing the space beast from passing through the rift to Earth. H.P Lovecraft inspired heroes are always successful at (very) temporarily preventing the horrors at great personal cost.
Yeah she clearly has her feet frozen to the ground by whoever's doing that Iceman impression in the background. Which shouldn't really stop her for long if she's as overpowered as The Flash can be sometimes ("vibrating molecules" my behind), but still.
Check out AZ's bio info on the SotM "Multiverse" site. 
I've seen it, and it isn't really clear D: All it says is that his core body temperature was reduced to near 0K, etc etc. Nothing that he could create ice structures, etc, so I just assumed that the suit produced a frigid environment for AZ to survive in (kind of like an astronaut suit, but colder :)) ), and his attacks involved him opening up his suit and letting the cold out, damaging himself in the process with "fire" (since anything above 0K was as fire to him). With Elemental Wrath, though, it would seem like he himself is the source of the cold, not the suit.
I didn't pick up on that Ryan had the powers of ice, I personally thought it was the suit aswell. Though it is in Comics, so if falling in nuclear waste can give you powers then I guess it only makes sense being caught in a cryo lab explosion could also give you powers.
I imagine with his core temperature dropping to 0K he starts to drop the temperature of the environment around him, much like an ice cube making your water colder. He is pretty much a livong heat sink. I think the suit both keeps him alive from the scorching heat of room temperature AND prevents his body from causing everything around him to freeze.
Christopher's comment makes me think that his condition hadn't reached equilibrium and has been getting worse and worse and growing stronger and is more actively seeking to regulate the environment around him, becoming even stronger than his suit can counter... but at the same time he is learning to focus that cold into attacks, if not control it entirely.
Actually I was thinking more along the lines of her powers freezing her, the ice is just rubbing salt in the wound. Then again, I have nothing but intuition to base this statement upon
I think there might be an alternate to Tachyon
Team Leader Tachyon: She used to be a hero, then she took a bulley to the knee (yeah I went there) from Ambuscade it looks like.What good is Iron Legacy if Ambuscade is still running around?
I thought the character looked like Spite...
What would be a bigger failure for the team leader (Tachyon) then not being able to get there to help wraith in the end
To me TLT seems to instead of focusing on attacking Villans she is coordinating the team. Setting her teammates up thematically which explains the Draw mechanic.
The alternate Spite could foreshadow a Promo villan card for him in a near future ?? :P
Many incapacitated sides of heroes are direct references to known frames in comics (or other media?) I think i can identify some from the top of my head (although it is very late here and I am having problems to write in English, I will do my best):
-Fanatic: staked to a wall, a reference to the Angel (from the x-men) staked to a sewer wal by the marauder "Harpoon" during the Mutan Masacre
-Haka: Reference to the Hulk weightin a mountain over his shoulder during the Secret Wars
-Argent Adept: As Drakossozh said, a refence to Wolverine. He was put in the cross in Australia, and was resqued by Jubilee.
http://enbuscadeltiempoperdido.blogspot.de/2006/04/alguien-se-anima-con-una-saeta.html
- Legacy: the death of superman
-Young Legacy: the death of supergirl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crisis7.jpg
-Dark Visionary: It really reminds me of the Phoenix force...
Sorry for the spelling guts, time to go to bed!
My word, I hadn't noticed that. Does this mean the Visionary is based on Phoenix/Jean Grey? WHOA.
Bunker: Engine of War is a reference to Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle.
All of Wraith's are references to Batman covers.
Unity's is a mock up of the prison where Magneto is kept in X-Men 1 and 2.
Elemental AZ could be a reference to Capatain America being trapped in ice berg.
Well, some Visionary references:
Rachel Summer is a character from the X-men comic books. She is the daughter of Ciclops and Jean Grey from the future in an alternate timeline. She has basically the same powers as jean grey (Telekinesis, Telepathy), she even becomes attached to the phoenix force. In her future, the sentinels (the giant robots created by the goverment to hunt mutants) have taken over the world, most mutants have been eliminated (including most of the x-men characters), and the rest live in concentration camps. So rachel sent herself back in time to avoid her timelime to happen (i am making the story simplier, but you can see that the reference is there).
