Y’all—
It’s a dark day in the Omniverse.
On March 5, 2025, Angela Carter, the extrahuman known as Stellar, forever changes the course of history.
I won’t burden you with too much preamble today, folks. As always, we appreciate your joining us for Trading Card Tuesday!
One quick programming note: next month, Luis and I will be responding to your questions in our first Omniverse letters feature. I still haven’t come up with a name for said feature, so if you have an idea, don’t hesitate to send it my way. Who knows, you might win a “yes prize!”
Content warning: today’s story contains depictions of social media bullying, self-harm, abuse of authority by law enforcement, coarse language, and excessive use of force. Reader discretion is advised.
If you or someone you know if struggling with suicidal feelings, help is available. In the U.S., call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or visit this link for free and confidential support. If you live outside the U.S., check this listing for resources in your territory.
Luis: This is a heel turn for Dr. Angela Carter. The Pulse Event sets her up as a powerful threat. However, I really wanted to make sure that she did not look like a villain but rather a person beaten and bruised by a cruel world who has finally reached their breaking point.
Ben: I love the care that Luis showed in brining Angela into her most infamous moment in the fictional history of the Omniverse. As Luis notes, this is Stellar’s Magneto heel turn. I recently reread the “Fatal Attractions” storyline that ran in the X-Men comics in 1993— and absolutely captured my young imagination. Rereading the story as an adult, I was struck by Magneto’s world-weariness at seeing his people systematically oppressed and brutalized repeatedly. And yet, he still managed to put on the flowing purple cape every time he went out. I very much appreciate Luis’s more subtle take on the grieving Stellar.
Luis: My muse for this character was Earth Kitt not just for style but attitude. Stellar is someone with a lot of compassion and care for those she loves and deems to protect but she certainly will not let you walk all over her. As I mentioned, Eartha Kitt was my model for her so I tried to capture her likeness while still making her seem her own person. I love how her face turned out!
Ben: Looking back over our shared notes, I mentioned Aretha Franklin, Eartha Kitt, and Erykah Badu as inspirations for Stellar— which should surprise no one who has spent a few minutes listening to music with me!
I mentioned this essay in passing in a previous post, but Randall Kenan’s piece “The Many Lives of Eartha Kitt: or, Taking the Girl Out of the South” in Black Folk Could Fly taught me so much about Ms. Kitt. And if that’s not enough for you, I also enjoyed Lauren Elyse Garcia’s review of Scott Calonico’s film Catwoman vs. The White House about Kitt’s showdown with Lady Bird Johnson at the 1968 “Women Doers Luncheon.” Stellar and Eartha are very much entangled in my imagination. I love Luis’s nod to Eartha’s iconic turban styles and how he riffed on fashion icons to create a powerful woman unique in her own right.
The following is excerpted from the transcript of day three of public hearings by the United States Senate Special Committee on the Pulse Event of March 5, 2025. The hearing occurred on Thursday, February 8, 2029. This excerpt focuses on exchanges between senators and extrahuman operative The Defender (aka Atar-Ra) preceding the review of body camera footage from March 5, 2025.
Senator Finnley Moore (R-KY), Chair: (bangs gavel) The Senate Committee on the Pulse Event will now come to order. Today’s proceedings will focus on the body camera footage supplied by the international extrahuman response organization known as The Champions of Justice. We are joined again this morning by Atar-Ra, the extrahuman operative known as The Defender.
The Defender: Senator Moore. Distinguished senators.
Senator Moore: Previous testimony has examined your long and troubled relationship with the extrahuman terrorist known as Stellar, correct sir?
The Defender: As previously noted, I take issue with characterizations of Dr. Carter as a terrorist, but—
Senator Moore: Answer the question.
The Defender: Yes, senator. We have discussed my relationship with Stellar at length.
Senator Moore: Including your knowledge of Stellar’s global terrorist actions— many of which implicated students who trained at your Ridgeview Academy in Virginia…
The Defender: Dr. Carter freed hundreds of extrahuman captives from morally repugnant detainment centers—
Senator Moore: Through destruction of private property, public infrastructure, and extrajudicial violence, correct?
The Defender: Your characterization of those events—
Senator Moore: You seem very eager to defend a woman responsible for the genocide of millions, sir.
Senator Mara Lee (R-IA): Given your history with Stellar, why were you so eager to respond when the Department of Extrahuman Affairs (DXA) issued its initial warning of a potential terrorist threat on the morning of March 5, 2025?