But the Visionary also have refenreces to Jean Grey herself: After the first encounter with the Phoenix Force, Jean Grey's body remained in the ocean for many years: her powers protected her body in a telekinetic cocoon. Also, in the Dark Phoenix Saga, Jean Grey is dressed at some point as the Black Queen in a black and very revealing outfit:
References for the Dreamer:
In an episode of the first season of buffy the vampire slayer ("Nightmares"), there is a boy who is in a comma, and his nightmares are becoming real. This idea was later reused by Josh Weddon for his X-men comic series ("Astonishing X-men" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astonishing_X-Men) In the first comic book of the series, there is a mutant girl called Tildie Soames (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tildie_Soames), whose nighmares become alive monsters. The first time her powers manifested, she was sleeping in her mother's bed, and the monsters killed both of her parents and some police agents.
I mean, CAN you do a psychic without making at least some Jean Grey/ Phoenix references? Anyone with powers like that would be very susceptible to going crazy-town, and since the human mind paired with psychic abilities has limitless potential, going crazy-town would be bad news bears. Of course, the Phoenix is an entity outside Jean Grey as well, but the same idea: that you could actually go crazy simply because you have powers that are far and beyond the boundaries of human understanding (say, time travel, altering timelines) and that you could, if you were psychic, make your worst side into an actual personality with thoughts all her own- that is a totally legit direction to go in and would be shadows of the Phoenix.
I maintain that there is at least as much Raven as Jean in Visionary.
... and, of course, I maintain that it is clearly evil Absolute Zero tagging Tachyon. Those hoses!
Ironic
P.S. As for Shattered Timelines stuff being sad... it is the Bad Future, right? The whole point is that none of this should really happen, if the heroes get their act together.
Oh yeah, Raven's in there too. That whole dark side that may or may not be trying to get out at all times thing. (Of course, I don't know enough about my comics publication history, but Raven is a relatively new character, right? if so, she has shadows of dark phoenix too. the interplay of characters inspiring other artists is one of my favorite parts of the entire genre)
Also, I am really curious what the deal is with The Scholar's incapacitated side. I'm not really at all interested by his theme of "just kinda lucked into godlike power and wanders around being an aimless plot device," but the fact that his Bad Ending seems to depict him gaining radically more power really has my attention. Was the Philosopher's Stone some evil artifact all along, as per Full Metal Alchemist? Is some mystically-minded baddie trying to augment and brainwash him? Or is he just being torn apart by the power he has channeled? Exciting stuff!
Ironic
P.S. Team Leader Tachyon's Incapacitated Side is sad, but I was much more depressed by Eternal Haka.
I think door number 3 fits the Scholar's incap. side. Right now he has will, but he loses control and the power takes over. Turning him completely into a force, which would probably stay stationary instead of acting to right wrongs.
It is very late, please forgive oncoherencies
I would agree with Chaosmancer: it kinda looks like he becomes controlled by the Philosopher's Stone, which in my opinion is neither good nor bad-it just is. He loses control over the Stone, and he becomes like a force of nature, destructive or helpful.
Also note that there are 4 elemental corners, which seems to depict his 3 elemental forms. But opens question for the 4th one. Could be just his normal golden blast O.o
The symbol in the upper left on The Scholar's incap side looks very similar to the Nightmist/Gloomweaver nemesis symbol.
Also, the Japanese on the back of The Fixer's character reads "Owari", "the end". While I'm at it, on the front of his card there's a character that means to fix or mend. It can be pronounced "zen" or "tsukuru". (Before you ask, different "zen" than in "Zen Buddhism".)
Very cool. I did not know that. Thanks for posting that.
The Argent Adept is suspended on a St Andrew's cross
Both of Unity's incapped sides, I find rather creepy.
And Zero? Poor guy needs a hug, except he can never have one...
Anubis is in the Horus of Two Horizons incapacitated side. Anubis is am important god in the afterlife. (That's why he has revenge damage when you kill something) Since Anubis is there I agree that Ra is dead.
Set is is on Horus Ra's incap side.
I always saw the Scholar's incap side as him doing a ritual to rejuvenate himself or something, after having retired from the field of battle for the sake of his health.