The Defender: When I first received the DXA alert… I knew Angela was in pain. She had lost her granddaughter just days earlier—
Senator Moore: Sympathy for the devil, Atar-Ra?
The Defender: Sympathy for a grieving grandmother, Senator.
Senator Kevin Jackson (D-MD): Did it not occur to you that your judgement might be clouded by your previous relationship with Stellar?
The Defender: No sir. My first thought was that I might be able to deescalate the situation. Talk to Angela as a friend.
Senator Lee: And do you still believe that the most prudent course of action when responding to a wildly powerful individual with nuclear warheads aimed at the entire planet is— talking to an old friend?
The Defender: Had I had more time—
Senator Moore: Answer the question.
The Defender: Yes. I still believe deescalation was the best first course of action.
Senator Moore: I— I can’t believe that with the blood of millions on your hands, you can sit here and tell the people of the world that “talking it out” was appropriate strategy on your part.
The Defender: I will let the people of the world judge me, Senator Moore.
Senator Tanya Ramirez (D-NH): And your body camera was active during your entire interaction with Stellar?
The Defender: Yes, senator. Except for brief moments when the technology was disrupted by Dr. Carter’s massive expenditures of power.
Senator Lee: And do you think Stellar purposefully interfered with those recordings?
The Defender: Senator Lee, Angela was holding hundreds of nuclear devices in geosynchronous orbit. I doubt she had the bandwidth to consider creating glitches in my recording.
Senator Lee: But given her power, it was something she was capable of. You can’t rule out that she meddled with your body cam footage?
The Defender: No. I cannot.
Senator Moore: At this time, I’d like to enter exhibit D-15 into the official record. This is the body camera footage provided by the Defender to the Department of Extrahuman Affairs on March 7, 2025. Why the delay in handing over the footage, Atar-Ra?
The Defender: I was busy.
Senator Moore: Busy?
The Defender: Responding to escalating crises, Senator. The number of aircraft that fell out of the sky following the EMP, alone, kept me working—
Senator Moore: But you couldn’t spare a second— with your extraordinary speed— to hand over one of the most significant recordings in human history?
The Defender: No sir, I could not. The better question to me is why the members of the Guard were not wearing body cameras as prescribed by The Transparency in Extrahuman Policing Act when they arrived on the scene—
Senator Moore: We are not questioning the brave men and women of the Guard today, sir. We are questioning you. Roll the footage.
Screen displays grainy body cam footage of Dr. Angela Carter, aka Stellar, hovering in lower Earth orbit.
The Defender: Angela! What are you doing? This is madness!
Stellar: You’re right. This is madness. And we’ve lived like this for far too long.
The Defender: The Guard is inbound, Angela. Please put the weapons down.
Stellar: I have only made visible the weapons humanity has aimed at itself every single moment of our lives.
The Defender: This is not what lyra would want.
Stellar: You keep her name out of your mouth!
The Defender: I know that you’re hurting—
Stellar: Shut up! You don’t know a goddamn thing.
The Defender: Come with me, we can talk—
Stellar: I tried your way a long time ago. They killed the children then, too.
The Defender: What do you want?
Stellar: I want the greedy fucks running this world to look me in the eye and tell me why.
The Defender: Angela. You know your demands are unreasonable—
Stellar: They killed my little girl. Don’t you dare tell me what is unreasonable!
Aircraft noises.
The American Spirit: Angela Carter— under the authority of the United States Department of Extrahuman Affairs you are under arrest for terrorist threats and conspiracy to commit extrahuman murder. Release your hold on the warheads and place your hands above your head.
The Defender: Spirt! Stand down. Dr. Carter and I are having a conversation.
The American Spirit: I don’t take orders from you, Defender. Both of you— hands above your heads. Now!
Stellar: Don’t you see? They’ll never stop. They’ll never learn.
The Defender: Please give us room—
Stellar: They’re so blinded by gluttony they don’t even realize they’re not fully in control anymore.
The American Spirit: Last warning! Stand down immediately!
The Defender: Angela, please stop. All of you: stop!
Stellar: The machines (*inaudible*)—
The American Spirit: She’s making a move!
The Defender: No! (*inaudible)
— End of recording, electromagnetic pulse detected
😭😭😭 Stellar is such a tragic character! Did you know Meta was down when you posted this? Spooky.
Wow! The transcript at the end blew my mind! I kept silently screaming, "No, Angela! No!"